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Gold Stars See page 7 A supplement to The Press Newspapers December 4, 2017
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Public responds to former mall site By Kelly J. Kaczala News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com Residents filled Northwood City Council chambers on Jan. 25 to listen to economic development ideas for the former site of the Woodville Mall. The main mall structure was razed in 2014 due to structural issues. The city acquired the property at a sheriff’s sale in February 2016 for $200,000. Since then, it has been cleaning up the site, including the removal of asbestos. With the cleanup nearly complete, the city hasn’t yet decided whether the property should be for commercial, industrial, or residential development. Or maybe even a combination of the three. “It was vibrant at one point in time,” said Glenn Grisdale, the city’s economic development consultant who ran the meeting. “Over the years, it fell into disrepair,” he said. The Woodville Mall, Northwest Ohio’s first enclosed mall in 1968, “is no longer an asset in the community.” Demolition The city was straddled with a variety of environmental issues, he said. Among them: The site included 50,000 square feet of asbestos containing material tiles, and 771,844 square feet of spray on asbestos containing material insulation covering the entire footprint of the buildings, concrete walls, I-beams, ceiling tiles, hard plaster ceilings, and floors, according to Grisdale. The site was deemed too expensive for the private sector to fix, he said. “The private sector washed their hands of it. And eventually, it fell onto our laps,” he said,
Grisdale said some people have a false perception of the city as “a dying community with high commercial vacancy” and that it has nothing to offer businesses. But in reality, he noted, the city is a growing and stable community. Northwood is home to Wood County’s largest employers, such as Norplas, NAMSA, and FedEx. The city has undertaken every action possible leading up to remediating the site, he said, including acquiring all of the property except the 10 acre Sears parcel. It also received a state loan to help pay for demolition services and asbestos abatement. “We went before the Ohio Water Development Board. We became the first community in Ohio to get money loaned to us with a low interest rate to remediate asbestos. That was the best option for us,” said Grisdale. The cost to remediate the site is $4.2 million. The goal is to remediate the site by this spring and summer, he added. The city hired Brian McMahon, a real estate broker at Danbury National, to market the site.
March for life
Ed Albright and Mike Marshall give readings as the Knights of Columbus Council 14344, River East Mother Teresa gather to pray at the “Memorial to All Unborn Children” at St. Ignatius Church, Oregon. Bottom left, those who participated in the march left flowers at the memorial. (Press photos Ken Grosjean)
Continued on page 2
Q uote
of The Week
Your school is watching you. Father Eric Schild See page 23
Ohio EPA seeks public comments on Envirosafe The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public information session and hearing on Tuesday to accept comments about a permit modification to add corrective actions for closed waste cells at Envirosafe Services of Ohio Inc Comments will be accepted by the Ohio EPA until Feb. 23. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Oregon City Council Chambers, 5330 Seaman Road. During the session, Ohio EPA officials will present information about the corrective measures and answer questions. During the hearing, which will immediately follow the information session, the public can submit comments for the record regarding the proposed action, according to the Ohio EPA. Envirosafe’s current operations in-
Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm
clude accepting hazardous waste from off-site sources for storage, treatment or disposal in the hazardous waste landfill. Envirosafe treats hazardous waste in a containment building to meet certain regulatory requirements and disposes of the treated waste in the landfill. The active disposal portion of the facility is comprised of one waste disposal cell, designated as Cell M, located in the southern portion of the property. Older solid and hazardous waste cells require monitoring and corrective actions to protect the environment. The proposed permit modification would combine two ground water monitor-
ing requirements, including shallow and deep well monitoring, to assess corrective actions and detect new releases early, and monitor the bedrock aquifer. Corrective actions also include upgrading and maintenance of caps on old waste cells, leachate recovery, storm water drainage improvements, and other actions that will prevent exposure to hazardous waste. The action is not the result of any new issues at the facility, Dina Pierce, spokesperson for the Ohio EPA, told The Press last week. “The corrective actions are a result of the investigation the company started years ago as part of the rule requirements
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...the monitoring wells would detect if any new releases that would occur and assess the effectiveness of the corrective actions.
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By Kelly J. Kaczala News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com
Envirosafe must follow. This includes continued bedrock aquifer monitoring normally required for landfills, and shallow and deep till groundwater monitoring that will continue as part of the ongoing corrective action requirements. Only two new wells would be installed. These would be going into the bedrock aquifer. Combined, the monitoring wells would detect if any new releases that would occur and assess the effectiveness of the corrective actions.” The draft permit modification and related information can be viewed online or at Ohio EPA’s Northwest District Office, 347 North Dunbridge Road, Bowling Green. For an appointment, call 419- 352-8461. Written comments on the draft permit will be accepted at the hearing. Comments may also be mailed to Ohio EPA, Division of Environmental Response and Revitalization, Attn. Chloe Mercier, DERR, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216-1049, or Chloe.Mercier@epa.ohio.gov.