AUBURN – Eighteen years after the last inmate left Androscoggin County’s former jail, the steel and cinder-block structure with its floor-to-ceiling bars is slated for demolition.

The Androscoggin County Commission voted Wednesday to tear down the building, which sits adjacent to the County Building on Turner Street in Auburn.

“It’s not of use to anybody,” Chairman Elmer Berry said. Analyses of the building found that the construction and layout would be too costly to adapt to another use.

Commissioners voted to accept contractor Roland Chabot of Auburn’s $39,000 bid to raze the building and haul away the debris.

The demolition is set to take place sometime in 2009. Awarding the bid is contingent upon the approval of the 2009 budget by the county’s budget committee.

Commissioners agreed Wednesday that the expense was reasonable, especially given the other two bids that came in from Lewiston companies. Gendron & Gendron bid $275,000 and St. Laurent & Son bid $66,800 for the work.

The reason it wasn’t torn down years ago was money, Commissioner Helen Poulin said.

The old jail has been sitting unused since the current jail opened in 1990. The two-story structure has been sealed off by a steel door from the rest of the county building. Inside, paint has curled off the walls and the floor has gathered dust.

Opened in 1969, the jail was desperately overcrowded in its last years. It became the site of frightening conditions for guards and inmates. There were riots and suicides.

The space left by the structure may be used as parking for county vehicles. It has also been suggested as a possible site for dispatching services.