By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Monday, July 24 was the first day the city of Hays had the legal right to take over demolition cleanup of the former Ambassador Hotel and Conference Center, 3603 Vine, after voting July 14 to invoke a nuisance abatement.

Daily progress has been monitored since then by John Braun, interim director of Public Works.

Early Monday afternoon there were three excavators working at the site.

“At this point, the city hasn’t exercised any of the abatement right to hire somebody (to complete the work),” Asst. City Manager Jacob Wood said. “The only point at which we would do that is if we thought we could get it done quicker than what they’re doing. They’ve been making progress over the past couple of weeks.”

According to Wood, some of the demolition debris has been hauled away to Wichita and Chapman.

“It’s not moving as quick as I want it to, but I don’t know that it’s any quicker than what the city could get somebody to do it,” he added.

Wood was unsure if any of the debris has been taken to the Ellis County Landfill. “Tipping fees vary wildly from one point to the next,” he pointed out. “Maybe these other locations are the places that have the space and the right tipping fees for them.”

“I would say, at this point, they’re making good progress and we’ll continue to monitor it, ” Wood concluded.

The hotel closed December 1, 2015 after several internal property maintenance issues. The owner chose to raze the structure for redevelopment. A demolition permit was issued Nov. 30, 2016 with little progress noted by the city over the next seven months.

In March, 2017, the work was halted for remediation of additional asbestos found in the building.  The city of Hays condemned the property May 30, after city inspectors determined minimal work had been done other than removal of some metal scrap.