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Board of control OKs cleanup pacts
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s board of control approved contracts with companies to seek state funding to clean up two parcels at the V&M Star expansion site as well as the former Paramount Theater and the Erie Terminal.
All have problems including buried heavy metals, oil and gas residue, asbestos and lead paint that need to be removed, said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a board of control member.
Two of the properties are where V&M Star is building its $650 million expansion project.
Board approval for the contracts was Thursday.
The board amended a contract with MS Consultants of Youngstown to apply for money from the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund to clean up the former Dempsey Steel facility and design and oversee the project. The board voted to increase MS’s contract by $23,274 for a total cost of $172,325. The increase was because of additional labor costs.
A cleanup of heavy metals and asbestos at the former Dempsey site will cost about $2 million to $4 million, Bozanich said.
Also, the board agreed to pay $131,992 to MS for similar services at the former Shelly & Sands location. The cleanup of heavy metals, asbestos and oil and gas residue will cost about $2 million to $3 million, he said.
The state has verbally committed to providing the money for these two projects, Bozanich said. If the cost is greater than the amount of money the state will provide, V&M Star will make up the difference, he said.
And what if the state doesn’t provide the money?
“They will. They’ve committed,” Bozanich said.
He added that the city expects to be awarded the state funding within 60 days, and the remediation work would be done by the end of next year’s first quarter.
Also Thursday, the board hired Brownfield Restoration Group LLC of Canandaigua, N.Y., to apply for money from Clean Ohio for remediation work at the former Paramount Theater on West Federal Street and the Erie Terminal on West Commerce Street.
The cleanup projects would cost about $500,000 each, Bozanich said. Both need to have asbestos removed with lead paint at the Erie building and the demolition of the old theater, except its facade, included in the costs.
The city will pay $11,000 to Brownfield for Erie and $5,000 for the former theater.
The city is finalizing its $80,000 purchase of the theater from a company owned by Louis Frangos of Cleveland.
Frangos owns the vacant Erie building, having purchased it in June 2007 for $375,000 from the city.
It’s not unusual for the city to seek state funding for privately owned buildings, Bozanich said as he rattled off a number of examples including Valley Foods, the YMCA and the Flats at Wick.