31 Mitchell Street caved in about one year ago. The common council has now approved code enforcement to start the process for having the building removed. (Photo by Catherine Sasso)

NORWICH – At Tuesday night’s Joint Committee Meeting, Fire Chief Jan Papelino requested approval to get the specs of the dilapidated house on the corner of Mitchell and State Street so he could begin the bidding process for having the building lifted so it can be removed.

According to the City of Norwich, the code enforcement officer coordinates the enforcement activities of the various divisions and additionally coordinates cases between the code enforcement office, city officials, planning board, the zoning board of appeals, and the fire department. In this case, the fire department is spearheading the project.

When moving the building was first proposed, the county attempted to strike up a deal to trade services.

"There's been a number of discussions with the county and they were looking to try to trade some leach aid processing for letting us take the building up to the landfill and we still don't have an answer if we can take it up there yet," said Papelino. "It's hard to say if we will be able to take it up there. If we do take it up we would pay their normal price which is $60 a ton."

The proposed swap of services from the county causes a few issues for the code enforcement office.