MANSFIELD — Mansfield Memorial Homes approached Mansfield City Council on Tuesday to discuss a proposal that calls for a 20-foot portion of Blymyer Avenue to be vacated.
This would enable the nonprofit corporation to close off Blymyer Avenue, near the intersection with West First Street, with fencing and landscaping. The Marion Avenue entrance would remain open.
Mansfield Memorial Homes, which owns properties on either side of Blymyer Avenue, opened in 1953. It currently serves over 200 people at its campus every day and an additional 170 people who are not on campus. It employs over 120 people.
Services offered include independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, therapy services, adult daycare, Meals on Wheels, home health services and transportation.
According to Mansfield Memorial Homes CEO Dan Miller, it has become increasingly harder for Memorial Homes to operate at its current location.
“We have had some issues in the neighborhood with crime and drugs and prostitution and things like that,” he said. “We think by vacating part of this street and closing part of this street that it would help us from the standpoint of security, not only for our staff but for our residents.
“We think it would also create a little bit more of a campus feel for us, which would enable us, hopefully, to continue to provide services at this location.”
Former mayor Lydia Reid, who serves on the Mansfield Memorial Homes Board, said this has been talked about for many years.
“I think we’ve now come to the point where it is really what we need at Memorial Homes in order to thrive,” she said.
She discussed the issue of safety, noting, “We never know when somebody is going to come barreling down through there, and we have Conard House on one side, which is assisted living, and across the street we have a nursing home.”
The street would still be public and maintained by the city.
“The idea of a city street and city services to support a business in the downtown area certainly wouldn’t be unique by any means,” said Mansfield Memorial Homes Board member Dan Seckel. “We do it many times in the city.”
Memorial Homes officials have already met with the Mansfield police and fire departments, both of which didn’t raise any concerns about the proposal.
This project comes at no cost to the city.
Councilmen Butch Jefferson and Jon Van Harlingen gave their support, and Mayor Tim Theaker also approved the idea.
“I personally think closing that off would be beneficial to Mansfield Memorial Homes,” Theaker said.
The next step to put a plan in motion is for Memorial Homes to prepare a vacation plat and submit legislation to council for a vote.
