COPLEY TWP.: The water tower on Jacoby Road near Copley Road is finally down.
The on-again, off-again demolition occurred Wednesday morning.
It took just a couple of hours to raze and prepare the site. Work began at 9 a.m. and ended by 11:08 a.m.
The 150-foot tower was no longer needed because the private water system owned by the Copley Square Holding Co., a private family-owned utility, was sold to the city of Akron.
The family decided to get out of the business when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency urged small water plants to tie into larger municipal systems. The family sold it to Akron for $1.78 million, but part of the agreement was that owner Sid Simon would be responsible for dismantling the tower.
The demolition was postponed several times since June.
Copley Police Chief Michael Mier watched the tower fall Wednesday and was glad to see it go.
Officers helped ensure gawkers were kept a safe distance away.
B&B Wrecking & Excavating Inc. of Cleveland handled the demolition. Workers tied a cable to each of the legs of the tower and then used a torch to cut the front four legs in three different points so it would fold easily.
“It’s not like cutting down a tree,” said Charlie Baker, a superintendent of B&B Wrecking. “We cut the front and back legs so it would fold up in two pieces, the tower was pulled in two stages, first the east and west legs and then we yanked the two legs to the south.”
Two excavating machines were lined up opposite of each other to pull at the legs. Baker said if all went according to plan, the tower would fall between the two machines.
The tower landed exactly where Baker calculated it would.
“It was very controlled and went very smoothly,” project manager Nik Filippi said. “We had favorable conditions. There was no rain and not much wind.”
A third excavating machine was called in to help cut up the legs and haul it away. Some debris remains at the site.
“We are in the process of cutting it up for shipment off site and should have the pieces hauled away by the end of the week,” Filippi said.
Filippi said the weather had a lot to do with some of the delays of the demolition. Aside from rain and high winds, there were other complications.
The first demolition date was set for June 23, but there were permit problems. Then in July, there was a problem with where the tower was supposed to land.
The vacant lot was owned by Holiness Church of Christ Deliverance of South Hawkins Avenue, which had not given the company permission to land the tower on its property.
An agreement between the church and the tower’s owner was reached.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.