By Kimberly Gasuras
CCN Reporter

After weeks of debate, two Bucyrus City Council committees and the full council passed legislation to allow city officials to purchase the former Ohio Department of Transportation facility on West Irving Street for $1.

“We currently occupy two buildings, the water distribution building on Marion Road and the streets garage on Isaac-Beal Road,” Mayor Jeff Reser said. “About a year ago, the water distribution building was appraised at $390,000 and the streets garage was appraised at $560,000 for a total of $950,000.”

Reser said in phase one of his plans for the ODOT facility, the water distribution building would be put up for sale and the proceeds from the sale be used for renovations to buildings one, four and eight.

Those buildings include the main building; four, the salt dome; and eight, is a building used for storage by state employees.

Public lands and building committee chair Dan Wirebaugh began his meeting by reading an email response he had sent to a local resident on the issue.

“The two buildings we are now using are in great shape, but it would be great to house all departments in the one area,” Wirebaugh said.

Council member Mark Makeever was against taking on the property at first.

“I have received calls from residents who are against this,” Makeever said.

Some of those residents were present at the meeting to voice their concerns, including Kathy Fuller.

“You already have a beautiful property on Marion Road that includes four acres of land and it was given to the city as a gift seven years ago,” Fuller said.

Reser pointed out that the Marion Road property is in a commercial area and it is the goal of the city to sell that property, along with the streets garage on Isaac-Beal Road, as part of the two-phase process of renovating the Irving Street facility.

Former council member Steve Pifer suggested that the city demolish all the buildings on the Irving Street property to dig a retention pond.

“This would help with EPA requirements and help drain water from the north end,” Pifer said.

Council president Garnet “Sis” Love said that the city once had approximately 130 city workers in the streets and water distribution departments but now only has about 88 employees.

“The two departments coordinate together to get the work completed throughout the city,” Love said. “If we can get both large departments in one spot, we will have better communication and will be able to allocate resources more efficiently.”

Reser said the main portion of phase one is renovating the main building first, so the employees in the sewers and drains and audit offices may move out to the new facility.

“The estimated cost for this is $67,900,” Reser said.

Reser said that would leave a positive balance of $322,100, if the water distribution building sells for the appraised amount.

“Phase two would begin after all of the phase one buildings are renovated,” Reser said. “Then we would offer the streets garage for sale.”

Wirebaugh made it clear to Reser that no work is to begin on renovations to the Irving Street property until the first building of Reser’s plan is sold.

Before the meetings began, a new police officer was sworn-in by Reser and Bucyrus Police Chief Dave Koepke.

Daniel D. Rufner, who grew up in Willard and has worked at the Greenwich Police Department, is now an official member of the force.

Bucyrus City Schools Superintendent Kevin Kimmel and several others spoke in support of adding a second school resource officer to the district.

“Officer Jo Stahl does an amazing job with our kids, but she is only one person and we have two buildings with 750 to 800 students at each building,” Kimmel said.

The district’s board of education already has approved a $60,000 per-year salary for the officer, but needs approval from council to provide the officer, which will be James Matta.

The issue will be one of several discussed during the council’s joint committee meetings at 6 p.m. on Thursday in Council Chambers. The meetings are open to the public.

Other legislation approved by council included amendment of the income tax code, a change to the billet in the solid waste department, employee manpower for the Aumiller Park pool, various appropriations and an amendment to a resolution regarding the Southern Avenue sewer project.

The next council meeting is May 1 at 7 p.m.