Reprinted from the city email list

February 21, 2017

As I begin my eighth year as your mayor and reflect on the positive things that have happened in our city during this past year, I believe that University Heights will continue to flourish and remain a desirable place to live and raise a family. We have expanded our green space, improved our streets and infrastructure, collaborated with neighboring cities on regional efforts to enhance city services, and continued our solid fiscal stewardship of your hard earned tax dollars. Our fiscal health is strong for the 8th year in a row. Your city administration has produced a healthy surplus from operations. Closing the books on 2016, we have a carryover of $2.5 million. This 19% carryover balance is what the Government Finance Officers’ Association recommends to ensure future financial stability.

Our new community park has been a popular destination since opening last summer. There is nothing more charming than seeing happy children playing on the playgrounds. Walkers and joggers have been able to meet their personal fitness goals, too, while enjoying the .3 mile perimeter path. This summer, we will introduce a movie night at the Community Park. We welcome community suggestions for family-friendly activities.

The new tennis courts at Purvis Park and the additional programming at the pool last summer were both a big hit with our residents. The pool remains an affordable outing for families with no fee increases planned. This year the pool buildings will be painted to follow-up last summer’s pool painting. The parking lot at Purvis Park was paved last fall and we installed a sidewalk from the Cedar Road sidewalk to the pool entrance for safer pedestrian access to the pool and park.

In 2016, the city arranged for our senior residents to join the Senior Center in Cleveland Heights. As a result we now have pickle ball enthusiasts for outdoor play at one of the courts at Purvis Park. If you haven’t tried pickle ball yet, you will find that it is easy to learn with less running than a game of tennis. The court will be marked with brightly colored lines for the pickle ball requirements but will also have the tennis line markings for tennis play.

The City’s summer music concert series will continue at John Carroll University. The concert site on the Hamlin Quad offers a large outdoor lawn area for young concert-goers to run and play, ample nearby parking, and an indoor venue for inclement weather. The concert turnout has been larger each year as more concert-goers enjoy the series.

Road work was extensive last year and will be again this year. More road paving is made possible by the year-end surpluses generated each year. Last year the waterlines were replaced on Loyola and Churchill Roads. Dominion East Ohio Gas continued replacing gas lines on various streets as part of a ten-year replacement program. This year Dominion will replace gas lines on Green Road from the South Euclid border to south of University Parkway. The gas line replacement will also occur on a portion of Churchill Road. Following that we will pave Churchill Road, making Churchill the first street in University Heights to have complete infrastructure replacement of waterline, gas line and road resurfacing. We have not heard if the Cleveland Water Department will replace any waterlines in our city this summer but information will be provided when available.

Over the past few years, the city has replaced curbs on most blocks of Silsby east of Warrensville Center Road. That project will be completed this summer. To the west of Warrensville, we will repave Silsby Road between Taylor and Edgerton Roads and replace the curbs as a joint project of University Heights and Cleveland Heights. Grant funds from Cuyahoga County will pay a portion of the cost with the rest paid proportionately by each city. Next year, in 2018, we plan to repave the remaining section of Silsby Road west of Warrensville and replace the curbs.

Another significant road project scheduled this year is the introduction of a median island on Warrensville from Fairmount Circle to Meadowbrook. Mid-block crosswalks will be added on this long block to allow pedestrians and bicyclists to easily cross from one side of Warrensville to the other. The median island will beautify this roadway. In addition we will extend the curbs on each side of the street and add mid-block crosswalks on Warrensville between Meadowbrook and Hillbrook Roads. These projects were recommended by NOACA, the Northeast Ohio Area-wide Coordinating Agency, to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety on Warrensville. These improvements will be paid largely by a grant from NOACA. Additionally, we have budgeted $1.2 million to continue our regular program of repaving streets.

After four years of planning with neighboring cities for a joint police, fire and emergency medical services (EMS) dispatch center, this regional effort will soon become a reality. The Heights-Hillcrest Communications Center will operate a joint communications system for the dispatch of police, fire and EMS services in and for the cities of Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, South Euclid and University Heights. The new dispatch center will be located in Cleveland Heights, with construction costs and new equipment paid with a grant from Cuyahoga County. The build-out of the new center will begin later this year.

The high school rebuilding project will soon be completed and the high school will relocate to its new building in Cleveland Heights during the summer months. According to the School District, there will be no summer school held at the Wiley site this summer. Instead, the District will prepare the Wiley site for the arrival of the middle school students from Monticello and Roxboro Middle Schools in August. For the next two school years, 2017-18 and 2018-19, the Wiley site will house all of the District’s middle school students while renovations are made at the Monticello Middle School and Roxboro Middle School buildings in Cleveland Heights. The District will present its plans for the conversion of the Wiley site at a city Planning Commission meeting later this spring. We will advertise the date once it is known.

Congratulations to John Carroll University on being named a NorthCoast 99 Winner as one of the best workplaces in Northeast Ohio. Additionally, John Carroll University’s Boler School of Business was ranked as one of the best Undergraduate Business Schools in 2016 by Bloomberg’s Businessweek and voted #1 in the nation for Preparing Students for Jobs. Kudos to JCU!

Your city administration has worked hard to make University Heights a community where people want to live and raise a family. We continually seek ways to improve the municipal services. These efforts are brought to you with my administrative team and Department Directors. My thanks to my team members: Police Chief Steven Hammett, Fire Chief Douglas Zook, Service Director Jeffrey Pokorny, Building Commissioners Eric Tuck-Macalla and Larry Brown, Community Development Coordinator Patrick Grogan and Finance Director Larry Heiser. Their dedication to the city and its residents is unparalleled and I am grateful for their service. I have also appreciated the support of the City Council over the last year. They authorized applications for grant funding for city improvements, the purchase of equipment for our safety forces, and the development of our new community park. I appreciate their service to the community and look forward to working with them in the next year.

I appreciate the confidence you have placed in me to work for the continued growth of our community. I enjoy this work tremendously, and pledge to continue working hard to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely and we continue delivering excellent city services. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns at mayor@universityheights.com and at 932-7800 x222. Best wishes for a good year in 2017.
Sincerely,

Susan Infeld
Mayor