The Kalona City Council met July 24. Photo by Sam McIntosh.

Work is starting on the Kalona Community Center project.

City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh gave updates at the Kalona City Council meeting Monday. Schlabaugh said members of the Amish community will begin roof removal Thursday, “They’re going to come in late this week or early next and they will go up, they’ve got skyjacks and teletracks and they’ll go up and remove the standing seam stainless roof, and they’ll go ahead and repurpose it. And they’ll also take the decking above the rafters. There’s 43 rafters up there as well and they’re going to remove all of those and repurpose it for another building someplace else.”

A contract for building demolition will be offered at a special council meeting August 1. Once that bid package is offered, the next steps in the project will be to remove asbestos from in the roof, and then demolish the building. The timeline is for the new building to be constructed and finished by summer 2018.