The old Countryside City Hall building at the southwest corner of East Avenue and 55th Street will soon come tumbling down.
The city council at its most recent meeting unanimously approved a $165,565 contract to Dale Inc., based in New Lenox, to demolish the building, 5550 S. East Ave.
The old city hall is being torn down because there’s a plan in place to redevelop the four-acre site.
A starting date for the demolition has not been set.
“We don’t know yet. Hopefully, soon,” Ald. John Finn (1st) said.
A woman who answered the phone at Dale Inc., on March 4 said a date has not been set.
In January, the council approved an ordinance authorizing the sale of the former city hall site for $1.2 million to QuickRun.
The developer plans to build a gas station and a HuHot Mongolian Grill with a third retailer to be determined.
In other business at its Feb. 25 meeting, the council approved an intergovernmental agreement between the city and Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways.
The agreement has $110,000 in funding from the county to support the preliminary and design engineering costs to build a shared-use path of the south side of Joliet Road.
“We’re working on that. That will be from East Avenue all the way to Wolf Road,” Finn said. “You’re talking Countryside, Hodgkins, unincorporated, Indian Head Park.”
The path would offer easy access to another mixed-use path on the east side of Brainard Avenue that stretches from Joliet Road north to Plainfield Road.
That path isn’t far from Countryside Park, where free music will again be offered this summer.
Ald. Scott Musillami, chair of the council’s Special Events Committee, said the lineup for this summer’s free concert series in the park will soon be finalized.
Eight bands will play over nine Thursday nights from June 11 to Aug. 6. There is no concert on July 2.
Fireworks are planned for after the July 30 concert. If rained out, the fireworks will be on Aug. 6.