It will cost Wright City $12,500 to have asbestos removed from the former Big Boy’s restaurant. Aldermen last Thursday awarded an asbestos abatement contract to GEI, which submitted the lowest of three bids, to allow the demolition project to proceed. The project has sat idle since the Missouri Department of Natural Resources inspected the city-owned property, located at 13200 Veterans Memorial Parkway, and issued a notice of violation two days later. According to DNR officials, it was discovered that the city failed to have an asbestos survey performed and did not inform the state agency at least 10 days prior to the start of the demolition project. The former restaurant building had been partially razed when a DNR official inspected the property Jan. 24. The city received two other asbestos abatement proposals from Midwest Service Group ($14,232) and U.S. Environmental Solutions LLC ($16,900). Aldermen had postponed awarding a contract at their last meeting on Feb. 23 to give them more time to review the bids. It has yet to be determined when GEI will begin removing the asbestos, though the delay will continue for at least a minimum of 10 business days as required by DNR. That period will allow the winning contractor to file paperwork with the stage agency, according to city officials and give it time to hire a third-party company to handle monitoring the removal process. After receiving the DNR violation notice, the city was required to immediately stop all demolition work, have an asbestos survey conducted of the building and two dumpsters that contain demolition waste, and develop a new demolition plan incorporating any special conditions identified from the asbestos survey. According to the DNR letter, the inspection was conducted to assess compliance with state and federal air pollution laws and regulations. The violations were forwarded to the agency’s air pollution control program enforcement section where a fine may be assessed. Once a popular stop for local residents and highway travelers, Big Boy’s was closed by the Missouri Department of Revenue in April 2005 because the owners failed to pay state sales taxes. Since then, the building sat vacant and fell into disrepair. Last year, the city paid $170,000 for the 2.5-acre parcel. City officials have discussed constructing a new city hall and police department facility on the property, though a time frame has yet to be determined on how soon that could occur. Another possibility is to sell the property, officials said. In July, Wright City officials decided to postpone hiring a company to raze the former Big Boy’s restaurant due to budgetary constraints after reviewing project bids ranging from $22,600 to $32,120. City crews continued to clean up the property until beginning to raze the former restaurant building in January.