BY JULIE BENAMATI
NANTY GLO — For years after the Nanty Glo Shirt Factory closed for good, the building that once employed local seamstresses stood empty, silent.
The brick factory at Johnson and Walter streets became part of a larger problem – blight in the borough.
But that will soon be in the past.
The Cambria County Redevelopment Authority opened bids recently to have the site demolished and cleared. The authority awarded a $57,423 contract to Earthmovers Unlimited Inc. of Kylertown to level the building.
“Council is very pleased,” borough Manager Sam Sulkosky said. “I’ve gone back to find petitions signed by residents to get that building down since 2001.”
The structure is in severe disrepair.
“The back part of the building is completely gone,” Sulkosky said.
“We actually had people in there stripping out support beams, copper pipes and wire. The metal support rods supporting the roof were taken, and the roof fell.”
The authority will determine what to do with the site. But Sulkosky and council members already have thoughts.
“There’s a major need for retirement housing in Nanty Glo,” Sulkosky said. “We have a lot of retired, widowed residents whose husbands were coal miners. And now they have these big three- and four-bedroom houses that are too big for them to take care of.”
A complex featuring one- or two-bedroom apartments might fit the bill.
“That would free up some housing for younger families,” he said.
