During the October monthly meeting between the City Council of Canton, it was announced that the city has plans to accept a bid for the demolition of the Plaza Theater building in downtown Canton.

“We are pleased to announce that we received a bid for the demolition of the Plaza building,” Director of Operations, Peter Lamont, stated to the council. “The amount [for the demolition] is $179,000, which came in a little bit more than we expected, but we were actually anticipating it to be a lot higher at the end of the day.”

“We still have some minor negotiations with the bidder, Capital commercial Group, because we would like to see about the possibility of using Sanitation Solutions to haul off the debris [following the demolition],” Lamont noted.

City Manager Lonnie Cluck also chimed in regarding the bid, stating that while the bid number is $179,000, he would like for the budget to be higher to give the city some leeway in further negotiations.

“The bid came in at $179,000 but we would like to set the budget at $200,000 [in case of any setbacks]. If this is to go over $200,000, we will come back in and amend the budget,” Cluck said.

The Plaza building, which opened its doors as a theater in 1946, has been a staple of downtown Canton for over 75 years.

When asked about a timeline regarding the demolition project, Cluck stated that there is no estimate on a timeframe at this time.

“We just got this bid in so we will have to call the contractor and discuss when he can be here, so we are still real green in this. We wanted to bring this before [the council] and let [the council] know that this money is not in this year’s budget, so we are going to have to go back and pull that money out. We will have to make a budget adjustment for this and [the council] will have to decide if we want to proceed with this,” Cluck concluded.

Following Lamont and Cluck’s comments, the council approved to award the demolition bid of the Plaza building to Capital Commerical Group.

During the citizen’s forum portion of the meeting, Ryan Sumner spoke regarding the progress in the complaint he and his clients made to the council during the September meeting.

“I wanted to bring everybody up to date on the last meeting we had regarding the Eubank block downtown. I was extremely grateful to have the [private] meeting called, and we were grateful to have Lonnie Cluck, the City Manager, there to take more of a role in this situation. He was kind to point out several areas where our plans needed adjustments, which I am glad we were pointed in the right direction. In our dealings with the city, we’ve had tense discussions and disagreements, but all parties have done so in a mostly even-keeled demeanor,” Sumner concluded.

In the consent agenda portion of the meeting, the mayor and council members considered and approved street closures on Halloween during the Trick or Treat on Main Street event, and during the Christmas parade and Snow Day Festival on Dec. 10.

Other notable agenda items that were considered and approved by the council included the motion to designate the

Canton Herald as the official newspaper for the city of Canton, as well as approving various minutes from previous meetings.

No action was taken by the council following a closed executive session.

The next city council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m.