NORTH CANTON On an unusually hot November afternoon, young people run, sway and scream in a playground in front of a day care center.
In the first few days, 4 other people bring red and white symptoms with skulls and bones crossed and the overall one is contaminated. “There is no school construction,” the symptoms insist.
The 9. 6 acres on Charlotte and Ream NW streets lately house parking lots, a playground, sports fields and the Mary L. Evans Early Childhood Center.
Schools in North Canton City need to turn the site into a new school of approximately 108,038 square feet that would have space for approximately 900 students from kindergarten through second grade.
People protesting on Ream Street NW community to reconsider.
Earlier this week, they distributed leaflets to neighboring parents and homes expressing considerations about the site’s pollution, which they said is also too small to set up a new number one school.
“I hope the tension of the net makes the district say, “Hey, we just can’t build there. There’s too much resistance,” said Chuck Osborne, a northern Township resident and one of the protesters.
North Canton City school superintendent Jeff Wendorf refutes his claims.
The neighborhood-owned property has welcomed academics for nearly a century and the district is taking steps for any possible exposure to contaminants from Hoover Co. ‘s previous operations, he said.
“We think it’s a very suitable place,” he said.
Charlotte Street is one block from the former headquarters of Hoover Co.
Hoover ceased operations in Northern Township in 2006, after more than a century. The company began working with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. But it’s not the first time In the 1990s to investigate how decades of storage, use and disposal of potentially hazardous chemicals in an era prior to fashion regulations would have had an effect on the environment.
The firm discovered the highest levels of carcinogenic chemicals, adding trichloroethylene (TCE), on the property, as well as in the houses near the plant, adding a nearby church.
The EPA has ordered Maple Street Commerce landowners to clean up the site.
Hoover Co. ‘s pollution is migrating and Charlotte Street is too close to being affected, the citizens involved say.
The organization raised considerations at a board meeting in October.
The school district is working with the city and the EPA to make sure the assets are built, Wendorf said.
The district has hired Intertek PSI, an engineering company, to conduct an environmental study.
The company collected soil, soil fuel and shallow groundwater samples. The study, published in August, found evidence of ECA above the checkpoint of a home or building.
These titles are high enough for the EPA to force the district to act, Wendorf said.
The district examines the school installing a steam barrier under the building. The district follows these tips and includes a progressive steam sn sning and a ventilation formula in its structure plans. They will also monitor indoor air quality once the school is built, Wendorf said.
None of these features are required, but the district does so to make the school safe,” he said.
There is no guarantee that these systems will continue to function in years or that someone will continue to monitor the grades of those destructive chemicals, resident Melanie Roll said by picketing on Tuesday.
These chemicals can harm young people and pregnant women, Palmer said.
Concerned citizens need the EPA to worry about remediation at the school site, just as on Hoover Co. ‘s property.
Intertek’s exam didn’t happen long enough, he added.
Wendorf denies it.
“We know that we have made the required evaluation. We went beyond what was required,” Wendorf said.
“We believe we are in a position to have a successful assignment and a school for our children,” he added.
The organization also argues that the Charlotte Street site is too small for a new school building and points to a board of the Ohio Facility Construction Commission that schools should be located on plots of at least 10 acres, plus an additional acre consisting of one hundred students.
If the district follows those recommendations, it will want at least 19. 8 acres, Osborne said.
They also can’t accommodate parking or higher traffic, the organization argues.
Surface rules are only recommendations, requirements, Wendorf said.
Virtually no district in Ohio complies with those rules unless it is in a domain with large areas of land, he said.
He pointed to neighboring districts, adding schools in the city of Canton, which have earned government investment for new buildings even if they do not meet surface patterns.
State plans for the district site, Wendorf said.
The organization recommended installing the new school in the existing Northwood Elementary SchoolArray, which will be closed as a component of the facility plan. It’s bigger, about 15 acres, and doesn’t have the same environmental concerns, Osborne said.
Northwood is located in a residential community with no suitable sidewalks that can accommodate more traffic, according to Wendorf.
The district requested network information about the location of new elementary schools and others searched for a school in Charlotte, he said.
The district will retain Northwood construction and can use it for offices or instructor training, he said.
The community goes ahead with its plans for Charlotte Street.
“We appreciate the input of our community. We who have taken steps beyond the right measures to investigate,” Wendorf said.
Contact Jessica at 330-580-8322 or jessica. holbrook@cantonrep. com
On Twitter: @jholbrookREP.