Cleanup begins for fire pile, an eyesore that sat untouched for 8 months
Crews are finally cleaning up piles of debris after a fire destroyed the Cornell Meat Market eight months ago.
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News Center 7's Mike Campbell visits the lot as work to clean up the destroyed building begins LIVE on News Center 7 at 5:30 p.m.
The people who live near the former meat market have been frustrated after cleanup was delayed for months. The former site owner hired a contractor after heavy pressure from the city, but it still took a week of stops and starts to see any progress.
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Crews have been telling the city for the past five days that clean up would begin, but there have been unexpected delays. Monday, the contractors didn't have the proper environmental structure. Tuesday, they didn't have a required water meter, so they could spray the site, if needed. Thursday, they learned the nearest fire hydrant wouldn't work with their equipment. Friday, fixes for their fire hydrant problem failed until the afternoon.
'Friday, we had completed the removal of all the fencing, all the barriers, so they could start Monday,' Steve Gondol, who works for the City of Dayton, said.
Gondol says there have been a lot of obstacles getting to this stage after the market burned down last Halloween.
The city finally began the legal process in March to force the former owner to coordinate cleanup after not getting cooperation.
Meanwhile, the mountains of debris sat, posing a hazard to curious kids, and was the source of trash blowing into nearby yards. Not to mention it became an illegal dumping ground until the city put up the fences.
People who live nearby are upset the market is gone.
'Yeah, it is kind of sad about it, how it happened, how it burned down,' Derrick Porter from Dayton said.
But they're ready for an eyesore to be erased.
'For people to get started with this stuff, I guess hey, it's a good thing. It's a good thing when stuff comes together like that,' Porter said.
Once the working crews work through all their delays, the cleanup will not be a fast, overnight process. Contractors estimate it could take between two to four weeks to remove the piles of debris from the site to EPA approved landfills.
The City of Dayton says it has close to 70 fire piles that need to be cleaned up. Since these are all vacant buildings with no owner, the city will have to pay for the cleanup process, which is estimated to cost around $30,000 per pile.
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