By Bob Seidenberg
Pre-demolition work in the Main Street area is expected to start up next week, with merchants winning a reprieve from the work disrupting their holiday season.
Crews are expected to start pile driving — a noisy construction method where long steel or concrete columns or piles are pounded deep into the ground — in pre-development work at the site, 801-809 Main St., formerly home to the Bib ‘n Tucker laundromat.
The city had purchased the property in 2024 after a lengthy negotiation process last year for $735,000, with plans to clear the site for future economic development.
The City Council contracted with Fowler Services for demolition at a cost not to exceed $103,550.
Last year, merchants in the Main Street area had presented petitions containing eight pages of signatures to Alderperson Jonathan Nieuwsma, in whose Fourth Ward the project is located, asking that the work be pushed back.
The petitions urged the city to delay pile driving work, at least until after the holiday season, when many do their biggest business.
Main Street, already has “had a lot of struggles during the last four years,” Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop owner Susanne Ali pointed out during the citizen comment portion of the Dec. 8 meeting.
She was referring to a streetscape project on the east-west street that ran several years over deadline and caused major disruptions for the surviving businesses with access blocked off.
In an email the day before Christmas, Myk Snider, providing outreach for the developers, said the work will probably not start now until January 6 or 7.
“We appreciate that pile driving is loud and disruptive, and we apologize for that,” he wrote. “We have arranged to begin the pile driving at the northeast corner of the site, in order to minimize the impact on Main Street businesses and our neighbors during the busy holiday return season.
“It’s possible that the work may take 5–8 weeks, and we will let you know the status of the work as we progress,” he said.
Actual demolition will not likely occur until April 1st due to the City’s winter moratorium (November 15th – March 31st) on street openings (for utility disconnects), city officials said in an earlier memo. The moratorium exists to prevent damage to pavement and street integrity during freezing temperatures and snow removal operations, they said.