TOLEDO, Ohio — The face of downtown Toledo has changed.
Orange barrels and construction equipment line Summit Street as crews work to finish before the Solheim Cup in August.
Now, the road is getting attention for a different reason.
Who will end up paying nearly $1 million to move utility lines owned by Buckeye Broadband?
The City of Toledo used taxpayer money to foot the bill.
Now it's suing the company to get that money back.
"At least we're all on the same page, so as Jerry McGuire said, 'show me the money,'" Councilman Rob Ludeman said.
That money is nearly one million dollars from taxpayers that the City of Toledo paid for move private utility lines under Summit Street belonging to Block Communications, which owns Buckeye Broadband.
Council members met in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic to discuss the issue.
They're set to vote Tuesday to support the city as it sues Block Communications.
"This is about reconstruction, we reconstructed a street," Councilman Komives said.
WTOL 11 obtained emails dating back to July of 2020 showing the city's current law director, Dale Emch, called the construction aesthetic at the time.
He explained that means it's to make it look better.
This is significant because if the project is deemed an aesthetic fix, companies like Buckeye wouldn't have to pay to relocate those lines under Toledo's municipal code.
That has both councilmen Nick Komives and Rob Ludeman asking questions about who will lead the lawsuit.
"Right now we're all asking ourselves who is going to represent the city in this case, I think there's a likelihood we'll have to look at outside council, but I think our law department will tell us if that's the case," Komives said.
Buckeye Broadband previously released a statement saying the city acknowledged it was responsible for paying to move those lines back in May of 2020.
Now, the company's attorney says it believes the city is suing because of political pressure and that "Buckeye stands ready to vigorously defend its legal position."
Another chapter was added to the city and Buckeye's back-and-forth today when Komives brought up a letter from 2019.
He says that letter told utilities like Buckeye Broadband were put on notice that they would need to relocate by the beginning of 2020 or the city would be asking for them to pay any costs back related to the "failure to complete relocations by the required date."
"Buckeye Broadband has 28 days in which to answer the city's challenge and so we'll see what happens in that period of time," Ludeman said.