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Mayor outlines the steps for demolition of Delphi buildings
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
The broken windows of Delphi Packard Electric Plant 8 at Griswold Street and Paige Avenue in Warren. The city has issued a demolition order for this and two other former Delphi plants.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Mayor Michael O’Brien met with Sergio DiPaolo, the new owner of three former Delphi Packard Electric buildings on Dana and Griswold streets, to explain the steps he must take before he can resume demolition activities.
DiPaolo purchased the three buildings, which encompass about 720,000 square feet of office and production space, for $80,000 on Jan. 26, O’Brien said.
First, DiPaolo, of Girard, must apply to the Mahon-ing-Trumbull Air Pollution Control Agency in Youngstown, a contract agency of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, regarding asbestos removal.
DiPaolo also must file a detailed demolition plan prepared by a licensed architect with the EPA and must file for a demolition permit with the city, O’Brien said.
DiPaolo and workers with his company, who were discovered inside one of the three buildings Jan. 26 beginning the demolition process without permits, are barred from entering the buildings until the permits are obtained.
“He has assured us nobody will be in the buildings,” said O’Brien, who met Monday with DiPaolo. “We laid out all of his obligations.”
Meanwhile, Bob Villers, executive director of the Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste District, said DiPaolo and his company were part of the demolition at the Diversified Resources factory in Champion Township that produced criminal charges and environmental concerns in recent years.
The demolition of a former brick factory there, on the opposite side of the state Route 5 Bypass from the former Copperweld Steel mill, resulted in one felony and one misdemeanor charge being filed against the building’s owner, Edgar C. Knieriem Jr. of Cockeysville, Md. The case is still pending in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
The charges resulted from demolition of parts of the building, which left bunkers of steel swarf, a manufacturing byproduct, exposed to the rain and snow. Villers said siding panels containing asbestos also created an environmental hazard.
DiPaolo said his company was drawn into enforcement issues there only because of a failure by the Ohio EPA in Twinsburg to notify the Mahoning-Trumbull Air Pollution Control Agency that the proper permits had been secured.
As for a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Attorney General’s office last year that accused his company of failing to follow demolition regulations in Newton Falls and Boardman, DiPaolo said his company’s role in those demolitions was minor and the fix for the problems is also minor. “It’s not a big deal,” he said.
DiPaolo said he will meet all the demolition requirements involved in removing much of the production building on Dana Street Northeast and eventually removing Plant 8 on Griswold Street. He will leave about 100,000 square feet of the production building and lease it to smaller companies, he said, adding that Delphi took good care of the building.