South Willow property owner continues to seek answers from university

Before Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design unveiled a brand new, a state-of-the-art building at the start of the Lefton Esplanade late in the summer of 2016, a bit of an uglier side to the project left residents at 224 South Willow Street blasted with dust from the construction site. Since the construction began, Christopher Myers, the property owner of the South Willow address has seen his tenants under duress as clouds of dust have damaged the home and rendered the front porch useless for over six months.

“I get to know my tenants,” Myers said. “We laugh and have a good time. Something goes wrong, they call me and it’s taken care of, right now.” So when dust began billowing its way into Myers’ property on South Willow, and accumulating on the outside of the house, Myers began to take action.

After several months of complaints and calls to the university about the situation, Myers finally had an EPA worker come out to examine the site in September 2015. Unfortunately for Myers, his cries seemed to fall on deaf ears, as no wrongdoing by either Kent State or Gilbane Building Company was found.

But as the calendar turned to 2016, and construction on the building began to pick up again, the dust continued. “The University saved thousands upon thousands of dollars in the construction of the architecture building by its lack of effective dust control procedures,” said Myers. “And the university’s silence on the matter and the city’s silence on the matter speak volumes on their character.”

In May 2016, Myers again had a representative of the EPA come and inspect the property. This time, both Kent State University and Gilbane Building Company were cited for violations of the Ohio Administrative Code section 3745-17-08 (8) (1) (Fugitive Dust). The citation, issued by environmental specialist Debbie Wallen of the Akron Regional Air Quality Management District, noted excessive fugitive dust being generated by the constriction site.

Since the citation, Myers has demanded an investigation. “Who from the university was supposed to be monitoring this job site on a day-to-day basis,” he wonders. “Did these project managers even read the contract that they signed?”

“My office ultimately handles the compliance of the contractor and the university,” said Michael Bruder Kent State’s executive director of facility planning and design. “Our project managers make sure that the contractor is doing the inspections that they’re required to do, that the permits that are required are closed out and that if there are any calls or complains, we try to address those with the contractor.”

 

As far as precautions that were neglected during the process that may have led to the citation, Bruder cites a number of different examples that could help explain why dust runoff and residue was so high.

“It was a particularly hot and dry summer,” Bruder noted. “There were some precautions that the contractor was supposed to take that just didn’t get done. The particular challenge in that case, too, is that Willow Street has a lot of tiny grooves in it. Even when we cleaned the street there was dust and debris still trapped in there.”

Still, Myers is not satisfied. He has continued to protest outside of university commencements and grand openings on behalf of those he calls the “Innocent 25”, his tenants whose lungs he said have paid a price because of the negligence and laziness of the university.

“Beverly Warren’s Kent State University saved a bundle of money by thumbing its nose at clean air regulations from the spring of 2015 until may of 2016 when it and Gilbane Building Company were caught and cited for violating the Clean Air Act,” Myers cried at a city council meeting earlier this year.

Jay Graham, the project manager from Kent State, tells a different story. “The Ohio EPA is a third party, disinterested as far as not supporting the university or the private land owner,” he said. “So they are the neutral body in this. We have responded to them and if the issue would have continued or the issue would have been egregious enough, there would have been a follow up and a fine assessed, and there was no fine assessed on that at all.”

 

Christopher Myers has continued to take his case far and wide. From the university president’s office to city council meetings to the American Civil Liberties Union, Myers says he won’t rest until he and his tenants are given proper restitution for their grievances. “Those people know the law,” he says. “It’s right there in the contract between them and Gilbane Building Company.”

Despite Myers’ pleas, the university remains optimistic about its relationship with the City of Kent, and the success of future building projects that may interfere with city owned land.

“This is absolutely something that we can learn from going forward,” said Graham, in response to the citation that was issued in May of last year. “I would invite some people out that feel that the university is being negligent or just blatantly ignoring these things, and have them on site during a time where we’re spreading gravel in a parking lot, coming right off a truck and a bulldozer, and not allowing dust to travel more than five feet. That’s a pretty hard task to take on. But that being said, that is our responsibility.”

As Kent State University continues to grow, it is the hope of both the city and the institution that the two can work together and strive towards mutual growth.

“I would always encourage students of the community to call us if there are any concerns,” said Michael Bruder. “Our goal is to make sure that we’re a good neighbor to everybody surrounding our construction sites.