WATERVILLE, Ohio — Discussion over the Waterville amphitheater project continues Tuesday following city council's 4-2 decision Monday night to grant a conditional use permit for the venue.
Waterville Mayor Tim Pedro said one of his priorities is bringing people together in spite of what has been a divisive topic.
"There's a gap," Pedro said. "We've got to bridge the gap on those that were for the amphitheater, those that were against it, and probably a lot of people in between."
After months of meetings, Waterville City Council moved the amphitheater project a step forward, but Pedro said there are still many steps to go.
"It's like a football game, and we're at the five-yard line, the applicants are," he said. "They need to go 95 yards to get it built. I think it's going to take some time to get to there."
Pedro said the project must still go through a site plan, an architectural plan and a sound study completed by a third-party engineer.
Meanwhile, residents like Deborah Reimond say their hearts sank when they heard about the approval, and that coming together as a town isn't the issue.
"We've always came together as a town, and that's why we were all here trying to keep the town that we have," Reimond said. "There's not a 'are we going to come together?' We've always been together as a town."
Other residents, like Lisa Webber, want to block the amphitheater altogether. Webber is part of a group organizing a citizen's defense fund which has about $9,000 as of Tuesday evening.
"I think we have some decisions to make on what we're going to do next," Webber said. "I can't speak for the group of citizens that I currently am involved with. We need to re-group and talk about what our next step will be."
Pedro was one of two council members, the other being Mary Duncan, who voted against the permit Monday night. Pedro said the project was impressive but ultimately unnecessary.
"Is it necessary? Is it desirable?" he said. "I felt like it wasn't necessary, at this time anyway, to build that, and that's where I had my vote on."
Council member Todd Borowski, who voted for the amphitheater, sent a statement to WTOL 11 Tuesday night, which reads:
"Our council has an obligation to listen to anybody that wants to invest in our city and an obligation to do what we feel is best for the city of Waterville, the citizens and its future. Last night we pasted (sic) ordinance 7-22 allowing the investors to move forward with the amphitheater and after doing our due diligence we added teeth into the conditional use permit to protect the citizens of Waterville. I personally look forward to working with local investors."
Council members John Rozic, Barb Bruno and Anthony Bruno also voted in favor of the amphitheater.
WTOL 11 also spoke with developers Hunter Brucks and John Henry late Tuesday. Brucks expressed his excitement that the project is moving forward Brucks also disagreed with Pedro's assessment of the amphitheater's progress and said it is much closer to the endzone.