Does a Wrecking Ball Loom Over Duncan’s Landmark City Hall?

Can you even imagine downtown Duncan without its iconic City Hall?

It’s been there, originally as the federal building and post office, for more than a century. Its image of clock and bell tower has been used as a marketing logo for Duncan for years.

City Hall is downtown Duncan.

So what would make anyone even consider tearing it down? The answer to that is a very big and real concern: earthquakes.

Older brick structures, alas, are at great risk of failure in such catastrophic events. In the case of City Hall, moreover, there’s the significant heritage factor to be considered.

There are two ways that City Hall can be quake-proofed, one purely pragmatic the other offering protection to its heritage vales, but both are expensive. Duncan taxpayers are going to have to choose one of these options or opt for a new City Hall.

Which would mean, in effect, demolition of their 1913 landmark.

I tell the story of City Hall in next week’s Chronicles.

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