TIME MACHINE

(Reader-friendly viewing of news archives/historical archives material)

January, 1970

                                                      

(The Daily Times, Salisbury)

The armory, of course, was later acquired by Pocomoke City and for many years was home to our police department, but is there still a future for the building?  Last month at a meeting of Citizens For A Better Pocomoke there was a suggestion to form a volunteer group to look into saving the armory. Here are some recent comments from Pocomoke Public Eye readers. If you have an opinion about the armory please leave your comment.

good luck saving the armory, I would start fundraising immediately and ask the city to donate the building to your organization, all you would need to do is pay the taxes each year and the city would be glad to give it to you probably. last i saw, you could still use the gym

Forget the armory, even if the City gives it to you for free. It's a fire trap and the insurance premiums would be astronomical. Liability insurance would be out of sight, as well. Repairs to the plumbing and heating systems would bankrupt any civic organization. There is a reason it is vacant; no one with any business sense is willing to touch it.

Sorry to say, but you may as well forget the armory. The building is almost 100 years old and is basically a toxic waste site. It is loaded with asbestos, lead paint, lead from the bullets in the shooting range, mold and mildew. The city received a very cursory estimate to rehab the building and bring it up to current code. That estimate exceeded one million dollars. The plumbing, heating and electrical systems are all obsolete. Slim is right, there is a reason the building is empty. It needs to be torn down and the sooner the better.

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