The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘We will not resign ourselves’
City Manager indicates patience needed for certain plans, praises resilience in State of the City Address
There were a couple of notable differences between this year’s Mentor State of the City address and those in the past.
It was, of course, held virtually instead of in front of hundreds of lunching Mentor Area Chamber of Commerce members. It also didn’t contain much news about flashy events lined up for this year.
Mentor City Manager Ken Filipiak acknowledged as much during his speech, which was chock full of other ways the city is forging ahead amid the pandemic.
“You will notice that I haven’t made mention of this year’s Mentor Rocks series, festivals or other popular community events,” he said. “We are planning on moving forward with all of our traditional popular offerings in some
fashion or another, and I promise you we will do our best to be creative in bringing them to you in a safe manner as state regulations allow.”
A Q&A following the message revealed a little more.
“Normally, I’m anxious to talk about the different acts,” he said. “We’ll be working on booking some acts. We don’t know exactly what our limitations will be.”
He said the season may start a little later and likely under the parameters agreed to with the Lake County Health District for last year’s abbreviated concert series. The amphitheater venue was limited to 1,500 attendees.
“I think we will likely be focusing on local bands in the early part of the season,” he said, noting that those traveling farther are more expensive to book and their contracts are harder to get out of, should conditions change.
The goal is to still start sometime in June and to announce the slate of performers by late spring, he said.
Questions also arose about the Cleveland Clinic hospital project northwest of Route 615 and Interstate 90, potential for a lakefront dining option and the impending Macy’s vacancy at Great Lakes Mall.
He indicated that Cleveland Clinic officials remain committed to the project but not a particular timeline yet, and that Washington Prime Group representatives have ideas for a new tenant.
“We expect that space will have some life to it in the not-too-distant future,” Filipiak said.
He said there is a restaurateur eager to convert the Mentor Beach Park pavilion into an eatery, and that city staff is working with the Lake County Port & Economic Development Authority on that prospect.
The site is in Mentor-on-theLake but owned by Mentor.
He added that the lagoons ballot issue passed in November opens the opportunity for providing some type of food service in the marina area down the road.
Understandably, he spent much of his presentation on the pandemic response and personnel’s ability to adapt, but he also included numerous other highlights. Some are listed below:
• Exploding park participation in 2020, such as 38,000 rounds of golf played at Black Brook (up over 25 percent from the prior year), the largest attendance at the city Farmer’s Market at Garfield Park (more than 15,000 people) and a four-fold increase in marina kayak rentals at 5,300-plus
• Plans to offer a Small Business Employee Retention Grant, which will give $1,000 to small businesses that commit to retaining at least one employee in the low-to-moderate income bracket
• New and expanding manufacturing businesses investing more than $127 million in the city, and adding nearly 200 jobs
• About 50 new retail/commercial enterprises in 2020
• Police officer training on implicit bias and de-escalation of force, adding a policy requiring intervention when an officer observes
an excessive use of force, diversity training on dealing with special-needs individuals and implementing an Officer Use of Force Tracking System
• The stay-at-home order helping to curb crime by 16 percent, adult arrests by 40 percent and vehicle crashes by 30 percent
“The Mentor community will not be defeated by a virus,” Filipiak concluded.
“We will not resign ourselves
to some lesser permanent condition. We will remain resilient, we will adapt and together this city will emerge as it has in the past — better, more competitive, higher in our hopes for the future, more concerned about our neighbors, looking forward to the joy of gathering together as a community in our many celebrations, and confident that the state of our city reflects the strength of its people.”