The demolition of the Johnson Warehouse began May 1. By May 14, it had been reduced to a vacant lot filled with rubble. After the construction crew was done, all that was left of the dilapidated and once potentially dangerous structure was a pile of bricks, lots of dirt and a hole in the ground.

“We bid on it a couple of months ago,” Charles Lee of Lee’s Construction said.

When their bid was given approval by the city, Lee’s began gutting the building as April turned to May. The city had all of the harmful and hazardous materials taken out via an environmental group as per the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) guidelines, and according to Lee, that is why the crew could not start until May 1.

“We’ve done this for years,” Lee said. “We’ve torn down bigger buildings than this.”

Lee speculates that the building will be gone and swept away by the middle of June, and he hopes to see an empty lot when he is finished.

The destruction of the building had been in the works for nearly two years, according to planning and zoning director Kathy Reynolds. When complaints about the building were received, Greensburg Fire Chief Scott Chasteen and Reynolds ventured out to the site to find a sagging roof and other problems. The two always act immediately when a complaint about a dangerous building from a citizen comes to City Hall, they said.

“It met the criteria of an unsafe structure,” Chasteen said.

Mayor Gary Herbert added that he never wanted to be in the business of tearing down buildings, but for the issues of public safety, the city was forced to get involved. Herbert, Chasteen and Reynolds were all glad that the dangerous building had not harmed anyone.

Demolishing a building is expensive, and the funds for projects like this come from the funds that are gained through permits. Despite the costs, the safety concerns outweigh any acts of penny-pinching.

According to Chasteen, the warehouse was in close proximity to several other structures, which required the construction crew to tear down the building piece by piece. The destruction of the dilapidated warehouse continues Herbert and Chasteen’s efforts to make the city a safer place. With the dark and damaged building gone, the aesthetic landscape of the city will also be improved, they noted.

“This is strictly an issue of public safety,” Herbert added.

Chasteen agreed with the mayor’s comment.

“Eyesores don’t get torn down, unsafe buildings do,” he added.

The city’s area plan commission (APC) was integral in getting the building taken down, and the group, with the help from the previous city attorney Steve Taylor and current attorney Matt Bailey, was able to get the court order to have the warehouse demolished.

Once the structure met the unsafe building codes and the APC gave the court order to tear it down, the utilities were cut off and the sewers were capped. Then, the gutting of the structure began.