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Scaffolds should be gone soon
YOUNGSTOWN
The scaffolding surrounding a downtown building for the past three years will be gone by next month, according to an official for the company that owns the structure.
Park South Development Co. LLC has cleaned and caulked the granite panels on the exterior of its PNC Bank Building at Wick Avenue and Commerce Street, said Anita Atheneos, the company’s property manager.
Next week, the company will install the steel strips between the granite panels to keep them in place, she said.
That should take about two to three weeks, she said.
And then the scaffolding will be gone, Atheneos said.
“We’re right on schedule,” she added. “Everything is in the works, and we’re right on schedule.”
“Right on schedule” is a matter of interpretation.
Park South has until the end of July to finish the work, based on a 12-month permit the city gave the company a year ago.
But David Rizzuto, director of operations and finance for Park South’s parent company, told The Vindicator in early April that the projected completion date was June 15. That’s today, and only three of the 54 steel strips are installed. Those three strips were placed on the building in late March.
On Tuesday, Atheneos blamed the delay on the city’s Design Review Committee, which wanted to see the strips on the building before approving the use of them.
Charles Shasho, a design review member and deputy director of the city’s public works committee, acknowledged the committee’s delay. But he said that shouldn’t hold up the project as the time frame was provided after the committee’s approval.
“They had a year, and we delayed the work for about a month to make sure they got it right,” Shasho said. “They need to get to work.”
Shasho added that if Park South continues “to drag their feet we’ll have to” consider legal action.
The project will cost about $250,000, Park South officials have said.
The company is installing steel strips between the granite panels on the building because two large granite pieces fell from the building about 40 feet to the sidewalk in 2005.
The scaffolding was erected in May 2008 after Park South acknowledged the incident from three years prior. No panels have fallen since.
The company did nothing else to improve the building’s exterior as it attempted to resolve a lawsuit with its insurance company over who would pay to replace the granite. The lawsuit was settled in November 2010 with the terms sealed.
The scaffolding permit from the city expired Jan. 24, 2010, but the scaffolding was never removed. It wasn’t until The Vindicator wrote about the expiration date in a June 2010 article that it was revealed the permit had expired.
Also, a day after that article, Park South gave the city a proposal to make the exterior improvements. A month later, the city’s building department gave Park South a one-year building permit for that work.