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Youngstown panel plans to remove asbestos, demolish 2 former Wick Six sites
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s board of control approved a $49,412 payment to MS Consultants for designs and plans to remove asbestos and demolish two former Wick Avenue car-dealership properties.
The plan should be done by the Youngstown company in 30 to 60 days, said Abigail Beniston, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent. The board approved the contract Thursday.
The properties are the former State Chevrolet, between Olive Street and Strausbaugh Avenue, and the former Barrett Cadillac, between Linden Avenue and Sycamore Street.
The two were among a group of new-car dealerships known as the Wick Six. As the area deteriorated, the dealerships left with the last one closing in the early 1990s.
The city took ownership at no cost of the State and Barrett properties, leasing them to other businesses over the years, but they now are vacant.
MS already received $33,896 for testing to determine the amount of hazardous materials on the properties. No underground tanks containing hazardous materials were found, but there is asbestos in the buildings, Beniston said.
MS will provide an estimate for the abatement and demolition work, but city officials say it should cost about $600,000 to $700,000.
The city received approval from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to use wastewater money to pay for the project, Beniston said.
The city faced an $88,000 fine from the EPA for emission violations at its wastewater plant, and received approval to use that money and up to $500,000 in total wastewater funds for the Wick project.
The five violations are from 2010 to 2014.
Three violations were for failing to conduct timely emissions tests at its Poland Avenue wastewater treatment plant. The other two were for emitting higher-than-permitted pollution from the burning of human waste and other waste at the plant, and releasing it into the air through the facility’s smokestacks, according to a June 23, 2014, letter from EPA Director Craig W. Butler to Thomas Mirante, the city’s wastewater treatment superintendent.
The plant currently is in compliance.
Also Thursday, the board approved a $50,000 payment to its insurance company to settle a federal civil-rights lawsuit.
Desiree Johnson and Dorthea Weston, both of Youngstown, contended three police officers violated their civil rights during a 2011 traffic stop.
City Law Director Martin Hume declined to disclose the settlement amount, saying the two sides have agreed to keep that information confidential. The city’s insurance company paid the two women any money in excess of the $50,000 from Youngstown.
As part of the settlement, the city admits no liability, Hume said.
The women claimed they were attacked and beaten by officers during the stop on Overland Avenue on the South Side. Officers said the vehicle was stopped for an improper turn.
The women were each convicted in 2012 of obstructing official business related to the incident.
The city paid $50,000 in May 2014 to its insurance company to settle a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed in 2011 by Johnson related to police misconduct. That case was settled for $70,000.
Johnson sued the city saying police used “excessive and unreasonable force and searched and seized” her then-12-year-old son at gunpoint in 2009 “without probable cause or justification.”