Mar 10, 2016 2 min read

CHARLEROI – A building where retired U.S. Lt. Gen. William “Gus” Pagonis is believed to have grown up is beginning to tilt, prompting the borough to seek engineering studies to solve the problem.

Charleroi Council agreed Tuesday to hire McMillen Engineering Inc. of Uniontown to examine 429 McKean Ave. in the historic downtown to determine why it pulled away four inches from the top of the adjacent building.

Council also will seek a geotechnical engineer to inspect the borough’s Market House because it sits beside 429 McKean, which is home to a nail salon.

Terry Necciai, a Monongahela architect who is completing a study of Charleroi’s historic district for the borough, said 429 McKean once shared a common side wall with a building that was demolished nine years ago to build the Market House.

Necciai said the contractor for the Market House may have pushed soil against the wood frame wall on the tilting three-story building, and the soil is probably causing wood to rot.

“They may be able to jack it up,” he said.

Necciai said the building is fully occupied. Washington County tax records indicate the building is owned by Floyd and Kathy Chew.

Pagonis was logistics director during the Gulf War of 1991.

In other business, council received a report from Shawn Rosensteel, an engineer with KLH Engineers Inc. of Pittsburgh, regarding federally mandated improvements to the wastewater treatment plant and its pump stations to reduce overflows into the Monongahela River.

Rosensteel said the plans were redesigned to reduce the project’s estimated cost from $66 million to nearly $35 million. He said it was too early to say how much the project will increase bills to customers of the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Charleroi, which services a number of neighboring municipalities.