Thursday, March 26, 2015
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Two much-discussed projects have been unanimously approved by city council.
The first enables the city to enter into a joint economic development district with Canfield Township for a proposed Windsor House facility. That vote took place Wednesday night after the city conducted a public hearing on the matter to get feedback from city residents. Only one resident spoke at the short hearing: Frank Micchia, who attends most council meetings.
When the matter first was discussed early last year, Micchia contended it should be solely a city project.
“I was wrong. I fully support it. It has some benefits for the city and township,” he said Wednesday night. “It can open up a new avenue of communications between the township and city.”
Township Trustee Marie Cartwright and Township Administrator Keith Rogers attended the hearing. The township’s public hearing on the matter is set for next week.
“Quite frankly, I was surprised at the little attendance at the public hearing on this particular issue,” City Manager Joe Warino said.
Windsor House would sit on more than 18 acres on state Route 446, surrounded by Mill Creek MetroParks Farm. The city and township have agreed on how to police the facility, split the taxes and get water and sewer lines to it, among other details.
The second unanimous vote enables the city to restructure a debt for the Red Gate Farm property, while lowering interest and the yearly payment. The eight-year $1.1 million loan will include the current debt of about $602,000 on the property, which sits at state Route 62 and Leffingwell Road.
The remaining $500,000 is to pay for an expansion at the police department — the same expansion approved by council in 2001, but stopped after the economy took a hit after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Council voted down a similar ordinance 3-2 last year.
Red Gate was purchased in 2003 for $2.3 million, with a $1 million down payment. The city has now paid more than $1.69 million toward the debt. Annual payments of about $162,000, including both principle and interest, have been made since refinancing the loan in 2011.
The new loan, through Farmers National Bank, drops that payment $10,000 a year while dropping the annual interest rate 0.73 percentage points to 2.92 percent. Warino said the bank is expected to approve the new loan next month, and the expansion should be under construction sometime in the summer.
“It’s good to have full support,” said Canfield Police Chief Chuck Colucci. “We waited and council has done their homework. City administrators did their homework ... in making sure they made the right decision and the timing was right.”
Council president Don Dragish noted if the expansion weren’t done, a few hundred-thousand dollars’ worth of work would be needed immediately.
Council also unanimously approved a $10.2 million budget, with a 1.5 percent raise for all city employees for this year. That raise was negotiated in November, Warino said. All city employees contribute 12 percent to their health insurance premiums, Warino said.