HALLOWELL — Contractors will soon remove the 19th century wooden crane on display at Granite City Park after an inspection Tuesday found the structure “poses an imminent risk to public safety,” city officials announced this week.

Work to dismantle the crane will likely begin next week, City Manager Ross McLellan said. City staff have already restricted access to a small grassy area beneath the crane.

“Significant deflection and visible rot were observed throughout the crane,” the city said in the statement Tuesday. “In the judgment of our Public Works staff, there is potential that the structure may fail in the near term. The safety of residents and visitors in and around Granite City Park is the City’s first priority. The risk of a beam falling and injuring a member of the public is not one we are able to accept.”

The 37-foot-tall wooden crane — one of the last remaining from the area’s mid-1800s granite mining heyday — was found at an abandoned Augusta quarry in 1985 and was displayed at a bank before being donated to Hallowell in 2003. The 36-foot-long boom swings in a full circle, and is similar to ones used to load granite blocks onto boats in the Kennebec River.

After a decade behind the public works building, the crane was moved to Granite City Park.

Hallowell became well known across the country for its white granite beginning in the 1820s, when the city’s stone was used to build the Maine State House in Augusta. At least nine companies operated quarries in Hallowell during the mining peak.

Now, Hallowell granite corners important buildings as far away as Chicago and St. Louis.

The city acknowledged in Tuesday’s statement that the crane represents an important part of Hallowell’s cultural history, but that the safety risk cannot be ignored.

“The risk is that it will have failure, and part of it would fall to the ground,” Mayor George Lapointe said. “If you or I were under it, we’d get smooshed.”

The city issued a request for proposals earlier this year for the dismantling, repair and reassembly of the crane, knowing the aging, wooden structure was deteriorating.

No responses were received by the April 13 deadline.

“The intention is that we find somebody to rebuild it, and that’s going to take some time just because we didn’t get people before,” Lapointe said. “We have to put our thinking cap on about alternatives.”

McLellan said the city plans to hire a contractor to remove the crane next week. The lone estimate so far was $3,600, he said.