Asbestos removal to cost $1M at West school

By Harold Gwin

Asbestos found in the plaster walls will make razing the old Youngstown school complicated.

YOUNGSTOWN — It could cost about $1 million to safely remove the asbestos from the old West Elementary School building at 134 N. Hazelwood Ave.

That’s the last environmental engineering estimate on getting rid of the hazardous substance, which must be carefully removed under controlled conditions and disposed of in special landfills as part of the demolition of the 81-year-old building.

It’s a bargain compared with the original estimate, which showed asbestos removal would cost around $2.2 million, said Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs.

“It’s not as bad as the first surveys indicated,” he said.

The original survey of the building indicated there were significant amounts of asbestos in the plaster on the walls, making the removal more extensive and more expensive than a normal building demolition.

A second survey, however, showed that the amount of asbestos in some walls was within acceptable limits, and those areas won’t require the more expensive methods of removal, DeNiro said.

The city school board voted last week to seek bids on the asbestos removal in anticipation of the building demolition. The Ohio School Facilities Commission will pick up 80 percent of the cost.

DeNiro said asbestos abatement should start in September, and the actual building demolition will begin in December. That will be under a separate contract to be bid at a later date, he said.

The 87,000-square foot building now serves as the temporary home of Volney Rogers Middle School while a new Volney Rogers is being built at 2400 S. Schenley Ave.

Volney students have been in the old West building for two years. Their new school will be ready for occupancy this fall.

The district is also in the process of tearing down the old Jackson school on Windsor Avenue, which had served as a temporary home for Paul C. Bunn Elementary after its building on Sequoya Drive was torn down. A new Bunn has been built in its place, and it opened last fall.

The demolitions and constructions are part of a 13-building, $187 million school rebuilding program that is nearing its end in the city. The last new building, Wilson Middle School, is now under construction and should be ready for occupancy in June 2010.

The district had planned to build a Rayen Middle School but had to scrap that project because of declining enrollment.

Superintendent Wendy Webb said she is putting together a plan to create a Rayen school at the district’s central office at 20 W. Wood St., a complex that includes the original Rayen School built in the city.

That portion of the facility would become the Rayen Youngstown Early College Middle School — which would become a feeder school to Youngstown Early College High School on the campus of Youngstown State University, Webb said.

The district still has nine other vacant or soon-to-be vacant buildings, some of them used for storage, and would like to raze at least two of them as part of the rebuilding program.

DeNiro said the OSFC is having tests done in all of them to come up with demolition cost estimates.

Those remaining nine buildings are: Haddow on Oak Street, Sheridan on Hudson Avenue, Lincoln on Charlotte Avenue, Princeton on Hillman Street, Adams on Cooper Street, White on Lyden Avenue, Harrison on Commonwealth Avenue, Hillman on West Myrtle Avenue and Hayes on Ford Avenue.

gwin@vindy.com