Because of a special grant from Allegheny County, the former Carnegie Borough Complex on Glass Street soon will be history.

At its meeting Monday, Carnegie council voted to accept Belich General Contracting's $40,000 bid to demolish all buildings at the old complex, including the public works garage that was still in service and the century-old former municipal building that has been vacant since Carnegie moved to its new municipal headquarters nearly three years ago. The bid price includes the removal of all asbestos.

To do the demolition, Allegheny County has given Carnegie an emergency $50,000 Community Development Block Grant.

"It's not going to cost the borough a nickel," said a pleased Carnegie Councilman Robert Chidlow, who is public works chairman, after the meeting.

"That [old municipal] building was in such bad shape before the flood, the borough made out," council President Dorothy Kelly said.

The demolition leaves the borough, which was in a tight fiscal bind before the Sept. 17 flood hit last year, with the dilemma of where and how to build a new public works facility.

Officials plan to hold a special committee meeting next Monday to discuss the topic. Issues such as size, number of bays, location and financing are likely to be on the table.

Borough Manager Lori Ritter reminded council that action toward a new public works garage must occur soon.

"We're in a limited time frame for public works to have a new building by winter," she said.

Chidlow made it clear that he prefers the new building to be built on the Glass Street site. He was adamant that money not be put into the Portion-Pak building, a 43,000-square-foot parcel that the borough bought in early 2000 for $595,000 for a new public works building.

Chidlow has cited concerns, including an apparent inflated sale price, and Carnegie has sent the issue on to the state attorney general for investigation. The Portion-Pak building is on the west side of the new municipal complex.

Kelly said she had more "mixed emotions" about retrofitting the Portion-Pak building into a public works facility, in part because she considers it to be a more valuable piece of property.

Such a move would consolidate all borough operations onto one site. A case can be made that the Glass Street property is more secluded and, thus, more appropriate for trucks and salt storage.

Either way, it appears the borough will have to sell something to give Carnegie the cash it needs to rebuild a public works garage.

"I just don't know where we're going to get the money to do this," Kelly said.

Council tabled action to seek proposals for architectural design services for a new public works building because of the upcoming Monday meeting.