The status of our new cell tower is now officially in question after the demolition company hired to do the job has now quit, citing the safety of his crew and the public as his reason for doing so.

Allegedly Robert Phineas, the owner of the Sarasota company called Roots SRQ, said he would not take responsibility for the project, so he packed up his equipment and left. In the mean time, part of the debris hanging from the second floor of the building fell into the street either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, which meant the road had to be blocked off. Heavy rains predicted in the next few days will endanger the project more by rendering the dangling debris soggier and heavier.

The original pile of debris that was left by the demo company was scooped back into the building by the workmen on site and contractor Leo Pfliger has already done his work on the wall between the Lumen Building and the Bakery Building, which was to cut a hole so the tower assembly company, Steele Construction (who works for the main tower company, Vertical Bridge) could get their equipment through to the tower site.

Thursday morning got a little crazy over on Railroad Avenue, as demolition crews showed up to start on the old Bakery Building at the same time T. Steele Construction was there to work on the new cell phone tower site. Neither crew knew the other would be there, and apparently Aaron Diaz, owner of The Barnichol, didn’t know demo crews would be beginning today, either, and was concerned for the safety of his store patrons. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that the person charged with dealing with the bakery demolition was out of the country.