Politics & Government

Nagel Financing Agreement Approved

Area landowners reassured on assessment issue

After the Avon City Council meeting, Monday night's work session and special meeting were remarkably tame.

Council approved the financing deal with the Richard E. Jacobs Group for the $27 million Nagel Road interchange with Interstate 90, meaning the city can issue notes and deposit the proceeds from the notes into an escrow account set up with the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Once ODOT gets the money, law director John Gasior explained, the project can go ahead. He said bids should be opened in early August.

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Brian McKeown, owner of the and one of the more vocal opponents of the possibility of using assessments of interchange area properties to help fund the city's share of the project, said he spent a few hours on Monday reading through the ordinances with Gasior to make sure no possibility of those assessments were in them.

"I was satisfied," he said.

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Gasior stressed several times in the meeting that any reference to an assessment was clearly stated as being the voluntary special assessment Jacobs Group is agreeing to for its land.

"The language in these can be difficult," Gasior said after the meeting. "Municipal finance can be very technical and complicated, which can make it seem like it's saying things it doesn't mean. So we worked carefully to make sure the language was as plain as could be without altering the intent of the ordinance."

All present members except Ward 2 councilman Dennis McBride, who abstained. Ward 4 councilman Daniel Urban was not at the meeting, as his wife, Kristine, gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, over the weekend.

Also at Monday's meeting:

  • Council unanimously approved to allow outdoor patio seating at the to be built in the Heritage Village plaza on Detroit Road. McBride praised the plans, saying it was good to see a local company using local architects and designers. "This shows that commercial buildings don't have to be ugly boxes," he said.
  • Puth Road resident William Meixner spoke out about the sewer work being done on his street. His water has been cut off four times without someone from the company handling the work coming to the house to notify him. They also cut into his $15,000 driveway, he said, then just stopped working late last week. City engineer Robert Knopf said the work stoppage was because the sewer lines were lower than originally believed, and he stopped work to make sure the plans would still work. He added that work is expected to resume this week.


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