By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A Campbell company submitted the apparent lowest proposal to demolish buildings at two former Wick Avenue car-dealership businesses.

Pro Quality Land Development’s $362,500 proposal Monday is the least-expensive amount among six companies seeking the work. The next-lowest proposal was for $449,900 from All Excavating Inc. of Youngstown. The city’s estimate for the job was $620,000.

“We’re very pleased with the price,” said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department.

The city will review the proposals and should award a contract within the next few weeks.

The work will start in mid-August and take four months to complete, Shasho said.

The project calls for the demolition of six structures on Wick Avenue at the former State Chevrolet, between Olive Street and Strausbaugh Avenue, and the former Barrett Cadillac, between Linden Avenue and Sycamore Street. Also, asbestos will be removed from the buildings and from the ground between the properties, said Abigail Beniston, city code-enforcement and blight-remediation superintendent.

The two were among a group of new-car dealerships known as the Wick Six on the city’s North Side. As the area deteriorated, the businesses left, with the last one closing in the early 1990s. There isn’t a new-car dealership in the city.

The city received permission from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to use up to $500,000 in wastewater money for this project after it was cited five times by the EPA between 2010 and 2014 for emission violations at its waste-treatment plant. Rather than pay an $88,000 fine, the city negotiated to instead use more money for this work.

Three violations were for failing to conduct timely emissions tests at its Poland Avenue waste-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 in to the air through smokestacks. City officials say the plant is in compliance.

Meanwhile, city council will consider legislation Wednesday to pay $39,945 to MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown to remove an underground storage tank at its water department building on West Avenue.

The city and the Ohio Department of Commerce’s state fire marshal have been in a dispute over whether the gas tank needed to be removed for about five years, said Mayor John A. McNally. The city decided to take the tank out of the ground.

A council ordinance states the tank needs to be removed after an “evaluation determined that soil and ground-water contamination is in excess of” acceptable levels at the location.