Medina plans assessment of municipal buildings

Community NewsMedina Council President John Coyne said the city wants to assess municipal buildings to make sure that meet future needs of each department.Emily Canning-Dean, Special to Cleveland.comBy Emily Canning-Dean, special to cleveland.comMEDINA, Ohio – With operations of Medina Municipal Court moved to its new location, the city plans to take a close look at the old court building, City Hall and the police department to determine how well the facilities are equipped to handle community needs in the future. Council’s finance committee approved a motion to work with Cleveland-based firm Richard L. Bowen and Associates on a needs assessment of the three facilities. City Engineer Patrick Patton said the city formed a committee that included himself, Mayor Jim Shields, Police Chief Ed Kinney, Council President John Coyne and Service Director Nino Piccoli. The group reviewed proposals from 24 firms interested in working with the city on the needs assessment of the three buildings. “We narrowed it down to four and decided that Richard L. Bowen and Associates was the most qualified, so we developed a scope of work and request council approve an agreement with the firm,” Patton said. “We went through this process because it is something we want to figure out now that we have an available building across the street,” Coyne said. “We want to figure out how to use our public facilities to the best of our ability and what is lacking within those public facilities.”MORE BY EMILY CANNING-DEANCoyne said the assessment is the first step in determining how best to work with the space the city has as Medina considers future needs for each department. “Once the assessment is done and we make a determination on what needs to be done, we can figure out a cost range we are comfortable with,” he said. “I think we can come up with a reasonable answer to solve some of our problems with future needs and how to best serve the public.” “I am really looking forward to working with Bowen and Associates,” Shields said. “They have been really wonderful, and I have faith we will get a good product out of this.”