Voters reject village’s plan for building
Though she was elected to Minerva Park’s Village Council for the first time Tuesday, Tiffany Hughes was busy celebrating a different election night outcome.
Overwhelmingly, voters decided not to move ahead with a village plan to purchase a three-story office building to house government and police operations.
A “no” vote on the ballot referendum equated dissent with a village resolution that authorized Mayor Lynn Eisentrout to execute a purchase contract for the building at 2999 E. DublinGranville Road. Hughes and others initiated the referendum and encouraged residents to vote no.
About 73 percent voted against the plan.
“The residents have spoken and this plan obviously isn’t in their best interest,” Hughes said.
The plan voters rejected was to lease about 60 percent of the 24,000-square-foot facility to help pay off bonds totaling $1.6 million. On top of its $658,000 purchase price, it would have cost about $943,000 to renovate the 47-year-old building.
But after paying $10,000 to extend a purchase contract through Aug. 15, officials let it expire due to the ballot referendum.
Some residents protested a lack of transparency regarding the deal as their reason for pursuing a referendum to stop the plan. Others said it was too costly and many feared it might increase their taxes if officials’ plans to lease office space in the facility didn’t pan out.
The building, owned by Gemstone Holdings LLC, is now up for sale again through Columbus realty firm NAI Ohio Equities.
Village officials had said buying the building was the most cost-effective way to address facility needs and plan for future growth.
The existing Minerva Park Community Building is 57 years old and just 2,700 square feet. It would require a massive expansion and renovation to meet modern needs and codes, they said. New construction would cost even more.
But the voters have “spoken loud and clear,” Eisentrout said, even though she believes most agree new accommodations of some kind are needed.
“It also sounds like the community wants to be more involved in the decisions, and we respect that,” she said.