Years after the historic Oak Rubber site in Ravenna was to be demolished, it will be cleared, thanks to a grant from the Ohio EPA.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency awarded $1.1 million in remediation funds to clear the site, which has been vacant for a decade.
Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel will officially announce the grant Monday during a news conference at the site, at 645 S. Chestnut St.
The project, which will remove an estimated 1,700 tons of construction and demolition debris that remain on the 2-acre manufacturing site, will be a collaborative effort between Ohio EPA, the city of Ravenna and the Akron Regional Air Quality Management District.
Ravenna took steps to demolish the building in 2021. Officials said homeless people and vandals had been living in the building in recent years, despite attempts to secure it. Dennis West, economic development director for Ravenna, who oversaw the project, at the time said demolition would take more than a year. Progress initially was slow because the contractor was preserving bricks and beams to be reused.
But in May 2022, the demolition site was destroyed by fire, and a pile of bricks has littered it ever since.
The factory, which also was known as Crest Rubber Company at one time, includes three buildings − apartments, a garage and the factory itself − that total 125,000 square feet. Parts of the building date to the late 1800s, but most of the construction took place in the 20th century.
The building’s most recent productive use was as a flea market that occupied three stories of the building. When the flea market owner died, numerous items, including old books and televisions, were left behind for vandals to smash and burn.
Demolition of the former Oak Rubber site in Ravenna began in 2021, but a fire at the facility curtailed the work. It has sat abandoned since then at 645 S. Chestnut St. in Ravenna.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ohio EPA grants $1.1 million to clear abandoned Ravenna factory