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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The third reading may prove to be the charm for the Noble Area Business Association (NABA), seeking a two-year, $306,000 start-up grant from the city. City Council gave the enabling legislation a second reading Monday (Nov. 3), but cited a few loose ends that still need to be tied up for the fledgling nonprofit with 80 merchants signed on. Noble businesses have never set up a Special Improvement District (SID) like those in Cedar-Fairmount, Cedar-Lee and Coventry, where what amounts to additional taxes are assessed against commercial property owners. Acting NABA executive director Myra Orenstein cited definite needs in the less-affluent Noble area, including the lack of a bank, a drugstore, a coffee shop and a dry cleaners. Spanning 1.7 miles, the Noble commercial corridor also has a very limited merchant mix, confined largely to “barber shops, nail salons and a couple of tattoo parlors” along with a lot of vacant storefronts, Orenstein told council earlier. Noble business owners have attended recent council meetings urging approval of the grant. “We are looking at a collective to give us a seat at the table and become part of the conversation,” NABA spokeswoman Jacqueline Remmer said last month. “And we’re asking council to put a glass slipper on this Cinderella story.” Although the grant does not qualify technically as American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding anymore, it was part of the $3 million the city transferred back in federal pandemic relief as "revenue replacement" into the General Fund. This point of clarification came up Nov. 3 as Orenstein,the former Cedar-Fairmount SID director, asked if the city acted as a “pass-through agency” for the grant funds. Cleveland Heights officials pointed out that the city actually serves as “grantor” for the funds, requiring additional explanation on how the money will be spent. For starters, NABA had yet to open a bank account as of Monday’s council meeting, and the appointment of a fiscal agent remained unclear. While Future Heights has been assisting up to now -- including a $10,000 ARPA grant through Cuyahoga County Council -- Orenstein said the nonprofit organization tends to tack on a 5-to-10 percent fiscal agent processing fee. The biggest immediate concern for NABA involves snow plowing in the extended district, including sidewalks. Orenstein pointed out that weather forecasts called for snow as early as Monday (Dec. 10). Orenstein said she has tentatively negotiated a sidewalk-plowing contract totaling about $18,500 over three years. While there were still legal details to iron out on the proposed legislation, City Law Director Bill Hanna planned to check on a way to forward an advance locking in the snow-plowing contract. Citing potential conflict-of-interest concerns, Councilman Craig Cobb also wants guarantees in the grant agreement that family members of those affiliated with NABA will not receive financial gain from the organization’s use of public funds. Another sticking point revolves around “public art” in the new Noble district, where NABA’s proposed three-year budget includes $35,000 for murals. Orenstein said there is not enough money in the Heights Arts' budget to provide additional funds for a Noble mural project, with that organization already allocating funds to two of the city’s SIDs. Cobb clarified that the city has Heights Arts doing a study to determine public art needs in the Cedar-Lee and Coventry district and should have enough money remaining to include Noble. He would like to see the art study done before any city grant funds go toward a Noble mural. Over three years, the proposed NABA budget also calls for $24,000 in annual “consulting” fees ($72,000 total) and $20,000 a year ($60,000 total) under “miscellaneous.” Councilwoman Zenobia Sheets inquired about any full-time paid staff, as well as website design and development, totaling over $14,000 in the first year. That projected cost goes down to about $6,000 annually in the second and third years (roughly $26,000 total). Councilman Jim Posch said NABA “needs to be sustainable in years three, four and five,” whether by turning into a SID or by funding another funding route. The organization has filed paperwork for official “501(c)3” nonprofit status but the application has been slowed down through depleted staffing at the Internal Revenue Service, coupled with the longest federal government shutdown in American history. Back in 2023, Cobb recalled that when he served on the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) more than a decade ago, Noble had a merchants’ association that received Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. But members eventually lost interest and the organization disbanded. Given commercial landlords who might be opposed to paying SID assessments or placing the additional cost on possibly struggling businesses, Cobb favored the merchants’ association as an "easier fix." An earlier complication arose when Noble merchants planned a mayoral campaign fundraiser for Council Vice President Davida Russell to be held Oct. 18. That would have been two days before Russell sponsored the grant agreement legislation before council. It prompted concerns about the appearance of impropriety with a group receiving city money and hosting political fundraisers. When the issue was brought to the City Law Department, Russell said Oct. 13 that “the original intention was for this to be a community meet-and-greet, not a fundraiser. “After reading the flyer and noticing that it was labeled as a fundraiser, we canceled the event and notified the merchants accordingly.”
