Speaker 1: Todd Walker here in the studio with Allen County Commissioner
Speaker 1: Best cybered a lot of things on their plate, and
Speaker 1: the latest thing you guys have talked about is the
Speaker 1: Allen Economic Development Group coming to the Bord of Commissioners
Speaker 1: to talk about a community Reinvestment area creating this roughly
Speaker 1: the Elider Road corridor really from Cable Road at the
Speaker 1: East town is roughly the area that'll be further honed
Speaker 1: in later. But what is this community Reinvestment area about
Speaker 1: and what's the Commissioner's role.
Speaker 2: Well, the Community Investment Reinvestment Area is a tool, just
Speaker 2: like enterprise zone is a tool for tax abatement for
Speaker 2: the development and redevelopment of properties, and a lot of
Speaker 2: communities across the state, Lina is one of them use
Speaker 2: cras a lot and actually Allen County's first CRA was
Speaker 2: for the Google property edge.
Speaker 3: The Allen Economic Development.
Speaker 2: Group proposes that this is the best tool in this
Speaker 2: section of American township where restaurants and retail are the
Speaker 2: primary business and it's a much more effective tax incentive.
Speaker 1: So basically, this Community Reinvestment Area is another tool, but
Speaker 1: this one is not so much catering toward maybe industry
Speaker 1: or something like that. It's more for restaurants and retail,
Speaker 1: which of course the mall area is roughly what we're
Speaker 1: talking about. That makes sense, It.
Speaker 2: Does fit them, and I do applaud EDGE for their
Speaker 2: efforts to have continued discussions with the American Township Trustees
Speaker 2: because the zoning which all through that area is business.
Speaker 2: I believe it's a business too, but it's definitely a
Speaker 2: business zoned area. And to this board of Allen County Commissioner,
Speaker 2: we believe that the basis of those decisions belong with
Speaker 2: the local jurisdiction, in this case American Township. And we
Speaker 2: also want to know in this process whether or not
Speaker 2: the schools are in favor or as long as they're
Speaker 2: not opposed to a CRA because when you look at
Speaker 2: these kind of tax abatements, generally they're set up for
Speaker 2: a ten year period and about at least seventy percent
Speaker 2: usually of the tax is diverted. Well, it's abated, and
Speaker 2: so the reason for that is the business then takes
Speaker 2: that amount of money that they would have paid in
Speaker 2: taxes and pays down the debt of that development or
Speaker 2: that redevelopment, and so essentially then these entities are agreeing
Speaker 2: to wait for the full amount of those tax revenues
Speaker 2: on the valueuation the property for a ten year period.
Speaker 1: And when you talk about the schools in that particular area,
Speaker 1: that would be a lot of schools and apollo and
Speaker 1: again we'll see how all this comes out. So basically,
Speaker 1: the Commissioners are saying, we'll probably approve this if the
Speaker 1: township trustees first approve it and like it, and the
Speaker 1: schools don't object, then we're probably on board.
Speaker 2: That is foundational to our yes decision. But also the
Speaker 2: terms within the CRA which have not been defined yet.
Speaker 2: We've got to make sure that Allen County can live
Speaker 2: with those terms.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. Also, of late, there's been a lot of discussion
Speaker 1: about Memorial Hall, and right now the county owns that building,
Speaker 1: as in the Board of Commissioners being the county. The
Speaker 1: Port Authority, which is administered by the Allen Economic Development Group,
Speaker 1: is working on finding some new use for Memorial Hall,
Speaker 1: but they technically don't own the building, but that is
Speaker 1: likely to change here soon.
Speaker 2: The Port Authority came to the Commissioners this week and
Speaker 2: they asked for the transfer of the ownership of that
Speaker 2: property from the Commissioners to them, and that is certainly
Speaker 2: something that we're used to doing, especially in the name
Speaker 2: of economic development. What that does it would give them
Speaker 2: an advantage as they apply for grant dollars within the
Speaker 2: Ohio Department of Development, and that window to apply for
Speaker 2: those dollars is very short, and so we certainly are
Speaker 2: are considering that. I mean, this is the most viable
Speaker 2: plan that seems to have been put forward in the
Speaker 2: recollection of the County commissioners, and they have a lot
Speaker 2: of confidence in moving forward with it, and so at
Speaker 2: this point it seems proper to cooperate towards that end.
Speaker 1: And again all of that has yet to play out
Speaker 1: as far as whether they'll actually have those plans come
Speaker 1: to fruition. But essentially, if the border Commissioners did sign
Speaker 1: over ownership to a great degree, it would, for lack
Speaker 1: of a better term, wash your hands of it, because
Speaker 1: you won't own it anymore.
Speaker 3: That is correct, we will not own it any longer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we'll see how that turns out. That's obviously
Speaker 1: yet to play out in the future, as is the
Speaker 1: new building. The Allen County Administration building there at North
Speaker 1: and Main Streets is very near completion, and I think
Speaker 1: you have a pretty good timeline of when that place
Speaker 1: will be open to the public and fully operational moving forward.
Speaker 1: We are nearing that date right now.
Speaker 2: I believe we're in that last week or so of
Speaker 2: what's called final completion, a substantial excuse me, substantial completion,
Speaker 2: and from there we're into a thirty day punch list
Speaker 2: time and the items remaining on the punch list are
Speaker 2: fairly minimal. But our people cannot take occupancy of the
Speaker 2: building until the contractors have released it because it is
Speaker 2: their space right now. But we have we have entered
Speaker 2: into an agreement purchased furniture, so the new furniture that
Speaker 2: is coming into the building, and not all the furniture
Speaker 2: is going to be new, but we've purchased a substantial
Speaker 2: chunk of furniture. The furniture contractor is preparing to bring
Speaker 2: that furniture in and set that up.
Speaker 3: Over about a two week period, and it's.
Speaker 2: Hopeful that that happens somewhere between the middle of September
Speaker 2: and very early October. And then the seven entities in
Speaker 2: the building have created a plan. The seven agencies that
Speaker 2: are moving in from the courthouse to that building they've
Speaker 2: created a kind of a staging plan, because you don't
Speaker 2: move seven agencies in one day or one week, and
Speaker 2: so I applaud their efforts. They're moving over and the
Speaker 2: goal is that by October Friday, October thirtieth, they're all moved,
Speaker 2: and we hope that it's operational November two, fully operational
Speaker 2: to the public.
Speaker 1: Well, that is certainly good news, and that is nearing
Speaker 1: its completion. But when that's done, and we've got to
Speaker 1: return to the corner of Main and North Street down
Speaker 1: the other way the courthouse, and you look there, where
Speaker 1: do we stand on what's going to happen with the
Speaker 1: old courthouse once everybody moves out.
Speaker 2: Well, earlier this year, the Commissioners went out on a
Speaker 2: request for qualifications for architects slash engineering firms who want
Speaker 2: to help us create the design for that remodeled courthouse,
Speaker 2: and we received fourteen proposals back. And I have been
Speaker 2: serving with alongside of four judges, our Clerk of Courts,
Speaker 2: and the head of our Buildings and Grounds Department, on
Speaker 2: a committee to evaluate those proposals.
Speaker 3: Rank them, score them, and.
Speaker 2: I will note that we offered we we conducted three
Speaker 2: interviews last week as a committee with firms that we
Speaker 2: felt stood stood above, stood at the top of this list,
Speaker 2: and now we're trying to decide what are our next steps.
Speaker 2: Do we want to do more interviews? Do we are
Speaker 2: we ready to ask the entity that scored the high
Speaker 2: est to to to go into negotiations with us. So
Speaker 2: the committee's trying to finalize where we're at and what
Speaker 2: our next steps are. They'll make a recommendation to the commissioners,
Speaker 2: and the commissioners will take an action accordingly.
Speaker 1: And the grand plan for the redo of the old
Speaker 1: courthouse is to have it back open and functioning as
Speaker 1: an actual courthouse again with just courts and they're in
Speaker 1: judges and such by June of twenty thirty one.
Speaker 2: Correct, that's the two hundredth birthday of Allen County.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll keep an eye on it. We've got the
Speaker 1: calendars here. Well mark June of thirty one and we'll
Speaker 1: revisit it then, will Yes, we will. Beth Cybert, Allen
Speaker 1: County Commissioner, joining us here in studio. Final thing to
Speaker 1: talk about the next year budget process is about to begin.
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe we're ready to notify the agencies that
Speaker 2: between now and September thirtieth, we're asking them to submit
Speaker 2: their budget request for twenty twenty seven, and so October
Speaker 2: begins the commissioners. We'll spend October November drilling down on
Speaker 2: those numbers, having hearings, budget hearings with the different entities,
Speaker 2: and it is our goal that by the first week
Speaker 2: in December to have a draft budget put together. We
Speaker 2: can't approve the budget until after January one of twenty seven,
Speaker 2: and so revenues are looking rather flats, so we're asking
Speaker 2: our agencies to keep expenses on a flat basis.
Speaker 1: That's Commissioner Best Cyber's here with us in the studio. Beth,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming in.
Speaker 3: Thank you,