Written by The former Admiral King High School (recently Lorain High School) is being demolished to build a new high school with all the bells and whistles. These were shared back in February. It’s almost gone….
Posts in category Bring It Down
Admiral King High – Soon to Be Just a Memory
Almost a year ago, there was an open house at the former Admiral King High School. I posted the photos to my Facebook page, not sure why I never put’em here. Someone recently told me that AK was getting ready to get torn down, so I stopped by the other day to see what condition it was in. It was not pretty.
Lorain High School: The Demolition – September 23, 2009
The Boilerhouse was razed.
FISI – Westgate Plaza – Shame, Shame
How many of us drive through the intersection of W. 21st and Leavitt Rd countless times during the week, and we just accept the site (sight) that occupies the northwest corner of the area? You could’ve counted me among that group, until about a month ago.
While you can’t tell much from the panorama above, when you get right up close and personal, you’ll see just how far gone the former strip mall really is.
This is pretty indicative of the entire plaza. Boarded up and filthy windows, rust, trash.
This is the first storefront I walked up to, but first, I had to cross this welcome mat.
Built in 1957, Westgate Plaza used to host a grocery store, coin laundry, and other assorted retail establishments. Over the years, one by one, the stores closed, and the building slowly deteriorated.
Searching for “Westgate Plaza”, I found the site listed “For Rent” here, with the minimum divisible storefront being 634 square feet. The rental rate is $8 per square foot per year. Last verified on July 16th, the listing states the following:
Join us as we create a new Westgate Plaza on Lorain, Ohio’s west side.
Located at the intersection of SR 611 and SR 58, this crossroads connects Lorain with Amherst, Port Clinton and other lakefront communities
G West LLC and/or Georg Abakumov, the owner and mail contact, respectively, should probably concentrate on rehabbing or “creating” the new Westgate Plaza before they try to rent it out. Let me show you why:
This is a good representation of the stores in the plaza. Not a single one is ‘move-in ready’, which is what a storefront should be if you’re trying to rent it out. Purchased in August of 1999 for $225,000, the ‘anchor’ tenant advertised is Family Dollar. The only other tenant is….you have to see it to believe it and truly appreciate it:
The reason I don’t see anything happening here is because it’ll be 10 years in just a few weeks that G West has owned this property, and Family Dollar is the biggest move they’ve made to populate the plaza, AND because they are over $20,000 behind on the property taxes.
Does anyone really think they’ve got money to get this place fixed up “to create a new Westgate Plaza”? Yea, me either. Maybe the City could send someone down there to check it out.
Mayor Tony K’s Adding to His List
In April, I discussed an article that detailed local cities getting money from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, set up by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The City of Lorain received over $3 million from the Program, and the last line of that post asked “So, Mr. Mayor, what is the plan for this money?”
Today, I find the Mayor’s knock-down list has grown by another 18 houses. As I scanned the addresses, some of them looked familiar. And there was a reason, too. Because they’ve been featured in past FISI’s.
311 W. 14th Street,
and 217 W. 15th Street, were featured in the same FISI here.
520 W. 18th Street was the lead photo for this FISI, and the MJ lead with this property on their front page.
Finally, FINALLY, this one at 216 Lake Place is being taken care of. I’ve written about this, and Loraine wrote about it, too.
The City’s Building, Health and Engineering Dept’s will need to do inspections of the homes to determine if they meet the established criteria of a public nuisance. This could take anywhere from 2 to 6 months. The Prosecutor’s office will then need the Court to declare the houses nuisances, and the Board of Health will need to determine who will foot the bill.
This is a looooooong time coming, but it’s getting done. Much more is getting done than under the previous administration. I’m not too thrilled about the timeframe for this happening. There has to be a way to speed up the process. How about a dedicated Housing Court?
Shots Fired Along the Black River This Morning
That’s a BIG ONE!!
Hopefully not for too much longer!
Ok, that’s almost it!!
Half-assed? Half-right? Or both?
Captain’s still at the helm.
Bascule Bridge: Letters to ODOT
In our (seemingly) neverending quest to find out what’s going on with the Bascule Bridge; in our desire to find out when, except for this:
that this
will look like this again!
I wrote Brian Stacy, District 3 Public Information Officer for ODOT, a letter shortly after the last meeting (at City Hall). And I asked:
Mr. Stacy,
I attended the meeting at Lorain’s City Hall Friday, and was curious about something. Since ODOT is responsible for the bridge and its upkeep, doesn’t ODOT have blueprints/diagrams of the working parts of the bridge? Mr. Wright stated that when the older parts were removed, that “there were additional parts that were totally unforeseen.” Over the course of the years that ODOT has performed maintenance on the bridge, was he suggesting that ODOT isn’t as familiar with the mechanics of it as it probably should be? It almost sounds like he was saying that ODOT went into the project unawares of the workings of the bridge?
I’m just trying to understand, as there are a lot of folks looking to string someone up for the delays. I’d just like to get some info out there.
Thanks,
Mark Teleha
To which Brian Stacy replied,
Mr. Teleha,
Thank you again for contacting ODOT regarding the Charles Berry Bascule Bridge project, and for participating in Friday’s meeting. Thank you also for the additional information you provided in a separate email.
I appreciate your desire to simplify this situation and this project; however, this is a complex project with multiple issues and multiple entities working together in concert to get the project done as best as possible. ODOT is responsible for the bridge and does have plans from this and former projects to repair or maintain the bridge.
As has been noted, this bridge is 68-years-old and there are only five like it currently operating in the state of Ohio. This means that many of its parts and operations are much different than the other 42,000 bridges in Ohio. So, ODOT has brought in additional mechanical and electrical engineers who are familiar with this type of lift bridge to assist with specific elements of the project. ODOT is managing the project and overseeing the work of consultants Barr & Prevost, HNTB, and URS; as well as, the construction contractors Great Lakes Construction and Lake Erie Electric. All of these companies are working with ODOT to complete the maintenance and repair project.
During the work this summer, some unforeseen issues were identified and the necessary parts were ordered. ODOT’s first priority is get the bridge working again. We are also looking into where mistakes were made with this project and how they could have been avoided or prevented.
Respectfully,
Brian Stacy
District 3 Public Information Officer
Ohio Department of Transportation
800-276-4188, ext. 207-7182
Bascule Bridge: Letters to ODOT
Loraine has correspondence to ODOT here.
I’ll have another one tomorrow.
MJ Goofs On ODOT Delay
In today’s MJ, it reported that ODOT should have kept the bridge open while they waited for the parts. And they leave the option hanging like it was a brilliant, unconceived idea. What they neglected to report was the response from ODOT official, Ken Wright, the Planning and Production Administrator.
When asked why ODOT/the contractors didn’t have the replacement parts in hand when they removed the original, Wright replied,
“We thought we did. However, when we took it apart, …we didn’t replace, the part that came out, the exact same part did not go back in. The system is being upgraded. When we took Part A out, we were putting Part B in…When we took some of those parts out, we have found that there were some additional parts that were totally unforeseen. At that point, the bridge wasn’t going up and down, we couldn’t just put all of the old parts back in and make it go up and down. We had some of the new parts in, and there were some new parts that we needed that were not part of the contract. And those parts have been ordered.”
