STEUBENVILLE — City Council wants to know how much it will actually cost to repair the roof of a burned-out shelter in Beatty Park before they pull the plug on the project.

Council last week had approved emergency legislation authorizing City Manager Jim Mavromtis to seek bids for the shelter’s repair, but after finding out the work could cost significantly more than the $106,000 they had in hand — $71,000 from insurance, a $25,000 grant from the Pugliese Foundation and a $10,000 PNC grant — they considered repealing it.

Second Ward Councilman Tracy McManamon, chair of council’s finance committee, said Monday he thinks the bottom line for the shelter repairs could end up in the $230,000 range, though that would include a $25,000-$30,000 reserve to cover contingencies.

Given growing concern that the 2026 budget is going to be “tight,” council members voiced reservations at committing what could turn out to be $100,000 or more in addition to the $106,000 they have in the bank for the repairs. But after a 40-minute discussion on the merits of the project, they ultimately decided it didn’t make sense to repeal the ordinance without getting a more realistic picture of what the repairs might cost — and since they need the bids to know that for sure, decided the roughly $1,000 it would cost to finish the specs and advertise for bids was a small price to pay.

“If we hadn’t kicked this can down the road six years ago, it would probably have been (a lot) cheaper,” First Ward Councilman Dave Albaugh, who represents that section of town. “If we wouldn’t have kicked it down the road six years ago, it would probably be $30,000 cheaper. So, we keep kicking it down the road and it’s just going to keep getting more expensive — when do we start taking responsibility for the things that we have and try to fix them? That’s what I’m asking.”

Fourth Ward Councilman Royal Mayo, who has been critical of the project from the start, said he’d like to see it fixed, “but if we’re going to spend an additional $130,000 on recreation, there’s a lot of other things we can do in the city. We never get a return on investment as far as renting that thing out, so we can just take the roof off of it and it’ll be safe.”

Instead, Mayo said they need to set the shelter repair money aside “until we get enough grants to go with it.”

Before opting to proceed with the bid advertisement, council also discussed how much, if any, of the shelter repair funds in hand could be channeled into a different project, the aesthetics of removing the roof altogether and leaving the stone columns in place and even leaving the shelter — something Parks and Recreation Director Lori Fetherolf said would be a mistake, given the number of people roaming the park during the past year and the potential for someone to be injured if it were to collapse.

“I would hate to see it go but I fully understand the money issue,” Fetherolf said, who characterized her position as “on the fence.”

“Much as I want it, that’s a lot of money,” she said. “And from my perspective, there’s a lot of other stuff we need done, too. So where does that (the shelter) fit in?”

City Engineer Mike Dolak said the rest of the shelter structure is structurally sound now, “so we can put a new roof on them. But once we take the roof down, then we risk the chance of damaging, possibly, everything.”

Sixth Ward Councilman Mike Hernon questioned how much use the shelter would get, “because we have to make hard decisions about where money goes, to invest in parks.”

“We have to be good stewards (of the money) recognizing all our citizens are investing,” Hernon said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be thousands and thousands (of visitors), but it has to be substantial compared to our other parks that we’re investing as much.”

If they ultimately decide only to remove the roof, Councilman at large Joel Walker questioned whether they could repurpose the grant money or if they’d have to use insurance money, “and then if we decided to rebuild it or do anything else, we’d have basically no money left.”

Albaugh suggested they “let it move forward, and if we have to reject it (after bids are opened), we reject it at that point in time.”

“These numbers (we have now) are just guestimates, pretty much, so at that point in time we’ll actually have a hard number … an actual number,” he said.

“There’s probably no reason to not proceed until we have the real numbers,” Hernon agreed, though that won’t be until January, and by then his ward will have a new councilwoman. “To me, I’m cautioned by the (unofficial) $236,000 estimate. I agree, that’s my pause, but I will not be a party to that conversation.”

Council, meanwhile, approved the appointment of Joe Luckjino to the Jefferson County Port Authority, and reappointments of Tom Timmons and Billy Petrella to the Community Reinvestment Council.

Emergency legislation was introduced that would authorize the city manager to enter into a water supply revolving loan agreement for Phase 2 of the water filtration plant upgrade.

Mavromatis, meanwhile, said he and Finance Director Dave Lewis “are going through the budget right now.”

“We’re looking to where we may have to do some cuts,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll have this finalized by next Tuesday, maybe where we’re at financially. So we’re looking at every department, everywhere we can possibly save some money and make sure that we can get through next year to do what we have to do for the city.”

Council scheduled an economic development committee meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday, with a state senator slated to be in chambers to discuss on homelessness and what’s going on in other areas beginning at 6:30 p.m. Council’s regular meeting will follow at 7:30 p.m.