HONESDALE -- A condemned building is one step closer to demolition in part of Wayne County.
You don't have to go far inside the former Hussco Shoe Factory in Honesdale to see the utter mess inside: three floors of it, amongst fire and water damage.
That is why Borough Zoning Officer Dan Hnatko had the place at the corner of East and 13th Streets condemned last month. The third floor collapsed. Hnatko worries the rest may go at any time, potentially putting people in harm's way.
"The borough did move pretty quickly with what we had to deal with. We'll be tearing it down as soon as possible. Safety end of this, it's beyond repair," Hnatko said.
Hnatko says the owner, Dave Hoff, lives in New Orleans and can't afford to demolish the building or make repairs. Hnatko has given the go-ahead to auctioneers and scrappers to go through the building piece by piece.
"Everything's in the building. It's a mess, so it's going to take weeks to sort this out."
Borough council voted to take out a loan for more than $100,000 to tear down the building. Neighbor Judy Warren says it should have been taken care of a long time ago.
"It's part of history in town, sad it has to come down. Neglected too long, so there's no choice," Warren said.
Some of the things found inside, like an old Mac computer may bring in a lot of money for Honesdale borough, hoping to offset the cost of tearing this big building down.
"There's a lot of antiques in there. There's a lot of vintage stuff, scrap in there, too," said auctioneer Joseph Goonan.
Borough officials hope to have the building down by this fall and will also sell the property to help pay for the demolition.