Lack of funds delays renovations in St. C. – Martins Ferry Times Leader
T-L File Photo
St. Clairsville Council President Jim Velas, from left, and Safety and Service Director Jeremy Greenwood are pictured during a prior meeting. Greenwood fielded questions from council members last week about upgrades to the J.B. Martin Recreation Center’s restrooms. He said high costs and lack of funding prove an obstacle.
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Inflation and tight finances are delaying many long-awaited renovations in the city, including some within the parks and the recreation department.
Discussion Monday of last week among city council members turned to options for raising funds for the J.B. Martin Recreation Center. Councilwoman Kristi Lipscomb said she attended a meeting of the recreation committee and one possibility was obtaining a liquor license for future events.
“Possibly getting something on the ballot so that that fixed address, so that we could have a liquor license that belonged to the city, to the rec department to use for those public events,” she said. Council members discussed whether to place the issue on the spring ballot or the next general election.
Council members and officials noted the extensive needs of the site.
Councilwoman Beth Oprisch inquired about short term improvements to the site, specifically improvements to the rest rooms.
“It’s way too costly,” Safety and Service Director Jeremy Greenwood said.
“Would it be possible to…maybe we could just fix it?” she asked, suggesting the city could install replacement doors or a coat paint. “We have so many people come in.”
“What we really need to do is, we’ve got major plumbing problems underneath the slab,” Greenwood said. “We turn on showers, we flush toilets and water comes up in other rooms. We’ve got problems. That’s talking major renovation of taking out the slab and doing other things. … We could put new fixtures in there, but we’re not fixing the problem, we’re putting lipstick on a pig. … It needs major renovations.”
In answer to Oprisch, Greenwood said there was funding in the budget.
“But with the cost of everything escalating, that’s why we’re kind of sitting on it,” he said.
“This has been a long time, we’ve got people coming in,” Oprisch said.
Councilwoman Linda Jordan agreed that new restroom doors could be installed. She added this would also be useful when the rec center is used as a polling location during elections.
“The budget for renovations three years ago was $200,000,” Greenwood said, adding this was just for the restrooms, including upgrades to the plumbing and sanitary lines.
“Could we not, for a couple thousand dollars, put doors in there?” Oprisch asked.
“It would be something that we could probably rig up and put in place, but to actually do nice partitions? Not even close for that amount of money. You’re talking probably $10,000-$12,000 for partitions.”
Afterward, Recreation Director Eric Gay said he would continue to work with Greenwood finding solutions to the need for upgrades.
“It’s definitely one of many things on the list that we’d like to get done,” he said.
Gay said the city is looking into renovating other areas, such as South Park, located south of Clark Avenue.
“It is a city-owned park, and we are trying to find out different ways that we can do some improvements over there,” Gay said, adding rising costs have made planning difficult. “Different things are on hold right now. … We do need an access road into the park to get in and out of there. … The (basketball) court does need resurfaced.
“One of the avenues we’re trying to explore is if the Army Corps of Engineers could come in and do some of the work over there for us,” he said, adding, “I don’t think it will be anything immediate.”