Termite damage to force demolition of historic area log cabin

The city’s top building inspector, Ken Rivera, noticed the termite damage and told his colleagues that the building needed to be demolished because it could collapse.

The log cabin until last year was in the hands of the Butler County Land Bank, which takes over properties that have fallen into disuse or foreclosure. The land bank in 2020 transferred the property, along with others, to Hamilton.

Tom Vanderhorst, Hamilton’s executive director of external services, said when the building is torn down, the city will keep logs that have not been destroyed in storage so they can be reused in some way.