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<br />Council Minutes of 6/2/2009 <br />1994, there was a pool remodeling with a new a roof, and in 1998 or 1999, there were <br />repairs with the HVAC and roof at the ice rink. Those upgrades are still under payment, <br />but they are built into various notes. She can get that information to Mr. Stotz. President <br />Kennedy said he believed the amount was about $ i .2 million. 5) An article in the <br />newspaper on May 31 compared home prices for several years in various cities. A home <br />across the street from him recently sold at a sheriff's sale for $80,000 off of tax <br />appraisal. This concerns him because he is trying to sell his home to move to Cincinnati <br />to be with his children and grandchildren. He is not going to be able to sell his home for <br />2-5 years. He wondered if it was Fairview Park or North Olmsted that is the inner ring <br />suburb. Fairview Park started out at $143,000 in 2007; in 2008, $130,000; they're back <br />up to $142,000 in 2009 as the average sale price. North Olmsted, $155,000 in 2007; <br />down 14%, $140,000 in 2008; $120,000 in 2409-23% off. This is unacceptable. <br />Everyone needs to look in the mirror and say what can I do so this doesn't become an <br />inner ring city. In his opinion, there are three reasons why Fairview Park did not have a <br />great change and is coming back. Number one, Eileen Patton. She has been very <br />progressive, very effective, and very supportive of schools. Number two, the Gemini Rec <br />Center is beautiful and it only passed by less than 60 votes. Young families want a <br />modern rec center, and that's many times who are the buyers . Thirdly, the Lorain Road <br />revitalization in Fairview Park: the brick, benches, trees, and getting rid of some of those <br />unsightly motels. We have to make our city desirable for young people to move into. <br />It's not happening. Other cities such as Westlake and Strongsville don't have this kind of <br />23% decline. This is an inner ring city. These are all pieces of the puzzle; we can do <br />better. Mayor O'Grady answered that between Fairview Park and North Olmsted, <br />Fairview Park is the inner ring suburb. Statistics can be manipulated. Statistics are based <br />upon different trends at different times. If in North Olmsted in one year very high priced, <br />high end newer homes are selling, that's very different than if there are a lot of the homes <br />selling in the following year that were built much earlier. In Fairview Park, if you have <br />homes in some of their more quaint neighborhoods, which is the vast majority of the city, <br />selling primarily in one year and then the next year you have their large homes that are <br />along the Metroparks, that's a significant difference. What you need to do is look at <br />something that is much more objective, and the rankings that came from the County <br />assessment on property valuations showed very clearly that in Fairview Park there was a <br />9% depreciation in value of homes; in North Olmsted, it was 10%. So, we're consistent <br />on that. What we have done over these past four years with regard to insuring and <br />protecting the value of our housing stock is nothing short of monumental. We have <br />launched an effort to work with people who may be approaching foreclosure. On those <br />rare instances in our city where a home actually goes into foreclosure, we have a <br />significant and impressive system set up to protect that property and therefore the value <br />of the properties around it. If a borne actually goes into foreclosure, we have our Police <br />Dept. driving by it each evening and making sure everything is secure. We have our <br />Service workers and Fire Dept., as they are in the area, keeping an eye on the house. If <br />our Service workers see abuild-up of newspapers or mail, they pick it up. If the lawn <br />isn't being mowed, we contact whoever owns the home. If they don't take care of the <br />grass being mowed, we do it and we bill them. We've been doing the right things. We've <br />got a very good Director of Public Safety, Lisa Thomas, working very closely with the <br />Law Dept. and Assistant Law Director Carole Heyward to put together a plan to preserve <br />11 <br />