by Rachael Whitcomb
Associate Editor
Boston Heights -- A bustling 24-hour gas station at Route 8 and Boston Mills Road on the Hudson-Boston Heights border will close next month to make way for improvements to Route 8 and the Ohio Turnpike's toll plaza.
Ohio Department of Transportation spokesperson Paula Putnam said the sale of the BP gas station to ODOT will be complete June 14, but a sale price still is being negotiated between BP and ODOT.
A BP spokesperson could not be reached by press time.
Putnam said ODOT is purchasing the station because it needs more land around Route 8 for new ramps to the Ohio Turnpike toll plaza, which will be refurbished in the second phase of the Route 8 construction project, scheduled for completion in 2009.
According to Summit County property records, the 2,520-square-foot gas station was built in 1997 on a 1.84 parcel on the northeast corner of Route 8 and Boston Mills Road. The property was appraised in 2006 at $456,930, according to the county.
Putnam said for the first year after the purchase, BP will have to work with a state agency that regulates underground tank storage to be certain that nothing seeped into the ground from the station's underground fuel tanks, which will be removed immediately. By the second year, ODOT should be able to remove the building and relocate its utilities through the site, Putnam said.
E-mail: rwhitcomb@recordpub.com
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