MOUNT VERNON — Work to clean up the old American National Can site won’t get under way until the end of the year and it may not be complete until 2014, Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis reported.
Mavis said the city’s consultant in the process of obtaining the CleanOhio Fund grant to fund the project, Burgess and Niple, told the city in a conference call Thursday afternoon what the process will be from this point.
First, the contract for the grant between the city and the state has to be drawn up, which should be done by late June. Then the city can put out a “request for professionals” in order to select a firm to draw up the specifications for the cleanup.
The process of selecting a professional should be done by August. Once the specifications are prepared and the project advertised, the city could be able to select a contractor by late October or early November.
“That’s if there are no glitches,” Mavis said. “We thought the consultant was being optimistic.”
If the contract is signed by the end of the year, it will then take 12 to 18 months to complete the job. The most likely completion date is in 2014.
Memorial Day
All is in readiness for the annual Mount Vernon Memorial Day parade Monday, Mavis reported.
The parade will begin staging at 8:30 a.m. on East High Street in the vicinity of Rogers Street. It will begin at 10:30 a.m. and proceed downtown.
Parade chair M.E. Carpenter reports that groups wishing to be in the parade can still show up Monday morning, but they will be placed at the end of the parade and will not be judged for awards.
Lt. Col. Christopher Salvucci, head of the Cadet program at the Knox County Career Center, conducted an essay project and the winning students will read their essays at the ceremony on Public Square. The winning essays were written by Lilly Burnside and Max Heindl.
