GALION—The Galion City Council Economic Development and Airport Committee met in council chambers Tuesday evening.
Miranda Jones, Executive Director of the Galion-Crestline Chamber of Commerce, addressed the committee about the proposed Freese Center.
Jones told members that dissenting voices in the community believe the community’s entire needs are not being met by what is proposed. She noted a lack of a business plan complicates the matter. Jones said she believes the concerns of the community need to be addressed before the project moves forward.
“We need an event center. We are losing events to Crestline and Bucyrus.” Jones said.
She told the committee that Crestline’s event center has a niche market as a wedding venue but also hosts other community events. She told the committee that eventually, travel sports could be worked into the business plan, but there needs to be at least 50% dedicated to events. Currently, 36 out of 52 weekends at the Freese Center would be dedicated to traveling sports events.
Jones urged council to gauge the center to what the community will support and modify their plans accordingly. Jones told the committee that an upcoming event the chamber is hosting is limited to only 30 vendors because of space limitations.
“Businesses feel like they were never asked about what would be great for everyone from the huge Freese Foundation fund,” Jones said.
Mayor Tom O’Leary disagreed, noting the first group to address the need for a center was motivated by the fact that there was a lack of space to accommodate the unmet needs for youth through high school sports. He said the travel sports venue idea was blended into the original concept to add revenues. He said he felt the structure could be changed to accommodate other options. He told council he had been thinking about adding a child care facility into the venue as a revenue generator.
Although there are no financial plans going forward, estimates last fall for the project came in at 10 million dollars. It was suggested that since Gary Frankhouse is no longer involved with the project council should reach out to the Crawford Partnership for input. Committee members expressed their desire to stay involved with the Partnership who is currently seeking a replacement for Frankhouse, who resigned.
In other business, the council unanimously voted to appoint Galion resident Andee Wildenthaler to the Galion Port Authority. Wildenthaler currently serves as the Executive Director of the Galion YMCA.