STEUBENVILLE — City Manager Mike Johnson told council Tuesday he has high hopes a craft on Fourth at Market will “be a catalyst” for downtown.

Johnson said the developer has proposed demolishing three buildings opposite the old Sinclair building and situated between the Holy Face of Jesus store and the old Ferguson building to make way for a production center. The city’s Historic Landmarks Commission has already signed off but state approval is needed before demolition can begin.

“It’ll be a distribution warehouse for craft beer,” he said. “They’ll also have a courtyard, which will be away from the street (and) a private alley for their trucks to go back and forth, but the key was they needed the Historical Landmarks Commission to let them knock down the three buildings.”

Those three storefronts had, at one time, housed Tom McCann, the Phil-Mor and the former GOP building, he said.

“The Historic Landmark Commission giving them approval to do that…was the big hurdle to overcome,” he said. “The next hurdle is they have to get permission from the Ohio Historical Commission (but) they’re pretty optimistic that’ll happen. Assuming it happens, they can start knocking down buildings as early as the end of July–and their plan is to not knock them down and let them sit. Once they knock them down, they’ll start construction. So that’s a very positive development on a corner for (downtown) and, I think, that it will probably be a catalyst, in my opinion, to move the city forward in that part of the town.”

Mayor Ralph Petrella said he’s talked with the developer and was assured, “They have liquid cash on hand, so they’re not using any city money, any grant money, any federal money–they have cold, hard cash on hand ready to do this project.”

“I think that’s also important,” Petrella said.

Johnson also told council he’d met with Police Chief Ken Anderson and Carlo Capaldia, retired fire chief, for a status update on plans to add to the police and fire memorial in front of the city building. He said he’d been able to see pictures of the memorial “and I’m looking forward to that (being completed.)”

“The fire memorial is going to be out in front of the city building, right in front of the flagpole,” he said. “After the Fourth of July, we anticipate the contractor will pour the footer. The memorial is on its way over from Europe, so hopefully by the end of summer we’ll have a very nice memorial.”

In other business:

— With Police Chief Ken Anderson’s retirement date less than three weeks away, the five-member committee tasked with overseeing the search for Steubenville’s next police chief plans to interview three candidates during Thursday’s special meeting. After meeting behind closed doors to review the 10 applications that were submitted, committee members declined to say which three were selected for in-person interviews. Three of the 10 applicants were from within the department.

— Council also met in executive session to discuss wages for the new utility director, the city engineer and his assistant. City officials had said previously that salary adjustments are necessary in the wake of the planned reorganization, triggered by the pending retirement of Wastewater Supervisor Chuck Murphy at the end of August. Instead of continuing with separate water and wastewater department heads, council plans to designate Water Supervisor Jim Jenkins as the city’s new utility director. Due to his broadened workload, City Engineer Mike Dolak and his assistant will take on additional duties previously done by the departmental supervisors.

— Parks & Recreation Director Don Patterson said he has two lifeguards certified and ready to work, with “three or four more going through the hiring process and potentially four or five more” who will be taking a lifeguarding class at Steubenville High School next week. Patterson said the classes cost $300 for new certification applicants and $200 for recertification, but if they work the whole summer, the city will reimburse them.

— Johnson said he hadn’t heard from mall representatives “in a couple of weeks.”

— Council agreed to bring proposed changes to the city’s employee hospitalization policy back to the floor for consideration and action. Johnson had asked council to consider allowing new hires to migrate onto the city’s insurance rolls immediately, rather than having to wait 90 days to be eligible for coverage. Johnson said it could be a valuable job recruitment tool. “At the very least, maybe…we come up with a policy where we reimburse the individual’s corporate policy–that may be a way to work around it also.”

— Council introduced separate pieces of legislation which, if approved, would authorize Johnson to execute agreements for the roof replacement at Martin Luther King Jr.’s roof, amend sections of the city code addressing longevity pay, and introduce a personal day policy for nonunion full-time employees.

— Council approved ordinances rezoning properties at 609 N. Seventh St. from general commercial industrial district (I-1) to high-density residential (R-3), as well as 11 parcels on McCook Boulevard owned by Case and Lon Jacqueline Staton, also rezoned from I-1 to R-3.

— Council approved legislation adopting a tax budget for fiscal year 2027.

— Council heard first reading of legislation authorizing Johnson to execute the Lincoln Boulevard retaining wall rehabilitation project.