Staff photo / R. Michael Semple A pedestrian walks past Youngstown City Hall. The new fire escape on the building, which was supposed to be finished already, won’t be done until mid-May, according to Charles Shasho, the city’s director of public works. There were issues with the measurements of the new fire escape that had to be changed or the metal on the structure that will connect the fire escape to emergency doors on each floor of city hall would not have matched.

YOUNGSTOWN — It’s been more than a year since the fire escape at Youngstown City Hall was forced to close and subsequently removed — and the often-delayed replacement project has been delayed yet again.

When the project’s cost increased from $1.1 million to $1.4 million on Dec. 20, Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works, said the work would be done in late February or early March. He repeated that timetable a month later at a city council meeting to cheers.

But Shasho now says the project won’t be done until mid-May.

There were issues with the measurements of the new fire escape that had to be changed or the metal on the structure that will connect the fire escape to emergency doors on each floor of city hall wouldn’t have matched, Shasho said.

Also, the new fire escape is being fabricated off-site and will be brought to city hall to be installed, and there have been some delays in that work, Shasho said. The work recently started, he said.

The fire escape fabrication should be done by mid-April and installed at the rear of city hall by mid-May, he said.

“It will take a month to mount it and deliver it,” Shasho said. “It will be assembled on site with the pieces that are being fabricated.”

Shasho said there is “no indication” that there will be “additional costs right now” for this project.

The fire escape at city hall was closed March 9, 2023. That fire escape has since been removed.

That old fire escape at city hall likely was last inspected about 16 years ago.

Fire Chief Barry Finley decided March 9, 2023, that the fire escape would be shut down until work to it could be finished.

City council voted April 19 to spend up to $250,000 for repair work and designs to the fire escape though Shasho said the amount was “never going to be the (final) number.”

There was initial discussion about a possible replacement rather than a repair after a Feb. 3, 2023, inspection report determined the fire escape was inoperable. Shortly after that discussion, Shasho said the damage wasn’t extensive enough that the fire escape needed to be replaced and the work would be finished in August at the latest.

That changed at the beginning of July when it was determined after Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown did repair work, including cleaning and sandblasting the fire escape of bird droppings and rust, that it was best to replace rather than repair the aging fire escape despite the additional cost.

City council voted July 31 to allow up to $1.1 million be spent on the project, including work already done by Murphy and designs by MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown.

That moved the completion date to January.

But more problems were discovered and work to remove the fire escape didn’t start until January, four months after it was supposed to commence under the replacement project. That pushed the completion date to late February or early March.

Those issues were needed additions for the project and the city resolving concerns from the Mahoning County Building Inspections department about the safety of those inside city hall between the time the old fire escape is dismantled and the new one is installed, Shasho said.

Because the only way out of the building if there is a fire, which shuts down the elevators, is the lone stairwell — the concern of the county building department — the city came up with a plan in case of emergency, Shasho said.

A fire truck couldn’t reach the seventh — and top — floor of city hall so staff working there, including the civil service commission, were relocated to offices on the building’s lower floors.

Also, signs on the building directing people to go to the fire escape were removed, city hall employees were educated on the proper evacuation and were given specific locations to meet outside in case of an emergency. Every visitor at city hall is also given a photo identification sticker and has to electronically sign in and out in order to make sure everyone is accounted for if there’s an evacuation.

Since the fire escape was closed more than a year ago, city council hasn’t met on city hall’s sixth floor, where its chambers and caucus room are located.

The concern has been that too many members of the public attend council meetings, and it would be dangerous to hold them on the sixth floor.

Council meetings have been held at either the Covelli Centre community room or the Mahoning County commissioners’ meeting room with the finance committee meetings the same day at the same location starting beforehand.

Other council committee meetings and city bodies also meet elsewhere in city hall, mostly in conference rooms on the first, second or fifth floors, or off-site such as the Eugenia Atkinson Recreation Center.

The board of control has continued to meet on the sixth floor in the council caucus room.

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