Revere Inn set for demolition
SILVER CREEK — After years of sitting in vacant disrepair, posing both as an eyesore to the community and a danger to anyone entering the hazardous interior, the old Revere Inn is finally coming down.
Mayor Nick Piccolo made the announcement of the plans to demolish the historical building located at 240 Central Ave. during a recent village board meeting.
“We have communicated with … the (Chautauqua County) landfill,” Piccolo said. “The 250 tipping fee credits we have is more than enough (to dispose of the waste).”
The 250 tipping fee credits included credits borrowed from the town of Sheridan.
“It was a nice collaboration between the village of Silver Creek, the town of Sheridan, the Land Bank and JURA (Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency), who actually manages our demo projects,” said Gina Paradis, Executive Director to the Chautauqua County Land Bank.
The Land Bank effectively took control of the property earlier in the year after “the county took a judgment on the property through the tax foreclosure process,” Paradis said. “Through that process we had control of the site. It came into our hands after the June auction, so we basically had control of it since July.
“The county landfill works very closely with us because they’ve given each of the municipalities tipping fee credits that they can use towards debris disposal,” continued Paradis. “Because the Revere Inn is so big we weren’t sure if Silver Creek would have enough credits to cover the costs of all of the debris disposal, so they were able to work with the town of Sheridan through their shared services contract … in order to cover the costs of disposal.”
The demolition will happen soon as the Land Bank recently signed a contract for the project.
“It’s just a matter of scheduling it and getting down there,” said Paradis, adding that when it comes to rural demolitions, most municipalities “don’t really have the capacity to handle the whole process. Demos are a complicated process. We need both the personnel and the understanding of a lot of Department of Labor regulations to really do it effectively.”
Once the demolition is complete, it will be up to the municipality to decide what to do with the site.
“What will likely happen is we’ll work with the municipality to see if there are any plans for reuse or if it would fit into any of their downtown plans in the future and work to make sure that site is available for redevelopment,” Paradis said.