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Youngstown board signs deal to demolish the remaining buildings at the Wick Six location
YOUNGSTOWN
The board of control signed a $362,500 deal with a Campbell company to demolish buildings at two former Wick Avenue car-dealerships.
The board agreed Thursday to hire Pro Quality Land Development for the work. The city had estimated the cost of the job at $620,000.
The work will start in August and take up to four months to complete.
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.
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 fund this project.
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.
Also Thursday, the board agreed to pay $294,170.57 to FirstEnergy to bury wires underground as part of a major Wick Avenue project.
The city will open proposals Tuesday for the entire work, besides burying the wires.
The project on Wick between Wood Street and McGuffey Road is estimated to cost $4.9 million, and is expected to start in August and take a year to complete. The money being paid to FirstEnergy was taken out of the bid specifications.
FirstEnergy will move above-ground utility lines underground between Rayen Avenue and the Madison Avenue Expressway access roads.
The work also includes replacing two waterlines with one, replacing a sewer line, installing new traffic lights, reducing the four-lane road to three with the middle being a turning lane and repaving the road.
Also Thursday, the board:
Agreed to have the city borrow up to $2 million from the state to remove PCB contamination and asbestos in soil at the former Dempsey Steel site. The location is used by Vallourec Star to store materials and for parking.
Signed a two-year lease with Valley Christian School for $100 a year for the South High football field on Erie Street.
“They’ll be responsible for the upkeep of the field,” said Robert Burke, the city’s park and recreation director. “It’s one less property we have to cut” grass.
The city hasn’t decided what to do with the indoor fieldhouse that’s in poor condition and hasn’t been used for about five years, Burke said.
The city has received a few offers to take over the fieldhouse, he said.