Despite evidence of benzene contamination at the site of Athens’ former county garage, property value is likely to stay at its current value until at least 2014, according to the county auditor.
The 1.63-acre property, which is now a Holiday Inn Express, 555 E. State St., was appraised in 2011 for $3.9 million including the building, according to data from the Athens County Auditor’s office.
The property’s value is not likely to drop in the near future, and the only way it would change is if a complaint regarding its value were filed with the county auditor, Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson said.
“The state of Ohio directs us that value is based on sale price,” Thompson said. “If there is a change in value somewhere else, I cannot legally make price changes.”
The property’s next appraisal is set for 2014, Thompson said.
A 2006 assessment by Hometown Development LLC found levels of benzene in that area’s groundwater that were 78 times the legal limit. Benzene has been found to cause bone marrow and red blood cell damage, cancer, and birth defects in animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Contamination or potential for contamination on property can be a problem for potential property buyers, Mayor Paul Wiehl said.
“There was concern about contamination at the gas station on Columbus Road, and when the county tried to sell the property, nobody wanted to buy it,” Wiehl said.
When the Columbus Road property was suspected of being contaminated last spring, the city conducted an environmental investigation and removed the gas tanks from the ground, Wiehl said.
Though the property is within the city limits, Wiehl was kept out of the loop in dealings with the East State Street property, he said.
Since the contaminated area is mainly parking lots and improved buildings, the severity of the benzene in the area might not be as severe as it would be in other, less-modernized areas, Wiehl said.
“What you have to look at is, will the stuff leak from the parking lot?” Wiehl said. “If it’s capped off it has a tendency not to move.”
Despite the possibly reduced risk, those downstream from the contaminated area should be concerned, Wiehl added.
Dennis Smalley of Smalley and Associates Inc., who was responsible for the original environmental testing of the 555 E. State St. property in 1999, pleaded guilty to four felony counts of fraud when, in some cases, Smalley never did the work he was hired to do, according to a news release from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Smalley, who was a member of the EPA’s Volunteer Action Program, was the first certified professional of that program to be prosecuted criminally, according to the release.
ld311710@ohiou.edu
