Tab for Car Crashing into Council Chambers: More than $100,000

It will cost more than $116,000 to repair the damage to City Council Chambers caused when a car crashed through the wall June 20.

City Council is expected to have a special meeting Tuesday night to hire a R.A. Kalfas Home Improvement to make $102,969 worth of repairs to the building.

Council will also pay $13,625 to OM Workspace to replace furniture damaged in the crash.

Police say Daniel Grossman, 79, of Springfield Circle, was going 50 mph when he slammed into the building, striking a door and ending up with his car fully inside.

The city intends to seek reimbursement for the repairs from Grossman's insurance carrier.

Kalfas will reconstruct or replace the steel door, drywall, ceiling tiles, a handrail, baseboard, carpet and wallpaper, among other things.

New furniture will include chairs in the audience that were destroyed.

The room, used for meetings by council, the Planning Commission and other boards, as well as for Mayor's Court, was not occupied at the time. The building is attached to the , located at the .

Had a meeting been going on, injuries would have been likely, officials said. The car crashed through a doorway and slammed into a dais where city administrators sit during meetings, then into the back rows of seats in the audience.

Bricks and debris flew all the way across the room, taking chunks out of the dais and walls and even destroying ceiling tiles.

Grossman pulled out of the  and headed south on Westwood Drive, but was unable to negotiate the curve in the road, instead barreling over the curve and into the building.

Grossman told officers he "was unable to control his vehicle because the vehicle kept accelerating," a report said.

The building was renovated in 2010 as part of an expansion of the police station. 

It is often referred to as City Hall, but doesn't actually contain Strongsville's administrative offices, which are on Foltz Parkway.