Saturday, November 20, 2010
YOUNGSTOWN
The city received a $1.23 million grant to clean up the former Dempsey Steel property and demolish a vacant plant that V&M Star needs for its $650 million expansion.
The Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund Council announced Friday that 14 projects, including Dempsey Steel, in Ohio would receive more than $21 million for cleanup projects. Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams sits on the council but abstained from this vote.
The 9.24-acre site on South State Street was in Girard before being annexed to Youngstown earlier this year as part of V&M Star’s expansion.
The property was an industrial site dating to the mid-1950s when General Steel Industries operated a warehouse for steel mills and steel brokers, according to the Ohio Department of Development, which oversees the Clean Ohio program.
“We found nasty little tanks with chemicals,” said Sarah Lown, the city’s development-incentive manager. “It’s been a hazard to public safety and health for years.”
Dempsey used the site for “pickling” steel, which means using an acid wash in the finishing process of the metal to give it a smooth appearance, she said.
“It’s a fairly toxic site,” added city Finance Director David Bozanich. “There were some heavy metals in the soil.”
V&M plans to use the location as part of a road to its $650 million expansion plant off of U.S. Route 422 as well as for tractor-trailers to load, unload and be stored, Lown said.
The clean-up and demolition will start about June or July with the work taking three months to complete, she said.
“We’re very happy the state has agreed to provide the money needed for this work,” Bozanich said.
The Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund program is a competitive statewide program that provides grants up to $3 million to acquire property, demolish structures, conduct environmental cleanup and improve infrastructure, according to the Department of Development.
“These projects are the old buildings and vacant lots that used to be full of life and activity, and we want to ensure they can be that way again,” said DOD Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel.