July 30, 1998

In 30 seconds, Avtex’s Churn and Mix #2 building turned to dust Monday, but the memories will remain for the crowd of former workers and others that gathered to watch the once thriving six-story building fall.

The building’s original demolition, originally scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday, was canceled at 8 p.m. after a small crowd of former workers, media representatives, and others waited for the big event. Families and children waited on lawn chairs, at a day care center directly across from Avtex on Kendrick Lane, and atop cars and trucks to watch the last building tumble under the first phase of Avtex’s building demolition project. A few other buildings remain on site, but their future status is unknown, EPA officials said.

Churn and Mix was re-scheduled to be toppled at 4 p.m. Monday, and after another round of delays, it finally was pulled down by cables and pulleys at 4:45 p.m.

"Once we gave the green light it was 30 seconds," said Michael Towle, Avtex’s onsite manager for the U.S. environmental Protection Agency, which is spearheading the cleanup of the Superfund site as it seeks to prevent contamination of soil and ground water.

Delays resulted from last-minute obstacles encountered by demolition contractor Garden State Scrap of New Jersey. "They found the beams were more corroded that they thought. A new beam cuts easily. An old beam takes longer to cut."

Another reason for the delays was concern for firefighters who were in their heavy chemical protective gear for hours in the hot sun, making it difficult for them to work, Towle said.

During the period in which the structure was demolished, the readings in air monitors onsite did not raise above background levels, Towle said. "The Churn and Mix structure definitely generated particles, but by the time hey went through the how of water, they didn’t migrate beyond the property boundaries."

The highest concentration of dust was recorded when vehicles were entering the leaving the site.

James Whited, 79, who worked at Avtex 36 years, with 14 years in churn and Mix, appeared to be a little choked up as he stood with others lined up at a fence on Kendrick Lane to watch the building fall. He waited several hours on Friday, peering out occasionally with his binoculars, because of "memories."

"It was beautiful," Whited said. " I enjoyed every year I was there... A lot of good friends. It was good money around here. This gave ma a good living. I don’t have anything but good things to say about it."

Whited worked as a fork truck operator who "dropped crumbs in the churn." The crumbs were wood pulp that became a liquefied brown syrupy goo known as viscose after "CS2" and other chemicals were added.

"I worked at the top door on this end," he said, pointing to the brick structure with broken out windows. "It was as clean as a house."

A few feet away, Vicky Hartman of Front Royal, was sad again. She said she cried when the Avtex’s infamous stack came down last fall. "I didn’t want anyone to know but I did. It was real sad seeing the stack come down."

On Friday, she was at the same little grassy area outside the fence where she’d wait for their father, the late Mike Hargmen, a lead burner, after the end o a long day at the plant.

"We’d play in the grass waiting for him to come out. It’s the same grass."

Hartman said her parents were among a small band of families who moved from Roanoke to 10^th Street in 1955 to work at Avtex. Her father, who was laid off after 13 years, died of a heart attack at age 54.

"This brings back memories whin I was little. A lot of people didn’t like the place but it was par of the livelihood of Front royal for many years."

Manuel Pullen, of Front royal, was a chemical worker in Churn and Mix and elsewhere at Avtex for 42 years. " A lot of people think there was a lot of odor. You never smelled anything in the plant like you did outside. It never was a proven fact the smell was harmful. Several people got hurt. Some ran into beams with fork trucks. A couple got killed with fumes in the tank when they didn’t use safety precautions."

In Churn and Mix, viscose was manufactured and aged in tanks.

John Campbell of Strasburg, also in the crowd Friday, said he came out " just to hear the big boom" with the building’s demolition." "When I went to work there it was 42 cents an hour in 1944, and $8 something an hour in 1986. I went eight years and never missed a day," he said. "I had seven children, so I had to go. Five of them went to work here."

EPA last year designated $33 million to demolish or tear down crumbling buildings and bury the demolition debris at Avtex. The planned landfill site is dubbed Fly Ash Mountain, a hill of ash generated from an onsite coal-fired power plant when Avtex was operational. The site is west of the railroad tracks, above the 150-year floodplain, and 680 feet away from the Shenandoah River, officials said.

The landfill’s design is expected to be completed by next spring.

EPA’s contractor, Gannett Fleming, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is assisting EPA in the landfill’s construction and design.