FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- City officials have discussed for decades the need for a modern service garage in Fairview Park.
That dream is about to come to fruition after Cuyahoga County recently awarded Fairview Park $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding toward the construction of a new facility.
“We’re very happy to receive this grant,” Mayor Patrick Cooney said. “This is something that’s been looked at here in Fairview Park since the 1980s. For various reasons, it’s been unable to happen. This grant goes a long way in getting it done.
“We have an older garage with not a lot of bays. This new facility will have more space for our service trucks. We’re looking for a place to put our equipment that’s outside now and exposed to the elements throughout the year.”
The Fairview Park service garage is located behind City Hall. (John Benson/cleveland.com)
While the service garage location will remain behind City Hall, the structure will be moved from the western to the eastern side of the property.
“Currently, we have a lot of sheds where some of the hand tools and other equipment we need to use are stored,” Cooney said.
“By having a bigger service garage, those pieces of equipment can be moved indoors and accessed more easily and more efficiently.”
The current estimate for the new service garage is $1.9 million, with the mayor noting that the city will be looking for additional funding to make up the difference.
This includes a recent application for $150,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding.
“We’re exploring other options, but obviously $1 million is a fantastic start from the county,” Cooney said.
Next up is for City Council to authorize an architect request for proposals. The architect would not only design the facility, but also determine the square footage and fine-tune the cost.
“We’re having the engineer do some work on it now,” Cooney said. “We’re doing as much as we can at this point in time (in order) to get ready as quickly as possible.
“Hopefully, we’ll have an architect in place by the first of the year. We want to get it going ASAP. If we can do that in the second quarter 2023, that would be great.”
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