MANSFIELD — The former YMCA property is returning to Mansfield City Council.
Local lawmakers are expected to discuss a request from Mayor Jodie Perry to appropriate $282,047 from the city’s PRIDE fund to help the Richland County Land Bank cover costs associated with a building demolition initially completed five years ago.
The legislation is not scheduled for a vote until March 20, though council can choose to move it forward and deal with it Tuesday.
Excavators returned to the 455 Park Ave. West site in February, returning to dig up and remove debris left buried when the city used $500,000 in PRIDE funds to demolish the three-story building.
No decisions had been made yet regarding the city’s ability or intent to recoup money spent on the original demolition.
The goal is to make the 3.2-acre site “developable,” according to Amy Hamrick, manager of the Richland County Land Bank, which now owns the property and is using a share of state grant funds for the work.
“We are digging up hard fill,” she said in February. “The goal is to return it to virgin soil.”
Hamrick said the Land Bank, which took possession of the property after the demolition, has spoken to potential developers, who initially expressed an interest in the site.
“Once we tell them everything is buried, they quickly lose interest,” she said.
The city’s Parks, Recreation, Illumination, Demolitions and Emergency Services tax, a four-year, quarter-percent municipal income tax that generates about $3.7 million annually, was first approved by voters in 2013 and successfully renewed in 2017 and 2021.
It benefits the city’s police and fire departments (50 percent), as well as parks and recreation (22 percent), demolition (20 percent) and street lights (8 percent).
Demolition of former YMCA followed years of neglect
The building went through various owners after the YMCA sold it in 2000, including an individual who reportedly planned to convert it into apartments, an effort that never materialized.
In October 2016, the city, then led by Mayor Tim Theaker, issued a demolition order on the former YMCA building after conducting an inspection of the structure.
City officials said there were broken doors and windows, abandoned or missing gutters and downspouts, structural deterioration and evidence wiring and plumbing had been stripped from the building. The roof appeared to be in poor condition, indicating signs of leaking.
In January 2018, City Council approved legislation allowing Theaker to use PRIDE funds to raze it.
The plan was to demolish it and then assess the cost of demolition to the owner through the Richland County auditor’s office, who would eventually foreclose on the property. That is how the Land Bank eventually acquired it.
Theaker’s administration contracted in late 2018 with Page Excavating of Lucas to tear down the building, which the YMCA had vacated when it opened its new facility on Scholl Road.
The city’s demolition contract allowed the company to bury “hard fill” from the building at the site, provided it was four feet or deeper beneath clean, compacted earth.
“Hard fill” is commonly known as compacted masonry, stove concrete, tile bank-run gravel and brick.
However, questions have developed regarding the quality of the work done.
Certified Environmental Inc. of Lexington conducted an analysis of the site in August 2023, using ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction to look for construction and demolition debris.
It verified three areas on the property with “highly irregular anomalies below the ground surface at a depth of approximately two feet.”
Once Advanced Demolition Services from McComb, Ohio, began re-excavating the site last month, it became clear material was not buried deeply enough — and material other than “hard fill” was buried at the site.
The company will be paid $61,099 to explore the entire site to ensure all demolition debris is removed, including the former YMCA swimming pool that may be buried there.
Advanced will be paid by the ton to haul away the debris, including $55.72 per ton of construction and demolition debris; $26.66 per ton of masonry, stove concrete and tile bank-run gravel; $14 per ton for steel; and $34.88 per ton for soil replacement and compaction at 1,500 pounds per square inch.
The Land Bank will then pay the company $44,915 to restore the entire site to straw and grass, per the contract.
Perry, also a new member of the Land Bank board as part of her duties, said in February the city will consider its options once a determination is made on work done during the original demolition.
“The new city administration is interested in working with the law director’s office to determine if there’s any appropriate cause of action,” she said.
(Below is a PDF showing legislation scheduled to come before Mansfield City Council on Tuesday.)
City Council is also scheduled Tuesday to:
— vote on a resolution honoring former police Chief Keith Porch, who retired Feb. 27 to become the city’s safety service director.
— vote on a resolution honoring former MPD Sgt. Jon Ahles, who retired from the department after a 30-year career on March 4.
— vote on the appointment of former 6th Ward Councilwoman Kim Moton to the city’s Board of Utility Appeals Commission.
— vote on the acceptance of a $117,646 Justice Assistance Grant from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services. Funds will be used to conduct drug enforcement operations within the 10-county METRICH Enforcement Unit area.
— discuss allowing city administrators to seek bid to replace a double-box bridge at North Lake Park.
— discuss the administration’s plan to enter into a contract to update the current geographical information mapping system used by the city to manage and improve water and sewer infrastructure.
— vote on a proposal to rezone two parcels at and around 475 S. Diamond St. to B-1 (business) from its current mobile home and multi-family zoning.
— discuss the proposed spending of $397,431 to purchase a new digital radio system for the Mansfield Fire Department using capital funds set aside in the department 2024 budget.
— vote on a proposal to spend $178,000 with Armstrong Construction to replace the apparatus bay floor at Mansfield Fire Department Station 1 with funds coming from the department’s fire department operations and contractual services areas.
— vote on the demolition of dilapidated buildings at 193 Park Ave. East, 113 S. Foster St., 532 Van Buren St., 633 Longview Ave., 1094 Caldwell Ave. and 1159 Boyle Road.
— discuss the administration’s proposal to amend city ordinances dealing with litter, junk and trash removal.
One change would shorten to five days, from the current 10, the amount of time a resident would have to remove junk/litter/trash from a property once the city has sent notification.
If the city has to arrange to have a site cleared, another change would allow it to bill the owner $150 per truck load of material hauled away with a $200 administration/supervision fee per incident.
A second ordinance dealing with unmown yards and weeds has been pulled from council’s agenda.