01/24/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Minutes 1/24/OS Page 7 stands and everyone can just stand around and enjoy one another's company. But again, February 26. Mayor Rinker said last year in some respects seemed a bit like a sleeper year and everyone has been preoccupied as you can see by the many details of the construction of S.O.M. Center Road. And we have had delays and we are looking at, hopefully, being able to finish it sooner rather than later in 2005 as far as the roadwork itself. What remains is the northbound lane south of Metro Park Drive, utility work-a lot of the stuff that is underground that you don't see has been taken care of. So we really trust that the paving will get out the way earlier rather than later and then we really will begin in serious fashion a lot of the landscaping. So that project alone will still occupy a lot of our attention for the balance of this year. The ball fields-many of you may have seen even with mounding that we have in front of the softball fields that are going in south of the pool if you had a chance to get back in that area, that has been a transformation. You can see a lot of the lights that have gone up and that is just about the only thing that you can see. Those fields will be likely operational by 2006--? Mr. Thomas said that is correct. Mayor Rinker said and again as we did with the Soccer Fields, we want to make sure that the seeding takes root, literally and figuratively, and that these fields will be in good shape. This year again will be a real transition year having lost the one softball field, the westerly field at Wiley Park but Bill Thomas and Danielle we know are equal to the task. Mayor Rinker said and another project on the agenda has been something of a sleeper in the past year but I think we will start to see visibly some changes is in our move to the Civic Center, the former Methodist Church. We really look to more cosmetic and very basic, kind of pragrnatic type structural changes to it. We will move the Mayor's Office, Finance and Building into there as well as Parks & Recreation. We really went through this about 2 weeks ago, we really have gone through a number of iterations and it is still something of a work in progress. But I am really encouraged to see that for our staff and for the community, I think you are going to find that it is a much more functional, attractive, operational setting. Mayor Rinker said and the other aspect, and again we are still in the early stages, what we are finding is certain opportunities present themselves and others follow suit. And we are very excited in the initial dialogue we have had with the Fairmount Center which is a performing arts group. They have been housed for years at the Church of the Western Reserve, at Lander and Fairmount Circle. And they have been looking for an opportunity to expand. And we are in the initial stages of discussions with them. But this is like not having to reinvent the wheel for cultural performing arts that really will enrich the community. And the opportunity to be able to house them in the Civic Center--for plays, for concerts, for education in the arts, it really, we think will just be the beginning but I think it is going to be significant. Mayor Rinker said and again, that is something very tangible that we are looking forward to this year. Mayor Rinker said planning; 2020 Vision; a lot of the members of 2020 Vision have been chomping at the bit for the last year. We are very excited. I sent around a memorandum to a lot - of you. Attached to it was an early proposal from City Architecture. You may have seen in the paper lately that City Architecture has been very much involved in the City of Cleveland's lakefront redevelopment as well as the Euclid Corridor Project, Key 55 if you go down along the