Some good news was announced last week in the city of Logan.

The Pioneer Hotel demolition project is officially completed and paid for.

Jim Boggs of the Region II planning and Development Office gave the good news to the Logan City Council on Tuesday.

Boggs had a final request to pay Hazard Excavation Inc., $125,000 to close out the project, which was technically complete when the old Sayer Brothers Building was leveled recently. Boggs said the Sayer brothers had agreed to a settlement with Hazard Excavation and that part of the funds paying Hazard would be turned over to Sayer Bros.

"It is 100-percent complete now. All we were waiting for was it to be resolved," Boggs said, referring to the damage accidentally done to the structure when a wall of the old Pioneer Hotel fell onto the Sayer Bros. building when the Pioneer was being razed this past summer. Boggs said the past two years had seen a lot of long-term planned work completed on the project, which began when the grant for the demolition was approved in 2004.

The actual project cost $350,000 which means about $62,000 of the grant funds are left over and could possibly be used for some other local project. Boggs said the government tends to look for water and sewer projects for such funding and warned that some other town might get the funding if they came up with a water or sewer project. However, because guidelines in 2004 were different, Boggs said it is possible that Logan might be able to use the funds for improvements to Logan City Hall making it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Several councilmembers asked about using the funds to demolish more dilapidated structures in town. Boggs said he could ask the Development Office about that. Boggs also asked the council to approve a proclamation for fair housing as required to receive small cities block grants through HUD. Ownership of a small parcel of property owned by the Department of Highways near McDonald's in town was approved for purchase at the cost of $1 for the CSO project. Neal MacDonald said a siphon station has been on the property for some time and that the Department of Highways agreed to sell it for $1 instead of having the station moved.

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