Council to put land up for sale

Raises for city workers OK’d, but pay hikes for Council put on hold

The city of Lorain aims to sell 128 parcels of city-owned land no longer needed for municipal purposes or parks.

Meanwhile, the city’s nonunion, managerial and professional workers will get pay raises. However, Lorain City Council on April 2 tabled a motion to raise pay for the next round of council members.

Council was unanimous approving a list of city lots to sell. The list is lengthy, but some areas of land are divided into multiple parcels.

“Just through the course of the last 50 years,

we’ve accumulated all these parcels through various means, all we’re doing is maintaining, cutting the grass, cleaning them up,” said Safety-Service Director Dan Given. “They serve no purpose.” Some of the lots are in residential neighborhoods and some are commercial.

The city list included the Lorain County Auditor’s estimated market values for the land. Given said he would happy to get those amounts, but the city may get just pennies on the dollar for the land because many are inner city lots that have no real value to anyone but neighbors.

Even so, some of the parcels could make attractive purchases, said Mayor Chase Ritenauer.

For example, the list includes the building at 550 Broadway; the land of the former Ghoulardi’s restaurant at Broadway and West Eighth Street; and land in the area of Root Road and Colorado Avenue on Lorain’s east side.

The city also hopes to sell the land from two hotels demolished last year.

The for sale list includes

two lakefront parcels north of West Erie Avenue. It is the land from the former Erieview Motel, 2800 W. Erie Ave., which was demolished last year.

Also for sale is the land of the Shoreway Motel, 3945 W. Erie Ave.

The city claimed the motels became nuisances to public health for Lorain. The city got into legal battles with the owners of the former hotels but condemned the structures and later contracted a firm to demolish the buildings.

The public can learn more about the properties available through cityoflorain.org, the Safety-Service Director’s Office, the Department of Building, Housing and Planning or through future real estate listings.

In other business, Council approved legislation granting raises to the city’s nonunion workers and for the managers and professional employees.

Council tabled legislation that would give raises for the next board, whose members would begin their two-year terms in 2020.

The Council members had some discussion of what would be appropriate amounts to raise the pay for their successors,

but Ward 1 Councilwoman Beth Henley moved to table the legislation.

Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski supported that idea, which passed 8-3.

“Because they didn’t take effect until 2020, I didn’t see the necessity at this point in voting on it and raising them,” Henley said. “I’d like to see where we’re at down the road. It’s that simple.”

Ward 4 Councilman Greg Argenti previously suggested Council should wait on raises to see what happens with the city’s finances in the future. Councilmen Joe Koziura, Dennis Flores and Joshua Thornsberry voted against the motion to table the Council pay raise legislation.

For 90 nonunion workers, the raises are projected to cost $144,000 to cover lump sum bonuses for 2017, 2018 and longevity pay that mirrors longevity pay for union workers, according to the city legislation.

For 34 managers and professionals, the raises are projected to cost at least $85,000 to cover lump sum bonuses for last year and this year, with a longevity increase that mirrors that of unionized municipal workers.