Reporter staff

The Big Daddy’s Drive In sign is no more.

Crews demolished it Tuesday, making way for the City’s planned expansion of Les Gove Park.

City officials said Big Daddy’s Drive In, Butt’s Tobacco, what had been a temporary library, a vacant retail store and their respective parking lots off Auburn Way South are in the way and have to go.

In June, the Auburn City Council awarded Groat Brothers, Inc. the $180,284 contract to demolish the Herr Properties buildings.

Tasks call for salvaging specific components of Big Daddy’s landmark carport, the removal and disposal of hazardous materials from the properties, the severance of existing utilities that serve the properties, the removal and disposal of asphalt pavement and erosion control and site restoration.

The City’s intent is to keep the blue poles under Big Daddy’s canopy, the radios attached to those poles and the roofing structure above that. Ultimately, the plan is to turn the site into a commemorative drive-in for car shows and the like.