Remnants of Newcomerstown factory to be demolished this fall
NEWCOMERSTOWN (WJER) (Aug. 29, 2022) – One of the goals Mayor Pat Cadle set when he started leading the village is about to come to fruition.
Crews are scheduled to return to the former Simond’s factory site off of Heller Drive later this week to begin preparing the two buildings remaining for demolition.
“We’ve got a timeline where they’re going to start September 1st removing the asbestos from the administration building. From there, they’ll take out those last two buildings that are there and start lifting the concrete,” Cadle says. “Their project schedule takes them pretty much to about the first or second week in November.”
Cadle has made cleaning up the factory site, which originally contained two dozen deteriorating structures, a priority during his tenure.
“The very first month I was in office, we had Congressman Bill Johnson down and going through the factory and that was before it was even ours and there was talk about how we were going to have to get rid of this in order to progress in the village.”
A developer approached village officials during earlier phases of the cleanup about building housing for senior citizens on the property. Cadle says once those last two buildings come down, testing will begin to find any contaminated areas, which will have to be addressed before the site can be repurposed.
“We know there’s five of them already that are there that will need cleaned up. I’m sure we’re going to find some more. But after that it’s contact those developers to see if they’re still interested and move from there.”
The village received a nearly $670,000 Brownfield grant that’s paying for the demolition and testing costs.
