Sheridan County Conservation District Accepting Bids For Demolition Work At Old Acme Power Plant Building

An old building north of Sheridan that used to provide power to the city and then became an environmental hazard will soon fall.

The Sheridan County Conservation District is accepting demolition bids until of April, for the Old Acme Power Plant building along the Tongue River.

The building, which closed in 1976, is more than 100 years old and was eventually deemed hazardous, due to all the asbestos inside, most of which has been cleaned up.

The District acquired the building and the property in 2017, and has been working on reclamation work ever since.

A building demolition contract is scheduled to be awarded at next month’s district meeting and it’s possible that the work could be done by the end of June.

District Manager Carrie Rogaczewski says once that’s done, there’s still a little more work to do regarding the property, and then figure out what exactly to do with it, once it’s been deemed safe and usable.

“There’s still some potential issues with groundwater that we’re not addressing in this phase. The coal ash pile, part of which is on the site that we’re not addressing during this phase and then lastly, it’s the question that we’ve been asked all along, ‘What are we going to do out there, what are we going to do with it?’ We know it’s going to be some sort of open space, but beyond that we don’t have a set plan.”

The district is holding a public meeting on Wednesday, April 8th at 5:30pm at the Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library, where members will provide an update on completed activities and provide details on the plans and timeline for building demolition and site cleanup.

Rogaczewski adds the original plan was to deconstruct the building and make pieces available to anyone who may want memorabilia, but the Department of Environmental Quality said no to that idea, in the event that asbestos or any other hazardous material remain inside the pieces.

The building closed when management decided not to upgrade to meet new EPA compliance regulations.

Click here to read the history of the Acme Power Plan building site.