Brookfield company gets Brier Hill project

August 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Peter Milliken

By Peter H. MILLIKEN

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority has awarded an $8,470,242 contract to VendRick Construction Inc. of Brookfield for the complete renovation of its Brier Hill Annex housing project.

VendRick’s bid was 9.5 percent below the architect’s estimate of $9,083,000 for the project.

All Brier Hill tenants were moved to other YMHA apartment complexes about two months ago, and construction will start in 30 to 45 days, with a completion deadline of September 2013 imposed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Clifford Scott, authority executive director.

Funded by federal stimulus money, the project will gut and rehabilitate Brier Hill and transform it into a model energy-efficient and environmentally friendly community, Scott said. “This is going to be a state-of-the-art green facility,” he said.

VendRick has assured the authority that it will have “a significant minority and women presence” among subcontractors and workers on the job and that hiring of local residents will be maximized in the estimated 75-member work force, Scott said.

The board also voted Thursday to apply for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s permission to demolish the remainder of the 70-year-old Westlake Terrace apartments next year.

The board was notified July 1 that the Ohio Housing Finance Agency had approved low-income housing tax credits for the project, which will replace Westlake with a new community, the Village at Arlington Heights.

The authority has applied to HUD for a $250,000 grant to install security cameras at its Victory Estates and Rockford Village complexes, Scott said.

“The cameras at Westlake — that’s made a huge difference. Maybe I’ll see somebody light a joint once in a while, but it’s really, really quiet out there. It’s eerie quiet sometimes,” Jim Winston, the authority’s quality-control officer and public-safety liaison, told the board.

Police are “out there just looking for stuff. They’re just having a hard time finding it,” Winston said of criminal activity and paraphernalia.

Under a six-month contract with the city, which the board approved last month, the authority will begin inspections of privately owned rental apartments and houses today or Monday, Scott told the board. The authority will be paid $15 per unit inspected.