Westminster landmark meets wrecking ball

A landmark structure is disappearing today in Westminster but the city has hopes that, in its place, will come a new building to mete out justice for all.  Large machinery is bringing down “the round top church” on E. Main Street, to clear the way for the construction of a new county magistrate’s office.  City councilman Yusef Mefleh had a look this afternoon at the demolition, and he’s excited to see it happening.  Earlier today a bulldozer or a large excavator was able to break through the outer brick wall of once was the church the Free Gospel Tabernacle. The following is an email forwarded this afternoon to 101.7/WGOG NEWS by Amanda Brock, county administrator.  The author is Bryan Yoder, project manager for the Trehel Corp:  “The abatement and demo crew mobilized today and started with demolition.  They’ve started with a portion of the brick wall.  Both abatements and demo will continue simultaneously as areas of the building need to be demolished slowly to reveal the areas noted in the report with hazardous materials.  Some locations that need abatement are concealed and noted as probable based on areas that could be reached (such as existing windows).  We anticipate that these crews will be on site for about a week depending on the weather.  There is some down time during abatements to allow for air testing as needed.  After that the County will be able to demo the existing concrete slab and foundations.  Our current projection is to start with slab rough in in 2-3 weeks.”