LORAIN, Ohio — Recent inspections at the shuttered Republic Steel mill in Lorain turned up pages of health and safety violations, according to city and county records.
The hulking mill in South Lorain closed in 2022 leaving behind deteriorating conditions Lorain’s mayor compared to a junkyard.
“Just seeing how deplorable it is, it’s scary because you don’t know what’s there” said Evelyn Arocho who lives one block away from the abandoned mill.
Arocho’s parents moved from Puerto Rico to Lorain so he could work in the mill.
But now she said it’s become a “black spot on the city.”
Concerned about what was happening on the 435 acre site, Lorain City leaders went to court and got a search warrant for the property last month.
Police, fire and health inspectors went looking for potential violations.
They didn’t have to look far according to Mayor Jack Bradley.
“It’s not only hazardous, but also an eyesore,” he said.
The safety violations filled six pages.
A fire inspector noted the state of disrepair and dilapidation of buildings pose a severe risk to anyone in or near a majority of the buildings.
A Lorain County Health Department report listed potential lead hazards, solid waste throughout the property and chemical containers leaking onto the ground throughout one of the buildings.
The mayor said the city is putting its foot down.
“Those are the kinds of things we wouldn’t allow someone in our city to do in their own home and we’re not going to let a company who we allowed to come in here to do business leave our community with that kind of damage,” said Bradley.
The mayor said Republic Steel will be charged with the code violations in Lorain Municipal Court.
Bradley hopes it’s the beginning of a conversation aimed at getting the company to clean up the site.
It’s a day Arocho hopes comes soon.
She admits tearing down the steel plant that’s meant so much to her neighborhood would be bittersweet, but it’s necessary she said.
“It’s said because of the memories of the many people who worked there,” said Arocho. “But it would be nice to see something cleaner. Something nicer. Something more productive.”
Republic Steel did not respond to a request for comment on the inspections’ findings.
