YOUNGSTOWN — Frustration is mounting over the Youngstown City Hall’s fire escape, replaced three months ago, but unable to pass a fire department inspection because of problems inside the building.

The issues are on the top floor of the seven-story city hall where work is needed to fix ceiling tiles and stairs that need to be rebuilt with a railing — both interior issues with the building and not with the fire escape.

Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, and Kevin Flinn, buildings and grounds commissioner, said there is nothing more the city can do and the needed improvements will be done by Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown, the fire escape project’s contractor.

Shasho insists: “We have a functioning fire escape,” and city council, which last met in its chambers on the building’s sixth floor March 1, 2023, can return to city hall at any time.

“None of this has to do with the sixth floor so I’m not sure why we’re not in there to be honest with you,” Shasho said. “I can’t make (council) go back to the sixth floor. I don’t know what they’re doing.”

Fire Chief Barry Finley said: “My chief inspector said they still have a couple of things they have to get through. I’m thinking by mid-January it should be ready. Can’t do it until it’s signed off on, period.”

Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward and council president pro tempore, said: “It seems like there’s a disconnect. Who’s fixing it? The fire inspector can’t say release it and we can’t fix it up. Who’s doing the work here? There’s a level of disgust here after almost two years.”

Flinn said: “We’ve done everything that we can do. We’re just waiting on the general contractor to do a couple of things on his punch list for that access.”

Shasho said: “The fire escape is functional. It’s all done. The final inspection needs to be done. When the fire inspector is happy it will be done.”

Murphy finished the job in September to install the fire escape, but it couldn’t pass a city fire inspection, even after the company added interior illuminated exit signs inside the building and exterior lighting on the structure in November — which were other issues identified by the fire inspector.

Problems remain on the seventh floor, Shasho said.

“It has nothing to do with the fire escape,” he said. “Murphy has to come back. It’s nothing they did wrong. It is a fire code issue. There are fire code issues in city hall. There are fire code issues in every building. Since we’re working on it, (the fire department inspector) wanted to address it.”

Finley shut down the old fire escape March 9, 2023, because of structural problems that then became a series of issues causing numerous delays and consternation among some members of city council, who want to return to the building.

Council hasn’t met in its chambers for almost 22 months because of safety concerns. The issue is if there is a fire, it would be a problem to get people – particularly the public – safely out of the sixth floor meeting room because they could only take the stairs, which would also be used by firefighters to gain access to the floor to put out a potential fire. When the fire alarms are activated, the building’s elevators are automatically shut down.

Shasho said the fire escape works and if there’s an emergency during a city council meeting, it could be used.

Other city committees and boards continue to meet at city hall, including the board of control in the council caucus room on the sixth floor and council committees meet on either the second or fourth floors. But for nearly two years, council meetings are held off-site at either the Covelli Centre or the Mahoning County commissioners’ meeting room.

The fire escape project has experienced several problems and setbacks from its start with the cost going up.

Council voted April 19, 2023, to spend up to $250,000 for repair work and designs to the fire escape, though Shasho said that amount was never going to be the final cost. At that time, work was to be finished in a few months.

Council voted to increase the maximum cost to $1.1 million on July 31, 2023, after it was decided to replace rather than repair the fire escape.

City council agreed Dec. 20, 2023, to increase the project’s cost from $1.1 million to $1.4 million.

The issues causing delays included needed additions to the project, the city having to resolve concerns from the Mahoning County Building Department about the safety of those inside city hall between the time the old fire escape was dismantled and when a new one was installed, and concerns about the foundation.

There was initial debate between replacement and repairing the fire escape after a Feb. 3, 2023, inspection report determined the fire escape was inoperable. Finley decided March 9, 2023, that the fire escape would be shut down until work on it could be finished.

After Murphy Contracting did repair work, including cleaning and sandblasting the fire escape of bird droppings and rust, it was decided in July 2023 that it would be better to replace rather than repair the aging fire escape, even though it would be more expensive.

That not only increased the cost, but it delayed the completion date to January. About a year later, it’s still not ready.

That’s because after more problems were discovered, council agreed Dec. 20, 2023, to raise the project’s cost to $1.4 million. Work didn’t even start until January – four months behind schedule – and moved the completion date to late February or early March.

Additional issues – including the discovery that a measurement of the structure determined the fire escape and the connecting emergency doors on each floor didn’t match and then the need to resolve that – delayed the completion date to mid-May. Further delays moved the completion to mid-June – and even more issues pushed it to September. The lighting work further delayed it and the issues raised in the inspection pushed it further back yet again.

Shasho said a few months ago that in hindsight, the city should have taken its time to have the project properly designed rather than having it designed and followed shortly by work. But wanting to get the fire escape installed, the project was rushed and problems arose, he said.