East Liverpool still working to finalize purchase of building
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EAST LIVERPOOL - East Liverpool's investment in a building for the street department is still being finalized, according to the city's Safety/Service Director David Dawson.
City administrators announced last September that they were entering into a lease-to-buy agreement for the former Marks Motor building at 1443 Pennsylvania Ave. so they would have a safe location for city employees to work and store equipment.
The current street department building at 1253 Pennsylvania Ave., originally constructed in 1938 as a trolley station, is a dilapidated structure which is falling in on itself.
Dawson had anticipated work on the new structure to ensure it would meet the department's needs to begin in October of 2022 and hoped to have the department moved into it in January of 2023. Mayor Greg Bricker said he believes that work is currently being done on the structure.
Dawson has previously noted that the city was applying for a loan in an undetermined amount to pay for the building and the modifications planned for it.
Work on the building is being held off during the lease because they don't want to do anything major to it until they own it, Dawson said. He also noted that renovations need to be done to the building to make it look more appealing and give it curb appeal before the street department moves into it.
Dawson noted that the loan to purchase the building was in place and they are waiting on the attorneys to move forward.
"There is a little bit of a hiccup there and it's a legal thing with the building," Dawson said. "So, we are just waiting for that to move forward."
When asked for details on what the "hiccup" is, Dawson would not provide an answer.
The city is making monthly payments on the building because they agreed to lease it until everything is in place and all the legal issues are settled so they can purchase it.
"We are waiting for all that to be worked out between the attorneys on both sides. The attorneys are working everything out, so there is nothing we can do until legally it goes through that process," Dawson said. "So, we are utilizing the building to a point that we can utilize it at this point, and we are leasing it, but there are intentions of purchasing the building. We just have to wait for all this legal stuff to go through."
Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com