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Numbers are stories in the last 30 days.
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Whittier takes first federal money toward tearing down parts of the empty Buckner Building
The Whittier City Council on Tuesday accepted the first $600,000 of a $5 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to tear down parts of the Buckner Building, the six-story former Army building that has sat empty in the middle of town for decades.
None of the first $600,000 goes to demolition. It pays for federal reviews that have to come first: endangered species, tribal, historic preservation and the National Environmental Policy Act. The remaining $4.4 million would go "to clean the building in sections and bring sections of the building down," said Assistant City Manager Shelby Carlson, who manages the grant.
That second phase isn't guaranteed. It depends on congressional appropriations, EPA priorities, the city's progress and its compliance with the grant terms. Carlson wrote that construction work, including demolition, "cannot begin until EPA completes its environmental review and provides the required authorization and additional funding."
The Buckner Building was finished in 1953 as the Army's main living quarters in Whittier. It was built to provide "housing, recreation and medical services to 1,250 Army personnel," the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation says. It was "essentially a city within a 273,660 sq feet structure," with a shooting range, theater, bank, commissary, bowling alley, library and hospital.
It went into private ownership in the 1970s, suffered vandalism and fell into disrepair, according to the department. A 2016 structural assessment found nearly all its windows and doors missing and concluded that it was unlikely any significant portion could be rehabilitated for occupancy. It recommended demolition.
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