Demolition begins on old Madeira Beach city hall

MADEIRA BEACH --

A demolition crew began tearing through the roof of the old Madeira Beach city hall with a backhoe on Monday that officially ends 50 years of public use in the building that had become run down.

"The new city halls up, the old city halls coming down," said Mayor Travis Palladeno. "Its kind of a sad day because were saying goodbye to an old friend that has served us well over the last 50 years."

The old city hall first opened up for business in March of 1965 at 300 Municipal Dr. in Madeira Beach and city commissioner Patricia Shontz said she remembers the brand new building.

"I was here that day. What a wonderful, amazing day in Madeira Beach," Shontz said. "We at last had a city hall. It was fantastic."

Over the years the old city hall developed a number of problems that included frequent flooding and mold in the air conditioning ducts, according to city manager Shane Crawford.

"We had pests, we had rodents, we had several different kinds of mold. It was just that time," Crawford said. "The old city hall would flood all the time. In fact, my own office... would flood four or five times a year."

Crawford said it should take about two weeks to completely demolish the old city hall that sits in the shadow of the new $10 million city center that houses the new city hall, a fire station and recreation center. The land that the old city hall sits on will be turned into a parking lot for the city center. Construction on the fully glassed oval city commission chamber is still underway. Crawford said he expects the parking lot, landscaping and commission chamber to be complete in the next 60 days.

"Were all moved out and in our new facility," he said. "Hopefully, well be holding meetings in there in May."

Shontz said watching the old city hall get demolished was a little bittersweet but she really likes the new city hall.

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Demolition begins on old Madeira Beach city hall