Former hospital is up for sale

A city property will go up for sale.

Portland Board of Works during a brief meeting Friday approved a resolution to advertise part of the former Jay County Hospital building on High Street for sale.

Portland Mayor John Boggs explained that someone has expressed interest in purchasing the site from the city. It will be advertised for sale to allow anyone interested to make an offer.

The city owns the western portion of the former hospital building from 510 through 526 W. High St. The eastern portion of the building is owned by Jerry Vore.

Board of works members Jerry Leonhard, Steve McIntosh and Boggs unanimously approved the resolution to advertise the building for sale.

The city will accept bids on the property beginning Tuesday. The deadline is 4 p.m. Oct. 29.

Boggs said the city should also look to sell several of the other properties it has acquired through blight removal programs.

Also Friday, mayor Boggs suggested the board of works move forward with entering an agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management for management of the city’s vehicle fleet. Enterprise presented details about its program to the board of works in August. It offers an “open-end lease” to allow municipalities to acquire new vehicles without a large upfront cost and seeks to save them money by lowering maintenance and fuel costs.

The proposed contract with Enterprise would cover all of the city’s 26 vehicles used by the police, fire, street and parks, water and wastewater departments.

(Large vehicles such as firetrucks are not included.) Enterprise plans to replace vehicles about every three years, with Portland acquiring 11 new vehicles in 2022, nine in 2023 and seven in 2024 to replace the entirety of its fleet. It estimated Portland would reduce maintenance costs to $12,274 by the fifth year of the agreement — a savings of 69% — and cut fuel costs to $39,057 — a savings of 20%. In total, the company estimates it would save the city $463,912 over a 10-year period.

Boggs, Leonhard and McIntosh all said they received positive reviews for the Enterprise program when they contacted leaders from other municipalities that are already enrolled.

Clerk-treasurer Lori Phillips asked whether city council would need to make an additional appropriation to cover the cost of the new vehicles that would be acquired in 2022 under the Enterprise plan. Boggs said he believes the budget will cover those costs because the city would be leasing the vehicles rather than purchasing them, thus reducing the up-front costs.

The board decided to table Enterprise agreement to double-check the funding issue and to allow city attorney Bill Hinkle to review the contract.