A single bid came in for the City of Uhrichsville service garage, but the motion was tabled as some council members felt they were in the dark about where the service department would move to.
Law Director Jeff Merklin opened the lone offer at the most recent council meeting.
“This bid is from Larry Wood, and he bid $284,000 so this bid meets the requirements for what you’ve authorized for the city garage.”
Council President Buck Cottrell and Mayor Jim Zucal provided their recommendations on what council should do.
“We don’t get in a big hurry. Next meeting you guys decide and if you have questions call the law director, I mean if you guys want to vote tonight, I don’t care either”, said Cottrell.
Zucal however had a different opinion.
“Buck, if I may, there’s only one, the law director said it was acceptable, my suggestion would be let’s just vote on it tonight.”
A first and second was made but council member Ron Miller, who’s not opposed to the sale, questioned where the department would move to, since potential locations had not been shared with council prior. Councilman Harold Shamel was in agreement.
“I just don’t understand we’ve been going this long on it, and we don’t know where we’re going to put the garage. We can’t just shove that stuff out in the street.”
Zucal responded.
“I can’t go to someone and say we’ll take it. I’m just advocating that we transition to another place. We have some plans I wanted to inform council. I’ll be more than happy to discuss. We have a couple of options we’re looking at currently.”
The mayor said administration has looked at other properties but could not release that information publicly. He asked for an executive session before the meeting ended to discuss this and personnel.
Merklin added that a typical selling timeline is 30 to 45 days, which would be agreed upon by the bid winner.
The motion did not pass with two no votes from Miller and Bob Baker and one council member absentee. The decision was tabled until the next meeting.
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