The costs of an ongoing project to remediate a historic building in Sebring have gone up.

Mahoning County Land Bank Executive Director Debora Flora tells 21 News this is because of a change order approved at a special meeting held Wednesday morning.

Flora tells us there is a lot of contaminated soil in the building with some being in larger areas and others in smaller areas of the building.

Two additional areas of impact by this soil were found based on comprehensive sampling from an environmental consultant, so a change order had to be made. The amount of this change order is $46,333.75.

This work is part of the remediation of the Royal China building in Sebring, which used to be a dinnerware plant with history dating back to the 1940s. By 1965, it was the largest union plant in the country.

The plant burned down in 1970. It was rebuilt since then, but has since burned another three times. The plant permanently shut its doors in 2010. 

Debris from the fires was never properly removed resulting in the previously mentioned contaminated soils housing themselves on the property.

The cleanup project is partially funded by a $1.9 million grant. Flora says work on this project will continue as normal, but crews will simply have to dig a wider area to ensure a full cleanup of the property.

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