City hall upgrades get boost
By BOB MOREHEAD
BGNN senior staff writer
BARBERTON It’s been decades in the making, Barberton Mayor William Judge said, but a sweeping renovation of city workspace took a huge leap Nov. 13 as city council approved an ambitious request to the Barberton Community Foundation.
The measure allows the mayor to apply to the Barberton Community Foundation for $500,000 per year over 25 years for the project.
The aim is to move all city offices into the former FirstMerit building at Second Street NW and W Tuscarawas Avenue except the police and law departments. The municipal court would stay behind also. Those entities would spread out through the current municipal building, converting it into a justice center. The city bought the FirstMerit building last year with leftover COVID relief money. It will become a city hall.
State Representative Bill Roemer announced at city council’s July 1 committee work session that the General Assembly had granted $1 million to Barberton for that project, part of $350 million Columbus poured into what Roemer called “a transformative budget.”
He explained a grant pool normally reserved for parks and other such capital projects was being expanded thanks to a surplus this year and Barberton’s million was part of that.
Also helping could be $1 million from the U.S. House of Representatives or $750,000 from the U.S. Senate. Each is part of competing bills that must be reconciled; the city will not get both.
“They went back to scratch and shaved 25% off the original request,” Councilman Thomas “Bebe” Heitic said. “They deserve a lot of credit for that.”
The ask was assembled with input from Foundation officers so, while the request must be approved by the Foundation board, denial appears unlikely.
Council also approved the nearly $2.5 million water line replacement project on Wooster Road W and moved $1.3 million into the utilities capital fund to pay part of it. The rest will be borrowed.
Officials originally expected the water line replacement to extend the already lengthy road reconstruction but are now hopeful that, weather cooperating, the project can still be wrapped up on time.
