Old High School

 City Council voted to acquire the deed to the old high school building on N. Springer Street from whatever limbo it is in and demolish the building as a safety hazard. Council looked at rehabing the building but would likely cost well over $2 million to do so. An inspection would run $25,000 to $30,000 by itself. Given that water comes into the building during rains, ceilings have collapsed in some areas and a number of windows are broken, rehabilitating the structure, built in 1922, does not appear feasible. 

This is indicative of a problem with older buildings I have noticed in Carbondale over the years. Structures get ignored by their owners or the city, with maintenance continually put off,until the building has deteriorated so much that it is too costly to rehabilitate and the only option is to raze it. This happened with the old Johnson Hotel on North Illinois, the Tuscan Lodge at the corner of Jackson and Washington and the Bank Building/Opera House at the corner of Main and Washington, as well as the Southern Recycling and Peerless Laundry buildings on South Washington. True all of them were in unsalvagable shape by the time of demolition but owners also let them run down instead of maintaining them.