City eyes park at former pipe mill site

YOUNGSTOWN — City officials are negotiating the purchase of a 100-acre site, the location of a former LTV seamless pipe mill, with the expectation of turning it into a business park.

The city’s board of control hired MS Consultants, a Youngstown company, today to conduct tests on the property off of Poland Avenue to determine if there’s hazardous materials there. The cost for the tests is $11,250 with results expected in about 45 days.

The tests are needed before the city can move ahead with the purchase, said Finance Director David Bozanich, a board of control member.

Sherman International, a Pittsburgh equipment dealer, purchased the property for $1 million in October 2002 from LTV, during that company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Sherman dismantled the former mill in February 2003, and nothing has been done with the property since.

The purchase price is being negotiated, but it’s expected to be about half of what Sherman paid for the property.

The city wants the sale to be finalized by the end of the year.

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