CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The former Austin Resort building, owned by the city of Clearlake, will soon be a thing of the past.

On Tuesday, crews from Walberg Inc. began the demolition of the dilapidated building, located at 14061 Lakeshore Drive in downtown Clearlake, across from City Hall.

The demolition should be completed within two days, according to City Manager Greg Folsom.

Folsom reported that this is the fourth building the city has torn down in the Lakeshore Drive corridor in the last few months as part of an enhanced effort to clean up key areas of Clearlake.

Previously, the city has torn down the former Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce building on Golf Avenue and two other abandoned buildings located next to Howard’s Grotto that had been taken over by the homeless and drug users, Folsom said.

Folsom said the city was able to utilize a combination of grant funding from the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle, and existing bond funds to pay for the demolitions.

“I can’t tell you how happy and excited I was to drive by this morning and see the demolition of this eyesore building finally happening,” said Mayor Russ Perdock. “It’s going to be a major improvement to the Lakeshore Drive corridor.”

In addition to the demolitions in the Lakeshore Drive corridor, Folsom said the city is currently in the process of getting approval from CalRecycle to demo burned out residential properties throughout the city limits where the owners of the properties have not taken responsibility to clean up the properties themselves.

Once those burnouts are demolished, the city will place a lien on the properties so that the owners will ultimately be held responsible for the cost of cleaning up their property, Folsom said.

“The City Council has placed a priority on improving the city and demolishing these blighted buildings is part of that plan,” Folsom said. “The challenge for us is finding funding for these projects and, fortunately, CalRecycle has a program that is helping us tremendously.”

Save