No bids received on NIles Wellness Center, scuttling mayor's financial plan

NILES

On a day in which fiscal supervisors had good news for the city’s Financial Planning and Supervision Commission after more than two years in fiscal emergency, Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia had to deliver some bad news.

“No bids have been received [to lease] the Wellness Center,” the mayor told the commission Thursday. “We’re working on a Plan B.”

Thursday was the deadline for bid submission. Bids were to have been opened today.

Leasing the Wellness Center has been an important component of the mayor’s amended Financial Recovery Plan the commission approved last year.

The center has lost nearly $1 million in eight years, largely due to debt service, said Atty. Douglas Newman, a former city law director hired by city council to draft the lease.

The mayor said in 2016, the center’s operations earned a $63,000 profit, but loan payments turned the black ink red.

“The note expires in 2031,” said city Auditor Giovanne Merlo. “We have 15 more years.”

“We were doomed to failure because we have not had a revenue model,” said John Davis, a commission member.

Read more about the situation in Friday's VIndicator or on Vindy.com.