City parks officials will pay nearly $9,000, and perhaps more, for environmental testing on a Jackson Street property the parks department hopes to purchase for storage.
The Columbus Park Board on Thursday unanimously approved having Ark Engineering Services of Indianapolis, which did the Phase 1 environmental evaluation of the former site of Machinery Moving Inc. at 1360 Jackson St., continue with a Phase 2 evaluation including soil and water testing on the property and checking for asbestos.
Parks officials have been considering purchasing the property for several months. Permission to pay $300,000 for the property won approval from the park board in October and the Columbus City Council on Nov. 6, but with contingencies.
However, a second offer has been made on the property by another potential buyer that is higher than the city’s $300,000 bid, city officials said.
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The property, owned by Norma Lienhoop, the aunt of Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, has two structures that combined are about 9,000 square feet, including an office building constructed around 1971 and a shop facility built around 1973.
What reports say
Ark’s Phase 1 evaluation triggered the need for more environmental investigation as state environmental reports indicate the site had at least three underground storage tanks at some point, according to engineers. The first phase of the testing cost the city $1,800, according to the city clerk’s office.
That included one 2,000-gallon tank for gasoline, one 1,000-gallon diesel fuel tank and another 550-gallon diesel fuel tank, according to the Phase 1 report. The tanks were installed between 1972 and 1976 and were operated until November 1989, when the tanks were decommissioned and then removed, according to state records.
Mark Jones, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the engineers could find no documentation confirming the removal of the tanks, which resulted in the need for a Phase 2 environmental report on the property.
Jones has said if the property contains any contamination that is beyond the scope of the city to remediate, “we don’t want the site.”
Levett said in a letter to editor published in The Republic that the parks department will not buy property in need of environmental cleanup and taxpayers would not be asked to pay for the cleanup.
“If there are issues with the environmental assessment, the current owner will need to remediate,” Levett said.
However, determining what those environmental issues might be is being paid using taxpayer money, and could involve as much as $5,000 more after local resident Ken Fudge reiterated Thursday during the meeting that he believed there is PCB contamination on the concrete inside the building from oil used in the machinery once housed there.
PCB contention
Fudge told the board that his allegations were not just some opinion he had developed in his own mind, and said PCBs would be found inside the building during the Phase 2 inspection.
Fudge said he had consulted with three different environmental firms which confirmed his suspicions that the oil could have contaminated concrete surfaces within the building, although he provided no documentation as to who the environmental firms were, or what individuals at the firms were using as the basis for such an opinion.
After hearing Fudge’s comments, the board agreed to spend up to $5,000 in additional taxpayer money for Ark to test concrete surfaces inside the building for PCB contamination, which would bring the Phase 2 testing to just under $14,000 if the entire amount were spent. It will take from 15 to 20 days to complete the Phase 2 testing, parks officials said.
According to the Phase 1 report from Ark, the buildings are each constructed on concrete slabs, with the exterior of the buildings a mix of concrete block, with steel siding over concrete block and wood. The roofing is a mixture of steel roofing, a rubberized roofing membrane and minor amounts of asphalt roofing shingles over wooden decking.
The interior of the buildings were segregated with a mixture of concrete block walls, sheet rock, wood paneling and steel walls over wood and steel frame. The floors consisted of a mixture of concrete, wood, carpet, ceramic tile and resilient vinyl floor coverings with associated mastic, the Phase 1 report states.
What’s inside
The engineers said in their environmental report that the site was operated as Machinery Moving, Inc., an industrial rigging facility, in 1971. Its operations consisted of setting up small and large heavy machinery at off-site factories and manufacturing facilities. Operations included transportation and storage of various types of machinery until early 2018.
Ark reported in the environmental report that one loading dock within the warehouse site building had a “potential hydraulic lift” present, but it did not appear the lift contained an in-ground reservoir.
But based on the age of the building, it is unlikely than an in-ground lift reservoir had been operated at the facility, Ark engineers theorized.
“It is unlikely that, should an in-ground lift reservoir have been operated at the facility, that PCB containing oils were utilized in its operation,” the report states.
“Furthermore, no staining and/or evidence of oil usage and/or spillage was observed within the site buildings and/or the site grounds,” the Phase 1 report states. “Potential PCB concerns do not appear to be present for this site.”
The environmental report does say that some of the building’s construction materials may have contained asbestos, and no documentation pertaining to asbestos inspections was available. The inspectors were unable to confirm the presence or absence or asbestos in the building, the report states.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop has recused himself from all consideration and deliberation about the purchase, and said he has no financial interest in his aunt’s property.
Jones explained in an earlier interview that the parks department was interested in the property because it is more centrally located for storing mowers and other equipment rather than using storage at the Columbus Municipal AirPark on the north side of the city.
Terms of the proposed deal call for the city to pay for the property over six years, making a $50,000 payment from its cash reserve fund the first year and then making $50,000 annual payments for a total of $250,000 from city capital funds. The property owner offered the payment option, which Jones said was better for the city due to cash flow and cash reserves.
