West Chester Activity Center not up for sale yet

West Chester Activity Center on Cox Road.

West Chester Activity Center on Cox Road.

Earlier this week, West Chester Twp. announced the trustees planned to hire a realtor to sell the Activity Center and hire an engineer for potential MidPoint Library expansion, neither happened last night.

On Monday, the township put out a release the trustees were expected to put the Activity Center at Tylersville and Cox roads up for sale and approve a $627,000 engineering contract for a MidPointe Library expansion at their meeting last night.

“The cost of needed renovations and the demands of staffing such a facility would bear significant cost to taxpayers with no apparent sustainable funding source,” Township Administrator Larry D. Burks said. “Therefore, the trustees will be asked to list the property for sale.”

Township spokeswoman Barb Wilson told the Journal-News Tuesday the library engineering contract was pulled from the agenda and would be discussed as part of the larger 2022 budget conversation early next year.

After an executive session the trustees took no action on the Activity Center.

Senior citizens have been begging the trustees to find a gathering space for them ever since they were ousted from the Activity Center after Community First stopped programming and the trustees announced the building would be sold for a giant Kroger Marketplace. They have been meeting at the Boys and Girls Club on Cincinnati-Dayton Road.

If the $1.8 million Kroger deal is indeed dead, the trustees were looking at three options to provide the seniors and others meeting space: renovating the Activity Center at a very preliminary cost of $3.4 million, installing heat and air conditioning in the Muhlhauser Barn so the seniors could use the lower level and the estimated $4.8 million MidPointe Library expansion.

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