Middlefield Village Fiscal Officer Nick Giardina and village legal counsel Luke McConville emphasized Sept. 11 an additional water well was the reason the village will be paying about $1.25 million for 58 acres in Burton Township.
Middlefield Village Fiscal Officer Nick Giardina and village legal counsel Luke McConville emphasized Sept. 11 an additional water well was the reason the village will be paying about $1.25 million for 58 acres in Burton Township.
Their comments followed Burton Village Council’s unanimous vote to authorize the mayor and fiscal officer to enter into a financing agreement with Middlefield Bank to purchase the property on state Route 87 west of the village.
The emergency ordinance passed after months of work to verify a well on the property would produce enough water to supply the community for decades to come.
The former site of the BFG factory includes a 38,000-square-foot building that can be repurposed.
“I’m 99% sure we have renters for 20,000 square feet of the building,” Mayor Ben Garlich said during the meeting, adding University Hospitals’ real estate people are looking at leasing a portion of the structure for a clinic.
Part of the building may house a welding school, he said.
Revenue from leasing the building spaces will cover the loan cost, he said.
“It’ll be a win-win for everybody,” Garlich said.
After the vote, Giardina reiterated the purpose of the purchase.
“The 58 acres were bought so we’d have a water supply. The building is in such good condition, we can rent it out. (The well) will set the village up for a century for water,” he said.
McConville echoed his comment.
“The purchase of the real property was for the water,” he said. “The building happens to be there and we can use it.”
In previous meetings, Garlich said drilling the well was not expensive, but setting up the infrastructure and laying pipe along the Kinsman Road right-of-way would be costly.
Council also heard on first reading ordinances to increase water rates 3% commencing Jan. 1, 2026, for residential, commercial and industrial customers and to increase sewer rates 5% for all three, so the loan on the wastewater treatment plant could be paid off.
A 3% increase in rates for properties with fire system sprinkler accounts was also placed on first reading.
“We would be remiss not to (raise rates) annually,” Garlich said.
On second reading, council heard a resolution for the village administrator to apply for, accept and enter into a water pollution control loan fund agreement to plan, design and construct the replacement of traveling bridge tertiary filters with new cloth disk filters and replace the ultraviolet disinfection system.
Garlich said he is hoping to get a low-interest loan for the capital improvements.
In other business, the mayor thanked Jaro Mares for framing Bill Mast’s painting of the village circa 1934.
Mast donated his large black-and-white acrylic just before Christmas last year and it is mounted in Mares’ maple and oak wood frame on the lobby wall in the village municipal center.
Mast re-created the mural on the west wall of the Middlefield Tavern in 2023.
Mares, who works in the village street department, said the frame took him about 20 hours in his home workshop.
Council also passed a resolution restricting construction and maintenance work to between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the village as an emergency.
The restriction applies primarily to work that creates noise that irritates neighbors, McConville said.
Crews can arrive and organize their work for the day before 7 a.m., but loud activity and equipment use is forbidden until after 7 a.m., he added, noting the ordinance gives the mayor the right to waive the restriction and the village the power to enforce.
Contractors starting on new projects can be given the information when the project begins, Garlich said.
