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Warren saves $10,000 on demolition of apartment building
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Mayor Doug Franklin says the city saved about $10,000 by hiring Priority Excavation Services of Warren to remove the former Garden Apartments on Garden Street Northwest at Tod Avenue because Priority incinerates its wooden demolition debris instead of taking it to a landfill.
The demolition that began Tuesday removes a 23-unit apartment building. The cost of the demolition is $18,200. “The Garden Apartments have been an eyesore for about 15 years,” Franklin said.
The building is just down the street from the Pamela Apartments on Tod Avenue Northwest, another eyesore that was demolished a few years ago.
Larry Larson, councilman for the neighborhood, said removal of the Garden Apartments made Tuesday “a great day for the neighborhood. I’m a neighborhood guy, and this is the most-important thing,” he said of eliminating blight.
Larson said that leaves one more big commercial structure in the area in need of demolition – the huge former St. Joseph Riverside Hospital.
Dante Massacci of Priority Excavating said Priority spent 31/2 years getting approval from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to construct and operate its thermal destruction unit, which incinerates wood into ash.
Massacci said Priority is the first and only company in Ohio with permission to use thermal destruction to dispose of wooden demolition debris.
Only debris that is not treated or painted is taken to the thermal-destruction site near the Niles-Warren line, where it is burned at 2,000 degrees, which allows the metal to be removed with a magnet. The ash can be used on farmland, Massacci said.
The process reduces the amount of waste to a fraction of the normal amount, Massacci said. For example, 100 tons of wood waste can be reduced to about 2.5 tons of ash.
Franklin said there have been other recent demolitions that also are helping to remove blight from the West Side – the Wedgewood apartments and a former restaurant – both on Parkman Road Northwest.