County to pay off building loan
The interest on the loan will be about $60,000, the county auditor says.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners have agreed to pay off a $430,000 balance on an Ohio Department of Development building renovation loan made to the former owners of Oakhill Renaissance Place.
In a resolution passed Thursday, the commissioners voted 2-1 to assume the loan at 3 percent annual interest, with the loan to be paid off in 2016.
Commissioner John A. McNally IV, who opposed the county’s purchase of Oakhill in 2006, cast the dissenting vote.
The commissioners took the action after ODOD declined to forgive the loan, which it made to the Southside Community Development Corp.
County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino said the county will owe about $60,000 in interest in addition to the $430,000 loan principal.
The county bought Oakhill in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for $75,000 after SCDC filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy.
Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, 345 Oak Hill Ave. The 353,000-square-foot former hospital now houses the county’s Department of Job and Family Services and coroner’s office, the city health department and various other agencies.
The county’s Veterans Services Commission, Green Team, Clerk of Courts Auto Title Division and Board of Elections are slated to move from the county’s South Side Annex to Oakhill later this year.
The county awaits an Ohio Supreme Court decision on whether the county has the authority to appeal a $421,000 real estate tax bill Oakhill incurred before the county bought it.
The state tax commissioner declined SCDC’s request for tax exemption for Oakhill just before that nonprofit corporation went bankrupt.
“When Mahoning County purchased the property, it took it subject to all existing liens. We’re claiming that that gave us the right to pursue that appeal,” Linette Stratford, chief of the civil division of the county prosecutor’s office, told the commissioners.
If the county loses the Ohio Supreme Court case, the county will likely have to pay the taxes, said Sciortino, who also opposed the county’s purchase of Oakhill.
In other business, the commissioners placed a .85-mill, five-year county mental health board levy on the ballot for renewal. It costs the owner of a $100,000 home $23 a year and raises about $3.2 million annually.
The panel also voted to advertise for bids for installation of permanent lighting and a new floor in the attic of the century-old county courthouse to improve maintenance workers’ access to the attic, where extensive water damage has occurred.
milliken@vindy.com