MANSFIELD — An investment company based in Fort Wayne, Indiana intends to convert a Springmill Street building into a bar and grill.
According to Fourth Ward Councilman Butch Jefferson, the building once housed Level 1 Lounge. It is situated just east of Tim’s Auto Repair, close to the Bowman Street intersection. Mansfield City Council heard a brief summary of 4 Life Investment’s plan during a streets committee meeting Tuesday night, prior to its regularly scheduled council meeting.
City Engineer Bob Bianchi said the investment company submitted a request to the city, asking that Mansfield vacate a portion on an unnamed alley located between Vale Avenue and Springmill Street to make room for additional parking.
He said the company was unable to obtain the signatures from all the surrounding residents whose properties abut the alley.
There is a process in which the company can have its vacation request published in the local newspaper for six weeks at its own expense, though this has yet to begin.
Asked if there are any foreseeable cons, Jefferson noted that he lives in that neighborhood and uses that alley as a cut-through. More discussion concerning this project is expected at the next streets committee meeting in two weeks.
In other news, the city has entered into a cooperation agreement with Richland County to resurface Lexington-Springmill Road.
“This is a county road, thereby it’s required by the county to be paved, but since part of it’s in the city, we have a part in paving it as well,” Bianchi said. “About 37 percent of the project.”
Half of the project will be funded by grant money awarded by the Ohio Public Works Commission.
“But we’ll still have (approximately) $55,000 of local share into paving half of Lexington-Springmill,” he said. “It wouldn’t be done until 2018.”
City funds will come from the 2018 budget, specifically the resurfacing fund.
