Council Valley Market Remains to Come Down, Contract Awarded

The City of Council has awarded the contract to clean up the remains of the old Council Valley Market to Duncan Dirt Works of Council, which is owned by Sean Duncan. The winning bid amount, and the lowest of the four received by the city, was $83,000.

On July 11 a judgment was entered in Adams County District Court declaring the burned remains at 202 Illinois Ave a ‘nuisance requiring abatement.’ This judgment allows the City of Council to immediately move forward with clean up and to assess the costs of this to the property owner, Victor Ludwig. I reached out to Mr. Ludwig regarding these steps being taken and he declined to comment.

The city plans to prepare and sign the contract this week, according to city clerk Ashley Scott. Sean Duncan stated that he can start work as soon as the contract is signed and that he expects the work to take 3-4 weeks to complete from the start date.

The market building burned on October 7 last year when a meat smoker in use at Cuddy Mountain Custom Meats, which was renting a portion of the building, malfunctioned and caught fire, according to the State Fire Marshal’s report of the incident.

The Facebook page for Cuddy Mountain Custom Meats hasn’t posted anything since January 9 of this year. Additionally, the Idaho Secretary of State business entity filings show Cuddy Mountain Custom and Specialty Meats LLC as ‘inactive-dissolved’ as of March 25 of this year. Sara Willey, the owner of this business, has two pending criminal cases in Adams County as well as a civil case that is pending due to a bankruptcy stay.

Shani Smith of Huptye, one of the businesses that was displaced due to the fire, told me that she is just grateful to be able to move back into their building soon

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