North Ridgeville Press June 8, 2016

2
PRESS
PAPERS
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JUNE 8, 2016
•
INDEX
VOL. 75, NO. 23
Church Directory .......12
Community Rec ........10
Classifieds ...................00
Editorial .......................... 5
Lifestyles ......................11
Sports .................... 13-21
Experts..........................23
Nightmares get victory
See page 13
Press
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Riddell a good
possibility with
state road grant
By Michael Fitzpatrick
A state agency approved a grant to fund a road
extension project in North Ridgeville that would
be used to access a yet-to-be built approximately
400,000-square-foot facility, which may, according to
speculation, become the home to Riddell.
Speculation has been the Elyria-based football helmet maker would move to North Ridgeville after it
was announced the city was in talks with a developer
who wants to build a 375,000-square-foot facility to
a Center Ridge Road property on the city’s west side,
which has stood vacant since it was the home to a
strip mall.
City Council approved an ordinance earlier this
year allowing the mayor to negotiate a TIF agreement
with the developer that would help pave the way for
the mystery business which, at this point, is officially
known only as “Project TDQ.”
However, the North Ridgeville Press obtained
a public record revealing the city received a nearly
$500,000 grant from the state for construction of
a road to service a 400,000-square-foot facility to be
used by – and it’s specified in this document as –
Riddell.
According to the document, which was issued by
the State of Ohio Controlling Board, the $478,000
grant is a Roadwork Development Grant and is “for
the City of North Ridgeville for costs associated with
the completion of the public roadwork improvements
in support of the Riddell/All American project in the
City of North Ridgeville, Lorain County.”
Riddell had been in talks with the city of Elyria to
keep the company there, but those apparently did not
come to fruition and Elyria’s loss will apparently be
North Ridgeville’s gain.
Mayor Dave Gillock has declined comment on
the matter, saying he has a confidentiality agreement
signed with Avison Young, the firm involved in finding the land for the project, which will be built by
Scannell Development.
City Council passed an ordinance rezoning the
land where “TDQ” will be located at 38889 Center
Ridge Road changing it from its former designation of
B-3 highway commercial to I-2 light industrial. Doing
that, it would appear, would clear the way for current
owner of the land, known as North Ridgeville Shopping Center, LLC to sell the land to Scannell, which
is going to build the facility and then apparently act
as the landlord to Riddell.
In talking with people who have some knowledge
about the deal it would appear the State of Ohio be-
SEE RIDDELL, page 12
The Bogner Family is
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the community
for 50 years
(440) 327-2955
Grads 2016
Members of the North Ridgeville High Class of 2016 took part in the traditional cap toss following the June 1 commencement exercise at Lorain County Community College. In total 293 students were in the 2016 graduating class.
NR Press photo — Michael Fitzpatrick
Department head salaries up for discussion
By Michael Fitzpatrick
The North Ridgeville City Council’s finance committee and administration agreed to recommend a
pay raise to the clerk of its mayor’s court, but not as
much as was first requested.
Sonja Morrow, a longtime city employee, recently
finished class work that earned her what is known
as “clerk of municipal court certification” or CMC.
Mayor Dave Gillock and safety-service Director Jeff
Armbruster submitted legislation to create a new position – Clerk of Court CMC – and grant that position
a salary approximately $10,000 more than Morrow’s
current salary, promoting her to the job. But the finance committee, made up of Roseanne Johnson,
Bernadine Butkowski and Dennis Boose said no and
instead agreed to recommend council create the new
position, promote Morrow to the position and give
her the equivalent of 2-percent raise from what she
is currently making.
The case points to a larger issue in the city, which
is that Gillock and Armbruster both feel the city’s department heads are often times not paid wages competitive to surrounding cities and that the “pay grid”
used for these employees needs to be updated.
Both Gillock and Armbruster think the starting
pay for the department heads should be increased
and those employees should also receive merit raises
for attaining certain certifi cations in their professional field.
Department heads are not represented by a union,
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