EDITOR’S NOTE: The Willoughby Western Lake County Chamber of Commerce hosted officials from its communities last month at La Vera Party Center in Willoughby Hills to discuss the “State of the Cities.” This is one in a series of articles detailing the speeches that were given. Willoughby saw th ree major groundbreakings for projects over the past year that were a long time in the making, Mayor Robert Fiala observed. Willoughby Mayor Robert Fiala reported on some major groundbreakings for projects currently taking place in the city at the State of the Cities Address last month. (Marah Morrison — The News-Herald) One was the city’s Union High School project which required help at many different levels, Fiala said. “The project was granted some money for asbestos removal and some other things as well,” he said. “We were also fortunate that (Lake County) Commissioner (Richard) Regovich and his fellow commissioners allocated $350,000 to support some historic tax credit dollars we got.” Conversions of old schools like Union High into rental units is challenging as they’re inefficient buildings. Fiala said 50% of these buildings are unused space. “There are corridors and things you can’t use for residential use, so the deal demanded a lot of help from a lot of people to pull it off,” he said. “The project’s now under construction. The windows have been replaced. There will be 40 market-rate apartments and 19 townhomes built behind it.” The Union High project is the perfect blend of housing sitting on Willoughby’s public square, Wes Point Park, along with for-sale detached townhomes, Fiala said. “This building has a lot of historic significance to our community,” he said. “My predecessor, Dave Anderson, had foresights to make sure this building stayed online and we wouldn’t lose it. As a result, in the next year, we’ll see a ribbon cutting. We hope to have a hard hat tour sometime between now and then.” The housing project will put roughly 1,500 people within walking distance of Downtown Willoughby and will support all of the things the city is doing in its downtown, Fiala said. Meanwhile, at the city’s north end, historic high-water levels sparked the Osborne Park project. According to Fiala, the city lost roughly 40 feet of the park. Over the years, the city has received a host of various grants and ground was broke last fall for the project. Construction has commenced on the first phase of the project, about $3.6 million of revetment, Fiala said. “We’re going to build two small beaches on the waterfront and we’re hopeful we’re going to get a second grant of $3 million that will continue the revetment all the way to the edge of the beach,” he said. “Part of our funding comes from several environmental initiatives.” The city also broke ground last fall on the Chagrin River trail project. The design build contract has since been awarded for about $4.8 million. “This will provide a bridge from Todd Field to the former Andrews Osborne property, about a two-mile walking trail internal to it and we’re hopeful to get additional funding to have a second bridge connect from Todd Field to there park and then from the park to Daniels Park,” Fiala said. If the city won’t get the funding for the second bridge, negotiations are currently taking place with the Ohio Department of Transportation who’s going to possibly do a bridge replacement in two years. “What we’re going to be doing is actually enhancing the current (Route) 84 bridge with an expanded walkway,” Fiala said. “That’ll become our connection to that side.” Bids were recently received for the Willoughby police station project, a more than $10 million project that has been full year in the making. “We awarded contracts and construction is going to start,” Fiala said. “I have to applaud our safety services and our police for staying with this project. It’s complex to remodel a commercial building into a safety services building. We’ll have a groundbreaking shortly we hope.” Historic artifacts will be featured in the lobby of the new police station in the former Meister Media Worldwide building. The state-of-the-art dispatch center will have brand new equipment and 12 work stations will also be able to be housed in the new station. A roll call room, some administrative offices and a community space will also be featured so the department can continue to have outreach to the community, Fiala said. Close to South Street in Willoughby, erosion coming up to River Road commenced the slope stabilization project. “We also knew there was going to be a new water main replaced on this road and the road was going to be repaved, so we bundled that into a single project,” Fiala said. “The county’s going to replace the water line, under construction now, in a few weeks. After that, we’re going to restore the slope and stabilize it.” Next year, the entire street is to be repaved, Fiala said. ...read more read less