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Youngstown agrees to give access to businessman buying fire station
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s board of control approved a temporary access contract with a business owner buying a vacant South Side fire station for $12,700.
An ordinance to permit the sale to go through will be in front of city council for a vote Wednesday, said Law Director Martin Hume, a member of the board of control.
The board approved the temporary access deal Thursday with David Murdoch, owner of J.W. Murdoch & Sons Inc.
The agreement allows Murdoch to enter the former Station No. 9 at East Midlothian Boulevard and Sheridan Road to secure it in preparation for purchase, Hume said.
A son of Murdoch will live in the 92-year-old former fire station, which will be restored.
Murdoch, owner of a commercial and industrial door business on West Indianola Avenue, plans to upgrade the structure’s interior. Murdoch’s proposal was the only one received by the city for the building.
The station has long-standing structural issues and had problems with rodents, mold and water leaks.
The city closed the 2,494-square-foot building seven months ago after the city spent about $900,000 for a new Station No. 9 at Ipes Field, also on East Midlothian.
Also, the board voted to pay $50,000 to HCC Public Risk Claim Service, the city’s insurance company, to settle a federal civil-rights lawsuit regarding claims of police misconduct. The settlement was for $70,000.
Desiree Johnson of Youngstown sued the city saying police used “excessive and unreasonable force and searched and seized” her then-12-year-old son at gunpoint “without probable cause or justification” in 2009. The boy was not charged with any crime. The lawsuit was filed in 2011.