Girard owns leather works site

By jeanne starmack

starmack@vindy.com

girard

The city now officially owns the old Ohio Leather Works property.

The city obtained the title to the 27-acre property on the west side of U.S. Route 422 near the Creekside Golf Dome on April 22, Mayor Jim Melfi told city council at its Monday meeting.

Part of the agreement is that the property did not cost the city anything.

The city had been negotiating, with the help of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, to acquire the property from the former owner.

That owner, Leather Works Partnership, bought the property, an old tannery that dates to 1900, in 1995 with the idea of turning it into a restaurant and an apartment complex. But a fire gutted the building that year and the city razed it. The fire was ruled an arson.

The city had tried to recoup $75,000 it cost to tear the building down from the owner, which has changed its name to Navy Friends and is based in Maryland. Instead, the city acquired the property.

The OEPA has found a series of hazardous waste violations at the site, and Melfi said the city will apply for funds to do more testing there.

The site is next to 80 acres the city also wants that is owned by the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad.

The city is negotiating with the railroad to obtain as much of that land as possible, Melfi said.