Demolition is set to begin next week on the former St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church in Lansford.

The building, which stood for more than a century at the corner of Bertsch and Tunnel streets, has been closed since 2008.Last week, the Diocese of Allentown received a permit from the borough to go ahead with the demolition of the property.The state Department of Environmental Protection also had to sign off on the demolition because of asbestos insulation in the building. That work took place last month."The diocese has gotten a permit to tear down or raze St. Ann's church. we have the paperwork," borough council president Martin Ditsky said.The contractor responsible for the demolition is the Building Recyclers of Kutztown, Berks County. The cost of the demolition is approximately $75,000, diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said last month.The process is expected to take four weeks. Some desks and other miscellaneous items were recently removed from the church in anticipation of the demolition.Ditsky said that residents should not take bricks from the site during the demolition.All iconography and fixtures were removed from the church after the St. Ann's Parish was consolidated in 2008. That includes the remains of a priest who was buried inside the church after serving there.According to published reports, the priest, the Rev. Leo Fahey, was buried there in 1919.In 2009, Fahey's body was reinterred at the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Jim Thorpe.Kerr said that the building sat on the market since 2008, failing to attract a buyer.The parish which absorbed St. Ann's, St. Katharine Drexel, was recently consolidated into the St. Joseph's Parish of Summit Hill.