OPEN SOURCE — We published this story in response to a reader question submitted through our Open Source platform. Do you have a question you want our reporters to answer? Click here to submit it.
Question: What is the PRIDE fund the mayor referred to a City Council meeting?
MANSFIELD — The origins of the PRIDE tax fund in the Mansfield date back more than a decade as the city emerged from a state-ordered fiscal emergency.
It’s an acronym for a voter-approved, quarter-percent municipal income tax that helps pay for a combination of parks and recreation, demolition, illumination (re” streetlights), demolition and emergency services (police/fire.)
Funds from the tax, which generates about $4.8 million annually, are divided among those areas — 50 percent to police and fire, 22 percent to parks and recreation, 20 percent to demolition and 8 percent for illumination.
That translates to about $960,000 annually for demolition.
The question came up after Mansfield City Council on March 5 appropriated $282,047 of PRIDE funds to cover costs associated with excavating and removing debris left behind and the former YMCA on Park Avenue West was demolished five years ago.
The tax, which generates about $750,000 annually for demolitions in the city, was narrowly first approved by city voters in the general election in 2013 with 3,414 (51.05) percent in favor and 3,273 (48.95) against.
The city began collecting the tax in January 2014. It emerged from fiscal emergency in July of that year.
The PRIDE tax was renewed by wider margins during primary elections in 2017 (2,247-615) and 2021 (775-296).
The tax is back in the news because the city, which spent $500,000 in PRIDE on the 455 Park Ave. West in 2019, now wants to help the Richland County Land Bank cover costs associated with digging up and removing debris left buried when the the three-story building was taken down.
No decisions had been made yet regarding the city’s ability or intent to recoup money spent on the original demolition done under then-Mayor Tim Theaker.
The goal is to make the 3.2-acre site “developable,” according to Amy Hamrick, manager of the Land Bank, which now owns the property and is using a share of state grant funds for the work.
“We are digging up hard fill,” she said in February. “The goal is to return it to virgin soil.”
Hamrick said the Land Bank, which took possession of the property after the demolition, has spoken to potential developers, who initially expressed an interest in the site.
The plan was to demolish it and then assess the cost of demolition to the owner through the Richland County auditor’s office, who would eventually foreclose on the property. That is how the Land Bank eventually acquired it.
Theaker’s administration contracted in late 2018 with Page Excavating of Lucas to tear down the building, which the YMCA had sold and vacated when it opened its new facility on Scholl Road.
The city’s demolition contract allowed the company to bury “hard fill” from the building at the site, provided it was four feet or deeper beneath clean, compacted earth.
“Hard fill” is commonly known as compacted masonry, stove concrete, tile bank-run gravel and brick.
However, questions developed regarding the quality of the work done, leading to the new excavation that began in February.
Mayor Jodie Perry, who took office in January, is also a new member of the Land Bank board as part of her duties. She said in February the city will consider its options on recouping costs once a determination is made on work done during the original demolition.
“The new city administration is interested in working with the law director’s office to determine if there’s any appropriate cause of action,” she said.
Final costs of work being completed at the former YMCA site is yet to be finalized, Perry told council last week.
“We’re (city and Land Bank) having ongoing meetings about ‘How do we finish this correctly?’” the mayor said. “We want to make sure it’s done.”
Perry said legislation will be brought to council March 20 with a specific request.
“The reason that we don’t have it for you (council) tonight is we’re still trying to get our hands around, with the Land Bank, what is the final amount needed,” Perry told councilmembers, adding she expects the ask to total around $500,000.
“We do have it (funds) in the PRIDE fund, we will be making that ask, but it is going to eat into our PRIDE funds pretty significantly.
“We’ll have a much more robust report at the next council meeting, but I’ve been asked about it, there’s been some articles about it, so I just wanted to make sure I was giving council a heads up,” Perry said.
