Euclid to have community meeting on cost of recreation and wellness center

Oct. 28—Euclid will be hosting a Ward Six meeting starting at 10 a.m. Oct. 28 with the major topic of conversation being the planned Community and Wellness Center that is on course to be over budget.

It has been addressed at public and committee meetings, and so far an answer as how to get the costs in line has not been found, according to city officials.

The meeting will be held at Upper School Hall, located at 351 E. 260th St. Officials with Euclid's Planning and Development team will show the public some proposed plans and have "informal conversations with residents and stakeholders," according to a press release.

City Councilman John Wojtila said he wanted to host the Ward Six meeting in order to communicate with the residents of the ward and update them on planned construction for the area. In addition $50,000 in Community Development Supplemental Grant funds are on the table for perspective projects, which he will be seeking input for.

"Planning and development are really looking for community input in what they want to see there," Wojtila said.

The original budget for the Community and Wellness Center was around $10 million, but it is now $12.5 million, according to Wojtila.

"The consultant has done the first part of it and that's come up with conceptual plans," he said. "And they've done an estimate for that. It's at $12.5 million right now. We had a meeting about two or three weeks ago about how do we fill the gap."

Euclid Recreation Director Mac Stephens says that the project coming up over budget is the result of wanting more features at the planned center. He met with members of the Executive Finance Committee this week to discuss how to handle the inflated budget.

"What we are trying to do is to determine if there is a way to reduce costs," Stephens said. "Or do we want to go with what we currently have. If we decide to go with what we currently have then how do, we finance the portion that will be over the $10 million that we set aside in ARPA funds. That hasn't been determined yet."

Stephens said that one problem is the initial plans were already over the $10 million that is coming out of federal American Rescue Plan Spending funds.

"Initially, it came in at close to $16 million," Stephens said. "But that was with an indoor walking track and other amenities that once those were taken out the cost was somewhat reduced.

"There were some things on the outside design that were requested so its just trying to figure out how can we accommodate some of the input that we received from residents and council and go from there."