Finance Director David Bozanich said he will work to expedite contracts so demolition and site remediation work can begin as soon as possible on an eyesore near the gateway of V&M Star's new $650 million pipe mill.

V&M, which in February announced it would move forward on what has become one of the most anticipated economic development projects the Mahoning Valley has seen in decades, will hold a ceremonial ground breaking June 28, according to invitations issued for the event. The new pipe mill is expected to create 350 direct jobs once it begins operating, plus several hundred construction and spin-off jobs.

The city opened bids Friday on contracts to remove asbestos from and demolish the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube office building located near what will be the entrance of the new V&M mill, and to remediate the site. Removal of the decaying structure was an aesthetic improvement requested by V&M officials.

Bids for the work, for the most part, came in significantly under the engineer's estimate of $594,000. The 10 bids ranged from $72,000, the lowest, submitted by American Contracting Inc., Canfield, to the high bid submitted by Allied Erecting and Dismantling, Youngstown, $687,000, which exceeded the estimate by $93,000. One company, Exodus Industrial, Poland, submitted an $82,500 bid that covered just two of the four items in the bid package. Discounting Exodus' partial bid, six of the bids came in below half of the engineer's estimate.

"That's a function of two things, said Jim C. Smith, president of Brownfield Restoration Group LLC, Akron, project manager. One is that the economy "stinks" and this area is particularly hard hit, so firms are making low bids to get work. "Just the sheer number of bidders that we get has skyrocketed, and the amounts that we get are low," he said. The other factor is that, because of how the Clean Ohio program works, which provided funds for the project, "we want the estimate to be on the high side of reasonable," he said. If a project was estimated too low and the bids come in high, "You can't go back to Clean Ohio a second time," he said.

The city was awarded a $631,343 Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant for the demolition and remediation work. Unexpended funds will revert back to the Clean Ohio fund,

American Contracting Inc.'s bid was really under the estimate "so that'll take a little scrutinizing," said Sarah Lown, city development incentive manager.

"All the bids still need to be [tabulated] and reviewed" before a bid is awarded, Smith said. That process typically takes a week to 10 days, but "if there are issues it can go longer," he said.

Once a bid is awarded, work could begin by early August and take 60 to 90 days to complete, Lown said.