MANSFIELD — The City of Mansfield, which has relied on the Richland County Land Bank to administer its building demolition program since 2014, will handle the work on its own after Jan. 31.
Dave Remy, the city’s public works director, notified the Land Bank via letter on Dec. 27 that Mansfield had chosen to “voluntarily terminate” its contract with the agency that has overseen 255 city-funded demolitions in the last nine years.
The Land Bank board discussed the city’s decision during its meeting Wednesday.
Ironically, it comes after the Land Bank landed state grants for the demolition of former Westinghouse properties and the former Ocie Hill Community Center — both huge projects within the city of Mansfield.
The agency is also overseeing the demolition of both projects, totaling about $4.5 million in state and local funds.
It’s likely “big ticket” demolitions such as these that receive state grant funding will continue to be done by the Land Bank.
“We all knew this letter was coming from the city,” Land Bank manager Amy Hamrick said Wednesday. “We have approximately 25-plus demos in progress that we will finish up for the city.
“I think we’re gonna still work closely with the city codes and permits and the development department,” Hamrick said.
“We’re trying to keep things moving smoothly. I don’t see an issue. We’ve worked well together in the past. It’s just things are just changing a little bit,” she said.
“Change is not necessarily bad. Change can be very good,” Hamrick said.
Instead, the work will be overseen by the city’s newly combined community development and codes/permits departments, headed by Adrian Ackerman, the city’s current community development and housing director.
Ackerman said Wednesday that Marc Milliron, who had been the manager of the building and codes department, will now oversee the demolition process, as well as do home inspections.
The city funds demolition efforts using money generated by its Parks, Recreation, Illumination, Demolitions and Emergency Services (PRIDE) tax, which generates about $3.7 million annually.
The city-funded demolitions accounted for about one-third of all Land Bank demolitions since 2014.
On its face, the move is not a money-saving change.
Under the contract, the city paid the Land Bank $775 per demolition, plus all “actual costs” for things like title searches, legal advertising, etc. For 31 demolitions in 2022, for example, that bill was $24,025, plus “actual costs.”
The salary range for Milliron’s new position is between $42,000 and $70,500, based on the legislation approved by City Council in December.
The PRIDE tax, first approved in 2013 and renewed in 2017 and 2021, benefits the city’s police and fire departments (50 percent), as well as parks and recreation (22 percent), demolition (20 percent) and street lights (8 percent).
Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker, a member of the Land Bank board, attended Wednesday’s meeting and said the city would continue to work closely with the agency.
“If there is money that is needed for match dollars, we have the match dollars in the PRIDE tax. We will continue to do that and will keep the Land Bank in the loop for all of the demolitions Marc will be working on,” he said.
Land Bank board chair Bart Hamilton, the county treasurer, asked his office also be “kept in that same little loop because many times there’s a little more tax involved and at the end of those, we want to do that tax foreclosure.”
Afterward, when asked why the change was being made, Theaker said the city “felt it was the right thing to do.”
