U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in front of former Crawford Furniture Building (January 2023)
Clean up of the former Crawford Furniture Factory site will begin this week.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun demolition of the site at 1061 Allen Street, saying, “This federal cleanup is a win-win-win: knocking down the crumbling walls which were devastated by the fire, removing toxic contaminants like asbestos from our community, all while taking the burden off our local taxpayers in Jamestown.”
The building was destroyed in a fire in November 2022. It is owned by Allen Street Development, who according to the city of Jamestown, had had abandoned the facility and has been tax delinquent since 2018.
Schumer said the necessary cleanup at the Allen Street site was projected to be a significant financial burden to the City of Jamestown, and beyond their current resources, making it imperative to secure EPA aid to help clean up this site and protect neighboring businesses and homes.
Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said in a statement that the fire was “predictable and preventable,” “The estimated $200K abatement and partial demolition costs that should have been incurred by the property owner, has now surpassed the $5 million mark to clean up the site. The Department of Development is committed to holding the building owners accountable for their willful neglect and has been working in collaboration with the EPA since June of 2021 to address the long outstanding hazardous conditions that predated the fire that destroyed the building complex, and we are confident that those efforts prevented what could have been an even more catastrophic event.”
Schumer said the EPA will evaluate and properly dispose of hazardous substances and have them shipped to regulated landfill and disposal facilities. The EPA will also monitor the air quality at the site and surrounding neighborhood during demolition to ensure that the public and workers are safe during all demolition activities.
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