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Possible solution for Niles Wellness Center: lease
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
Carmen Vivolo, the city’s park and recreation director, revealed he has had conversations with two different parties that have expressed interest in leasing the city’s money-losing Wellness Center in Waddell Park.
Vivolo’s comments came during a committee meeting Tuesday attended by city council to discuss drafting a three-year lease to stop the financial bleeding that has contributed to the city’s fiscal emergency.
“I gave them a total of $240,000, and they didn’t bat an eye,” Vivolo said. “They’re still interested.
“The center brought in $315,000 [yearly revenue] but spent at least $500,000, so you’re in the hole by $200,000,” said attorney Douglas Neuman, a former Niles law director who has been hired by council to draft a lease to take operations and related costs out of the city’s hands.
“There should be no city employees … and no [city] maintenance,” Neuman told council. Vivolo said the city spent $117,000 on contracted temporary labor, an expenditure that a lease would eliminate.
Council has asked Neuman to prepare a draft of the lease by Friday for council’s review and subsequent vote at its Dec. 21 meeting.
The city could then begin advertising for bids, a five-week process. Neuman said the bid could be awarded by early February.
“We need to get the monkey off the back of the city,” said Councilwoman Linda Marchese, D-3rd.
Neuman originally said the lease bid should be $225,000 per year, but other council members said his figure is too low because the cost of the loan that financed the center has gone up.
In a previous meeting, city Auditor Giovanne Merlo said the center’s debt service now amounts to $240,000, the same figure Vivolo mentioned.
Council also is concerned about center utility bills, which have run as high as $18,000 monthly, Vivolo said. Neuman said interested parties may be put off by having to shoulder utility payments and recommended against including them in the lease.
“Then we have to see that those costs are [factored] in,” said Barry Steffey, D-4th, council finance chairman.
Neuman said the city needs an inventory of the center’s equipment and value. It does not have one for any of its buildings and assets including the center.
Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia’s latest recovery plan calls for initiating an asset-management inventory. Council President Robert Marino said the center should be first on the list.
“That would satisfy the interest of the plan,” Marino said.
Council wants the city’s three-member park board to oversee operations, which means both council and the board must vote to accept the lease provisions.
The building bears the name of former Mayor Ralph Infante, and Marchese inquired about the possibility of removing it. Infante recently was indicted on 56 counts including bribery.
If there are no responses to the request for bids, Marchese, who is building and grounds committee chairman, has presented a “Plan B if no leasing agreements are signed.” Her steps include a series of procedural changes and cost-cutting moves.
“Let’s hope and pray that somebody bids,” Neuman said.