Construction machinery was on site earlier this week at the former Barren County Jail along Ford Drive in Glasgow as it undergoes demolition.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
By Angela Briggs, special to WCLU News
GLASGOW — Around 10 years ago, the Barren County Jail closed its doors and now the building is being torn down.
Scott & Ritter, Inc. was awarded the contract to do the demolition. They are moving to get the building down and materials hauled away.
Joey Page, field superintendent, oversees the demolition.
“We’re tearing down the building, scrapping all the metal and toppers out of it, hauling off all the foam and the lumber. It all goes to the landfill,” Page said. “The metal goes to recycling, and we find a good field site for all the all the concrete block.”
The decision to close the Ford Street facility wasn’t a local one, according to Judge Executive Micheal Hale. However, the decision to demolish the former jail was made by the Barren Fiscal Court.
“The State of Kentucky is what shut this down,” Hale said. “It basically said no more human occupancy can be inside this facility.”
Costs to bring the facility up to code, even for business occupancy, could cost several million dollars.
Hale said zero local tax dollars went toward paying for the demolition because the fiscal court was awarded a “slum blight grant.”
There are requirements with those grants — one says the area must remain a greenspace for three years after the demolition. The entire lot will not be impacted by the requirement, however.
“What I had our county surveyor do is to come up here and cut partials off of this,” Hale said. “That way it’s not tying up this whole part. We actually have probably three quarters of an acre, maybe even an acre, that we can actually utilize.”
The demolition is expected to take a few weeks depending on weather conditions.
