ASHLAND – In an effort to encourage continued development of the U.S. 250 East corridor, Ashland City Council passed an ordinance to amend an existing Community Reinvestment Area agreement with Ashland Commons.
The amendment will allow for the Ashland Commons lot to be split, In turn, JLS Enterprise Trust can then purchase a portion of Ashland Commons and JLS would receive the same 10-year, 50-percent tax abatement the current owner was promised.
The amendment came at the request of Ashland Area Economic Development executive director Kathy Goon and follows approval of the lot split by the city’s planning commission.
Goon said the site developer, Meridian Realty Capital, wants to sell the plaza that contains Chipotle, Kay Jewelers, Sprint, Pet Valu, Pulp Juice and Smoothie Bar but plans to keep the undeveloped land west of the plaza.
Mayor Matt Miller said it’s his understanding the transaction will allow the developer to move forward with plans for further development in the area.
JLS and its affiliates are based in Pittsburgh and own a combined 400,000 square feet of light industrial warehouse and commercial retail space, Goon said.
“The goal in getting this done now is we want to encourage JLS to go ahead and purchase this from Meridian,” Goon said. “I think it would be a good move for us to be able to get this new company in here.
“I’m fully in favor of Meridian selling it to this company.”
Council also voted to move forward with the city’s 2018 pavement rehabilitation project by going out for bids on the estimated $1.7 million in street repairs.
The street plan has changed since it was last reviewed by council because the city has since learned that Columbia Gas is planning projects in some of the same areas.
Miller said planned repaving on Woodhill Drive, Cleveland Avenue, East Washington Street and South Street all will wait until after the gas company is finished with its work.
Several other areas have been moved up on the priority list and added to the plans for this year, Miller said. They include portions of Crestview Drive, Davis Street, Dove Drive, King Road, Meadow Lane, Pleasant Street and Vine Street.
At the request of fire chief Rick Anderson, council authorized the mayor to purchase two SUVs to replace existing fire department vehicles at a price not to exceed $120,000.
The vehicles will be purchased through a state cooperative purchasing agreement contract. They will be paid for using revenue from the two townships that contract with the city for fire services. The monies are set aside in a separate fund for equipment.
Council also approved an ordinance to allow the mayor to purchase replacement information technology storage and backup equipment and hardware.
City IT director Aaron Doerrer told council members the estimated $60,000 worth of equipment from Presidio Networked Solutions Group is necessary to replace a failing central box that controls the city’s computer system and to purchase two backup servers to prevent data loss.
“We’ve had outages in the past month that are unpredictable,” he said. “We don’t know when it’s going to happen and it crashes and basically the city is inoperable at that time.”
Doerrer said the city did not go through the advertising and bidding process to select a vendor because of the urgency of the problem and because the few vendors meet the specific needs for the system. The city did request two quotes, and the chosen vendor provided a lower price quote than the other one the city considered, Doerrer said.
The city had a first reading on an ordinance that would establish an illicit discharge and illegal connection control program in the city, something city engineer Shane Kremser said is required by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. At the suggestion of law director Rick Wolfe, council members requested more time to review the ordinance before taking a vote at council’s next meeting.
Also at Tuesday’s council meeting, Miller announced the city has stationed a school resource officer, Jeremy Jarvis, in the Ashland City Schools. Jarvis started in his new role this week.
Miller also said he is working with Ashland County Community Foundation director James Cutright and City Planning Commission member Rick Ewing to develop a plan for certain key areas of the city.
“Here very soon we will have more concrete details of what that will look like,” Miller said. “The good news is the foundation board has generously stepped forward to help cover the cost of that plan.
“They will be helping us get the plan together, and then it will be up to us as the city leaders, and working with the private sector, to figure out how to get the plans funded and implemented.”
