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WATCH | The 68-year-old former coal-fired power plant in Weathersfield blasted down

By Mahoning Matters staff
More than a dozen employees of the former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township watch as the structure is demolished on Thursday, April 28, 2022.
More than a dozen employees of the former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township watch as the structure is demolished on Thursday, April 28, 2022. (William D. Lewis | Mahoning Matters)
WEATHERSFIELD TOWNSHIP

The 68-year-old remains of the former coal-fired Ohio Edison Power Plant along Belmont Avenue were blasted to the ground Thursday morning.

The 12-story, 200,000-kilowatt plant was built in 1953 for $35 million and was “the biggest construction project in the area in many years,” according to the Niles Historical Society.

Each day, its generators burned 2,500 tons of coal, and were quenched by 200 millions of water pumped from the Mahoning River then “cleanly returned to it.” Its smokestacks rose 300 feet. At its peak, it employed more than 100 workers.

Richard Rook, a 33-year employee at the former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township watches as the structure is demolished on Thursday, April 28, 2022. He said he was “sad to see it go.”
Richard Rook, a 33-year employee at the former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township watches as the structure is demolished on Thursday, April 28, 2022. He said he was “sad to see it go.” (William D. Lewis | Mahoning Matters)

The plant, later called the Niles Generating Station, was shut down in 2013, said Richard Rook, a former 30-year manager at the plant, who was one of more than a dozen former workers who gathered Thursday for its toppling.

“Good place to work. Excellent people to work with,” he told Mahoning Matters. “It’s a little bit sad to see it go but it’s a lot better to have it go than to have it sit there and rot away for the next 10 years.”

Spectators watch the controlled demolition of the former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township on Thursday, April 28, 2022.
Spectators watch the controlled demolition of the former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township on Thursday, April 28, 2022. (William D. Lewis | Mahoning Matters)
Shown here are the remains of the 68-year-old former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township after the structure was demolished on Thursday, April 28, 2022.
Shown here are the remains of the 68-year-old former Niles Generating Station along Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield Township after the structure was demolished on Thursday, April 28, 2022. (William D. Lewis | Mahoning Matters)