Old City Hall’s going away piece by piece
Asbestos-filled 1980 structure is demolished with least dust possible.
WEST PALM BEACH — What’s going down at the old City Hall? The old City Hall.
What’s going up is a $145 million development with a hotel, luxury apartments, shops, restaurants and a garage.
A demolition crew is hard at work in the 1980 structure at 200 Second St., vacant since 2009, when then-Mayor Lois Frankel moved her offices to the corner of Clematis Street and Dixie Highway.
The old City Hall will bite the dust with as little dust as possible, said Jon Ward, executive director of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, because so much of it was made with asbestos, from tiles to insulation, that undramatic disassembly is required.
No wrecking ball and no dramatic implosion that might stir deadly fibers into the downtown air.
“I’d love to blow something up but we can’t,” Ward said.
The demolition professionals started shortly after the Fourth of July and have been working their way floor by floor, taking the interior apart piece by piece, he said.
The public won’t notice much change until next month, when the exterior panels come off, a will cost $1.1 million, including $70,000 for removing a dozen mature oak and bottlebrush trees from the site to parks around the city, Ward said.
Meanwhile, the fire department, which has used the vacant building for training for the past eight years, has moved on to other locations, from vacant land near Currie Park to an office building off Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard that the Houston Astros were preparing to convert into a hotel. Plans call for a new training facility when Fire Station 9 is built off Haverhill and Roebuck roads.
Fire Chief Diana Matty said the old City Hall served well for high-rise drills, and for training
When the school’s director was told, through her secretary, of the allegations from the child’s parents, she spoke to White. He denied touching the child and claimed he merely “adjusted his pants” in front of the child.
But 17 days later, when White was interviewed at the Jupiter Police Department, he admitted he adjusted his pants and pulled his penis out, exposing himself, according to the report.
Police records suggest White was employed at the school. He told police he works as a chef, but the location of where he works is redacted from police records.
The school’s director reportedly told White not to return to the school while the investigation was open.
The Florida Department of Children and Families is investigating the incident as well.