Newcomerstown officials are looking to demolish the unfinished Cooley Hotel building on West Canal Street. (Photo by Stacey Carmany, Tusco TV) 

Newcomerstown, Ohio - Newcomerstown officials are trying to save some money by having two abandoned buildings torn down at the same time. 

Mayor Pat Cadle says they recently met with two different contractors interested in demolishing the former Simonds factory and asked them for estimates to tear down the Cooley Hotel. Cadle says they’re hoping the companies will give them a discount on the second project if they’re already going to be in town.  

"We looked at it, okay, if we’re having it taken down, the companies have all their equipment, everything in there, we’ll have them bid on the building, how much do you think it will take, because we know we’re going to pay for that building to come down but we’re hoping with having the equipment in town they’ll give us a little bit better of a deal," he says.

Cadle says the hotel started going up in the 1920s but never reached completion. He says the unfinished structure has deteriorated to where it’s no longer salvageable.

"They had this beautiful framework of a building up, a four-story building, and it has been up since 1929. I think it has been used on a few occasions but not for long. It was used for storage for a while but it has really decayed," he says.

Cadle says the village does not own the building but he says the man who does agreed to donate the property to the Newcomerstown Historical Society if the village pays to tear down the building. Cadle says unlike Simonds, there isn’t much of value inside that would help them offset the cost of the demolition.

"The Simonds factory, we’re not going to have to pay for the demolition of that because they’re going to get enough scrap iron and steel out of that to pay for it, okay, so that’s the bonus," he says.

Cadle says neither project can get underway until they have all of the asbestos removed from the Simonds building. He says they have a company coming in later this week to give them a better idea of what that might cost so they can start looking at some grant opportunities. 

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV