By FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

At least one member of Portsmouth City Council says he does not believe the City Building Steering Committee can get its work done in time to have any proposal put on the November General Election ballot.

In an email to members of Council, and specifically a direct answer to an email from Third Ward Councilman Nick Basham, First Ward Councilman Kevin Johnson said Council should allow the committee the necessary time it will need to obtain all the pertinent information necessary for their recommendations.

Basham brought up a previous suggestion by Johnson that there should be no timetable for the committee to make recommendations, saying, “Committees have been formed on this very issue since the 1980s. Thirty years of committees and we’re still dealing with the same problem,” Basham said. “Keep the timeline, keep the committee, and let’s gather facts. The 1980’s renovation proposal involved real facts and figures by professionals, not opinions. I would like to see that happen. I also think the idea floated by the ‘think tank’ group should be on the table. It would eliminate the ‘Martings elephant’, help us get rid of property we don’t use and fix our issue of needing a new building/better equipped building for city government.”

Johnson differentiated from previous committees and the current committee.

“No other committee recommendations have been forwarded to voters,” Johnson said. “All other recommendations have been, by some means, sidelined. This committee meets once per month. I do not see it being able to conclude its research, deliberations and arriving at consensus agreement within three or so months; especially given that for all practical purposes all its initial meetings have made little to no progress as regards research or deliberating alternatives.”

The group being called a “think tank,” consists of business leaders and office holders who are proposing having the Fifth/Third Bank donate its building on the Roy Rogers Esplanade to the city, then purchase what is known as the Adelphia property, currently owned by the city, for a more economical branch location; for the Marting’s Foundation to tear down the Marting’s building, also owned by the city, for the building of a parking facility; and for the city to sell the property where the current city building is located to a developer.

Johnson said he agrees with Basham that the “think tank” ideas should also be considered, but, given the complexity of negotiations that might be faced with Fifth/Third Bank and the Marting’s Foundation, the ideas being floated by that group faces extreme difficulty in ironing out details for the committee to consider by the current deadline, which was to be June or July.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth Mayor David Malone has received another letter of resignation from one of the members of the Building Steering Committee. Donnie Criner, business manager at the Pipefitters Local 577, said his job keeps him too busy to participate. Malone said he has been unable to find replacements for those committee members who have resigned. He also dealt with the suggestion that the committee be reduced from its original size of 10 members.

“As I spoke to the two committee members (Rich Saddler and Sharon Bender) at Wednesday’s scheduled meeting, I was unsuccessful in getting commitments from anyone to fill the vacate spots that occurred by resignations” Malone said. “Given that we are now at five members on the committee, maybe we can move forward and function with the present membership at this time.”

Only Saddler and Bender showed up at Wednesday’s committee meeting, meaning no business was conducted.

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.

The Energy Department’s prime contractor, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth (FBP), managing the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (GDP), issued a request for Expressions of Interest (EOI) seeking industry input to support the development of an acquisition strategy for potential disposition of DOE nickel.

The EOI requests technical, financial, and product market information to review the feasibility of technologies capable of decontaminating the nickel to a level indistinguishable from what is commercially available, such that it could be safely recycled and reused.

The EOI scope is for 6,400 tons of nickel to be recovered from the uranium enrichment process conducted at the Department’s Portsmouth GDP in Piketon. The nickel inventories are contaminated with uranium and other materials.

“If this review identifies viable technologies and the overall strategy is determined to be financially viable, DOE may approve the site contractor to pursue decontamination of the nickel and offer it for sale or reuse,” DOE Site Director Dr. Vincent Adams said. “However, no DOE nickel will be released into the market unless and until a rigorous evaluation has been completed on potential environmental and public health and safety impacts associated with reuse and/or recycling.”

“The safe recycling of the nickel here at the GDP could present potential benefits, in terms of lowering the cost of disposal and the viable reuse of a resource during the cleanup of the plant,” said Fluor-B&W Program Manager Jamie Jameson.

DOE will evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the technologies and the proposed strategy and will solicit public input through an appropriate National Environmental Policy Act evaluation. The process is expected to take several years before a final decision can be made regarding the nickel.

Last July, the Department cancelled a sales agreement for Oak Ridge and Paducah nickel. DOE concluded at the time that a re-evaluation of requirements, policies, and business practices was needed to determine whether more cost-effective strategies were feasible to make better use of this valuable government asset. The EOI is the first step in that process.

Read more about the EOI at www.fbportsmouth.com/working-with-us/solicitations/index.htm.

Source: Fluor-B&W

By FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

A group of area business and government leaders appear to be prepared to move forward with plans to make recommendations as to how to solve the city building dilemma and help develop the downtown area at the same time.

The group asked Portsmouth businessman and developer Jeff Albrecht to approach the Fifth/Third Bank Corporation about the possible donation to city of its former location on the downtown esplanade, and to see if they have an interest in purchasing the former Adelphia property, now owned by the city, to build a more economical branch location for their bank.

“This is the beginning of what is going to be a long and difficult process,” Albrecht said. “We need to get Fifth/Third into the process. We need to get the City of Portsmouth into the mix. And we would like to get the Marting’s Foundation involved. We would like to get the Marting’s Foundation to tear down the Marting’s building and make it into a nice parking lot, a memorial for the Marting’s family, if they would like.”

The group asked Mike Gampp to approach the Marting’s Foundation to see if they would be interested in tearing down the building.

At a previous meeting, Albrecht proposed using the former Fifth/Third building for a city building, selling the Adelphia property to Fifth/Third, and then having his company or some other private developer purchase the current city building property for a multi-function facility that would possibly consist of hotel rooms, condominiums and office space, using the money from the two sales to help fund renovating the new city building location.

First Ward Councilman Kevin Johnson stressed the importance of keeping current building committee member and Second Ward Councilman Rich Saddler informed as to the ideas coming out of the weekly sessions, and Gampp continued to stress keeping the citizens of the community in the loop as to what is being proposed.

“It’s important for people to know we have only been meeting for a couple of weeks,” Albrecht said. “We don’t want to give the impression that we are trying to compete with any other group or any other individuals. We’re not trying to criticize anybody. We appreciate anybody’s efforts.”

Albrecht said the group was not formed to deal with the city building issue in the first place.

“We were just some people who got together to drink some coffee in the morning and kick around some ideas. It just so happened that the first time we met the headline in the paper was about the city building issue, so, of course, over coffee that was the topic of that conversation,” Albrecht said.

Former State Senator, and Assistant to the President at Shawnee State University, John Carey was in attendance and reiterated the university’s intent to continue to grow and be involved in the community.

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.

By FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

Eighteen members of the community showed up in Portsmouth City Council chambers Wednesday night to attend a meeting of the City Building Steering Committee. Unfortunately, only two members of the 10-member committee showed up, a little short of a quorum.

As those in attendance sat, seemingly bewildered by what action would be taken, Portsmouth Mayor David Malone finally stood and advised Rich Saddler and Sharon Bender, the only two members of the committee at the table, to adjourn. Problem is, adjournment can’t take place unless a meeting is first called to order. And with no quorum, that couldn’t happen either.

The lack of an organized meeting did not stop a discussion between the two committee members and those in the gallery.

Saddler had two proposals ready to be presented, although he was quick to add they were not final proposals.

The first proposal calls for the construction of a new city building on existing city-owned property, and only if any of the existing property is able to accommodate a building and parking space, “of this size and in accordance with the City of Portsmouth and State of Ohio building codes. The proposal said the structure “shall not exceed” 53,000 square feet in design, and employee and public parking would be in addition to that footage.

He went on to say if there is no existing city-owned property available to build that option, “Part 1 – City Building Sites to be Considered” dated Sept. 26, 2006, shall be reviewed by the current committee and three viable options “shall be chosen for consideration.”

The reference was to the findings and recommendations of a similar committee in 2006, which failed to see the light of day as far as being considered by Council.

This proposal called for creation of a list of all existing property owned by the city with several exceptions including right-of-ways, public park areas, fire department buildings and service department buildings. The properties considered should then be appraised, the property advertised, and sold to the highest bidder starting at the appraised price. All of the money acquired would go toward the construction cost of the city building project.

His second proposal calls for rehabilitating and adding on to the existing city building and creation of employee and public parking space east of the city building. Again, it shall not exceed 53,000 square feet, and that the “Master Plan from Alexander-Seckel Architects, submitted to the City of Portsmouth in October of 1984 shall be used as a template.” The report submitted would be updated to include any and all construction price increases to today’s standards.

The remainder of the proposal was the same as the first one, and each ended with, “This proposal shall be submitted to the public for their vote by adding this proposal to the November 2012 General Election ballot as requested by the Mayor and Council President of the City of Portsmouth.”

Among the comments during the informal discussion were these, “The Police Department has to go someplace,” Bender said. “It can’t go into the Fifth/Third building.”

In a citizens group meeting last week, one of the proposals considered was asking Fifth/Third to donate its former building to the city, and for that company to buy the Adelphia property, currently owned by the city. However, one citizen reminded the members of the committee, the stipulation for ownership of the Adelphia building was that it be used for city government operations, or it will revert back to the former owner.

“I think I can speak for Sharon (Bender) that we are dedicated to doing something with our city building, providing something for the citizens of Portsmouth,” Saddler said. “I think with … everything that has been going on, it has deterred a lot of the individuals (committee members) who maybe don’t want to come out because they are afraid of being embarrassed in the community. Just speaking for myself, I have broad shoulders. I can let things hit me and roll right off. I know I’m doing something for the right reason and for the betterment of the city.”

Saddler also said the committee was too large with 10 members, and suggested it should be more like six or seven. He also cited a perceived lack of communication within the operation of the city.

“In the last month or so, with everything that has transpired, there has been a little bit of a lack of communication between the mayor and this committee,” Saddler said. “I feel that we should strive to get a stronger link of communication going — not only with the committee members, but possibly myself, since I am a Council member — if he can’t communicate with other people then he should at least communicate with me.”

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.