Worker destroying New Albany tower discusses what it takes to operate the wrecking ball

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- The sun is up, and on-lookers are looking up as a mild mannered, not easily excitable construction worker gets ready for a very public "break up."

As in, breaking up the old Riverview Tower in New Albany.

"We've had a lot of people stop and watch," Steve Haggenjosh said.

"When you're retired, you've got to have something to do," added Rick Faith, another on-looker.

Haggenjosh bashes and crashes the wrecking ball daily at the site on Scribner Drive. He steers and operates several joy sticks in tandem to wreck walls and crumble concrete.

"(This is) your boom up and down, and then your swing and your hoist," he showed WDRB.

His job can be tedious work.

"Takes a lot of time, because you have to keep hitting the same spot before something will give," Haggenjosh said.

Dropping the ball literally is the job, but, figuratively, it's not an option.

"(You have to) try not to make it so it falls out here and hurts somebody," Haggenjosh said. "Keep it all confined to one little area as you're bringing it down."

Training and practice put him in a cab wrecking, and without Haggenjosh, progress in New Albany would be harder to come by than concrete.

"They had a lot of problems at that building," Faith said. "It needed to go."

"It's important to everybody," Haggenjosh said. "It means you're climbing the ladder of something better."