CINCINNATI — Cincinnati council members and other city staff took a bus tour Monday of city sites where maintenance has been deferred.
The tour included the Evanston Recreation Area, Bellevue Park, Oskamp Playground and the Cincinnati Health Department building on Burnet Avenue.
This is a problem the WCPO 9 I-Team has been reporting on for years, with the city saying it's facing a projected $500 million backlog in deferred maintenance.
It includes old fire stations (one was built for a horse and buggy), recreation centers that don’t meet current safety and building codes and an unairconditioned fleet garage where workers say temperatures top 100 degrees in the summer.
While touring the health department building, Cincinnati Health Department Chief Financial Officer Mark Menkhaus described various issues staff have dealt with at the property. He said one of the elevators has been broken for about two months and a second-floor restroom had been out of service for about three weeks this year. In other areas of the building, he said city leaders would observe "evidence of some cracks."
Inspectors ruled the building obsolete earlier this year, which Menkhaus said meant it would take more money to get the building back to operational level than 50% of its value.
Earlier this year, council member Jeff Cramerding told the WCPO 9 I-Team he wanted the council to go on a bus tour of the city's worst buildings.
“Unfortunately we’ve dug a very large hole for ourselves. It’s going to take a number of years for us to dig out of it. But we’re realizing the extent of the problem which is an important first step," he said ahead of Monday's bus tour.
Cramerding said the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway would help with funding.
"The railroad sale would improve the situation," he said. "It would about double the money we get for capital investment, but it's important that the railroad sale won't solve all the problems."
Voters will have the final say on the sale in November. The city wants to sell it to Norfolk Southern for around $1.6 billion, which it would invest back into "capital maintenance of core deteriorating infrastructure now and for future generations to come," according to a city council committee.
"I just think that it's incredibly short-term for us to do that," said former Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman.
Smitherman believes there are better ways for the city to generate money.
"I feel like there's a lack of information and I think that level of uncertainty should have voters vote no on (Issue) 22," he said.
You can read more about the proposed sale here.
