The Marion County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing and approved converting the VA campus to an urban renewal area at their meeting Tuesday. In the process, they awarded the demolition contract to Veit & Company of Rogers, MN. Interim City Manager Heather Ussery says the bid was a pleasant surprise.

“Today was a big and exciting step. The Marion County Board of Supervisors approved a bid to Veit & Company. The bid came in lower than what we were initially expecting. The bid is $6.6 million, and we were expecting close to $10 million, so we were pretty excited about that. The county will be starting the process of the issuance of bonds at their next board of supervisors meeting. We’re still working through our 28E agreements, and in May, we’ll start to see more of the legal proceedings with both the county and city moving forward.”

Hear more about the VA project on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville. Demolition is expected to begin this summer.