City Council updated on fiscal positives

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert City Council learned of some city financial positives, while also lending its support to a development/flood mitigation project in Vision Park, approving an additional payment to the Convention & Visitors Bureau, and authorizing the sale of outdated and unused city-owned equipment during its meeting Monday.

First up was Economic Development Director Stacy Adam, who talked about revisions in the flood plain map proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that could negatively affect city-owned property, making it undesirable for development.

Some of that land is in Vision Park, but Adam had a proposal that could solve that issue, if approved.

Noting that the price tag for a flood plain mitigation plan developed by consultants Choice One Engineering for Vision Park would cost approximately $250,000, Adam said there are some possible ways to come up with that funding, noting that JobsOhio has its Ohio Site Inventory Program (OSIP) that offers a combination of grant and loan funding to increase available industrial sites and buildings across the state, while Van Wert has a “jobs for land” credit that reduces or eliminates the cost to purchase city-owned Vision Park land in exchange for creating new jobs.

Adam said she has been working with Robinson Investments, a company that constructed a 100,000-square-foot spec building on Grill Road and is looking to build another 100,000-square-foot structure in Vision Park, to come up with a solution to the flood plain mitigation problem.

That plan would include transferring 20 acres of Vision Park land (valued at $12,000 an acre or $240,000 total) to the Community Improvement Corporation, who would then transfer it to Robinson Investments in exchange for that company paying the $250,000 mitigation project cost and committing to building a 100,000-square-foot spec building on the land.

Included in an application Adam would submit in support of the project is a request for a $750,000 grant for an extension of Vision Drive that would allow access to the new spec building, as well as an adjacent 59-acre development site purchased by the Van Wert Business Development Corporation last spring.

The agreement, Adam said, would solve the flood plain issue without the need for city money, provide a new 100,000-square-foot spec building available for occupancy within 12 months, and access both to that building and to the BDC site.

Council later approved an emergency ordinance drawn up by Law Director John Hatcher that would provide city approval for the transfer of the land to the CIC.

Adam also noted that the county is again applying for a CHIP (Community Housing Impact and Preservation) grant that would provide money to low- and moderate-income single-family homeowners to rehabilitate their properties, and asked that city officials again consider agreeing to pay half of the $10,000 application filing fee, which is only necessary if the application isn’t approved. If the application is approved, which it has been the last three times, the fee is paid as part of the administration costs.

Council approved a motion to prepare legislation authorizing that agreement that could be passed at the February 22 meeting.

Hall Block of the Van Wert County Foundation also requested that Council approve a resolution to formally accept the Van Wert Forward downtown development master plan, and Council members unanimously approved a motion to prepare a resolution to that effect. The approval is needed to allow Van Wert Forward to seek financing and grants as the project unfolds.

Also Monday, Auditor Martha Balyeat had some positive financial information for City Council, noting that the city did better in January than expected.

“Surprisingly, we took in $581,000 and we only spent $552,000,” Balyeat said, noting that income tax collections were also higher than expected.

“We’re not really sure what’s going on, but it’s positive,” the auditor said, although stressing the fact that it was difficult to make any projections based on the information at this time.

Council also approved a then-and-now certificate for five invoices submitted for sludge removal in 2020.

Legislatively, City Council members also voted to prepare legislation that would approve two Community Reinvestment Act requests is adopted and a request by Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming for an ordinance authorizing the sale of several used city vehicles and other equipment.

Two amended salary ordinances were also approved on first and final reading, while Council approved paying the CVB $11,368.03 to compensate for COVID-related lost revenues from the Hotel-Motel Fund. Because the CVB gets a percentage of the fund, rather than a flat figure like the Airport Authority and Main Street Van Wert, decreases in Hotel-Motel revenues left the CVB with a substantial decrease in funding for the year.

Legislation was also prepared to approve a request to detach (un-annex) two parcels of land on John Brown Road from the city. Property owners Steve and Erica Racster want the land, which is adjacent to their residence, returned to Pleasant Township, since their residence is also located in Pleasant Township and city water and sewer service is not available to the parcels.

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, February 22, in Council Chamber on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.