How could Cuyahoga County not know its new jail site was rejected for a prison because of

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the 1980s, Ohio officials considered an industrial site hugging the Cuyahoga River as their preferred location for a state prison – until concerns about the cost and scope of environmental cleanup sent them elsewhere.

We’re talking about how Cuyahoga County missed this history in its research on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here. See the automated transcript at the bottom of the post.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.

Here are the questions we’re answering today:

Did the state of Ohio decide in 1982 that the number one choice as a site for a new county jail was too contaminated a site to build a new state prison?

What are the big road construction projects that will be gumming up our local travel during the orange barrel season that started Monday?

Why do Gov. Mike DeWine and other republicans on the Ohio redistricting commission say the Supreme Court should not hold them in contempt of court for defying the court’s orders on a process for drawing new maps?

How is Dave Wondolowski getting back on the Port Authority board after Mayor Justin Bibb decided not to re-appoint him, following the revelation that Wondolowski played a key role in a controversial attack on Bibb during his campaign for mayor?

How did a man accused of aggravated murder in Cleveland get released from the Cuyahoga county jail by mistake?

What are anti-hunger advocates seeking now that pandemic-caused easing of rules for school breakfasts and lunches is coming to a close?

What is the role being played by Cleveland native Anthony White doing as part of the Joe Biden administration, in the Treasury Department?

With parking at a premium in University Circle, why is the non-profit that operates the circle planning to tear down a 346-space parking garage?

Why are 200,000 Ohio households suddenly in the market for new energy providers?

We have an Apple podcasts channel exclusively for this podcast. Subscribe here.

Do you get your podcasts on Spotify? Find us here.

If you use Stitcher, we are here.

RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.

On Google Podcasts, we are here.

On PodParadise, find us here.

And on PlayerFM, we are here.

Read the automated transcript below:

Chris: [00:00:00] It’s hard to fathom that on the Eve of the decision to pick a site for the Cuyahoga county jail, we [email protected] and the plain dealer that the site they’ve chosen was rejected as too poisonous for a state prison 40 years ago. And they didn’t know that that’s one of the top stories on today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plain dealer.

I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa, Laura and Layla. Atossa Lisa Garvin, Laurie Johnson, and Layla Tasi on a sunny day. I’m, I’m just kind of confused because I see sunlight outside. I don’t know what to do.

Lisa: Get out those cheap sunglasses.

Laura: They’re trying to, they’re trying to re take off my entire attic roof that for our remodel today and get a new one on, on the same day, because it’s been so rainy, they haven’t been able to do any work.

So hopefully fingers crossed. It’s no rain today.

Chris: We’ll see, let’s begin. Did the state of [00:01:00] Ohio decide in 1982, that the number one choice as a site for a new county jail was to contaminated a site to build a new state prison. Lemme Tassie. This is the most dumbfounding story and we.

Leila: Yes, surprising, but true piece of history that appears to have been completely overlooked by the committee that is responsible for vetting sites for the new jail and Cuyahoga county.

The site that they have settled on as their number one choice for the county jail on transport road was once the site where the state in the 1980s under governor Jim rose. Wanted to locate the state prison that eventually ended up in Grafton. A search through the plain dealer archives showed the site was a former standard oil refinery.

We knew that found to be riddled with potentially hazardous chemicals. There was Tetra ethyl led used in making gasoline slugs. Asphalt hydrocarbon liquids and vapors. Solvent’s like kerosene [00:02:00] acidic residue residue. And as best as there was also the possible presence of PCBs, which is a highly toxic industrial compound that can cause developmental neurological problems.

All of that stuff would need to be removed or remediated before the Ohio department of rehabilitation and corrections could have begun building its 1,250 bed facility there. But eventually, you know, state officials decided that the $4 million in three to five years, it would have taken to clear the contamination made the site just a disastrous choice and they moved on.

And so the state took its, you know, $76 million reformatory to Lorain county where it’s men prison. The men’s prison stands today. And, uh, you know, city and state officials said back then that they were never told the extent of the contamination until just really just before the sale of the land was finalized.

And now fast forward to the present moment, the jail steering committee is [00:03:00] voting this morning on whether to potentially make that same site. The future home of the jail and commit resources to the first steps of remediating this brownfield. And last night, Caitlin Durbin called a couple of the committee members and, and they told her that they were unaware of the site’s history and the fact that its extensive contamination caused the state to pull the plug on its prison.

Chris: I mean, the potential PCBs is what jumped out. Here’s the thing we learned of this site fairly recently, because they’ve done all their planning and secret, and we found this out. They’ve been studying this site for months and months had consultants help them

Leila: real estate consultants. What are they paying their consultants for?

If not to do that kind of research.

Chris: So here’s my question. Let me look. Cause I think this is unbelievable. This there’s no way. They could accidentally not know this nobody’s that dumb is this intentional, [00:04:00] you know, there is a rush to get shovels in the ground this year before Armand Buddhists leaves office, because the candidates that are running to replace him, he’s not running again, have other ideas.

And they may not go with Jeff apple Applebom as the finance guy. So is there a chance they’re hastening this process, not doing the proper due diligence to message. The administrations to come. What other explanation is there for this level of incompetent?

Leila: I mean, I see what you’re saying, but the work that it took to find this kind of information is like a day of work for consultants and they, like you said, had months, so an hour.

Yeah. Right. I just don’t, I’m not buying it that the months and months of, of, uh, vetting these sites and coming up with this as their number one, uh, you know, That’s not a rush to commit to. I mean, they had so many sites to choose [00:05:00] from maybe at this point they’re, they’re, they, you know, they’re rushing to, to, to, to commit to it, but they certainly just didn’t do due diligence in, in the selection process.

Somebody just failed to do their job. That’s just,

Chris: my bet is because they’re pig-headed and competent, they might stand on this and say, We don’t know the level. We there’s, there’s been some cleaning since then. So we don’t know what’s there. We still think it’s the right thing to do, which may or may not be true, but the fact that they were completely unaware of it, the fact that they never went to the state and said, Hey, can we have the files from 40 years of.

To see what standard oil told you was there? I mean, there was one line in one of the stories that said it was so bad, they weren’t going to be able to use a settling torches to cut apart the tanks because of what it would do to the toxins. It’s like this was dangerous, dangerous stuff. The governor Rhodes, as soon as he saw the reports said no way, no, [00:06:00] how we’re not going there, slam the door on it after it was on the Eve.

So here we are last night, we’re on the Eve of this. This story. It’s another reason that it’s a good thing that we’re still around because nobody else was breaking this story and they’re voting this morning. I just can’t wait to hear how Jeff Applebom and Armand Buddhists, his administration tries to spin this.

The prosecutor, Mike O’Malley, who was wanted them to slow down for some time. Of course, took the opportunity when he talked to Caitlyn last night to say, slow down. Yeah. Yeah,

Leila: I can’t wait. We’re 45 minutes out from the start of this meeting…