The demolition of 115-119 E. Second St., Jamestown, will continue this week. Because it’s a controlled demolition, the debris will remain for at least 10 days for air monitoring. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The demolition of an East Second Street building may concluded this week, but the debris will remain for at least 10 days.

Crystal Surdyk, city development director, said 115-119 E. Second St., Jamestown is undergoing a controlled demolition that should be done this week. However, because it’s a controlled demolition, the debris will remain for at least 10 days for air monitoring.

“A controlled demolition has to be treated as if it has asbestos because no testing could be done ahead of time,” she said.

Surdyk said even with the mandates from the state to eliminate nonessential construction work, the demolition is still occurring because the building was no longer structurally sound.

“It needed to happen. It was essential,” she said.

Even though the demolition needed to be done for safety reasons, Surdyk said, hopefully, cleaning up the debris, once it’s allowed to be removed, will also be deemed essential.

“We will have to pay attention because of the rapid changes on mandates coming from the governor (Andrew Cuomo),” Surdyk said. “I expect it to be cleaned up in the next week, but we will have to pay attention to what the governor says.”

Surdyk said the owner of the building has been unresponsive to city about the demolition. She said city officials will continue to contact the owner to try and be reimbursed for the $79,000 cost of the emergency demolition.

“It maybe something we have to file a lien for and we will have to wait for the judicial system to take its course” she said. “We decided it needed to happen, with or without the owner as a willing participant.”

In January, a partial collapse of the back wall of 115-119 E. Second St. occurred, which is near the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts.