BISBEE, Ariz. (KGUN) — It’s been a year and a half since a fire damaged multiple historic buildings in Bisbee. The City of Bisbee has been working to clean up the damage ever since.
The City received a $150,000 grant from Cochise County to clean up the building.
“It’s been a long process, a lot longer than we even expected,” said Public Works Director Matthew Gurney.
The City is using a Brownsfield grant, originally issued through the Environmental Protection Agency. Gurney says one of the reasons the city acquired the building was because they knew they could get a grant to clean up and stabilization of the now one-story building.
"Once it burned, we had both asbestos and lead, and so we need to dispose of that correctly, and we need to follow those guidelines,” said Melissa Hartman, Senior Planner for the City of Bisbee.
Part of the process included two public comment periods. Hartman says most of the comments they received were positive, and asked for the city to reopen that building.
“We're moving, as fast as we can, it's going to be a great space, and it's going to just blend into the natural vitalization of our downtown community,” she said.
Once the EPA signs off on some paperwork, Gurney says contractors will begin cleaning up the property, which people have still not been allowed to enter.
“We will have a clean building that a regular contractor, general contractor, can come in and then build out the building, how the city council specifies they want it to be,” he said.
Gurney says there’s no deadline for completing this project.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
