DISCUSSION — Second Ward Councilman Tracy McManamon, left, and First Ward Councilman Dave Albaugh discuss repairs to the Beaty Park shelter during Tuesday’s meeting of Steubenville City Council. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Legislation that would pave the way for repairs to a burned-out picnic shelter at Beatty Park to get underway was introduced this week, but the councilman who heads the recreation committee refused to do it — sparking a discussion on departmental autonomy as well as problems at least two councilmembers said they’ve had getting information and reports they’d requested from department heads.

It was Councilman Royal Mayo who refused to sunshine legislation authorizing the city manager to seek bids for any engineering services that would be required as well as other aspects of the project and award the contract to the lowest qualified bidder. Since grant money awarded for the repairs must be expended by the end of the year, Councilman Dave Albaugh stepped in to read the emergency ordinance into the record and keep the project on track, at least for the time being.

Because they are also members of the recreation committee, Albaugh and Councilman Tracy McManamon can introduce pertinent legislation in his stead. Mayo said he had no problem with that.

“I’m not going to do it, I’ll tell you why,” Mayo said. “It’s a request from the Recreation Director for repair of the shelter in Beatty Park. Now for six to eight months I’ve been asking for a list of everything wrong with the Martin Luther King Center. What’s wrong with the roof, it’s still leaking … I’ve asked over and over and over again and I’ve got nothing yet. So if we’re going to have to allocate money to this, and it’s already outside and it’s already damaged, and we have a limited amount of funds, I’d like to know what’s wrong with the Martin Luther King Center first, because that’s an (indoor) investment — We just got close to $80,000 worth of equipment in there, it can be damaged. If we’re going to have a limited amount of funds, I’d like that report first before I sunshine this request (and) money goes somewhere else that we haven’t even discussed.”

The roof on the shelter, the park system’s oldest, was destroyed in a 2019 fire. The city received a $45,000 insurance payout not long after. The recreation department also was awarded a $25,000 Pugliese Foundation grant, but the shelter repairs had to be delayed while emergency repairs to a historic sandstone bridge were done. The Pugliese Grant money must be used in 2025.

Mayo complained that he can’t shape water and sewer grant seeking priorities because of the technical and regulatory nature of their departmental needs, “but as far as recreation goes and what we get, what we want, everybody in here has an opinion.” He said his preference would be that “we get reports on everything we need to do in recreation before we start asking for funds.”

“We have a limited amount of funds, and everybody’s vying for what they think is most important, but it’s all vanity. It has nothing to do with need or necessity, like our water. So, I’m not going to sunshine that, and I want the report that I asked for months ago (a listing of all departmental needs and estimated costs associated with them) before I do anything else like that.”

He also complained in the past that he’s never been able to join conference calls with Aspire, the city’s grant writing consultant.

“Grants could go anywhere, but you earmark it for what you wanted to earmark it for, so I’m not going to do it,” he said. “If you can do it without me, go ahead and do it, but I’m not going to do it.”

He was reminded grant money can only be used for the project for which funding was awarded.

“Yeah, and no grants have been applied for for the things that I’ve that I’ve talked about for months, nor have I got a report,” he said. “So again, I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it until I get the reports I asked for.”

Councilwoman Heather Hoover said she, too, is frustrated that reports she’s requested in the past, some as recently as a week ago, from department heads have never been submitted, saying, “People have to be accountable.”

“I think that when we request reports, we often don’t get them,” she said. “(I’ve) asked for several reports from a certain department that we have never (received) … Those reports should be given to council when they’re requested and they shouldn’t have to be requested more than once but it happens, because I’m still waiting for reports from last year — but I don’t think that we should be holding up money that’s already there from insurance … and money that was specifically written for a grant to help finish that roof because it’s been sitting there and they’ve been waiting for it to get done.”

McManamon, meanwhile, pointed out that the repairs might actually exceed the insurance payout and Pugliese grant, “but that’s not necessarily what this job might eventually cost us,” he said. “We won’t know until (we see the bids).”

“So, I think we need to be very, very careful about what this job might eventually cost us,” he said.

Council also:

• Adopted emergency legislation authorizing the city manager to enter into contract with Verdantas Engineering for engineering services for the wastewater treatment administrative building project.

• Approved a resolution honoring and thanking the Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Steubenville or their participation in the Mount Calvary Baptist Church 10-year anniversary as well as their involvement in the dedication of signs proclaiming Seventh Street as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard but tabled action, by request, on a resolution honoring longtime water department employee Scott Cramer, who died unexpectedly recently.

• Heard first reading of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to seek bids for the Belleview Tank.

• Scheduled a finance committee meeting for 6 p.m. Nov. 10, a Monday, to discuss the 2026 proposed budget and funding priorities. The regular business meeting will follow at 6:30 p.m. The meeting was moved up a day due to Veterans Day.