Niles mayor promises amended recovery plan Monday

By Jordan Cohen | March 9, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

NILES

In the 29 months since state Auditor Dave Yost declared the city to be in fiscal emergency, there have been five versions of the state-mandated blueprint for stability – the financial recovery plan.

On Monday, there will be a sixth said Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia.

The reason for the latest revision: failure to lease the money-losing Wellness Center, which was a critical component of the most recent recovery plan.

The mayor responded after council President Robert Marino, during a Wednesday roundtable, demanded the deadline. Scarnecchia promised to meet it, but Marino made it clear he expects council to have enough time to review the document before its next meeting next Wednesday.

“If there is no turnaround by [Monday], I will recommend that [council] take no action,” Marino said.

Councilman Ryan McNaughton, D-at large, immediately voiced his support and no other council member spoke against Marino’s ultimatum.

Had the leasing effort been successful, the city would have earned $240,000 annually that would have covered the cost of the financing note. No one bid on the lease by the deadline, which forced the mayor to go back to the drawing board.

The city has lost more than $1 million in debt service since the Wellness Center opened in 2008.

Council has to approve the amended version before submitting it to the fiscal commission oversees Niles spending. The commission’s next meeting is March 22.

Meanwhile, recently appointed Service Director Ed Stredney is looking into a possible solution to a long-running infrastructure problem – the installation of 7,000 water meters, which cost the city $600,000. The meters, which the city has had for years, remain in unopened boxes in the empty Waddell Park swimming pool because of a lack of money and manpower.

Stredney said he asked Dan Frum, a representative of Union Services Group, to look into the costs of installation. USG is the firm council plans to hire to maintain the city’s two water towers.

Frum, who attended the meeting to discuss tower maintenance, said his company has installed similar meters in other cities. He said he will look into the costs and bring back a proposal, a process he estimated would take a month.

Marino said fiscal emergency is the reason the meters remain in storage, which left council without a plan.