Renovations on Oil City’s Cornplanter Square building, the former Mellon Bank building, are continuing with demolition on the fourth floor.
After the fourth floor is completed, the only remaining demolition will be on the fifth floor and in the basement, as well as continuing abatement throughout the building, Ken Fox, project manager for Imperial Construction Services, said at Tuesday’s meeting of the Venango County Economic Development Authority.
Replacement of the roof and vertical rain conductors is expected to begin in early July.
In other business Tuesday, the authority approved putting replacement of the windows and doors at the Cornplanter building out for bid.
Fox said that in the demolition process, workers found a chimney lined with asbestos. Because the asbestos is contained in the chimney, the workers will be able to deal with it at a later time and put the project out for bid, Fox said.
The creation of a non-profit entity to oversee the Cornplanter Square building was also approved by the board. The non-profit will be able to pursue several additional sources of funding and generate revenue from the future operations of the building.
The next step for the board will be deciding on a name for the non-profit and creating a board and by-laws.
The eAcademy is still recruiting high school seniors and will launch the program in the fall at Clarion University’s Venango campus in Oil City.
The GPA requirement of 3.0 for the academy may be waived if the student has strong recommendations from teachers and guidance counselors, Lewis said.
