By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
AUSTINBURG TOWNSHIP — Denmark Township Trustee Charlie Frye says he has found the $125,000 that Ashtabula County commissioners need to fund the Sheriff’s Department.
Frye, speaking at the Ashtabula County Townships Association meeting Thursday night, suggested commissioners abolish the Convention Facilities Authority (CFA), as provided for in the Ohio Revised Code (ORC), and redirect the 2 percent bed-tax money from CFA into the county’s general fund. He said CFA’s revenue stream would supplant general-fund money being used for lodge debt and, thus, free up that money for essential services, like the sheriff’s department.
However, Commissioners Board President Peggy Carlo said Friday that, according to ORC, dissolving CFA would cut off the bed tax.
“By law, if the CFA is no longer in existence, neither is the bed tax,” Carlo said.
Funded by a 2-percent bed tax, CFA was created by commissioners in 2002 for the purpose of economic development, specifically to develop the Lodge and Conference Center at Geneva-on-the-Lake. The bed-tax money can be used to reduce lodge debt or make improvements to the facility.
According to CFA financial documents provided by Treasurer Stuart Cordell, the authority received almost $235,709 from bed taxes in 2008. The amount has grown steadily since 2004, when $175,594 was received. The CFA was not funded prior to that.
In 2006, CFA issued bonds to refinance the county’s lodge debt and added another $500,000 for outdoor-pool construction. Commissioners last year took on that debt, freeing CFA of the obligation. CFA returned $150,000 to the county last year for debt retirement.
Its only investments in the facilities in 2008 were a playground, which cost $11,945, and $5,000 in landscaping. About 87 percent of the money collected by CFA in 2008 went for debt service. Since 2004, CFA has sent $600,000 to the county to reduce the lodge debt, said Cordell.
CFA has become controversial as commissioners look for ways to close a budget gap. The same week commissioners asked townships for $125,000 to help fund the Sheriff’s Department, CFA advertised for a lodge outdoor patio project pegged at $125,000. The contract for that work was awarded earlier this week.
The authority also has committed up to $50,000 toward a mile-long, paved bike path connecting the lodge to the state park campground. Most of the project is being funded by grants.
Cordell, in an e-mail regarding Frye’s proposal, wrote that economic activity driven by the lodge has a potential for generating far more than “the simple revenue-shifting proposal suggested by Mr. Frye.” Cordell stated that he was expressing his view as an individual, not as a CFA officer.
Frye, who ran for county commissioner in 2008 on a platform of closing the lodge, said his suggestion is not a lodge-hating issue but one of streamlining government. He suggests the county’s Convention and Visitors Bureau assume CFA’s role in promoting the lodge.
“This is an issue of doing the right thing,” he told trustees. “When the revenue streams increase, the commissioners can invest more money into the lodge if they choose.”
Virgil Martin, Morgan Township trustee, made a motion to suggest the CFA dissolution to the commissioners, but trustees expressed reservations about making a broad statement on a plan they wanted more time to study.
Frye said he will be sending information to each township so that trustees will have the opportunity to consider his suggestion and act on it if they want.
Commissioner Joseph Moroski was present during Frye’s presentation but did not comment on it specifically.
“We got to look at everything in this climate,” he said. “The health department, 911. I think you have to take a reasonable look at everything.”
