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City Cafe demolition under way
Getting-started
A crowd gathers as City Cafe demolition begins Wednesday morning
Demolition crews began the task of leveling City Cafe on Wednesday morning and it didn’t take long to hit a snag.About 30 minutes into demolition, heavy equipment operator Fred Hall had concerns further work would jeopardize the adjacent building.There has been widespread speculation about whether the next-door building would be able to withstand demolition of City Cafe with the two buildings reportedly connected by a steel beam in two spots – the front and back corners.There was healthy debate about whether the removal of City Cafe would create a domino effect with the other two buildings also tumbling down.Hall stopped work and city officials expanded the demolition zone with yellow tape to keep spectators further back. They also put down plywood on the Main Street sidewalk in front of the adjacent building which had housed the comic book store to protect the sidewalk.There was concern further work would knock the facade off the comic book building and send it falling into the street.Hall began loading the rubble already knocked down from City Cafe into the back of dumptrucks around 11 a.m. as officials decided the best way to proceed.