[FONT=Verdana]An old paper mill in Wilmington, IL has a date with a wrecking ball any day now.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Sheryl Puracchio, city administrator, said as soon as a permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency comes in the work will be done.
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[FONT=Verdana]She gave officials this news at a city council workshop meeting.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]"A gentleman called saying he would like to take the building down," Puracchio said. "I got him together with the owner."[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Ace Demolition wants to tear down the building in hopes of making a profit from recycling the scrap metal left on the aging building. The company is approved to remove asbestos.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Puracchio said Randall Patterson, the owner of the building, was contacted. The city provided Patterson with several police and fire reports and encouraged him to take action. Vagrants have moved into the building and there have been some drug violations as well as fires inside and out of the building.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]There will be a fence around the area and a concrete foundation must remain in place because the grounds are contaminated.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Alderman Marty Orr referred to the property as a Superfund site. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]During the teardown, areas will be draped and sprayed with water to keep the asbestos from getting into the air. The street should remain open. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Puracchio said the area has some issues with arsenic and has become a health hazard.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]The building is known as the Celotex facility. Four years ago, Celotex wanted the city to take over the property.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]The plant manufactured roofing shingles and tar paper from the 1850s to the early 1980s.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Sixty cubic yards of asbestos insulation, 120 drums of corrosive chemicals and two steel tanks were removed from the property in 1998 under the supervision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]The offer was declined by officials concerned about the environmental exposures.[/FONT]