Waltham demolition job closer to reality

WALTHAM — The tearing down of the long-dormant Gaebler Children's Center could be one step closer following comments from city councilors last night.

In September 2008, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy had requested $543,000 to demolish the Trapleo Road building, which has high levels of asbestos and has become a haven for vandals in recent years.

However, at that time, councilors on a motion by Ward 6 Councilor Robert Waddick, voted to table the funding. Waddick said then that he wanted to see the demolition of the incinerator at the city yard on Lexington Street - in the works for years - completed before Waltham turned its attention to the Gaebler building.

The mayor had sought $550,000 for the city yard work, which the council approved in June 2009.

Last night, Waddick said he is now ready to approve the appropriation for the Gaebler work since the Conservation Commission recently OK'd an order of conditions so the city yard demolition could proceed. The commission's approval is seemingly the last hurdle for that project.

Waddick said it wasn't his intent to hold up the Gaebler demolition. He said he just wanted to make sure the demolition of the city yard, which hasn't worked for 35 years, didn't get put on the backburner.

The Gaebler Center was erected in 1952. At one time, there had been plans to turn the building into a recreation center, but the asbestos levels were found to be too high. In recent years, the building has been such a target for vandalism that some who trespassed on the facility videotaped their handiwork and posted it on YouTube.

Ward 3 Councilor George A. Darcy III said the building was a "nuisance" for the neighborhood since it had become a prime spot for vandals. He said the building should come down.

"The neighbors would like to see movement on this," Darcy said.

City Auditor Dennis Quinn told the council that the money for the Gaebler demolition would come from the city's stabilization fund.

This article was written by Richard Conn and published by The Daily News Tribune on Tuesday, January 12th 2010 and NOT owned by nor affiliated with opacity.us, but are recorded here solely for educational use. The photographs featured in the article are randomly selected from the Gaebler Children's Center galleries on opacity.us unless noted otherwise; they may not directly relate to the article subject matter except for the site location - any other relation is purely coincidental.