Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Guard had 82 armories in Ohio in 1982, but is down to 53 now.
BARBERTON, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio National Guard, which is closing old armories around the state, should donate these abandoned properties so they can be used for redevelopment rather than insist on charging local communities, Mayor Bob Genet said.
This city, about 30 miles south of Cleveland, donated nine acres for the construction of an armory in 1949, and it’s not fair for the Guard to insist on asking Barberton to pay $750,000 to get it back, Genet said. The land is blocks from a new middle school and could spark a neighborhood revival.
“We’re all in this together, the state, the county, the city, to try to develop growth economically,” he said. “We need to help each other out.”
Guard spokesman James Sims said a 2004 law states that Ohio will give armory properties back only if cities thought to include a special clause when they deeded over the land for the armories.
Urbana and Bellefontaine, two small cities northwest of Columbus, have these special clauses.
“If we give it away, it does hurt us in ability to maintain our other facilities,” Sims said. “That’s sort of the quandary we find ourselves in — not wanting to negatively affect any of the communities but understanding we have maintenance requirements we need to meet by selling these armories.”
The Guard is shedding armories to transform its fighting force to match the structure of the active Army and the Army Reserves, said spokesman Mark Wayda. That means building new “readiness centers” and selling armories that are too old and too small.
In 1982, the Guard operated 82 armories statewide, he said. After shedding buildings in Bowling Green, Chillicothe and Findlay, among others, it has 53.
Plans call to slim down to 38 by 2025 with sales slated in Ashtabula, Cincinnati, Columbus and Mount Vernon.
The buildings — built between 1910 and 1960 — have been bought by cities, car dealerships and funeral homes. Some are used for municipal offices, while others make way for parking lots.
Genet is among the few to complain about the process.
The Barberton armory closed in 2003, and the city has been leasing the property from the state for $1 a year and using it for storage.
Barberton has until Monday to decide whether to buy the armory. Summit County, which includes Barberton, would then have 60 days to consider purchasing it before the property goes to auction.
State Rep. John Otterman, a Democrat from nearby Akron, advised Barberton to wait. Most likely, he said, no one will bid at the auction. Then the city could strike a deal.
Westerville, a Columbus suburb, passed on the state’s $1 million price for its armory on 2.6 acres. But at auction the city snapped up the property for $500,000 to convert it to government office space.