Marion Public Health will demolish building to create a smart park and parking area

Andrew Carter, Marion Star
Updated ·3 min read
This is an architect's rendering of the proposed parking area and smart park that Marion Public Health wants to create after the building it owns at 197 S. Main St. in downtown Marion is demolished. Health Commissioner Traci Kinsler said the plan includes installing free Wi-Fi, charging stations, a water bottle filling station, and a meeting space with tables and benches in the space.

Marion Public Health (MPH) plans to demolish a building that it has owned for 11 years to create additional parking spaces for its clients and establish a public gathering area adjacent to its downtown office complex at 181 S. Main St.

According to the Marion County Auditor's website, MPH purchased the 105-year-old building located at 197 S. Mains St. from Wilson Holdings of Marion LLC in 2012 for $34,000. It was home to GTE from the 1960s through the 1990s, according to public health officials.

Marion County Health Commissioner Traci Kinsler said since the health district acquired the structure there have been various ideas for use of the building and several potential buyers have toured the facility, but none expressed "serious interest" in purchasing it. For a short time, it was dubbed Project 197 and was slated to become a community garden site.

However, the condition of the building made it cost-prohibitive to rehabilitate, she said.

"It's full of asbestos, lead paint, it's not up to code in any way for handicap accessibility," Kinsler explained. "It's a multi-million dollar project to rehabilitate and renovate it to make it usable again."

Kinsler said Marion Public Health plans to create about 50 parking spaces in the new area, which she said will better accommodate the agency's clients who visit the downtown offices for various services, including WIC, immunization clinics, health screenings, obtaining birth and death certificates, etc.

Additionally, Kinsler said, the health district is working with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office to develop a plan for the rest of the space aside from the parking area because of its contribution to telecommunications history as the home of the General Telephone Company. That section of downtown Marion is part of the area that earned designation as an Ohio Historic District in December 2021 and then was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

"We want to make it a smart park area where people can gather and use technology," she said. "We're going to have free Wi-Fi, charging stations, and a meeting space with tables and benches. So people can sit there and get access to the internet, charge their phones if they need to, or have lunch. We also want to install a water bottle filling station there. We're going to use the bricks from the building to build those benches. And if it will come down intact, the parapet around the top of the building will be used as the seats on the benches."

Kinsler said Marion Public Health is consulting with the State of Ohio about the different types of grants that are available to pay for construction of the parking lot and 'smart park.'

Marion Public Health was awarded a $370,000 grant from the Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program in 2022 to pay for asbestos abatement prior to the upcoming demolition.

It was one of three Brownfield Remediation Program grants awarded to Marion County projects last year. The Marion County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) received two grants totaling $593,248 to fund cleanup and remediation projects at the former Grand Prairie and New Bloomington school locations.

Van Creasap, director of environmental health at Marion Public Health, said the initial phase of asbestos abatement was completed in the fall of 2022 and the final phase is in progress. He said once asbestos abatement is completed, demolition of the building will begin.

The general contractor for the first phase of asbestos abatement was EFI Global, which then subcontracted with Ohio Technical Services, Inc. Raze International, Inc. is conducting the second phase of asbestos abatement.

Creasap said during the demolition process, some of the current parking spaces in the Marion Public Health lot will not be available. He's unsure about the potential closure of the spaces in front of the building along South Main Street.

PLANIT Studios is the landscape architect that has been contracted to work on the parking area and smart park, Creasap said. Project Manager Kyle Adams is a Marion native, he noted.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion Public Health: Smart park and parking planned for S. Main St.