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NILES -- Mayor Steve Mientkiewicz expects to see the demolition of the theater building accelerate after a recent meeting city officials had with the company handling the removal.
Mientkiewicz said he and Service Director Anthony Flarey met with representatives from Dore & Associates Contracting Inc. based out of Bay City, Michigan, late last week to discuss the "progress, or lack thereof."
"There were just some delays on their end," Mientkiewicz said. "I know there were personal delays, manpower and also with coordinating multiple jobs all at once."
The demolition crew has been chipping away slowly at the former Robins Theatre since early January.
Mientkiewicz said another issue the demolition crews have run into has been with the removal of the building's facade. Mientkiewicz said the removal of the front of the theater building has taken crews longer than they expected because of its proximity to South Main Street.
"They wanted to lower the profile to prevent that front facade from falling into the street for safety issues," he said.
Mientkiewicz said the workers have to maintain a similar level of caution with the back of the building due to its height. He said they currently are working on bringing down the rear profile of the theater.
As of Wednesday's council meeting, most of the building's facade had been removed. Mientkiewicz said the project is about one quarter of the way done.
He said one of the company's "higher-ups" has been on-site every day and that the crews have been working four, 10-hour days per week.
"That seems to have worked itself out since that meeting," Mientkiewicz said.
In other business, council voted to approve an ordinance authorizing the service director to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for a resurfacing project on the Niles Greenway bike trail.
Mientkiewicz said the section of the bike trail included in the project is a half-mile stretch between Rupple Road and the train trestle.
"That's one area along the greenway lake where we see a lot of upheaving, ripples in the bike trail," he said. "It has been getting worse over time. We're going to bid this out with a full-depth repair (specification)."
Mientkiewicz said the city has $100,000 budgeted for the resurfacing.
Council also authorized the safety director to submit an application to the Ohio Department of Transportation for federal funds through its Safe Routes to School program.
Mientkiewicz said the city is applying for funding for sidewalk repairs on Bowman Street and Frederick Street, both near Niles Intermediate School.
According to the legislation, the total project cost is $481,921.
If awarded the funds, the city agrees to pay 100% of the construction costs over and above the maximum amount provided by ODOT.