Richwood officials aren’t yet sure moving forward with the Opera House roof repair is a good idea.
At the regular village meeting Monday night, council voted 3-3 whether to table or proceed with the project. Mayor Scott Jerew cast the tie-breaking vote to table the decision, effectively halting the project until officials can see more data.
The roof repair is only a portion of the larger restoration project that, according to estimates, could cost upwards of $2-3 million.
“I’m saying table, sorry. I’m the tiebreaker and I would like to know what the residents have to say,” Jerew said.
The vote came after council member Reddy Brown, who also sits on the Opera House Revitalization Committee, updated the group on a new quote for the roof. Brown said Midstate Contractors out of Marion gave a quote for labor and material costs to the roof project of $169,132. The committee received a 2022 capital grant for $150,000 but that still leaves the project $19,000 short.
“OFCC (Ohio Facilities Construction Commission) said that’s okay, we can do that, but we would need a letter from Sarah (Sellers, village fiscal officer) saying that the entity, us, that we would be good for the difference,” Brown said. “I’m not asking that council would say that money would come from anywhere else because the Opera House Committee has $12,350 right now in their account.”
He said while that’s still short some $6,000, the committee’s fundraisers have been generating nearly $4,000 or so a quarter.
The pressure to use the grant comes from a need to spend the funds by June of next year, though if the project is in motion, the state can offer an extension.
Jerew said the sticking point in all this is whether or not there is support from the community and he’s hesitant to approve the spending before he knows. He added council is still waiting on data collection from the committee’s support survey handed out at this year’s fair.
Committee members handed out a survey that community members could fill out at various locations in order to gauge the strength of support for the larger restoration efforts to the building.
Initial findings suggested support, but the committee said in a meeting that they weren’t sure whether that was representative of just the village or a larger swath of the county and were working to get more data.
“We don’t have the results,” Jerew said. “What if it’s all bad? If it was me, and it was all bad and they don’t want to put anymore money into, you don’t have to take that $150,000.”
Council member Pat Morse, who voted to table the roof decision, agreed with Jerew and said the residents should have more input before a decision is made.
“That’s a big key is what do the residents of this village want done with those dollars?” Morse said. “If you’ve got this data coming, then I think we should wait and see what the data says.”
He said until he knows how the public feels about the project, he’s hesitant to make big decisions.
“To me, that makes the decision easier if we knew what people were thinking,” Jerew added.
The roof repair work would involve installing a new, single steel designed roof truss, removing slate materials to be reused and replacing them with a temporary covering. The work would help stabilize the roof and allow for other structural work to be done on the building.
“As a temporary solution until a complete roof repair or replacement can be performed, we will install mineral surfaced rolled roof material where the salvage is being removed,” according to a document from Midstate Contractors. “Removed salvage slates should be placed on wood pallets and store on site.”
Brown said committee members are working to gather the data and should have something to share with council in the coming weeks.