MANSFIELD — Mansfield City Council will begin 2022 by considering spending $352,318 on new main computer server hardware.
According to proposed legislation scheduled to be discussed Tuesday evening, “the main server hardware utilized by all city departments is inefficient and obsolete.”
The city would pay for the new Dell equipment using a portion of the $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act revenue replacement funds that City Council agreed to set aside last fall.
If approved, the city will have used $459,207 of the funds (roughly 9 percent) that it set aside for revenue replacement from the $10.5 million Mansfield in ARPA funds it received in 2021.
During its final meeting of 2021, council agreed with Mayor Tim Theaker on spending $106,889 of the replacement funds on a variety of needs, including $20,000 for municipal court radio upgrades; $13,400 for a fire station HVAC system; $30,000 for an HVAC system and $29,247 for furniture, both expenditures for an $305,000 indoor police training facility planned near Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport; and $8,165 for chairs and remote video equipment for the city’s engineering department.
The city has already appropriated its other 2021 ARPA funds, though it will receive a like amount in 2022.
The bulk of that $5.4 million is being spent on a $2 million emergency storm sewer project from Third and Bowman streets to Touby’s Run and $900,000 for engineering and design work to replace about 25 miles of aging city water lines in various locations.
That water-line effort will create “shovel-ready” projects the city can use to seek additional state and federal funding in the future, engineer Bob Bianchi has said.
Also on Tuesday, City Council is expected to vote on legislation offering a financial commitment to the Richland County Land Bank’s planned $5 million remediation of two former Westinghouse properties on the city’s east side: the dilapidated former “A” building at 200 Fifth St. and the 13-acre “concrete jungle” property that abuts to the east side.
The financial commitment, which is not specified on the legislation emailed to the media on Friday, is likely to come from a combination of PRIDE tax funds and ARPA dollars.
The Land Bank has accepted the donations of the properties, which have largely sat idle since Westinghouse ended its Mansfield operations in 1990.
Land Bank board chair Bart Hamilton said in September that the state’s two-year budget set aside $500 million for demolition and brownfield remediation through the Ohio Dept. of Development.
Each of the state’s 88 counties is guaranteed $1.5 million from that fund ($500,000 in demolition funds and $1 million in brownfield remediation dollars), leaving $368 million “up for grabs” for projects.
Entities such as the local Land Bank will have to come up with a 25-percent match for any projects after guaranteed funds are spent. Proof of those matching dollars must be submitted with each project application.
Richland County commissioners on Dec. 16 pledged up to $1 million in matching funds toward the Westinghouse cleanup. At the time, commissioners said it expected the city would also participate in the funding.
Hamilton said last week he wasn’t sure when the state would start to make decisions on what will likely be a flood of applications from around the state. Work approved must be completed by the end of June 2023.
Council is also expected to approve solicitation of bids for a consultant related to the construction and inspection of the West End Neighborhood Plan. The legislation calls for spending up to $125,000 for the work.
The plan, created by EDGE Landscape, Architecture, Urban Design and Planning, is aimed at improving an area whose geographic boundaries are generally Marion Avenue/Park Avenue West to the west and north; South Main Street to the east; and Glessner Avenue to the south.
The first phase of the project, with an estimated construction cost of $1 million, will improve Glessner Avenue between Wood Street and Sturges and Arthur avenues.
The bulk of the money for the project is coming via the city’s federal Community Development Block Grant funds.
Council’s finance committee is scheduled to meet at 6:35 p.m., followed by a rules committee meeting at 6:45. Caucus is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., followed immediately by the legislative session.
