BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

CANTON – The final piece of the McDonald’s demolition puzzle was put in place following unanimous approval by the Canton Village Board on Wednesday night to accept the low bid to tear down the dilapidated 64 Main Street building.

Mayor Michael Dalton told trustees that a previous low bid of $64,260 from JEDA Environmental Services of Massena will be honored with the stipulation that work begins in the spring.

“They [JEDA] might be doing remediation work before spring, but we’ll see,” said Dalton.

The demolition price tag will be shared with the Town of Canton who approved JEDA’s bid at their Nov. 8 monthly meeting. That vote was 3 to 2 with Councilman James T. Smith and Randy Brown in opposition.

When the town and village purchased the McDonald’s property and adjacent parking lot for $295,000 in July 2021, the idea then was to tear it down to create additional space for a proposed Canton Municipal Building project. But in March the plan fizzled when cost figures for a new municipal building surpassed $25 million.

The move to tear down the former McDonald’s restaurant lingered when members of the town board wanted to see if that building could be repurposed. A bid of $9,700 was obtained to assess the condition of the building.

At an Oct. 25 joint meeting and following back-and-forth discussion, it was agreed that the building needs to come down and the call for a site plan review was nixed.

The two dissenting town board votes center around the lack of a long-term plan as to what to do with the current municipal building.

“I want to avoid seeking that building torn down and come back to this building (municipal building) in 10 years in the same condition,” stated Councilman Brown earlier.

Plans for the municipal building remain in the laps of the joint Building Committee who will be looking at which way to proceed with a rebuild or renovations to the existing structure, or find ways to pare down the cost of the project.