Ellison Bay Disaster Community Portal

By Paige Funkhouser, Door County Advocate

Liberty Grove town supervisors met Friday afternoon with town attorney Jack Bruce and an insurance investigator for the Cedar Grove Resort, Mark Harrison of General Casualty Insurance, to discuss and approve razing the Pioneer Store.

The town also plans to install a perimeter fence around the Cedar Grove Resort properties to maintain the integrity of the explosion sites for insurance investigations. Harrison said his job is to represent the Cedar Grove Resort and its owners, the Harold Smith family, to coordinate the insurance investigators’ efforts, establish damages and reach a settlement with the party that severed the gas pipe.

Bruce told the board that the Pioneer Store was deemed unsafe for habitation and razing the building would be the next appropriate step. The insurance companies and store owner Carol Newman would be responsible for the costs associated with the demolition. Town Chairman Charlie Most agreed with Bruce.

“We have to consider how best to maintain the Cedar Grove (explosion) site,” Most said. “The town has an interest in removing a public hazard and nuisance. We’ll also help Carol (Newman) remove the materials she’d like to remove.”

Removing the building would eliminate the traffic jam Most said he could envision.

“The possibility of opening State 42 is not in the town’s best interest” this weekend, Most said, “with the gapers’ block it would cause. And I would hate to see any looting of the store.”

Demolition of the store is tentatively scheduled to start Tuesday, for completion Wednesday afternoon. If the work can be done on that timeline, State 42 could open to the public Wednesday evening. No cost estimates for the demolition were reported Friday.

To keep the integrity of the explosion sites, Harrison requested and received the permission of the town to install a 6-foot-high chain-link perimeter fence around the Cedar Grove properties, north of Wills Park to the southwest corner of Cedar Branch Road and down to the shore. Cedar Shore Road would be blocked off entirely, except for authorized access.

Property owners who live on Cedar Branch Road would retain access to their homes. The 40 boat owners with slips and boats at the town dock near the Cedar Grove Resort would have limited access to their boats for the next two to three weeks.

This fence could remain in place for up to six weeks, Harrison said. In addition to the fencing, General Casualty Insurance would pay to staff security officers at each end of Cedar Shore Road.