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Demolition of Dayton building on hold as city officials decide its future

DAYTON — The demolition of a Dayton building is on hold for now as some have conflicting ideas on what to do with the structure.

Dayton city leaders said demolition crews had planned to start tearing down the building formally known as Day-Mont Behavioral Health Care next week.

News Center 7 reported on the closure of the building in 2017.

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“Shortly after it became vacant it started becoming vandalized pretty regularly. All the copper and metal have been stripped out of the building and there’s just been general vandalism on the property,” Todd Kinskey, director of planning neighborhoods and development for Dayton said.

Kinskey said the city is partnering with Greater Dayton Premier Management, the public affordable housing authority for Montogmery County, to bring new life to the property.

The housing authority intends to build a new 50-unit multi-story apartment building for family housing.

But not everyone agrees with this plan.

People held up signs outside the building Tuesday, asking city officials to recognize its history.

“[That is] great, Dayton needs that, but why this building?” Elizabeth Early of Dayton said.

Early and those who came out want the building to stay put. They said it means a lot to the west side and would like it to be re-developed in another way — like a civil rights museum.

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“This building was a part of our ancestors. This building just wasn’t built just to have four walls, it was built to be a part of history,” Carrie Moore of Dayton said.

Kinskey said the city recently found out another party reached out to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office to see if the building can be preserved. He said because of this, the demolition is on hold until it gets resolved.

“This building stands proud, look at the sun shining over it, it stands proud and it has endured a lot of things and it’s still standing,” Early said.

Kinskey said he expects the demolition will be delayed for a few weeks, possibly a month.

He said he plans to work with interested parties to move forward with the project while still recognizing the building.





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