Marion Public Wellness (MPH) plans to demolish a creating that it has owned for 11 years to make added parking spaces for its clientele and establish a public gathering region adjacent to its downtown workplace complicated at 181 S. Principal St.
According to the Marion County Auditor’s site, MPH bought the 105-year-old creating positioned at 197 S. Mains St. from Wilson Holdings of Marion LLC in 2012 for $34,000. It was residence to GTE from the 1960s by means of the 1990s, according to public well being officials.
Marion County Wellness Commissioner Traci Kinsler mentioned considering that the well being district acquired the structure there have been many suggestions for use of the creating and various prospective purchasers have toured the facility, but none expressed “severe interest” in getting it. For a brief time, it was dubbed Project 197 and was slated to turn into a neighborhood garden web page.
Nonetheless, the situation of the creating produced it price-prohibitive to rehabilitate, she mentioned.
“It really is complete of asbestos, lead paint, it is not up to code in any way for handicap accessibility,” Kinsler explained. “It really is a multi-million dollar project to rehabilitate and renovate it to make it usable once more.”
Kinsler mentioned Marion Public Wellness plans to make about 50 parking spaces in the new region, which she mentioned will improved accommodate the agency’s clientele who pay a visit to the downtown offices for many solutions, such as WIC, immunization clinics, well being screenings, getting birth and death certificates, and so forth.
Also, Kinsler mentioned, the well being district is operating with the Ohio Historic Preservation Workplace to create a strategy for the rest of the space aside from the parking region due to the fact of its contribution to telecommunications history as the residence of the Basic Phone Organization. That section of downtown Marion is aspect of the region that earned designation as an Ohio Historic District in December 2021 and then was named to the National Register of Historic Areas in 2022.
“We want to make it a intelligent park region exactly where individuals can collect and use technologies,” she mentioned. “We’re going to have free of charge Wi-Fi, charging stations, and a meeting space with tables and benches. So individuals can sit there and get access to the online, charge their phones if they need to have to, or have lunch. We also want to set up a water bottle filling station there. We’re going to use the bricks from the creating to develop these benches. And if it will come down intact, the parapet about the best of the creating will be utilised as the seats on the benches.”
Kinsler mentioned Marion Public Wellness is consulting with the State of Ohio about the diverse kinds of grants that are readily available to spend for building of the parking lot and ‘smart park.’
Marion Public Wellness was awarded a $370,000 grant from the Ohio Brownfield Remediation System in 2022 to spend for asbestos abatement prior to the upcoming demolition.
It was one particular of 3 Brownfield Remediation System grants awarded to Marion County projects final year. The Marion County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) received two grants totaling $593,248 to fund cleanup and remediation projects at the former Grand Prairie and New Bloomington college places.
Van Creasap, director of environmental well being at Marion Public Wellness, mentioned the initial phase of asbestos abatement was completed in the fall of 2022 and the final phase is in progress. He mentioned when asbestos abatement is completed, demolition of the creating will start.
The basic contractor for the initially phase of asbestos abatement was EFI Worldwide, which then subcontracted with Ohio Technical Solutions, Inc. Raze International, Inc. is conducting the second phase of asbestos abatement.
Creasap mentioned through the demolition method, some of the existing parking spaces in the Marion Public Wellness lot will not be readily available. He’s unsure about the prospective closure of the spaces in front of the creating along South Principal Street.
PLANIT Studios is the landscape architect that has been contracted to function on the parking region and intelligent park, Creasap mentioned. Project Manager Kyle Adams is a Marion native, he noted.
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