BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON – Demolition work at the former downtown McDonald’s restaurant continues following a brief shutdown due to a new requirement for lead testing.

JEDA Environmental Services, Massena began tearing down the 64 Main Street building on June 14 but had work halted when the first truckload of debris was rejected at the landfill in Rodman for not having a lead test.

At Wednesday night’s joint meeting of the town and village boards, Mayor Michael Dalton reported that work has commenced, saying the site should be completely razed in a couple of weeks.

“They did the test and are now allowed to dump,” he said. “The building is almost down then they will pull the foundation. We don’t know what the hole will look like after they pull the foundation.”

Both boards then decided the best course of action would be to fill the hole then cover it with crushed stone or crusher run and with “No Parking” on that lot. The current parking lot located in between the old McDonald’s property and the Canton Municipal Building will be cleaned up and paved and will serve as a parking lot.

The joint Building Committee will be reporting back to both boards on the cost of blacktopping the parking lot.

The cost of abatement and demolition work is $64,260. The town and village purchased the McDonald’s property in 2021 forn $295,000.