Eyesore in Warren cleaned upSFlb


Staff report

WARREN

The 6-acre lot at Mahoning Avenue and Summit Street Northwest, “arguably the largest eyesore in Warren,” is cleaned up after 12 years of work, Mayor Michael O’Brien said Wednesday.

Standing on Summit Street in front of the lot full of newly planted grass, O’Brien said the site is ready for commercial or industrial development.

The lot, called Mahoningside because it’s alongside the Mahoning River, was used during much of its history to generate electricity for the Warren Electric Light and Power Co.

Ohio Edison used the plant from 1950 until 1977. The city acquired the property in 1998 and began to demolish it in 1999 before discovering PCBs and asbestos at the site that were later removed.

Using $6 million in federal and state grants plus money from FirstEnergy, 16,000 tons of contaminated soil was removed from the site — 10,000 tons containing asbestos and 4,000 tons containing PCBs.

In recent years, the 18-foot-deep concrete basins still were visible until FirstEnergy provided a “flowable” type of cement and ash to fill the basins so that the land could be graded with topsoil and grass.

Finishing work has taken place over the past couple of months, said Mike Keys, the city’s community- development director.

Keys said working with the Ohio and U.S. Environmental Protection agencies, applying for grants and the like have produced an amount of paperwork that would “boggle your mind.”

“Now the city has something to be proud of,” said Edward McCabe, president of McCabe Engineering of Cleveland, the company that oversaw the project.

O’Brien said there has been “mild interest” from potential buyers so far. Some of the site’s benefits are rail access and proximity to the city’s Riverwalk and downtown.

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