Mayor’s Corner

Questions and statements have come up in current council meetings as well as conversations around the Village that may have some misconceptions and inaccuracies.(Read article on page 10.) I offer the following to set the record straight.

  1) There was no purposeful delay by Walter Haverfield to provide answers to Mr. Hudak’s claims. The timing of the village’s response to his claims relative to the general election simply was just that, timing.

 2) The law director compared the procedure of the Nexen Tire land transaction to the sale involving the Brewery project and found the procedures identical.

The Village can legally transfer publicly held land to the Development Finance Authority in connection with a targeted economic development project such as construction of the Brewery in the center of town. The sale of public land through the DFA is not uncommon amongst local units of government.

3) The Village did purchase the former Dr. Heinle property to create a public parking lot, and we are doing so in connection with the Brewery project. In 2019, Village Council (of which Mr. Hudak was a member) discussed the possibility of subdividing the Heinle property and possibly selling a portion of the divided property to a business in an effort to increase the critical [number] of businesses on the public green and in the center of town. During those discussions, Mr. Hudak did not object to the idea of selling land to a business.

4) The village received several ideas from individuals and companies expressing interest in the Heinle property and/or house for business use. Ultimately, the Richfield Brewing Company was the only entity to provide a written business proposal for the property.

5) As evidenced by village legal counsel, the Open Meetings Act was not violated during the process that ultimately led to the sale of a portion of the property for the Brewery project. From the time the project was publicly announced to now, numerous meetings have been held in which the Brewery project has been discussed. Unfortunately, Mr. Hudak did not attend a single one of these meetings.

6) All five items to which Mr. Hudak refers to on page two of his written statement were considered by council and this administration. The Richfield Brewing Company will not receive any tax breaks or Tax Increment Financing funds in connection with the project. Rather, the 30-year TIF for the project is being used to pay for the public infrastructure costs associated with extending Grant Street and construction of the public parking lot. All of this is being accomplished without any financial impacts to the Revere Local School

District because the TIF legislation exempts the schools. The tax increment from the Brewery project will generate more than enough revenue to pay for the public infrastructure that can be used and enjoyed by all the businesses in the center of town.

Finally, I want to provide clarification to misinformation about the sale of the land for the Brewery project. I have heard Mr. Hudak and others claim that the Village is giving the Brewery free parking and paying for their storm water runoff management. This simply is not true. The fact is that access to public parking and centralized storm water management was included in the cost of the land. The slightly more than one-half acre of land was sold for $215,000, which means the per-acre price is approximately $400,000. I’m not aware of land in Richfield selling for $400,000 an acre and I challenge others to find a comparable sale.

The reason the sales price is so high in the case of the Brewery project is because it takes into consideration the Village providing centralized public parking and storm water management. Absent these considerations, the price per acre would have been far less. So, the Brewery is paying for its share of the improvements.

I appreciate the opportunity to respond and provide facts to clarify any misconceptions held by Mr. Hudak and some members of the public.

Other news

In conjunction with the chiefs, I would like to recognize the quick action of Patrolmen Rudy Prhne to apply the AED and administer a shock to a patient before our med unit was on scene. His quick action helped our fire medics with resuscitation efforts of the patient. I would also like to commend Lt Urban, fire medics Benza, Janis, Pierce, Sullivan, and Humenik on regaining the pulse of the patient.

Please welcome Shane Williamson as a part-time police officer as well as Daytona Stiegelmeyer and Daniel Crawford as a part-time fire medics.

The Briarwood sewer project is coming along on schedule and should be completed between June 15 and July 1.

The Easter Egg hunt featured a cast of hundreds with 2,300 eggs harvested in six minutes.

Through April 15, we collected $8,759,920 of the $35,511,365 budgeted or 24.7% of the budget.  On the expenditure side, $9,701,769 was expended or 22% of the $44,155,558 budgeted for expenditures.  The expected rate through mid-April should be approximately 29% of the budget being expended.  For the General Fund, 36.7% of the revenues have been collected and 27.4% of the budget was expended.

Please contact me or my executive assistant at 330-659-9201, ext. 234, or email me at mwheeler@richfieldvillageohio.org.