Crews are began work this week to salvage what is possible from the Sphar building before it is demolished.

A month ago, the Winchester Board of Commissioners accepted the low bid of $101,900 from Grant’s Excavating for demolition and salvage. The contract is for for 60 days with a 30-day extension, but Winchester City Manager Matt Belcher thinks it won’t take that long.

“Unless something catastrophic happens, there’s no way it will take that long,” Belcher said.

Crews are still working to assess what can be saved from the 138-year-old former seed warehouse at the corner of Main and Depot streets.

“They started demolition and removed the items we wanted to save: the sign over the door, the shutters and scales inside, and a truckload of brick,” he said. Belcher said he wasn’t sure if any of the wood inside could be saved or not.

The city purchased the building in 2014 after it fell into disrepair and accrued a number of code violations. City officials hoped to turn it into a welcome center for the community as well as office space and other uses.

Available funding never seemed to match the cost of the project, despite the city receiving a $1 million grant and Clark County receiving an additional $500,000 grant for the project.

In the last two years, the building deteriorated and became unsafe.

The demolition project will also include levelling the lot so it slopes to the drainage at the rear of the lot, Belcher said. Plans for the property have not been finalized, and there may be additional fill work to be done later.

The silos will remain and will become a spot for public art, possibly related to the farmers’ market, which meets on Depot Street, he said. The dormer on top of the silos will also be rebuilt, he said.