MANSFIELD — 2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier’s words echoed around Mansfield City Council chambers on Wednesday evening, likely representing the feelings of her lawmaking peers.
It was as if council members were standing around and looking down into the huge hole at the former YMCA site at 455 Park Ave. West, watching $600,000 sink into the ground to fix a problem left behind by an improperly done demolition the city paid $500,000 to have done five years ago.
“This is really an unfortunate situation that we are in. I certainly hope that we will pursue whatever avenues that we have to try to recoup some of this money. I hate it. I just hate this. OK, I guess that’s it,” Meier said.
digging deep: what is going on at the former ymca site on park avenue west?
Meier and six of her fellow lawmakers voted unanimously, albeit grudgingly, to approve the use of PRIDE tax demolition funds to help the Richland County Land Bank fix a mess left behind by a city-funded demolition was found to have left massive amounts of debris buried underground.
6th Ward Councilwoman Deborah Mount was absent from the meeting.
City officials and the Land Bank have wrestled with the issue since it became clear potential developers had no interest in the 3.2-acre site on one of the city’s busiest streets after Page Exacavating from Lucas finished its work on the site in 2019.
“Once we tell them everything is buried, they quickly lose interest,” Land Bank manager Amy Hamrick has said.
During a Land Bank board meeting March 14, Hamrick just shook her head in trying to describe what workers from Advanced Demolition Services from McComb, Ohio, found when they begun the site excavation in late January.
“To be honest, in my worst dreams, it was never this bad. I don’t know what else to say. It’s unbelievable,” she said.
The Land Bank is paying Advanced Demolition by the ton to haul away debris and costs quickly climbed. Officials now estimate it will take about $1 million to fix the mess — using a $405,000 state grant obtained by the Land Bank and $600,000 in city PRIDE demolition funds.
What are PRIDE funds?
The origins of the PRIDE tax fund in the Mansfield date back more than a decade as the city emerged from a state-ordered fiscal emergency.
It’s an acronym for a voter-approved, quarter-percent municipal income tax that helps pay for a combination of parks and recreation, demolition, illumination (re: streetlights), demolition and emergency services (police/fire.)
Funds from the tax, which generates about $4.8 million annually, are divided among those areas — 50 percent to police and fire, 22 percent to parks and recreation, 20 percent to demolition and 8 percent for illumination.
That translates to about $960,000 annually for demolition. Funds being spent on the demolition re-do are not affecting other areas, including police/fire and parks.
Hamrick said the new crews dug down as deep as 40 feet to remove material left behind by Page Excavation in what’s become a real-life money pit.
During the March 14 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.
During a city Board of Control meeting on Tuesday, Law Director Rollie Harper confirmed the city may hire outside counsel to pursue legal options in a quest to recoup costs for the original improper demolition.
“That’s certainly the goal,” Harper said Tuesday.
“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.
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.”
(Photos below were taken at the site of the former Mansfield YMCA on Monday. The story continues below the gallery.)
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.
Wasn’t the original demolition work inspected?
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.
Adrian Ackerman, director of permitting and development for the city, 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.”
Even as that legal action is considered, there is a giant hole in the ground along one of the city’s busiest streets that needs to be filled in and made ready for potential development.
That was the issue confronting local lawmakers and Mayor Jodie Perry, who inherited the mess when she took office in January.
“There’s obviously high concern that it was not done in, in the first place correctly. There were entire rooms left. You can see the word ‘gymnasium’ still written on one of the rooms.
“This obviously grew and grew and grew and grew. That’s where we’re at right now is most of the demo work actually is done. There is still a little bit left that they’re working on, but the big part of it now is to excavate and fill in and (plant grass).
“If you’ve driven by, it’s a massive hole in the ground, a very, very massive hole in the ground,” Perry said.
The new mayor said there are few elected officials remaining from when the work was originally done. She also said demolition contract standards have changed significantly in the last five years.
“Many people in the department that oversaw it has changed, obviously. Last year, the (previous) administration made a big change in structuring our permitting and development department. They’ve added a lot of new checks and balances.
“This is not something any of us wanted to come before you to have to ask for, quite frankly,” Perry said.
“We’re certainly never want to have to do it again, but we’re at a point now where we need to get it filled back in,” the mayor said.
She asked Harper about the city’s legal intentions to recoup funds from the original demolition.
“Thank you, mayor. We’re absolutely looking at our options in this matter. I’m not going to go into detail at this time, but we’re looking at our options,” Harper said during the discussions Wednesday.
Council members had questions.
At-large Councilman David Falquette asked if the Land Bank had put money into the effort, beyond the $405,000 grant from the state.
Perry, a member of the Land Bank board, said the quasi-public organization “does not really have its own money.”
“It’s not that they’re not willing. The board (and) the staff of the Land Bank has worked along with Director Ackerman to lower some of the costs,” she said.
Once the work is complete, Perry said the Land Bank will work to find a developer interested in a high-level project at the site, given the amount of public money spent on the project.
“I believe we’re all on the same page and wanting to make sure it gets to its highest and best use in the end. And what that is, is yet to be determined,” she said.
5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz said all council members have gotten calls and comments from citizens about the project.
“We’ve been getting hit up a lot because this is a lot of money. I think that the concerns I’ve been getting (from residents) is really the future of it. I think people think that we have something already designated for (it) and we don’t,” Diaz said, adding that the project needs to continue to be transparent going forward.
4th Ward Councilwoman Cynthia Daley asked if the state or Richland County commissioners were assisting with the effort, beyond the state grant.
Perry said, “At this time, commissioners have not voted to add any county money. That’s all I can say on that.”
At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader said she has also heard from many residents and read social media posts on the topic.
“We didn’t make this decision, but we’re living with it. And we can’t just have land just sitting there going to waste in the city. We only have so much land as it is. We need development in the city,” she said.
“I’m glad to hear that we’re looking at taking action against the contractor because they were given a contract to do a job and they clearly did follow it.
“If you look at the total cost that we’re going to incur as a city, I really don’t think it would’ve been all that different than what it would’ve been if we would’ve hired the proper contractor the first time to do this,” she said.
“I’m trying to remember back to what those (bids) were like, but I think the next closest one was like three quarters of a million dollars, if I recall correctly. So we’re really not that far off with the total cost of this from what it would’ve been to begin with.
“A lot of people have been saying they don’t want to see us spend this money. I disagree with that notion because I think that we need to develop every bit of land that we can in the city, because that’s how we’re gonna move forward,” Zader said.
During Tuesday’s Board of Control meeting, Ackerman said the city currently has $812,280 in available PRIDE fund demolition dollars.
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.
Meier saved one more question before lawmakers voted.
“What if we do not do this? What happens? Where would it leave the site, I guess, in what condition?” she asked Perry.
The mayor said the hole would likely remain in its current condition.
“The money that the state has put in has gone towards where it is now. The Land Bank is getting the billings in now. There would be no backfill and the remaining excavation I do not think would be completed,” Perry said.
Falquette pointed to the fact that Page Excavating submitted the “lowest bid, by far” for the project.
“Sometimes this is what happens when you have a bidder that’s off the chart low. He had done work for us in the past. He has done a lot of projects. I’m not going to comment on how good or bad his work is. I don’t know.
“But this one had some shortfalls. If we wouldn’t have done anything, it would just be empty prime piece of real estate. I think the potential of getting this done, taken care of, and hopefully attracting a development of some sort on one of the busiest roads in Mansfield is where we should be headed.
“It hurts, but I want to get it done and move forward,” Falquette said.