Champlain Oil donates, dismantles house to make way for larger Jiffy Mart

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC

After unsuccessfully offering to give the Burbank house at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets to anyone who would move it from the site, Champlain Oil has donated the structure to a not-for-profit — EcoBuilding Bargains — and contracted with another company to dismantle it.

EcoBuilding Bargains, of Springfield, Mass., a tax exempt not-for-profit that recycles and sells surplus and used building materials, has already begun to sell a portion of what once housed the school supervisory union, with the dismantling company — Deconstruction Works — acting as its agent.

Using only hand and power tools, Deconstruction Works takes apart buildings in the reverse order of their construction. Flooring, doors and fixtures come out first followed by interior walls and insulation. When the project is complete, all that will be left will be the cellar hole.

According to Eric Kruger of Deconstruction Works, everything that can be reused will be removed and recycled while only materials that can’t be reused will be sent to a landfill. “After 10 days of work,” Kruger said, “we’re still on our first dumpster of trash.”

Kruger noted that the timber frame materials as well as older hemlock and spruce framing and sheathing would go to Vermont Restoration Materials for re-manufacturing while architectural details have been sold to Tillotson Trading of East Corinth.

While the dismantling has proceeded too far to allow tours,

Deconstruction Works will hold a tag sale from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 19 with a number of fixtures available.

“We are very happy that we connected with Deconstruction Works,” Matt Wamsganz of Champlain Oil told the Telegraph. “Since we offered the house for free for over two months and there were no takers this was the next best option.”

When the house has been removed, Champlain Oil will begin work on a 4,980-square-foot Jiffy Mart with four double-side gas pumps, a convenience store, a Ramunto’s Pizza Express and a Subway sandwich shop.

Construction is expected to begin in April with an opening around the end of August according to Wamsganz.