[font=Verdana]Work is set to begin in March to remove an old factory, in disrepair and a threat, in the [/font][font=Verdana]Cuyahoga[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Valley[/font][font=Verdana].[/font]

[font=Verdana]It will take about three months to remove what's left of the Jaite paper mill, on the east bank of the [/font][font=Verdana]Cuyahoga[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]River[/font][font=Verdana] south of [/font][font=Verdana]West Highland Road[/font][font=Verdana] in [/font][font=Verdana]Sagamore[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Hills[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Township[/font][font=Verdana], said Bill Carroll, deputy superintendent of the [/font][font=Verdana]Cuyahoga[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Valley[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]National Park[/font][font=Verdana].[/font]

[font=Verdana]The skeletal building is falling apart and is a threat to park visitors. It is filled with asbestos and was the site of a big fire in 1992. Park officials have talked about demolishing the building for years.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The demolition is the first step of a long-term project to restore the river along the Jaite site to its natural state and other improvements.[/font]

[font=Verdana]All structural materials above the mill's floor level will be removed, the National Park Service said in a statement.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Select features of the site will remain for future display, including a paper-making machine. The water tower will be examined for structural integrity and may or may not be preserved.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The paper mill was constructed in 1905 by Charles Jaite, a German immigrant.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The town of [/font][font=Verdana]Jaite[/font][font=Verdana] was started in 1906.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The mill produced flour sacks and grain bags, along with multilayered cement sacks, corrugated cardboard and paper linings for cereal boxes.[/font]

[font=Verdana]At one time, more than 250 workers labored in the mill. Women worked in the mill in large numbers, and Jaite also attracted Polish immigrants.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The mill was bought in 1951 by National Container Corp. It closed and was acquired by the National Park Service in 1984.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Demolishing the old mill will not affect the use of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail that runs next to the mill, and the work will be done Monday through Thursday, Carroll said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The park service and TetraTech, a Colorado-based environmental contractor, are managing the project. The on-site work will be done by a subcontractor, McCabe Engineering of [/font][font=Verdana]Richfield[/font][font=Verdana].[/font]

[font=Verdana]Removing the old building will cost about $1.1 million, Carroll said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]About $450,000 is coming from federal funds and $650,000 is from a settlement fund paid by polluters who dumped toxic chemicals at the long-closed Krejci Dump in the park, he said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The final $30 million cleanup of the 47-acre Krejci site got under way last October.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Removing 100,000 tons of contaminated soils and debris from the two sites off [/font][font=Verdana]Hines Hill Road[/font][font=Verdana] at Interstate 271 in [/font][font=Verdana]Boston[/font][font=Verdana] and [/font][font=Verdana]Northfield[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Center[/font][font=Verdana] townships is expected to take two to three years.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The old dump is contaminated with solvents, paint waste, industrial sludge, pesticides and herbicides.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The final cleanup is being paid for by the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., which dumped material there from their Cleveland-area auto plants.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The federal government spent an additional $30 million on the initial Krejci surface cleanup. It reached $20 million in settlements with six companies that had dumped at the site.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The dump was closed in the 1960s. The federal government bought it in 1980. Park officials thought the site was an old junkyard.[/font]

[font=Verdana]In 1986, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found 5,000 leaking drums on the site.[/font]

[font=Verdana]There is no evidence that the contamination has polluted streams or moved off the site, officials said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The automakers and other companies that used the Krejci site paid $1.45 million into a settlement fund that the park service is using for the Jaite demolition, Carroll said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The park will have about $800,000 remaining in that fund after the initial Jaite work is complete, and it is not known how those funds might be spent, he said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The park has not yet finalized plans for the next step of the Jaite restoration, he said.[/font]

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