About ten months ago, the Port of Cleveland celebrated the groundbreaking of the $60 million project to stabilize the storied Ohio City hillside that overlooks the Flats. 

The project, which is the keystone for tens of millions of dollars in future development, including a 23-acre park, has remained largely on track to be completed by September 2025. 

But the project was briefly sidetracked recently by another Flats water project: the first-ever stocking of fish in the Cuyahoga River. In late April, with great fanfare, the Ohio Division of Wildlife pumped thousands of steelhead trout – 7 to 9 inches long – into the river that was once too contaminated for fish and wildlife.

The stocking of the steelhead, however, meant that work on any stabilization efforts in the river had to stop for two weeks to give the fish time to acclimate to the river before moving to the lake. 

Signal Cleveland recently heard that an official told a Flats block club that the project was slightly behind schedule because work crews indeed had to pause. 

Andy Jarrett, superintendent of the state’s Castalia Fish Hatchery, which managed the stocking, told Signal Cleveland the area where the fish were dumped needed to remain undisturbed through May 15. He said the fish have indeed moved to Lake Erie. Jarrett knows this because the hatchery put transmitters on 10 fish to track their movement. 

The Port of Cleveland said the stocking did not cause any delay to the overall timeline for the project. 

“During the period when steelhead trout were being stocked in the river, the contractor was not able to proceed with the in-water work on the project,” a spokeswoman said. ”However, this caused little to no delay as the contractor was still prepping for the in-water work. The project remains on time.”

Cyber threat adds to drama at Cleveland City Hall

It was a bad week at Cleveland City Hall. A “cyber incident” led the city to pull its computer systems offline and close the main city offices to public business for most of the week. 

Then Mayor Justin Bibb ended up in a car crash when his driver drove through a downtown intersection with the SUV’s police lights on. Another car, which appeared to have the green light, entered the intersection and t-boned the mayor’s vehicle. 

City Hall says Bibb and his driver went to the hospital as a precaution, but that everyone involved was physically OK. On Friday, Cleveland’s police chief said the mayor’s driver acted outside of division policies. 

Meanwhile, the city acknowledged on Friday afternoon that the cyber incident was a ransomware attack. Bibb’s office told employees last week that “a number of computers have been compromised.” Workers should be able to open their email accounts, but internet access appears limited. 

“Please be advised that complete access and connectivity to the internet from your desk at City Hall will not be available for some time,” the mayor’s office told employees in an email last week.

For all the uncertainty, the city has stressed that residents can still call 911 for emergencies and 311 for other service needs. Residents seeking birth or death certificates can do so online.