The West Side Market looks to be getting an extra $10 million from the City of Cleveland after all.
Earlier this year, the historic Ohio City market ended up in a tug of war between Mayor Justin Bibb and City Council. The fight featured social media lobbying, exasperated market tenants and a mysterious robocall needling Bibb.
The mayor wanted to spend $20 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds fixing up the market as it transitions to a nonprofit manager. Council, which had other neighborhood priorities in mind, cut that down to $10 million.
But last week, council set aside $10 million more for the market at the administration’s request – bringing the total up to the $20 million that Bibb wanted.
Technically, the administration will need to come back for City Council’s blessing before it can spend the extra $10 million on the market. But that doesn’t appear to be a problem. Council President Blaine Griffin indicated that he supports the expense.
“We have always said that if the money became available, we would look at what we can do to invest in the West Side Market, which is one of our assets,” he said at a council committee meeting.
The money comes not from the City Hall couch cushions, but from a routine piece of legislation boringly called the “supplemental ordinance.” That’s where the city appropriates extra cash it has laying around at the end of the year.
And this year, Cleveland had plenty to spare, thanks to vacant positions and unexpectedly high revenue. The city is doling out $56 million through the supplemental ordinance: $10 million for the market, $10 million for street resurfacing and $10 million for a human resources system overhaul.
That leaves about $25 million that council and the mayor will have to figure out how to spend next year.
Meanwhile the Cleveland Public Market Corporation, the market’s incoming nonprofit manager, is staffing up. It hired Rosemary Mudry as its executive director in November.
Mudry is the head of West Park Kamm’s Neighborhood Development, a community development corporation on the West Side. She’ll start the job Jan. 3.
The nonprofit is also hiring a marketing director, office manager and other roles.
