YOUNGSTOWN Asbestos cleanup at Idora begins

The cleanup will cost the church that owns the Idora site about $75,000.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The cleanup of the Idora Park ballroom, destroyed in a fire last month, should be finished in 30 days.
The cleanup began Monday as promised by Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church, which owns the Idora Park site. Daniel A. Terreri and Sons, a North Jackson asbestos abatement company, is doing the job for about $75,000, said Matthew J. Blair, the church's attorney. Terreri does most of the city's asbestos abatement projects.
The cleanup was supposed to begin April 1. But church officials asked for an extension because testing on the site's debris, which included asbestos in the ceiling, and soil needed to be done before work could begin.
"You just don't go out there with a bulldozer," Blair said.
The debris will be loaded into dump trucks and taken to a hazardous waste landfill in Minerva. Once the debris is removed, the ballroom location will be regraded, Blair said.
The city will have someone monitoring the cleanup, said Michael Damiano, the city's director of housing and demolition. Damiano was critical of the city's granting an extension to the church for the cleanup and is hopeful the process will move ahead without any trouble.
When asked if it is safe for people to be near the ballroom, Blair said, "I would think so. I haven't been told by the city that it's not safe."
The church bought Idora Park in 1985, the same year a fire destroyed much of the park, forcing it to close. The park was one of the city's most popular attractions for decades for dancing to the sounds of big bands, getting together with friends and riding roller coasters.
In recent years, the ballroom's basement has been the home of vagrants. A suspicious fire destroyed the building March 5, causing about $500,000 in damage.
Blair said the $75,000 cost of the asbestos removal is twice as much as it should be because the city ordered a concrete wall knocked down shortly after the fire.