Ball and Dodd funeral home demolished

The Ball and Dodd funeral home and the house next to it, once used as a caretaker's residence, located on 111 W. Brooks Road, is being removed.

The city of Medical Lake purchased the funeral home in 2002 from SCI Washington Funeral Services, Inc for $175,000, paid for by a low-interest loan from the city's water/sewer fund. City Administrator Doug Ross said the intention was to move the city's Police Department into the funeral home, which was built in the 1950s.

"It was later decided it was not in the best interest of the city since it already had a fully-functioning police station," Ross said.

Ross said Medical Lake Sand and Gravel won the bid for the demolition and completed all of the requirements before beginning the demolition.

Medical Lake/Espanola SCOPE (Spokane Community Oriented Policing Effort) moved its operations into the funeral home in November 2003. They recently moved out of the building and into the vacant Medical Lake Police Station.

During that time, the city did an asbestos removal in November 2008.

Ross explained that the lot has two zoning designations. The area with the funeral home is designated commercial for the funeral home while the house next to it is residential.

Ross said the reason for the removal of the house and funeral home is because the city hopes to sell the property as a blank lot. In the past, the city has tried to sell it with the both buildings and while there were some prospective investors, including a $175,000 bid from KRN Investments in 2008. However, no buyers purchased the property and the buildings have remained up ever since.

"Structures built in the '40s and '50s, you have to update it to code and that can be expensive," Ross said. "The house had a crack down the middle. Both structures would take a significant amount of money to update to today's code standards."

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.