EMA Gives Update on Masonic Temple Demolition

It’s been almost two weeks since the Masonic Temple fire and a company has officially taken on the demolition job.

According to Jeff Jadwin, the Muskingum County Emergency Management Director, Maple Leaf based out of Northeast, Ohio was supposed to start the project yesterday, but couldn’t due to the snowstorm this past Sunday.

“The last that I heard the company that has been hired by the landowner was supposed to be coming into town Sunday with their equipment, but obviously with the 12 inches of snow, that kind of slowed that process down,” Jadwin stated. “I’m not sure exactly when they’ll arrive now. It’ll take them a day or so to settle their equipment out and prepare the site for demolition.”

There have also been some questions and concerns about the conditions of the surrounding buildings that are currently not being occupied. 

Jadwin said there is a maintenance team that has been monitoring the building’s utilities.

“They were able to maintain the heat for quite a while. There were some possibilities of frozen toilets on the upper floors because part of the courthouse is boiler heat and part of it is heat pump,” Jadwin said. “So when the electric was off that created other problems too because they weren’t able to push the heat around the building. I don’t think it’s a problem. Maintenance has been right on top of that so I think they got all that handled already.”

Moving forward, County officials and the jail will stay relocated for about another week until the construction company and the city can determine the demolition process, and safety of the occupants.