By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
LANDIS — It didn’t take contractors long Thursday to move the historic jail from its place just across the railroad tracks in downtown.
Eventually, the former Southern Railroad train depot and the old post office will also be in their permanent place beside the Landis Police Department on North Central Avenue. That’s the planned location, less than a block away, for a future passive park.
The buildings have to be moved from the corridor where the state plans to add a second set of railroad tracks.
Those tracks will extend from Salisbury to Kannapolis.
Mooresville company Crouch Brothers House Moving Contractors is handling the move.
To relocate a structure, the movers had to dig the building away from its foundation, lift and place it on a trailer, then move and set it at the new site.
The posts at the site of the passive park had been dug weeks ago.
Recreation Director Andrew Morgan said he anticipates the move of the post office and the depot sometime next week.
Those will take longer. Those structures are more labor intensive and other factors must be considered, including utility lines, he said.
The N.C. Railroad Co. sent a letter to the town in February pledging to reimburse up to $20,000 of the cost to relocate the buildings if they could be moved before Sept. 1.
Town Manager Reed Linn has said moving the structures will cost about $35,000 total. The additional money will be taken from the town’s recreation budget.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.