Feb 2, 2016 2 min read

DONORA – The Mon Valley Youth & Teen Center is Donora will be closed for six weeks while the fire-damaged building is cleaned and restored.

The center’s food bank, which serves about 100 families, hopes to temporarily relocate to the Donora Borough Building during the restoration work, said its director, Mary Anne Bandalo.

“I don’t want children in here. It’s not suitable,” Bandalo said Tuesday while a fire-restoration company inspected the damage to the former synagogue at Second Street and Thompson Avenue.

She said particles from the Jan. 26 fire, which started in a neighboring vacant house, pose a health risk because they are still in the air in the youth center. Flames from the house broke out six windows in the center, causing smoke damage throughout the building.

“Everything in here is contaminated,” she said.

The brick building dating to 1911 and its contents need to be professionally cleaned, and the second floor needs a new floor and ceiling before it can be occupied, she said.

The after-school program on Tuesdays and Wednesday for 40 children who are in kindergarten through fifth grade may be extended a month due to the temporary closing of the center.

Bandalo said she received several “generous offers” of space to hold the program while the building is repaired. She said the center can’t operate, though, because everything the children use needs to be cleaned.

Donora Council will discuss offering the borough building to the food pantry when it meets for an agenda session Thursday, borough manager Dennis Fisher said.

The center also has started a GoFundMe crowdfunding page to raise money to cover any repairs above what the insurance will pay for. For information on the fund drive, visit https://www.gofundme.com/38rgjaqk