City Council Thursday night voted to buy the former Ridge Street School property.
The body approved an emergency ordinance for the $115,800 purchase of the site, located at 225 Ridge St.,
from Wooster Street Properties LLC. The matter passed without comment.
Closing on the property is to take place no later than July 10, according to the real estate purchase
agreement.
Demolition of the site began earlier this month and is to be completed in July.
The city is planning to turn the three-acre site into a public park. According to a report from the BG
Parks and Recreation Department, current plans will include a basic baseball diamond, and play equipment
will be moved to where the school formerly sat in order to avoid issues with foul balls. Most of the
site will be given over to open greenspace.
The park is to be developed in several phases, dependent on cooperation with the Public Works department,
as well as private funding paired with tax monies. A fundraising campaign for a playground at the site
is expected to begin this summer.
Council went into an approximately 20-minute executive session shortly after convening the meeting to
discuss negotiations and planned acquisition.
They further voted to approve an emergency ordinance authorizing Municipal Administrator John Fawcett to
sign a contract with the Bowling Green Employees Organization.
Prior to the vote, Councilman Bob McOmber highlighted what he felt was a significant change in the new
contract. While, in the past, employees could accrue unlimited sick time and receive a 25-percent payout
from the time upon retirement, a new upper limit of 960 hours that can be turned in for a payout has
been established for new hires. McOmber noted that the recently-approved contract with the Bowling Green
firefighters reflects a similar change.
He felt that the change was more fiscally responsible from the perspective of the city. As an example,
McOmber said that a city employee in the past could theoretically never take a sick day and retire after
35 years, receiving a payout equivalent to six months’ salary.
Council President Michael Aspacher, noting that he did not wish to make the issue one of argument, did
point out that the prior contract provisions regarding sick time had "been collectively bargained
and it’s an earned benefit."
McOmber agreed, saying that employees were "just following the rules of the game."
Each of the measures passed without a "no" vote. Councilman Bruce Jeffers was absent.