Council members made it clear to Mayor Joe Schember’s administration they did not want to use the city’s nearly $17 million Water Reserve Fund for the repairs.
City of Erie sees plenty of possibilities at former Miller Bros. property
Here’s a quick look at the expansive basement in the former Miller Bros. Power Equipment property, which was recently purchased by the city of Erie.
Erie City Council has signed off on roughly $1 million to make repairs to the roof of the city-owned Miller Bros. Power Equipment property near 21st and State streets.
However, council tapped into a different funding source than Mayor Joe Schember’s administration had been eyeing.
At its regular meeting on June 18, council gave final approval to an ordinance that sets aside $1,097,563 for the project. The city plans to transform the property into a new public safety/public works complex.
But City Council took the money from roughly $1.2 million in interest accrued in relation to the $76 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars the city received in 2021.
That funding was part of the $1.9 trillion federal stimulus bill signed into law that year by then-President Joe Biden to aid in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
ARP interest funds
Schember’s administration had requested that the funds come from the city’s $16.9 million Water Reserve Fund, an account set up as a restricted fund that was created decades ago as part of the city’s agreement to lease its water system to Erie Water Works.
The money comes from lump-sum payments that Erie Water Works, then known as the Erie Water Authority, made to the city decades ago. Withdrawals from the fund are used to fund capital /infrastructure improvements and require six ‘yes’ votes from City Council.
On May 21, council signed off on using just shy of $1.2 million from the Water Reserve Fund for various capital improvements over the next several years, including, but not limited to, fire/police/public works vehicles and various repairs to city-owned buildings.
Prior to the May appropriation, the city had not withdrawn money from the Water Reserve Fund for capital improvements since 2022, according to city financial data.
Council members, though, made it clear to Schember administration officials at a June 3 study session that they preferred to use ARP interest revenue to fund roof repairs at the former Miller Bros. property.
“My first day on council, this account had $12.6 million in it,” said Councilman Chuck Nelson, who was first elected in 2021. “It’s now up to $17 (million). “We’ve seen this account grow by $5 million… We take (ARP interest funds) before we take the stuff getting a 10% gain in each of the last four years.
Nelson said the ARP interest “is unanticipated, unallocated and covers this entire amount.”
Councilman Ed Brzezinski, at the June 3 meeting, added: “I don’t think you have six votes up here to get that money out of the water (fund). So we have to get it someplace else.”
The Water Reserve Fund is separate from and precedes the nearly $97 million lump-sum payment the city received from Erie Water Works in October 2020 as part of a lease prepayment deal.
Most of that money, or $78.6 million, is earmarked for paying down long-term debt. According to city financial data, more than $8.7 million was used to cover budget shortfalls in previous years, and the city has roughly $6.6 million left.
The Miller Bros. project
City officials plan to use the 3.76-acre former Miller Bros. property, located at 2111 State St., for a number of uses by the city’s police and fire bureaus, as well as the Department of Public Works, Property and Parks.
The roof repairs are necessary in large part because a portion of the roof at one of the complex’s buildings collapsed during the November 2024 snowstorm that buried parts of the Erie region in several feet of snow, according to Renee Lamis, Schember’s chief of staff.
The property, which the city purchased for $2.7 million in November 2023, includes buildings that collectively total about 100,000 square feet, according to county property records. It was one of the city’s largest-ever real estate purchases.
The city estimates the property would need up to $30 million in upgrades to serve the needs of police, firefighters and public works employees.
Once renovated, the property and its buildings would replace the city’s deteriorating Marsh Street facility, a former state highway building at Marsh Street and Glenwood Park Avenue, which was built in the 1930s.
The Marsh Street facility is used by both the Erie Bureau of Fire and the city’s Bureau of Parks.
The city is seeking as much as $15 million in state funding for the Miller Bros. project, which Schember has said will take several years to complete.
Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers.
