Supposed to be a volunteer cleanup of the sidewalk around the partially demolished building at 1501 Elm Street on Saturday.
http://www.facebook.com/events/563890813637281/565233286836367/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity
I am planning to go over there and lend a hand for a while.
God Bless You Rick and everyone else who will be involved in the cleanup.
where ever this house is in ytown the council rep should donate brk, lunch and dinner for cleaning up the mess that the city leades dropped the ball on this project, no excuses then again they are spending ytown residents's money in boston, a frivolous confence.
Latest word is that the city is planning to clean up the sidewalk on Monday, making the volunteer project unnecessary. I do have to wonder though, did the planned volunteer project put enough egg on the city's face to cause them to act? Seems very coincidental...
I'll believe it when I see it with my own two eyes, but anyway I'll report on it as soon as I see it happening with my own two eyes since it's just up the street from my house.
The whole mess is a safety hazard for people walking up the street as well as cars in that the store on the corner gets heavy truck traffic during the day, and the bus makes a turn down Thornton during the daytime runs.
There are about 4 men up there right now cleaning up the mess. Observed at Saturday morning at 10:54 AM EST December 1, 2012.
Three cheers and a pat on the back for the volunteers who worked on clearing the sidewalk today. The city should hang its head in shame for not doing it earlier, and a triple shame on the Third Ward Councilman for failing to see to it that the city did it earlier.
It still remains to see if the city hires a new contractor to complete the job, and at this point I have little confidence that they will until severe pressure is put on them.
As to complaining to the Councilman, that's like complaining to a brick wall and as useful as trying to turn off a rain storm. You can rid a dog of flees quicker than you can get him to act.
The rubble sitting on the corner of Elm Street and Thornton Avenue, on Youngstown's North Side, had become a nuisance for people living nearby. A crew started the demolition of the building, but never finished it.
"I thought that it was an ongoing operation," said Richard Robbins, who lives nearby. "I didn't know they were gonna do half of it."
The debris and remains of the structure have been an eye sore for more than a month now. So, the local organization Community Colors Co-op decided to step in to clean up the mess.
The group's main concern was the safety of the residents, especially children in the area.
"It's definitely a safety hazard with an open foundation you could just walk right in and fall into," said Jonathan Blackshire, of Community Colors Co-op.
"It's an eye sore," added Robbins. "It's dangerous. You got kids coming by here everyday."
"There are toxic substances," said Tim Raridon of Community Colors Co-op. "It's a place for mischief and all kinds of problems."
The group had planned to clean up as much of the debris and rubble as they could on Saturday, but after they organized the project, the city informed them that a contractor would would be out on Monday to finish the job.
"So, our group decided, hey, we'll at least come out, get the sidewalk cleared up anyhow," said Blackshire. "We're cleaning up the sidewalk, clearing the bricks up off here. Just trying to make at least the pathway through here a little bit safer." The rubble sitting on the corner of Elm Street and Thornton Avenue, on Youngstown's North Side, had become a nuisance for people living nearby. A crew started the demolition of the building, but never finished it.
"I thought that it was an ongoing operation," said Richard Robbins, who lives nearby. "I didn't know they were gonna do half of it."
The debris and remains of the structure have been an eye sore for more than a month now. So, the local organization Community Colors Co-op decided to step in to clean up the mess.
The group's main concern was the safety of the residents, especially children in the area.
"It's definitely a safety hazard with an open foundation you could just walk right in and fall into," said Jonathan Blackshire, of Community Colors Co-op.
"It's an eye sore," added Robbins. "It's dangerous. You got kids coming by here everyday."
"There are toxic substances," said Tim Raridon of Community Colors Co-op. "It's a place for mischief and all kinds of problems."
The group had planned to clean up as much of the debris and rubble as they could on Saturday, but after they organized the project, the city informed them that a contractor would would be out on Monday to finish the job.
"So, our group decided, hey, we'll at least come out, get the sidewalk cleared up anyhow," said Blackshire. "We're cleaning up the sidewalk, clearing the bricks up off here. Just trying to make at least the pathway through here a little bit safer."
Here it is, Monday afternoon at 3:36 PM EST and the city has not been to 1501 Elm today as they said they would. Promise broken! >:(
you are shocked and irked that the city the city broke their promise.
In which ward is this problem located?
Third Ward three blocks north of Wick Park on Elm Street.
L. Nathaniel Pinkard was born and reared in Diamond, Ohio and his family moved to Youngstown in 1961. He is a product of the Youngstown City School System, graduating from The Rayen School. He is a graduate of Kent State University with an Associates Degree and also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Malone College.
Councilman Pinkard was appointed in 1975 as an Air Pollution Technician with the Mahoning-Trumbull Air Pollution Control Agency. In 1979 he was appointed as a patrolman with the Youngstown Police Department. He was appointed to the Mill Creek Metropolitan Park District Police Department in 1981, holding the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, and assistant Chief. Councilman Pinkard retired as the Chief of Police in 2009.
I copied this from the posts of a Wick Park Neighborhood member's Facebook posts: (just posted a few minutes ago)
Here's the update on 1501 Elm.
- 1501 Elm began to collapse on its own, so abatement never happened
- The original contractor started to work on it, but couldn't complete it
- The city is going to push the rest of the property over today, while Mr. Shasho continues to seek a contractor who is able to get rid of the debris
The property is hot-
- Hot properties are full of poisonous things and have to be demoed in a special way
- This property is hot because it was never abated
- The delay in a new contractor is due to the difficulty of demoing a hot property
- A special contractor has to take the debris is special trucks to a special landfill
The contractor issue-
- The old contractor was not prepared for a hot property; that's why they quit
- That contractor hasn't gotten any money from the city for this
- That contractor is banned from future city contracts for leaving a big mess
- It's harder to find a new contractor now because of the hot issue described above
Where is this info from?
- DeMaine Kitchen (Cheif of Staff and head of demos) has been in communication with Marie
- Chuck Shasho (Deputy Director of Public Works) has been in communication with Gary
- DeMaine expressed his appreciation of our cleanup Saturday
The timeline-
- The building will be pushed in a big pile away from the sidewalk today
- The debris will be hauled away by the end of the week
Had this information been made public earlier via the news media, it would have saved a great deal of agravation for the folks that live in this neighborhood. We take a great deal of pride in our neighborhood and try our very best to be good neighbors, and the building in question was a blight on our efforts as well as being dangerous, and will not be missed.
sasho did not check the contractor's qualifications before rewarding the demo contract.
As I sit here at my desk, the remainder of 1501 is being demolished :) There are no trucks there yet but apparently they are waiting for completion before they haul the rubble away in the manner westsider described which makes sense. :)
Why would anyone hired by the city to demolish a building the size of 1501 start demolition before the building was abated? ???
I thank westsider for providing the details in his last post.
I'm glad I could clear things up. But the credit goes to Marie, the WPNA member who followed up with city officials and relayed what she was told.
i still have th same question after i reread the previous posts. why did not sasho do his homework on this contractor when the property was marked "hot"? once again sasho showed his true imcompetence as a city project engineer.
They're finally back at work on the building, BUT no trucks have yet appeared to haul away the rubble, so until that happens we will not be happy campers. Oh and by the way, unlike the first effort, the work is being hosed down as the work progresses.
:) At exactly 9:37 am est the first truck arrived on the scene to haul away rubble.
tt t y for the updates.
You are very welcome. As I said before this is in my neighborhood, and we have struggled for years to get that building demolished, and once it's finally gone, we'll all be happy.
As a side note on our block are a number of empty lots, and the neighbors take care of them, mowing the grass and in one case, using one of them for a garden, but you'll never drive by and see a weed infested lot, or an empty house waiting to be vandalized.
nieghbors being proactive keeps the varments away.
The last of the building is history, and now, all that's left is to bring in fill dirt to cover what's left up.
The end of the saga of 1501 Elm Street.
The fill dirt has been completed, the job is done. The end of the story. Or is it? That my friends is the 150,000 dollar question.
Well all the fill is in, the area is reasonably level, the equipment is gone and has been gone for several days ....... BUT ........ yes there is a but ........ the barriers are still there and now serve no useful purpose ........ so when are they going to be removed. I take it that the land is no longer "hot", there are no safety concerns, and come spring, no doubt vegetation will start to spring up and point their heads to the sky from which comes nourishing rain and soft summer breezes.
And for the benefit of some ... no we are not going to complain to our councilman. These barriers are not a hazard so all it boils down to is that they are city property and could very well be used elsewhere. End of story.
It still may be slightly hazardous to walk on the site, as the fill probably hasn't had time to settle. And now, with the melting snow and rain, the area is probably almost like quicksand.
Only some blame fool would walk over the area at issue under these conditions. We had other cases of demolition in our immediate area in the past and no one sunk hip deep into muck and mire, and prior to demolition, people wore two paths into the area making shortcuts from the street behind us, going to do their grocery shopping at the store across the street.
If the city was so concerned, why are the baracades only on the Elm Street side while there are none on the Thornton side of the street? Remember this is a corner lot
I still stand by my statement; I wouldn't go walking though the lot. You might not sink hip deep, but you could certainly lose a shoe and/or twist an ankle, etc.
The city obviously isn't concerned, or in a hurry to remove the barricades. If they need them, they'll get them.
:) I agree with you 599,095,277.908%. All I'm saying is that only a total fool would even try to walk there. A total Lulu without an ounce of common sense, but then come to think about it, there are folks in this world that haven't a single ounce of common sense.