DLR Group

University Heights, Ohio, City Council has completed key hires ahead of its planned police and fire station construction project, budgeted at about $17 million. Council voted to retain Squire Patton Boggs as bond and election counsel, paid up to $30,000, and MAS Consulting as municipal financial adviser. The city will ask voters in May to renew an existing 0.7-mill levy, originally tied to Purvis Park pool and Walter Stinson Park funding, to help finance the project rather than raise taxes. Grants are also being pursued.

Design plans will be presented by architects DLR Group at an Oct. 20 council committee meeting. Construction on the roughly 13,850-square-foot police station, on a site the city bought in 2024 for $1.05 million, is expected to begin in May, with an attached fire station to follow in a second phase. Elford Inc. was previously hired as construction manager.

In other business, council approved new contracts with the police union and service workers granting 2 percent annual raises through 2028, and formed a new Tree Commission and Sustainability Committee.