COLUMBIANA COUNTY Port authority seeks grants to assess site that needs a cleanup

A company shut down there a year ago, casting dozens out of work.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
COLUMBIANA -- Promoting a former plant site's rebirth hinges partly on an effort to rid it of ghosts from its past, a development official says.
The Columbiana County Port Authority is applying to the state and federal governments for nearly $400,000 to pay for determining how the former National Refractories and Minerals site might eliminate tons of chromium.
Doing so will increase the development potential, said Tracy Drake, port authority director.
The agency bought the nearly 100-acre site for $1 after National Refractories went bankrupt and shut down in December 2002, idling about 200 workers.
A sagging economy and declines in the steel industry contributed to the company's closing.
Development plans
The port authority wants to develop the mostly abandoned site, banking on its proximity to state Route 344 and four-lane state Route 11 to make it attractive to entrepreneurs, Drake said. The site also is near a railroad.
Buckeye Transfer, a Youngstown company, already is using part of the land.
Before the property can be further developed, the chromium must be removed, Drake said.
The material, which looks like dirt, remains in piles at the site. It's left over from National Refractories' production of products for the steel industry.
Once an assessment is completed, the port authority can focus on getting more grants for the cleanup, Drake explained.
It's too early to say how much a cleanup would cost.
"I don't think it will cost much more than the assessment," Drake said.
He said he hopes the cleanup can be completed in 2004.
Benefits for community
Cleaning the site will aid in developing it, which then can lead to jobs that will benefit the community, Drake said.
Another plus is that the project entails reusing industrial land instead of carving up woods and fields to build anew, he said.