PERRYSBURG — City council has purchased the former Mercy Health building and plans to use it to house police, public utilities and the income tax departments.
At its meeting Tuesday, council agreed to pay $3.6 million for the building, located at 28442 E. River Road.
In a related move, the council approved the sale of bonds in the maximum principal amount of $4 million to pay for the property.
The purchase drew positive comments from council members and the mayor.
Councilman Cory Kuhlman pointed out that the building was a wise purchase. He said a check of the auditor’s web site showed that one year earlier, St. Luke’s had sold the building to Mercy Health for $4,180,000, which represented a reduced cost to the city of $200,000. He also added, that despite the emergency passage of the ordinance, the work to acquire the building had taken quite some time.
City Administrator Joe Fawcett said the savings to the city would also include no longer needing to build or expand facilities for police or public utilities. He said the estimated cost for a new police station was $40 million and a utility department build would be an estimated $30 million.
Mayor Tom Mackin said the purchase was done with a lot of work and trust between the city and Mercy Health and he recognized the health organization for their cooperation.
“This building will be a critical part of downtown,” he said.
The building, owned by Mercy Health North LLC, is on 5.7 acres and is adjacent to city-owned property.
Other ordinances and resolutions were approved, all by emergency measure, bypassing the usual three readings.
Council:
• Approved a resolution amending an earlier resolution to allow the city to enter into an agreement with Clark Schaefer Hackett Business Advisor not to exceed $32,400 for 2023 single audit.
• Entered into an agreement with American Fireworks Company for the Perrysburg-Maumee July 3 fireworks display at a cost not to exceed $24,375.00, which is Perrysburg’s half of the total $48,750 bill.
• Approved a resolution authorizing an agreement with Reveille LTD for $40,000 to provide economic development and planning services for the city.
• Passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to appoint certain employees into interim/acting positions within the city.
• Approved an agreement with Coventry Glenn, LLC to construct an over-sized sanitary sewer infrastructure at the proposed Coventry Pointe. The city will reimburse Coventry Glenn $672,477 for the work.
• Approved an agreement with The Edge Group, Inc, for professional services to create a final design of improvements for the downtown streetscape project in an amount not to exceed $341,500.
• Agreed to share the cost of resurfacing Lake Vue Drive with Perrysburg Township. The amount is not to exceed $58,448.35.
