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Casino on track for 2012
(by Sean Lehosit, Staff Writer - October 14, 2010)
Residents of the Westside met for a neighborhood meeting on Oct. 6 at Haydocy Automotive to view a presentation made in joint efforts by Penn National and Hull & Associates, and to ask questions about the current situation of the future casino site.
According to Karen Bailey, from Penn National, the cleanup and demolition of the former Delphi site is still set to be finished by late this spring, and there has been nothing to delay the casino from opening its doors by late 2012.
Bailey added she has been getting many queries about jobs.
“We’ll be bringing on a general manager six to eight months prior to opening,” Bailey said. “From that point on we’ll begin the job openings – have a job fair [and] recruiting.”
The former Delphi site was built in the mid ‘40s and was approximately 1.4 million square feet, with its land consisting of around 123 acres.
According to Hull & Associate’s Director of Government and Community Relations Kara Allison, since January, the company has been overseeing the demolition of all the structures on the 123 acres including not only the main Delphi plant but the plant’s power house, storage buildings, guard houses and a water treatment facility.
Since the site’s assessment, Hull & Associates have contracted Ohio based companies during their demolition phase, two of which come out of Central Ohio. Interior and exterior demolition was performed by Grove City’s S.G. Loewendick & Sons in February and April, and Ohio Technical Services, out of Columbus, removed asbestos from the site.
“All the contractors were vetted through a bidding process, a private bidding process,” Allison said.
While the major demolition of the main plant was completed in late June, with 95 percent of the materials recycled, the concrete crushing of the foundation will not be completed until later this month.
According to Allison, so far approximately 150,000 tons of concrete, asphalt, and wood have been crushed and recycled.
Also by the end of October, environmental excavations and soil backfill should be completed.
Allison added that between 120 and 140 trucks of soil are being brought in per day, and the EMS has imported 46,550 yards of clean soil to fill the excavation areas; having also removed 21,400 tons of unusable soil from the site.
“The soil that they’re bringing in to backfill the site, we actually need that soil, because those are voids,” Allison added, referring to the excavations. “There isn’t soil on the site to actually pickup and move and fill all of that space that used to be the basement.”
Pending permits from the Ohio EPA and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the lagoon ponds, which are currently being drained, will be backfilled with soil and re-graded.
Upon this, demolition and remediation will be complete and the construction phase of this project can go underway.
“Anytime in Ohio when your construction plans call for moving a wetland, you have to go through a process with Ohio EPA and obtain permits,” Allison said. “…so you have to get those permits before you can remove the wetlands.”
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