By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city’s board of control approved a $60,000 payment to a company to demolish four structures heavily damaged by fire on Market Street.

The payment to All Excavating Co. of Youngstown on Thursday was to take down 2710, 2712, 2716 and 2720 Market St., which were all vacant.

The company did the demolition work shortly after the Aug. 16 fire in the city’s Uptown area, said Abigail Beniston, the city’s code enforcement and blight- remediation superintendent.

Firefighters were able to keep the fire from damaging the nearby vacant Uptown Theater.

The city also paid $700 to Anthony J. Billet Landscaping, a Boardman company, to seed the properties.

The city doesn’t own the four properties, and it isn’t known at this time what will be done with them, if anything, Beniston said.

The board also approved paying $79,935 to Pritt Entertainment Group of Akron to overhaul the Covelli Centre’s control room, which operates the Jumbotron and other video screens used for advertising, promoting upcoming events as well as for instant replay during sporting events.

The nearly 10-year-old system was analog, making replacement parts unavailable as systems now are digital, city officials say. The city-owned center’s new system is digital.

The center often had to rent equipment – ranging from $2,500 to $4,000 per event – because of problems with the control room.