Demolition begins

Jana Mathia, Gazette Editor | Jun 18, 20200

count

AJ Mathia, left, and Leonard Mathia of LM Services, Garfield, begin work removing brick from the top of the Fonk's building Tuesday afternoon. Phase one of demolition will take the building down to the bottom 15 feet and then reassess in the hopes of saving the mural and front facade of the building.

COLFAX – Demolish of the Fonk's building began today after a permit was granted this morning. Chain-link fence barriers were erected around the building and into Main Street in anticipation of the work.

According to owner Joel Warwick, the plan is to take down the building as far as the bottom 15 feet which would leave the mural and front first-floor facade in place. At that point an engineer would reassess the structure to determine if the rest would have to come down or not.

"It'd be nice to make that useful," Warwick said of the bottom portion of the building.

In case the mural is damaged o...