Ohio’s Jim Jordan says his work in D.C. is a strategy, not political theater: Today in Ohio
Jim Jordan #JimJordan
CLEVELAND, Ohio — As head of the U.S. House’s Judiciary Committee and its newly formed Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan has been serving as an attack dog for the right and former President Donald Trump.
We’re talking about Jordan’s claim that he’s trying to change how the government operates — and not just playing at political theater — on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
Here’s what we’re asking about today:
We’ve seen too many news stories to count about Ohio’s Jim Jordan in the past couple of months, based on all the subpoenas he has issued and hearings he has held. Reporter Sabrina Eaton put it all into perspective over the weekend by counting it all up. What are the stats?
For those of us who believe in the coronavirus vaccine, we’re not six months past our last shots. Previously, that meant it was time to get a booster. What’s the word from the federal government this time around?
We had a serious possibility of a tornado in Cuyahoga County last week, which raised the question about how common that phenomenon is. And now we know.
Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday signed an executive order that should make life a lot easier for those who adopt children. What does the order do?
The investigation that has slammed a bunch of East Cleveland police officers with criminal charges had a notorious figure as an informant. Who was it, and how did he help?
NOACA, the regional planning agency, has a controversy on its hands, with some board members not wanting to call climate change climate change. How’s that going to play out as the agency seeks grants to deal with climate change.
What is an emerging strategy for increasing the number of candidates for police officer positions, with departments across the state unable to fill their ranks?
What is the value to the economy of Cleveland’s big three sports teams, and where does that rank Cleveland nationally?
We’ve seen multiple Northeast Ohio golf courses get converted into parks in recent years. Now that Tanglewood National Golf Club near Chagrin Falls is up for sale? Might it become a park?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
[00:00:00] Chris: We’ve got a changing cast of characters on today in Ohio. This week. Laura Johnston’s off for the week. Leila Atassi is off until Friday. So the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain dealer on this Monday features me Chris Quinn, along with our State House Bureau Chief Rick Rouan and reporter Courtney Astolfi.
And Lisa Garvin, member of the editorial board, welcome. This is gonna be interesting. New faces, new people talking. Let’s begin. Rick, you go first. We’ve seen too many news stories to count about Ohio’s Jim Jordan in the past couple of months. Based on all the subpoenas he has issued and hearings he has held reporter Sabrina Eaton Put it all into perspective over the weekend by counting it up.
Rick, what are the stats? This was a good.
[00:00:50] Rick: So, uh, in his first two months as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and overseeing this new subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal [00:01:00] government, Jim Jordan has had 12 hearings, issued a 20 subpoenas, sent 149 letters. Conducted eight transcribed interviews, obtained 113,980 pages of documents and put out two reports.
So if that sounds like a lot, I’m sure Sabrina would agree. I mean, she’s been following Jordan closely in Washington since Republicans one control of the House of Representatives and. Frankly, even before that, but, uh, some of our audience will probably remember her dispatches earlier this year from Yuma, Arizona, where she traveled with a Jordan led, uh, convoy, that among other things unsuccessfully, tried to observe some illegal border crossings.
Uh, So far, it’s fair to say there isn’t a lot of policy making that’s happened out of Jordan’s committee, though that might be by design. Uh, Jordan gave Sabrina a pretty telling quote when she noted, uh, the Center for Legislative Effectiveness at Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia ranked him the.
217th most effective [00:02:00] Republican in the house over the past two years. He basically said that he didn’t come to Congress to make more laws. Uh, he came to Congress to reduce legislation and taxes on American families and the American people. So, uh, you know, for his part, Jordan says this isn’t all just theater.
He has some policies he wants to pursue. Immigration is one to watch. He says He is also prioritizing inflation, protecting Americans’ rights and liberties and weaponization of the federal government. Uh, but don’t look for many of his ideas become law, at least in the next two years, even if he gets some real buy-in in the house, of course, Democrats control the Senate and the White House.
So, uh, not gonna find a favorable audience over.
[00:02:37] Chris: I give him credit for talking to Sabrina. He’s not a big fan of the media, I don’t think he’s a big fan of us. We’ve been merciless and pointing out some of the things he does, but he, he was game and he gave her a good interview. It is interesting, the whole idea of rating legislators.
Based on legislation they get passed that, that seems like it’s almost a liberal bias [00:03:00] because Republicans think we have too many laws, so rating them on getting more laws passed is unfair. He’s right. He doesn’t want more laws, he wants fewer laws. He’s all about getting rid of regulations. Of course, when you do that, you have things like train crashes and he’s Palestinian.
But it was a, it’s, it’s an interesting view that I don’t wanna pass more laws. You’re right. He’s not going to pass any laws. I don’t know, I still, there’s a lot of theater here. It’s clearly a lot of theater. But he did speak pretty clearly to Sabrina about his specific. Mission in DC
[00:03:35] Rick: Sure. And I think that the, the theater is, um, that there’s some purpose behind the theater, right?
I mean, he’s, uh, trying to speak to, um, a, uh, a Republican base. Through, uh, some of that theater. Um, he, he’s very much kind of stayed on point with a lot of that. Um, you know, the, the hearings around the, uh, [00:04:00] weaponization of the, the government have, uh, focused on, uh, You know, local school boards, uh, where, um, he says that, uh, parents have been investigated just for voicing their first amendment rights.
Um, he’s had the, the hearings on immigration at the border in, uh, Yuma, Arizona. Um, there was this, uh, fight over the Pledge of Allegiance at the, the very first one of these, uh, committee hearings, which is kind of a, a culture war sort of thing. So, um, he, he’s really kind of leaning into, uh, the, the things that, uh, the people.
Put him in Congress, uh, likely want him
[00:04:35] Chris: to leave. It does seem like a lot of what he’s doing is defense of Donald Trump then he’s a big time Trump loyalist. Absolutely. With Trump in the hot seat now with the criminal investigations, he’s a, Jordan is a regular on Fox News defending the former president, so this stage gives him the chance to do a lot of work on behalf of the former.[00:05:00]
You are listening to today in Ohio. For those of us who believe in the Coronavirus vaccine, we’re now six months past our last shots or more previously. That meant it was time to get another booster. Lisa, what’s the word? This time around from the federal government.
[00:05:17] Lisa: Well, right now the Food and Drug Administration says that only one booster dose of the Bivalent is currently authorized for use.
But they continue to monitor the Covid situation, both here in the United States and around the world. The Ohio Department of Health is doing the same. Uh, Aaron Elz with the Cuyahoga Board of. Said it’s a hot topic, especially with their older and immune compromised patients who are asking for another booster.
But she says, if you’ve already received the Bivalent booster, that’s all they can legally provide right now. Uh, Dr. Steven Gordon, who’s the infectious disease chair at Cleveland Clinic, he says we don’t have any guidance on whether we should give a second bivalent booster six months after the first. We don’t know [00:06:00] whether it will benefit.
And we don’t wanna give something if it’s not effective, but other countries are already doing it. Canada and the UK are health officials are offering, but not recommending boosters for elderly and immunocompromised patients six months after their last Bivalent booster. But, The F D A is moving towards more of a flu kind of schedule.
They’re recommending an annual fall vaccination for covid, similar to the flu, but this is only if you’ve already been vaxxed and boosted. So if you are unvaccinated, you’ll still need the two initial doses of the original. Drug followed by a bivalent booster two months later.
[00:06:42] Chris: Yeah, I don’t, I don’t quite get it.
Why? The, the delay the coronavirus immunity wears off and that’s part of the problem with coronaviruses is the human body forgets as Courtney could probably speak to, so, so every time. You’ve gotten that booster in the past, the, [00:07:00] the science has shown it has boosted your immunity. Again, I’m not sure why they say, well, we don’t know what the result would be of another one when it always has, but it’s left A lot of people scared, and I’ve read a story, I can’t remember where it was about all the tricks people are using it to.
Even though they’re not supposed to, they’re going to different pharmacies and playing all sorts of games. Mm-hmm. To get the extra booster, which nobody is recommending, it just seems odd that the government won’t speak to it. If they, if they say, we’re not going to recommend it, we’re gonna wait till the fall.
Okay, fine. But they’re leaving it up in the air. And for people that are now six and seven months beyond, they’re, they’re worried. We’re hearing from them.
[00:07:42] Lisa: Yeah, but I don’t think they’re leaving it up in the air. I think what they’re trying to do is move to an annual vaccination schedule and this is the way to do it, you know?
But in Ohio, you know, the number of people in Ohio that have the Bivalent booster is only at 16%. I, I think it’s odd that they’re saying, okay, [00:08:00] you really need to start with the original regimen. I thought that was kind of odd. So you get the one shot and then you get another. 21 days later, and then the booster, I would just think that the fall, you know, shot would be best, but I don’t know.
[00:08:13] Chris: Yeah, I, I, I thought that was odd too, cuz the bivalent has the latest or the, the more recent varieties of covid in it. But who knows? I, I just, it’s, it’s, it’s odd. It’s the first time in two years, it’s like, isn’t it time? And no it is not. So you might have to wait till fall. You’re listening to today in. We had a serious possibility of a tornado in Cuyahoga County last week, which raised the question about how common the phenomenon is.
We missed it last week, didn’t have one, but now we know how common they are, right? Courtney?
[00:08:47] Courtney: Yeah. Our data reporters, Zach Smith, he dove into the numbers here and gave us kind of a look at. What tornadoes have been like in in Cuyahoga County in recent history. And you know, we found that the last one here was in [00:09:00] 2019.
It was out by Oakwood, and generally that’s the opposite corner of the county where we find them. So what Zach found was that most of the tornadoes we’ve had in Cuyahoga County have mostly been out in the suburbs, and most of them. Have kind of centered around the southwest corner of the county, near Hopkins airport and, and there have been 16 tornadoes inside Cuyahoga County since 1950.
Zach found by far the worst one, was a really long time ago on June 8th, 1953, that was the third year in a row, a tornado had hit here, and at that time it was, it was deemed an F four tornado, six people died, 300 people injur. Out by Berea, north Olmstead.
[00:09:47] Chris: Is there any thought as to why we don’t get nearly as many as you see in other places in the country?
Is there any thought that the Great Lakes might have some tempering influence?
[00:09:58] Courtney: Absolutely. I found this [00:10:00] part of it absolutely fascinating. The thought goes that. The weather above Lake Erie kind of holds tornadoes off the, the air masses and the systems on the lake kind of rebuff and, and potentially it sounds like keep the tornadoes at bay close to the lake shore.
You know, Zach and his story though also noted that geography likely or probably has something to do with it too. You know, we’ve got the heights and the hills, and it’s a little different as you move further west into the more plains. Kind of corners of the state. We, we, we have the geography that helps insulate us as well.
And, and that kind of bore out in the numbers too. When he was looking around the greater Cleveland area, he found that Coga County was in the middle of the pack. As you, as you move west. Into those more flatter areas of greater Cleveland. He found that Lorraine and Medina County topped the list in Lorraine.
It had, it’s had 31 tornadoes since 1950, and, and then even as you move further west [00:11:00] from Lorraine to bordering Huron County, that’s when you really start getting into the heart of, of tornado country and that flatter land.
[00:11:08] Chris: Yeah. When you drive down Cedar Hill, it feels like you’re entering the planes. Of course, Lisa knows we pay for those heights in the winter when that moisture comes and hits the heights and drops pounds of snow, although not this past winter.
Good story. It’s on clean.com. Check it out, and you are listening to today in Ohio. Governor Mike DeWine on Friday signed an executive order that should make life a lot easier for those who adopt children. Rick, what does the order do?
[00:11:39] Rick: So the governor’s order launches a program that offers grants worth $10,000 to $20,000 for parents who have adopted children this year.
Uh, the order is piggybacking on some new legislation that the governor signed earlier this year. So that means that those adopting any non stepchild can pursue a one-time [00:12:00] $10,000 grant. Uh, and then there’s also $15,000 available for parents who offer foster care to a child. And then adopt them and $20,000 for parents who adopt a child with special needs.
The program is targeting a pretty specific area of need. In Ohio. There’s this gap that exists between the number of children in the foster care system and the number of potential adoptive parents who are looking to expand their families. So the idea is that a financial incentive might encourage them to kind of take that plunge, uh, and then defray some of the associated costs.
Adoptive families sometimes face thousands of dollars in legal expenses. Uh, and that doesn’t really even get into the cost of raising a child, uh, which, uh, is very high. Uh, applications are available@adoptiongrant.ohio.gov. Uh, and anyone who’s really interested in that can get the details about everything that’s needed to apply at that
[00:12:58] Chris: website.
All right. You’re [00:13:00] the State House and politics editor. I think you have the best chance of understanding this. I hope so anyway. Why did it take an executive order? I thought that he was planning to put this money into the budget and that it would come through that process. Why did he have to put out an executive order and where does he get the power to do that?
[00:13:17] Rick: So that, that’s a, that’s an interesting question. Uh, I, I don’t specifically know the answer to why he had to do this in executive order. It could have really been, uh, a question of timing. Uh, so the, the budget is right now working its way through. Um, the, the kind of legislative hoops that it has to go through.
Uh, it’s still in the house right now, uh, working its way through committees. Uh, so the way the budget works is the, the governor introduces it, it goes to the house. It’s debated and changed in the house. Uh, once the house is done with it, it goes to the Senate where they debate and change it in the Senate.
And then the two sides, the House and the Senate have to come together. [00:14:00] And, uh, reconcile the differences between them. Then it goes to the governor’s desk and the governor can, uh, line item veto, uh, portions of it that he doesn’t like. Uh, but then he ultimately has to sign it. That process is gonna stretch into June.
And so, uh, you know, ha, we’re halfway through the year at that point. Oh, I see. It’s possible that he wanted to get this going a lot sooner than that to, um, try to get that entice. Out there, um, to, you know, uh, for a potential, somebody who might be thinking about adopting a child, but they’re worried about the cost.
Uh, they know that this grant program is right, and maybe
[00:14:37] Chris: he does know from the lawmakers, the leaders in the house and the Senate that they’re going to fund this and have agreed go ahead and get it started. And that’s why he did it entirely possible. Yes. Okay. Interesting. You’re listening to today in.
The investigation that has slammed a bunch of East Cleveland police officers with criminal charges had [00:15:00] a notorious figure as an informant. Who was it? How did he help Lisa?
[00:15:05] Lisa: He is George Michael Riley, and he’s the owner of the Notorious Arco Recycling Center on Noble Road in East Cleveland. He was identified as a confidential source and a bribery case.
Two of the dozen or so East Cleveland police officers that have been indicted. There were officers, Vaughn Harrison, and DeMarco Johnson. So many of us remember that, you know, that Arco Recycling Center caught fire and burned for a week in 2017. So, uh, after that, I guess he got in con contact with the f b, but he met with these two officers, Harrison Johnson, the next summer, and he paid them to file a false police report to.
Co to commit insurance fraud over this fire. So, you know, he was wired up apparently, cuz photos and audio were taken of his meetings with these officers. But the, he was known only as third party. But the revelation [00:16:00] that it was Riley came out in a. Court filing. So Johnson’s attorney Ali Hubbard is seeking to withdraw Johnson’s January guilty plea for one count of bribery.
And th this, uh, lawyer was hired right before his sentencing. And then there’s a prosecutor motion to keep the protection order on Riley’s address in. Place because Hibbard says, well, now we’ve idd Riley. I want him to be subpoenaed so he can testify. So yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how it is. But there was an audio from one of the meetings in June, 2018 of the third party, now known to be Riley, counting out money to Officer Johnson in saying, are you sure that this false report won’t be
[00:16:43] Chris: detect.
Yeah, it’s a, it’s kind of an amazing yarn when you think about it. That dump was such a scandal would only happen in East Cleveland. Mm-hmm. They claim they were doing recycling, but it was just a massive dump that was dangerous and toxic, and there were homes all around it. And, and [00:17:00] separately Cleveland’s had the scandal with the police, which has just been unbelievable.
The percentage of that department that is embedded under indictment, who knew that these two would end up being tied together. It, it’s, it’s appropriate, it’s entirely appropriate. The bad guy bribed the police, but wow, the fact that, uh, the f b I used him very interest. Development, and this only came out in court records, right?
There was something released in the court papers, correct?
[00:17:28] Lisa: Yeah. There were filings both by Johnson’s attorney who wanted to withdraw the guilty plea, and then the prosecutors are trying to keep that protection order intact on Riley.
[00:17:37] Chris: Okay. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Nok, the Regional Planning Agency has a controversy on its hands with some board members not wanting to call climate change.
Climate change. This is one of those ridiculous stories where a small group of people are, are using pressure to do something. Completely preposterous and pretend that the climate isn’t changing. [00:18:00] How’s this all gonna play out, Courtney? As the agency seeks grants to deal with climate change?
[00:18:06] Courtney: Yeah, we’re, we’re seeing this kind of unfurl as, as the debate continues on, that that body noac on.
But what, what seems to be clear now, a handful of weeks out o over this BHA over the climate change language. It’s clear that members of no aca, even if they are doubting climate science, don’t wanna lose out on the money that comes with grants and things meant to combat, you know, local air quality and water quality.
So let me explain it this way. We heard from a Lake County Commissioner John. Nik, he’s a member of NOAC as Finance and Audit Committee. He doesn’t believe the science is clear here around climate change. No. Jesus. Yeah. Uh, but you know, he, he came out saying he’s not gonna vote against potentially millions of dollars in grants to clean up Lake Erie to help clean up air.
[00:19:00] And this was his quote he said, so I will vote for this no matter what we name it. But I want to say for the record, I believe in God, not Captain Planet.
[00:19:10] Chris: Yeah. So it’s un it’s unbelievable. Mm-hmm. So, so what happened was they had this big discussion to put together their policy, and after it went through the final committee, before it goes to the overall board, it said climate change throughout.
And then when the final board got together to vote on it, all the references to climate change were taken out with and they put in some goofy euphemism and board members were aast. They’re like that. They can’t stand. So there, there was a motion to restore it all and there was an overwhelming vote. I do think seven people though voted against, including the words climate change.
Which is just cuckoo. These are, these are officials determining policy in Northeast Ohio, and they’re off in the, in the wild saying, you know, there is no climate [00:20:00] change. It’s just God’s rule. Right,
[00:20:02] Courtney: and, and you see, you know, reasonable stances from, from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb from CAO County executive, Chris Ronan.
They were not down with this, with this move, right? The yanking of the climate language. They sent a pretty. Strongly worded letter to no aca. And we saw some of the fallout play out at this Friday meeting when, when no AKA’s committees were, were looking to, to reapprove this, this overall work plan. You know, romaine actually, he abstained from voting as, as a member of one of the committees, just to make a point that, that we.
The, the, the, the toying with the climate language was not gonna fly. The climate, climate policy has been, uh, a big piece of his focus as county executive. And, and they’re not down to play games at the piers, you know, in Romaine even. He wouldn’t tell our reporter Pete Krause, which way he was gonna vote on this final plan.
[00:21:00] Just cuz there’s so much consternation about how this change got there and, and what this climate denial could. For the board overall,
[00:21:09] Chris: was there any language in there about a flat earth or that there is no evolution, it’s all creationism.
[00:21:15] Courtney: Well, I guess that’s the upside. If we didn’t get to that point, no.
[00:21:19] Chris: Just staggering that we have people serving in such an important position that are just saying, I don’t believe in science. I don’t believe in science.
[00:21:27] Courtney: And the listening part is they’re, they’re still, they still want the money. So, so why not just talk
[00:21:34] Chris: about it openly? I’ll vote for it, whatever you call it.
But it’s not climate change you you’re listening to today in Ohio. What is an emerging strategy for increasing the number of candidates for police officer positions with departments across the state unable to fill their ranks? Rick?
[00:21:52] Rick: So a bill that’s circulating in the state legislature right now, actually it’s two bills.
There’s one in each uh, chamber right [00:22:00] now. Uh, but they seek to lower the state mandated minimum aged to become a police officer at many law enforcement agencies from 21 to 18. So the, the idea has driven a bit of a wedge between the groups interested in solving what they describe as a widespread hiring shortage spurred by early retirements and resignations.
Uh, advocates for the policy say that a lot of police departments already do this, and that it could help with the officer shortages. But, uh, the critics, including law enforcement officers themselves, say it’s a bad idea because, uh, teenagers lack the emotional and mental capacity to handle the job. Uh, about a dozen other states already allow this.
Um, so Ohio, uh, would, uh, join a relatively small group. Um, So what’s a little bit unclear here is who this would apply to. So the, what we’re being told is the bill would apply to some cities and townships, specifically those [00:23:00] that follow state civil service rules. That means it wouldn’t affect, uh, really the biggest departments, including Cleveland because they already have their own civil service rules and their local charters.
And Cleveland only hires officers starting at age 21. So, An interesting kind of lingering question here is how many departments is this really going to affect? If you take out the big cities and townships that already have their own civil service rules, you drop county sheriffs in villages that are already are allowed to hire 18 year olds.
It’s really unclear just how many are left. Another state law that this change wouldn’t affect, dictates that the State Highway patrol can’t hire anyone under age 21 to be a state trooper. So one of the bill sponsors, uh, state rep Josh Williams, he’s from the Toledo area, he’s a Republican, uh, said the change would at least give a uniform standard for all departments in Ohio that they can hire someone once they turn 18.
And at the end of the day, it’s really still gonna be up to the locals if they want to hire someone that young. The bill is [00:24:00] current, currently written, doesn’t obligate them to do so, so it, it’s up to the locals, seems
[00:24:04] Chris: awfully young to be given somebody an a badge and a gun. They’re not allowed to drink for three more years, but they’d have a badge and a gun.
I do understand those who are questioning the, the wisdom of that. We’ve seen police in tense situations do ugly things, and those three years from 18 to 20. Do have a lot of brain development. It’s an interesting debate cuz all the departments are, are lacking enough officers.
[00:24:30] Rick: Yeah. And you know, you talk about those three years and the, the brain development that, that happens there, that three year gap can also, uh, present a challenge for police recruiting because between age 18 and 21, Somebody who otherwise might have decided to become a police officer at age 18 might find, uh, a new career that, um, they’re pursuing instead.
Uh, they also might find themselves in trouble in some way that, [00:25:00] uh, would preclude them from becoming a police officer in the future if they have some sort of charge that, uh, Would keep them, uh, out of, uh, an academy. So, uh, it’s uh, sort of a tough nut to crack. But, um, uh, obviously, um, there, there’s some concern, uh, around giving an 18
[00:25:19] Chris: year old badge.
Interesting, though, you’re right, that if they can’t get a job for those three years, they go out of the possible candidate pool at 21. Good story. Check it out. It’s on cleveland.com. You’re listening to today in. What is the value to the economy of Cleveland’s big three sport teams? And where does that rank Cleveland nationally?
Lisa, this comes from a gambling aggregator, but it does seem like it’s based on real numbers.
[00:25:46] Lisa: Yeah. This data comes to us from O l bg Tipster Sports Betting Company. And so combined, the Cavers, the Guardians, and the Browns brought 1.1 billion in revenue to the greater Cleveland area last [00:26:00] year. If you break it down by team, the Browns, even though they have the fewest games, made the most money, so the Browns brought in 510 million, and that’s despite having no playoff games.
Only a few home games. Uh, next was the Cavalier at 325 million. Um, the Guardians last year had a playoff appearance and they think that that helped, but their, uh, revenue last year was 267 million. So that. Puts Cleveland at number 10 nationally. Number one is New York City at 1.9 billion, followed by Chicago, LA Arlington, Texas, where the Cowboys and the Rangers play.
And then, uh, Philadelphia was number five and Houston was number six at 1.3 billion. It’s
[00:26:46] Chris: interesting that it’s in inverse proportion to the number of games they, Browns have the fewest games, the calves have the middle number of games, and the guardians have the most, and yet they make less money. It’s, uh, that, that’s hard to understand cuz that [00:27:00] brings all those people into town regularly.
I don’t quite understand how that works. You’re listening to today in. We’ve seen multiple Northeast Ohio golf courses get converted into parks in recent years. Now, Tanglewood National Golf Club near Chagrin Falls is up for sale. Courtney, might it become a
[00:27:20] Courtney: park? Well, that’s a good question. I will say that the current owner wants it to remain a golf.
Course. So there’s some desire for it not to go in that direction, but we’ll have to see how it plays out. You know, reporter, Megan Sims told us about this, this Banbridge Township golf course. It’s listed at a price of 2.2 million, and it’s been under the management of an L L C Birmingham Associates for 14 years.
But there’s some weird history with the sale of the golf course going on, so, Back about a decade ago, in 2012, the homeowner’s association of, of the surrounding neighborhood, they reached an agreement to buy the golf course. And, and they, they [00:28:00] took it over from Birmingham Associates, the ownership for $1 million back then.
And, and, and the association did that to prevent, Future unwanted development. I don’t know if that would include your idea of, of converting it back to a park, but we’ve got some, some limits here and some desire for it to stay a golf course. The, the Homeowners Association got into a long-term lease with Birmingham and, and now the owners of Birmingham wanna sell the management of the club and the improvements they made to the land so they can get out of the business and.
[00:28:35] Chris: It, the, the ones that have converted to parks, they’re, they’re in various stages of, of development, but the one in Juga County is looking and feeling less and less like a golf course. Every year I go out there to, to walk our dog on occasion, and I’m surprised at how quickly that’s becoming much more natural.
Acacia is what, 10 years down the road from when it mm-hmm. When it was converted and it’s slowly coming along. [00:29:00] Providing that extra park space just is a wonderful way to deal with this land. I’m surprised that the homeowners wouldn’t want that. It just seem, want more houses. I mean,
[00:29:13] Lisa: well, but if they’re offering it up for sale and they’re getting real estate interest from out-of-state, they ain’t gonna K build.
Keep it a park. I mean, come on. I. Think that whoever they sell it to is not gonna, cuz they, you know, they wanna make money on their purchase. And so I don’t see it becoming a park. I don’t see it becoming, you know, staying a golf course quite frankly.
[00:29:32] Chris: And like, so it’ll be commercial or residential development.
[00:29:35] Lisa: Oh yeah. Yeah. Why else would Outof State Realtors be, you know, people be interested in that?
[00:29:41] Courtney: We, we, we did learn that, that, like you said, there is out-of-state interest here. So the, the person managing the sale of this property told Megan that there’s buyers potentially out there from California, New York, and potentially some local interests, more Midwest from Ohio.
In Michigan claimed that there [00:30:00] was interest elsewhere all over the world, but you know, he really touted it as, as, as generating that interest because it’s, you know, Cleveland area, but then also Chagrin falls, cute town. The demographics of that town are, are drawing some eyeballs. The, the facility has a, a banquet hall, a grand ballroom that holds weddings.
Big renovations occurred twice in the past decade, so they think they have an asset here that’ll be of interest.
[00:30:28] Chris: Okay. You’re listening to today in Ohio. That does it for Monday. Thanks, Rick. Thanks Courtney. Thanks Lisa. Thank you for listening. We’ll be back tomorrow talking about the news.
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