Crews have been working since last week to prepare the vacant four-story building known as the "Cooley Hotel" for demolition. (Tusco TV)

NEWCOMERSTOWN (Tusco TV) - A partially completed hotel building on Canal Street  is being erased from the downtown landscape with demolition set to wrap up later this.  

Mayor Pat Cadle says the unfinished four-story structure known as the Cooley Hotel is set to come down Wednesday afternoon. He says the 90-year-old building had deteriorated to the point where it’s become a safety hazard.

"There has really been a big difference from this winter because this winter was the first one we’ve had for a while that had a lot of freezing and thawing, and you could tell there were a lot more cracks in the mortar, especially above the windows. They’ve started separating a lot more to where we basically worried about eventually something was going to start falling off that thing, and once it starts, people are in danger if they’re walking by even," he explains.

Cadle says the cost of the project including asbestos removal is around $38,000 split up between the village, the Newcomerstown Historical Society, the First Baptist Church, and the American Legion.  

"It wasn’t just one person or one organization paying for it. It was four or five. That’s when you know something is the right thing to do, too, is when you have community coming together to take care of a problem, and this building has been a problem for a while, and you just don’t want to see anybody hurt," he says.

Cadle says spectators are invited to watch from a safe distance when the building comes down between 2:30 and 3 Wednesday afternoon, even though he says it won’t be very dramatic.

"The idea of implosion is more that the building comes down on itself and falls to the middle. So basically that’s what they’re doing, the prep work now, so they can guarantee that happens. There won’t be any explosions or anything else," he says.

Cadle says a crew has spent the last week removing some of the exterior walls and punching holes up through the center of the building to make sure it comes down safely. 

TUSCO TV