DEMO DONE

It only took nine months and a court order, but the pile of rubble that was once the Cordova Apartments in Springfi eld is now gone. The building at 1325 S. Fifth St., behind the Shell gas station on South Grand Avenue, was boarded up in 2002 after a fi re. It sat shuttered for more than a decade, becoming a gathering place for vagrants and a magnet for trash. The city code enforcement division took Joe Bart, the property’s owner, to administrative court in May 2015, and Bart began tearing down the building in June 2015. However, the rubble from the demolition sat mostly untouched until earlier this month, when the city obtained a court order from Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Madonia allowing city workers to fi nish the cleanup. In the months between demolition and cleanup, scavengers descended on the site, taking scrap metal and anything else of value while trampling the orange plastic fence cordoning off the area. City spokeswoman Julia Frevert says the city will bill Bart for the cleanup and put a lien on the property. Bart couldn’t be reached for comment.