Wreckers tackle Naperville's Barn rec center
It was a good run for the Barn Recreation Center in Naperville - concerts, high school dances, open gyms, youth gymnastics - but it's all over now.
Crews from American Demolition Corp. of Elgin began to tear down the 51-year-old structure Wednesday morning to make way for a new Naperville Park District central maintenance facility in Knoch Park.
The Barn, built in 1965 with $50,000 of zero-interest bonds sold by Naperville teens, was determined to have issues with safety, accessibility and usefulness during a community review process in 2010.
Park district officials then determined the maintenance building behind the Barn also needed to be replaced to house vehicles, operations, trades and park support equipment.
They made plans for new maintenance facility at a budgeted cost of $7.8 million, which also will include a public meeting room, public restrooms and parking spaces for Knoch Park visitors.
The park district let residents say goodbye to the Barn during a farewell concert and festival on June 4, and also has given away bricks as "surplus material" for nostalgia purposes. Then they called in the American Demolition wreckers with a $79,930 contract to raze both structures.
The new maintenance facility is expected to be complete and operating by summer 2017.