Senior Center finance terms still unsettled

3/21/2001

Sylvania and Sylvania Township are inching closer to an agreement on paying for the new $2.8 million Sylvania Community Senior Center proposed for Sylvania Avenue.

Or are they?

The city is planning to loan the township $1.3 million for the project or put up the bonds. In turn, the township will pay the city back the money over two decades with interest.

The township had agreed to pay for 60 percent of the project. The city plans to pay for 40 percent, or $868,000. The project has received $630,000 in grant money.

After 20 years, the city wants the option of purchasing the township's share back.

The city has an established credit rating and can probably get a better loan than the township could get for themselves, Sylvania law director Jim Moan said this week.

“We have not worked out the financial terms of the buy back,” Mr. Moan said.

During a meeting this week, Sylvania city council authorized its financial share and is planning to award construction bids during its April 2 meeting.

“We cannot award the bids until the [payment] contract is signed by the city and the township. That is the critical thing,” he said.

However, Trustee Dock Treece said this week he might vote against the agreement because of the way the payments are structured.

The agreement doesn't give the township the ability to deduct the revenue loss as a result of annexation plans from the city, he said.

“I'm still struggling with that in mind,” he said. The township would still have the same payments even if some annexation goes through, he said. “The township will deal with it in our own time. I don't feel compelled to jump through a hoop,” he said. The township doesn't have a regular meeting until April 5.

“I have been supportive of the senior center for the very beginning,” he said. “The split of the money is what has me concerned. The township is paying 60 percent and the city is trying to annex our tax base,” he said.

The city has targeted four areas covering several hundred acres for annexation.

In the township, the vote on the senior-center funding plan may be 2-1.

“The senior center project does not have anything to do with annexation,” Trustee George Fanning said. “We agreed to build a senior center and that's what we are going to do.”

Trustee Dick Moses said he was in favor of the agreement. “Annexation is a separate item,” he said.

In other business, council:

Approved giving $35,000 to the Sylvania Recreation Corporation for operations and capital improvements at Centennial Terrace and the Quarry.

The entire budget is $270,000. Most of the money is funded by admissions and concession sales. However, a $27,600 deficit is anticipated this year.

“The cost of operating the quarry outweighs the amount of money you can charge the public to subsidize the operation,” tions manager Ken Katafias said this week. The unusually poor weather last summer lowered the swimming facilities' income.

The recreation corporation is thinking about minor improvements including repairing and resealing the terrazzo dance floor surface, installing an underground irrigation to grassy areas at the facility, adding lighting in the parking lot, and adding additional stage space and a new roof for the bandstand.

Approved a speed bump for Roan Road between McGregor Lane and Pyle Drive. The hump will be south of Alexis Road and behind Farmer's Jack near Whetstone Park.

Approved the wild Bergamot as its official wild flower. The flower is popular in the area south of 10 Mile Creek and in the region. The flower is a member of the mint family. The city plans to plant 100 flowers in its parks this year.

The city will encourage residential plantings as well.

Accepted a $47, 757 bid from U.S. Utility Contractor Co., Inc. in Perrysburg for a traffic signal at Harroun and Brint roads.

The signal should be up in September.