Thu Sep 02 2010
by Andrew Schunk
Editor
Twinsburg Township -- The township's controversial former headquarters at the corner of Route 91 and Twinsburg Road will soon be the new home for the Humane Society of Greater Akron, after the society and Summit County Port Authority agreed to a $3.4 million, 3-year lease agreement Oct. 19.
"It's fortunate that the building was there, and that it can meet their needs," SCPA Executive Director Chris Burnham said Oct. 20. "We'll try to assist them any way we can."
According to Humane Society Executive Director Karen Conklin, the society will move its operations and nearly 400 animals from Boston Township into the 68,000-square-foot building, owned by the SCPA, by late January or early February.
"This is really a miracle," Conklin said.
The humane society plans to use between 30,000 and 35,000 square feet of the facility for its own uses and will share a portion of the building, about 13,000 square feet, with Hattie Larlham, a non-profit group that offers services for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
"We don't need all 68,000 square feet, and the two public missions of Hattie Larlham and our organization make for a win-win situation for both of us," Conklin said.
Bill Wahl, media relations director with Hattie Larlham, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Conklin said Hattie, based in Akron, would move "some of its programs" to the township location.
"I'm just glad to see this building is going to be used again," Trustee Jim Balogh said.
Conklin said it is the society's goal to purchase the building from the SCPA by the end of the first year, Dec. 1, 2010 -- the lease agreement begins Dec. 1, 2009, and runs through Dec. 1, 2012 -- and host at least two fundraising and "major donor" events at the building in November.
The society's thus far successful fundraising campaign allowed the group to agree to the lease-to-purchase agreement with the SCPA, Conklin said.
In July, the township's Board of Zoning Appeals approved certain conditions that paved the way for the humane society's plan to move into the facility.
Conditions included limiting the facility to domesticated animals only, with no livestock or exotic animals permitted; limiting the overall number of animals housed to 500 with a limit of 200 dogs; requiring that animals stay indoors except for the purpose of exercise where the animal must be on a leash and in a fenced in area; requiring that waste is stored indoors and removed from the property daily; and requiring that areas of the building used by the humane society be insulated with noise-deadening insulation.
Burnham said the agreement between the humane society and the SCPA "is a separate matter" from a $4.4 million breach-of-lease civil complaint filed by the SCPA against Twinsburg Township in November 2008 over the same building.
Neither Stephen Funk, of Akron-based Roetzel and Andress, who is representing the SCPA in the matter, nor Jack Morrison Jr., who is representing the township, returned calls seeking comment.
In an eight-page statement filed Feb. 25 by Funk, the SCPA claims the 20-year, $5.59 million lease agreement signed in August 2005 between the township and SCPA was legal and binding and proofed by the township's own legal counsel, and that a counterclaim filed by the township earlier this year "is meritless."
The township counterclaim, filed in January 2009, seeks to recoup at least $550,000 that the township says was "mistakenly paid" to the Port Authority under the "invalid" agreement to lease the 68,000-square-foot facility.
Trustees voted to stop making the roughly $40,000 monthly lease payments on the Route 91/Twinsburg Road structure in April 2008 and moved back to the old Township Hall on Ravenna Road that same month.
In September, Trustees finalized a $445,000 purchase of a 1.6-acre parcel on Enterprise Parkway, with a 2,400-square-foot office building and a 2,400-square-foot warehouse, for its new headquarters, where it plans to move by January 2010.
E-mail: aschunk@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3170
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