I hear that the lowest demolition bid was well below the 2008 structural engineer's $38,000 estimate for tearing the building down and capping the utilities .
Will residents see more stonewalling and stall and delay tactics on the part of Mayor Coleman and Councilmen Frank Legan and Ed Hargate. Will they continue their campaign to prevent council from accepting a demolition bid? Tonight's council meeting should tell that tale.
Meanwhile, here's my Letter to the Editor on the issue, which the Sun Messenger printed last week.
http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2010/09/sun_messenger_letter_to_the_ed_37.html
Highland Heights Council has spent more than two years debating what to do with the vacant church building on the City Hall property.
In all that time, no needed use for the building has been identified. Claims that council hasn’t explored possible uses and is rushing to judgment are way off base.
Residents can read for themselves what a professional structural engineer said about the building in 2008 (go to http://www.highlandhts.com/ and select “Read the Church Property Evaluation report by CT Consultants“). That report details the building’s poor condition, including long-standing roof leaks, interior mold, minimal insulation and single-pane windows, and obsolete and/or inoperable plumbing, heating and electrical systems. The engineer estimated it would cost $773,262 to bring the building up to code and $38,000 to demolish it and cap the utilities.
Recently a private social club proposed converting the building into an indoor bocce facility—pitching the deal as a public-private “partnership.” Although Law Director Tim Paluf flatly declared at a July 20 council committee meeting the city couldn’t enter into such a “partnership,” supporters continue to spread misinformation about the plan, hoping to convince residents it is a good deal.
For example, Mayor Scott Coleman wrote in the July 2010 Highland Highlights newsletter the club would “renovate the entire building at their cost,” and Councilman Frank Legan was quoted in an Aug. 26 Sun Messenger story (“Church moves closer to demolition”) as saying, “we (the city) wouldn’t have to pay for it.” Those statements are simply untrue.
In a June 30 written proposal, the club promises to do far less than “renovate the entire building at (its own) cost.” In addition to installing 3 bocce courts — which would take up most of the building’s interior space — the club agreed to: reroof and paint the building; repair some interior ceilings; remodel a kitchen and two small “meeting” rooms; update the bathrooms; and inspect the building’s HVAC, plumbing and sewer systems, with “possible” repairs. In exchange, the club expects to receive a “long-term, multi-year” lease and city-provided liability insurance coverage. The city would also have to pay all of the (energy inefficient) building’s ongoing operating and maintenance costs.
Renovate and restore the entire building at no cost to city taxpayers? Who are Coleman and Legan kidding? Club Molisani doesn’t have the money to do that — and neither does the city. Attempts to sell the arrangement as a “public-private partnership” are almost laughable. Examined realistically, the deal translates into little more than public subsidy of a private social club’s recreational activities — all in the name of saving a decrepit, substandard building that would have been condemned by the city, had it remained in private hands.
Given its location next to the municipal complex, the decision to buy the church property was a good one. But that decision will turn into a bad one if council saddles present and future taxpayers with the cost of renovating and operating the outdated building that sits on that property — as Mayor Coleman and Councilman Legan seem so keen to do.
Amy R. Feranend
Highland Heights
