GLENDALE, Ohio — Those excited to see the renovations begin at the historic Eckstein School building in Glendale left a village council meeting frustrated late Monday when they were abruptly told a vote to approve rehabilitation plans had been pulled from the agenda.
Bill Parrish has been working to obtain and overhaul the once all-Black segregated school into an arts facility for nearly a decade and had attended the 7 p.m. council meeting hoping to leave celebrating approval of their use application.
The approval would have paved the way for Bengals' center Ted Karras' construction team, Paradigm Construction, to begin work.
"We're still going to be proactive about the direction that we're going, but I think this was really something. It's disappointing," Parrish said.
WATCH: Eckstein renovators turned away from Glendale council meeting "frustrated"
Village Administrator David Lumsden broke the news to Parrish and Paradigm Construction leadership a few minutes before the meeting was set to begin that the approval had been removed from the agenda.
Lumsden said four of the seven members of the Planning and Historic Preservation Commission had failed to attend their 5:30 p.m. meeting, so the item, by statute, couldn't officially be moved to the full council for consideration.
Paradigm General Manager Richard Michaelis said saving the Eckstein school was a passion project for his team and leaving without approval was frustrating.
"My message would be show up on April 7, get this voted in so that we don't drive all the way down here to show up at your 7 p.m. meeting and five minutes before be asked to leave," Michaelis said.
Lumsden said the planning commission would meet April 7, and the inability to hear approval March 3 had nothing to do with the merits of the application.
"Normally, these meetings are held without any kind of incident like this," he said.
If approved by the commission at their 5:30 p.m. meeting, the full council would consider final approval at 7 p.m. on April 7.
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