On March 22, the Beacon Journal noted that “Would-be buyer angered by plan to raze building,” but every resident in Summit County should also be angered by the county’s plan to tear down a structurally sound building when there is a prospective buyer. It is both financially irresponsible and environmentally unsound. I was infuriated when I drove by recently and saw that preparation for demolition has begun.
Summit County has obtained approximately $1.5 million from the state to raze the Summit County Environmental Services building, which will cost Summit County taxpayers $500,000. That’s a lot of taxpayer money to raze a structure that is structurally sound and not an eyesore or detriment to the community without any specific plans for the lot afterward.
According to the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Planning and Zoning Department:
About 80 billion BTUs of energy are embodied in a typical 50,000-square-foot commercial building. Tearing down that building would negate all the benefit of recycling more than 60 million aluminum cans!
Demolishing the building also would create nearly 4,000 tons of waste. That’s enough debris to fill a train of 26 railroad cars!
It’s estimated that constructing a new 50,000-square-foot commercial building in place of the old one would release about the same amount of carbon into the atmosphere as driving a car 2.8 million miles − or 112 trips around the Earth!
The Environmental Services Building is even bigger − 72,530 square feet − so the demolition will have an even bigger negative impact.
This demolition should be stopped immediately. The Summit County executive and council need to understand that their wasteful spending and their total disregard of the environment is intolerable.
Steve Nome, Cuyahoga Falls
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Environmental Services building shouldn’t be demolished | Letter