MANSFIELD — The $4 million demolition and remediation of former Westinghouse properties will be in local hands.
The Richland County Land Bank on Thursday approved the $3,995,000 bid of R&D Excavating of Crestline to demolish and clean up the former industrial sites that have sat idle for more than three decades.
The bid acceptance is contingent upon the approval of the Ohio Department of Development, which has provided a $3 million grant for the project.
“I am pretty stoked. This is news to me,” said R&D co-owner David Barnhart, who started the company with childhood friend Ryan Lykins in 2018.
“We are ready for it,” said Barnhart, a 2006 Shelby High School graduate.
The contract includes demolishing and cleaning up the former “A” building at 200 Fifth St.; the adjoining 13-acre concrete slab; and a nearby vacant building, most recently owned by Electrolux, based in North Carolina.
R&D was one of four bids below the $4 million available for the project, including $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds from Richland County commissioners and Mansfield City Council.
R&D was the only one of the four companies submitting bids below $4 million that’s from Ohio. Others were from Michigan, Illinois and Canada.
(This is a developing story and will be updated).
