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The Covelli Centre will get metal detectors
YOUNGSTOWN
The city-owned Covelli Centre has hosted concerts by Motley Crue, Poison, Rob Zombie and Def Leppard.
Soon it will be the home of a new metal – metal detectors.
City council will consider legislation Wednesday to allow the board of control to seek proposals and enter into a contract to acquire eight metal detectors for no more than $30,000.
“With issues in some entertainment places, it was time we stepped up our safety procedures,” said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director. “Safety is our No. 1 priority.”
A number of acts and promoters won’t deal with entertainment venues that don’t have metal detectors so the center has had to rent them – at about $2,000 a show – over the past few years, Ryan said.
With approval from council and the board of control, the center would purchase eight metal detectors from Event Metal Detectors LLC of Sylvania, Ohio, for $29,560, he said.
The center obtained proposals from four companies with Event Metal having the least expensive one, Ryan said.
Five of the detectors would be at the main doors, one at the VIP lounge and two at backstage areas, Ryan said.
Along with the metal detectors, eight security wands are included in the price, he said.
The center currently uses five wands at its main doors, he said.
“The wands are very time-consuming and not as thorough as metal detectors,” Ryan said. “We haven’t had any issues. This is for precautionary reasons.”
Also Wednesday, council will vote to refund $150,000 to the Corrections Corp. of America, which runs the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, a private prison on the city’s East Side.
CCA signed a deal in December 2013 to pay an inmate tax after a lengthy lawsuit over that fee.
The contract calls for CCA to pay $300,000 annually to the city, starting in 2014, if its average daily population is more than 1,250.
The CCA gets half of it back if the average daily population is between 750 and 1,250, and all of it back if that number dropped below 750.
The number was 852 last year, according to a proposed council ordinance.
That happened because CCA contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to house about 1,600 or so prisoners expired May 31, 2015.
“It was a new revenue source when we negotiated it,” said city Finance Director David Bozanich. “We want to see additional revenue. It’s not good news, but we hope to help them” with another contract to increase the prison’s population.
Council also will vote to authorize the board of control to advertise for proposals and enter into an agreement to repair and replace a concrete walkway at the city’s wastewater treatment plant by its sewage clarifiers, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works. The cost is about $500,000.