Grant funding will help remediate former Wellston manufacturing facility

WELLSTON, Ohio (WSAZ) - The McNally-Pittsburg in Wellston has been a staple in the city for more than 100 years. However, the companies that once called the facility home have left area and it is now used as a city garage.

Mayor Charlie Hudson says they’ve been trying to sell the building for years.

“It’s really hard to sell something that doesn’t have a clean bill of health from the EPA,” Hudson said.

The mayor says the 120,000 square foot facility is structurally sound. The problem lies within a few spots where chemicals have seeped into the ground. With the help of the Jackson County Economic Development Partnership and a $705,000 grant from the state of Ohio, crews will be able to clean up those problem spots.

“By cleaning it up, what they do is they remove all of the tainted soil until they get to a point where it’s not tainted anymore. Then they bring in clean backfill soil and fill it up,” said Mayor Hudson.

Once that is complete, Hudson hopes a company may be interested in buying it. He believes it is the perfect home for any manufacturing company.

“It would mean something, not only for the city, but for the county and region. Appalachia has migrated from a coal community to really just service industry. We do have some light manufacturing, but we have people with a strong work ethic and no place to work. The more people that we can get great jobs in the city and county, the better off our region will be,” Hudson said.

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