City looks to buy site for business park

By David Skolnick

The board also approved a study of the city’s water system and its rates.

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, on Tuesday to conduct tests on the property off Poland Avenue to determine if there are 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 from LTV for $1 million in October 2002, 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.

The tests will probably show “minor pockets” of asbestos and oil, Bozanich said.

The city operates four business parks, totaling close to 700 acres. Among them is Performance Park, a former LTV steel mill site located near the Sherman property.

The Sherman property is in the Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity, a location that takes in about 1,200 undeveloped acres along the Mahoning River in Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers.

The Youngstown Board of Control on Tuesday approved hiring The PFM Group, a Cleveland company, to conduct a $92,000 study to examine the city’s water distribution system and its rates. The study should be done in 90 days, Bozanich said.

The study also would include an estimated cost of expanding the water system into Campbell’s and Struthers’ portions of the corridor.

Youngstown’s proposal calls for the three cities to evenly split a 2 percent income tax to be imposed on new businesses in that area. Campbell City Council voted to cooperate with the study. Struthers council hasn’t approved a similar resolution.

Also Tuesday, the Youngstown board approved severance packages for three of the 20 firefighters taking the city’s early retirement/resignation offer.

The board will approve the other 17 in the coming weeks.

All 20 will leave their jobs with the fire department by the end of the year and be replaced by those making $24,000 in annual base pay during their first year on the job. That’s less than half of what those leaving the department earn annually in base pay.

skolnick@vindy.com