MANSFIELD — The City of Mansfield may hire outside counsel to pursue legal options in a quest that would recoup costs for the apparent improper demolition of the former YMCA.
“That’s certainly the goal,” city Law Director Rollie Harper said Tuesday during a Board of Control meeting in reference to a question about recouping expenses.
“We are in the process of hiring outside counsel. We’re looking at negligence and fraud and we’re going to take it from there,” he said.
At issue is a demolition-gone-wrong that the city paid Page Excavation of Lucas $500,000 to do in late 2018/early 2019.
That demolition is now being re-excavated by a company hired by the Richland County Land Bank to remove a massive amount of material left buried in the initial effort.
The cost of the re-do may reach $1 million, according to officials.
(Below are photos taken Tuesday morning at the site of the former Mansfield YMCA at 455 Park Ave. West. Advanced Demolition Services from McComb in Hancock County began work at the location on Jan. 28. The story continues below the photos.)
The Board of Control, consisting of Mayor Jodie Perry, Finance Director Kelly Blankenship and Safety Service Director Keith Porch, voted unanimously Tuesday to spend $600,000 from the city’s PRIDE tax funds to help the Land Bank for the “remedial excavation.”
City Council is scheduled to vote on that issue Wednesday night.
The Land Bank obtained a $405,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development to fund the effort, which turned out to be far worse than expected.
“To be honest, in my worst dreams, it was never this bad. I don’t know what else to say. It’s unbelievable,” Land Bank manager Amy Hamrick told Land Bank board members last week.
Hamrick said the new crews dug down as deep as 40 feet to remove material left behind by Page Excavation.
During the Land Bank board meeting, Hamrick said entire rooms were left intact underground, pointing to a photo taken last month.
“This down here was … this is actually the roof of a room. There’s a whole room with water pipes. They had to dig down and get out the walls and floors,” she said.
“We’re working our way through financial issues, which has been so much more than we thought,” Hamrick said.
Hamrick has said developers interested in the 3.2-acre site rejected it once they learned debris from the demolition was buried at the site.
Blankenship, who took office in January, said she was glad to see steps being taken to make the land suitable for development.
“I think it’s good that we don’t focus on all of the negativity of what should have (or) could have happened in the past (and) that we are moving forward and preparing it for development. I think that’s a great thing,” Blankenship said.
Richland Source has unsuccessfully tried to contact Page Excavation. According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, the company’s articles of incorporation were cancelled in June 2022 because the company “failed to maintain a statutory agent.”
(Below is a PDF from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office issued June 29, 2022, saying Page Excavating, Inc, from Lucas is no longer licensed to do business in the state.)
Harper, who along with Mayor Jodie Perry inherited the demolition situation when they both took office in January, said he was unaware of the company’s current status.
“We’ll be looking into it because it’s time,” he said.
The Lucas company posted a bond when it accepted the demolition contract, though Adrian Ackerman, director of permitting and development for the city, said Tuesday she didn’t know the amount of the bond.
“I have not specifically looked at that. I apologize. We’ve actually handed our records off to law director’s office. So that would have to be pulled out of that file,” Ackerman said.
Harper said it’s possible the bond posted by the company is still valid.
“I think with reference to the (bond) that you’re talking about … it’s a lesser (valid) time, but we’re still within the time, I believe,” the law director said.
more coverage of the former ymca situation
Marc Milliron, who still manages codes and permits in the city’s revamped Permitting and Development Office, was asked during a Land Bank meeting in February if the city inspected the work during and after the demolition.
Milliron was the manager of the city’s codes and permits department in 2019.
“The problem we had on that one was the fact that a lot of the stuff that he would get away with … he’d work weekends (and) in the evenings when we weren’t around,” Milliron said then.
“He got in a lot of issues because we kept extending his contracts out because of his time delays and everything else he was doing there.
“As far as stuff getting broken up, we weren’t aware. He did a very good job of cleaning things up and going back over the site.
“So when we would come out and do our inspections, the obvious stuff that they’re finding now was actually hidden underneath the ground. So we weren’t able to determine that he had buried the debris like he has,” Milliron said.
So was a final inspection performed?
“When we looked at the final inspection, we looked at the fact that what was exposed above ground was clean enough. Obviously compacted well (and) was cut decently,” Milliron said.
Ackerman said the city has changed its demolition inspection process since the YMCA project was done. Burial of debris, for example, is no longer allowed, she said.
“I think the entire demolition process has changed significantly. There are definitely a lot more checks and balances,” Ackerman said Tuesday.
“There are more photos taken. There are certainly additional steps that have been added into the process. There is actually a very detailed checklist that requires dates and times that certain items were checked.
“I don’t know exactly (the process) in 2018. There was some things that weren’t in place, but I think it has evolved over time and been refined over the last several years. I think it’s an ever-evolving process, honestly.
“As new things come to light, we will adjust and fix things where they need to be. But in the last six years, it’s definitely changed quite a bit,” Ackerman said.
The city currently has $812,280 in available PRIDE fund demolition dollars, according to Ackerman.
She said the city has 19 other demolitions currently under contract.
“We are continuing with some other demolitions. Basically at this point, we’re still identifying those and working towards those. But we’ll have to wait for some of the (2024 PRIDE) income tax funding to be realized before we do another bid,” she said.
“These 19 will keep us busy for a little while and then we will reallocate as the income tax revenue comes in,” Ackerman said.