A Lansford resident and former borough businessman has major concerns about the demolition of the former Elks building, saying that the contractor hired to do the job didn't follow the requirements set in the engineering specifications.

On Thursday, Bob Silver approached the Carbon County Commissioners with his concerns after he said he got "nowhere with Lansford Council," the owners of the property. Silver, on Tuesday, won the Democratic nomination for the Lansford mayor position, defeating Mayor James Romankow."I find that the contract as written by an engineer (hired by the borough), that the requirements are not being fulfilled according to the contract," he said.Some of the issues included that no water was sprayed on the demolition site to keep the dust down while crews worked; the demolition material was not hauled away and disposed of at either a Department of Environmental Protection or Environmental Protection Agency dump site; and that the walls in the basement were not removed and backfilled with a clay-type material as in the contract, rather it was backfilled with the debris from the demolition and the walls remained.Silver also said that in addition, the property will be finished with 2B stone instead of what the town thought would be grass to create a park that could be used by the residents.He also raised his biggest concern about the project - money."I really feel if they aren't going to tear the walls down and not remove the debris and not have to hauled it to an EPA site, we're not talking fish cakes, we're talking about some heavy-duty money," he said, adding that he hopes the county can do something because Lansford was not. "I'm really concerned and hope the commissioners could get at the contractor and engineer to see what is being done to get money back."The commissioners said that they had heard about issues and agreed with Silver.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the county can't tell Lansford what to do with the property because it is not the county's property, adding that it is up to the borough and engineer who wrote the specs to make sure the contractor is fulfilling the contract.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said that he heard that the engineer possibly allowed the basement area to remain, but couldn't confirm it and added that if that is the case, the price for the work should be adjusted accordingly."When you write up a contract, you are to follow exactly what is in that contract," he said.Gerhard said he spoke with David Bodnar in the Carbon County Planning and Development office about the issues Silver was raising and added that the county is going to work to find out what's going on.Nothstein added that if the case is that the contractor did not follow what was drawn up in the specs, and the borough did not pursue the proper removal and allow the engineer and contractor to get away with it, then "I think that's grounds for us in the future to turn down any proposals by the contractor possibly because they didn't fulfill the agreement this time."Carbon County chipped in $127,791 in Community Development Block Grant funds for the $145,748 demolition project and hired Northeast Industrial Services of Shamokin to complete the project at 6 W. Ridge St.Lansford paid the remaining $18,000 for the project.The Elks building had been the point of discussion since September 2015 when Lansford Borough Council said the building had deteriorated to the point of near collapse and should be demolished.