Mayor: Streetsboro Will Start Rebuilding Its Campus This Year
Record-Courier – February 14, 2018 – Streetsboro, Ohio –
Plans are in motion for the city of Streetsboro to build a new City Hall and fire station.
“We are going to have a new City Hall, and we are going to have a new fire station,” said Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska during his State of the City Address to Streetsboro Area Chamber of Commerce members Wednesday at the Streetsboro Hampton Inn and Suites.
“This has been — I’ll call it a dream of mine since day one — to get out of that school,” he said.
Streetsboro’s City Hall is located in what used to be Wise Elementary School on Route 43, which was built in 1950 and renovated in 1993.
“Many of you have been in City Hall, and it is not the most attractive place to be in,” he added.
He said Welty Building Co., the city’s partner in developing a City Center, is still working on plans for a third building on the property, but added that plans are indefinite at this point. However, he did say Streetsboro’s recreational needs would not be forgotten.
“We understand the needs for the parks and recreation aspect, and it will be taken into account,” he said.
The proposed City Hall and fire station may cost an estimated $8 million altogether. The fire station, which Broska said could be similar to New Philadelphia’s 24,000-square-foot station, should cost around $4.7 million, and City Hall, which would be around 10,000 square feet in size, would cost $2 million to $3 million.
He said he hopes to move City Hall staff to temporary office space within the city in 60 to 90 days, after which demolition and construction could begin. He said he anticipates being in temporary offices for a year or a little more than that, at which point the new City Hall should be open.
He said City Council approved two measures Monday that set plans in motion to build the new facility. Council authorized the administration to exercise an option to purchase a 5-acre to 6-acre parcel immediately to the south of City Hall for no more than $330,000, according to the mayor. The purchase would increase the city’s holdings at its 9184 Route 43 site to around 15 acres. Council also approved allowing GPD Group to conduct preliminary engineering for the project. GPD also will serve as the project engineering and architecture firm, said Broska.
Broska told attendees at the Streetsboro Area Chamber of Commerce meeting he hopes the new city center complex will spur redevelopment of the city’s core.
“We are going to build our city center first,” he said. “We are hoping developers look at some of the areas around us and want to redo some of the stuff.”
The area surrounding City Hall and Market Square Plaza is part of a proposed downtown district which would entail mixed use development and walkable streets.
City Hall maintenance
City officials have discussed for years the various problems with the current City Hall, but Broska said repair and maintenance needs have “come to a head” in recent years.
“We’d like to be out of that building as soon as humanly possible,” he said. “Honestly, we’re running into a lot of issues with the building itself.”
In addition to the inefficient layout, inefficient windows and high utility bills, the leaky roof continues to plague the city, he explained.
“It’s to the point where we would have to put significant money into it, and we’re not going to do that,” he said. “We’ve been trying to put Band-Aids on it.”
By BOB GAETJENS / Reporter