Mantua Twp. Trustees 12-4-12, Public Comment concluded

Public Comment Continued: 

Carole Pollard, Allyn Road:  At the last meeting, you [Jason] mentioned the possibility of spending $2,000 to put something on the ballot about the school, and I wanted to comment about the climate we are in right now.  To the amazement of everyone in the school system, we passed a levy for new money for the first time in 21 years.  Everyone's taxes are going to go up.  I talked to someone who is on a fixed income who said they would have to move because they will not be able to afford the increase.  The margin was fairly close--53 to 47-- so a lot of people are not happy about that increase.  In addition to that, no one knows what is going to happen in Washington, D.C., and if worst comes to worst, everyone's taxes will go up further.  People under those circumstances will say, to be blunt, "NFW" to another tax levy.

 If you want it to fail and to look as if people don't want the school, spending that $2,000 would be an excellent idea.  But if you do want to keep your word about what you said about getting us into the school, the restoration society can match that $2,000 to get a good start on the west room and possibly even complete it.  I know you have to look at the whole project, but you don't do a whole project all in one go.  If you say "Here is the whole thing, air conditioning, this that and the other thing, etc.," it will be a huge amount and everyone will gag on it and again you could say, "See, they don't want it."

If you say, "This is the whole cost and this is what we propose to do a step at a time, and this room is already done and look how nice it looks," people will be encouraged, somewhat like the gentleman from Remington Point said.  In terms of the proposed expenses, I have talked to someone in historic preservation who said that you do not insulate inside a masonry wall.  Three courses of masonry is sufficient.  [Blogger:  I was fumbling for the right term, which had gone AWOL in my head.  It is thermal mass and has to do with how a wall deals with heat or cold.] 

The Mantua Restoration Society is in a position to be able to help you keep your word and pick up some of the costs.  It is so close, it would not take very long, and $4,000 to get that room done and maybe $1,000 for the lighting not just for that room but for more, and you have a good start.  You have something to show people that they would like and that you would  be proud of. 

Also, if you are willing to spend money on this building [Township Hall] without knowing the outcome for 5-10 years, what is the problem with the school?  I think Lynn Harvey's term "silent majority" is accurate.  The people who have made a lot of noise are not the only ones who have a stake in that building [the school].  For $2,000 to put it on the ballot, that would be a waste of the taxpayers' money; you would get nothing out of it.

Jason responded:  Vic, John, and myself were voted to spend our money wisely for the 4,000-5,000 residents of the township. [ Here, in meetings] it takes a majority vote, and each of us has one vote.  If it would take a large amount that  the township could not afford, along with what the restoration society could provide, I would not be opposed to going to the voters: " Here is the project and here is the estimated cost.  Is this a good idea?"  Each of us would get a vote just like everyone in the township to say whether everyone wants to go forward.  We have now afforded everyone in the township to have an equal voice.  I only propose that if it is a large sum of money.

Carole asked to make a brief response, and Jason assented. 
Carole:  What you say sounds fine.  Had the school not been demonized the way it has been for at least three years, what you say would be perfectly reasonable and probably would have a chance to succeed.  But the only way you can make it work now is if the people who have opposed it would change and work as hard to support you and getting the school as they worked to oppose it. 
The animosity John Festa mentioned is focused on the school.  That has been turned into a sore point.  This isn't going to go away unless people have conversions on the road to Damascus.

Matt Parsons:  No comments this evening.

Lynn Harvey:  Would you say the biggest problem in the township is the roads, financially? 
Jason:  I would not say ___ is the ____.[Blogger:  I have to check this against a recording.]

Lynn:  All of the money has to come from the road and bridge/road levy?  
Marie:  About 70% of the budget goes to roads.
Lynn:  I only remember one road levy in 25 years.  The price of pavement in the last 20-30 years has gone up 10 times, or whatever.  This is a big deal for a small township like this one to keep the roads good.  If you look at the school, can't  money be set aside for it as the fiscal year closes; could we count on that money to be available?  Do we start at zero?
If you figure the cost of the school, that is not going to ____, once you get it done either all at once or in parts, which seems to be realistic.

Roads are always going to be breaking down, but once that building is done and we get energy efficient windows, and we are working to get more money, that is not going to constantly sink your budget.  Then the people who live here will be able to have things they have not been able to have.  That is a perfect spot for it.  Places in the building can be appropriately rented to help it carry itself.
 People deserve to be in that building, and it would be a  nice thing to give them a perk.  Other communities can do it.  There is a lot going on in the newspaper, not all in Portage County, about people getting community rooms for their townships.  Nelson and Macedonia are examples.  The one in Nelson is called the Nelson Community House, and I don't think they are any richer than we are.

Vic:  Their budget is not as big as ours.  When we looked at buying the school, we looked at all the options.  Because we didn't have some things we thought would fit, we bought it for the community.  As far as the day care, that was to help us with the cost of things.  It was not to pay for the building,and the three people on the board talked to a lot of people and we could not find 20 people against it until the last 2-3 years.  That school was built for the community.

Lynn:  I agree.  If there are 5,000 people in the township, for a year that is $3.00 per person for the light bill.  [The utility bill for the school is about $12,000 per year.]
Vic:  You have to look at the square footage.
Lynn:  So let me inflate the number:   $5.00 per year for the building.  But paving is endless.  Paving is not an asset like that structure is, and you can not have a meeting on it.

Jason:  I absolutely understand.

Steve Zelinsky:  Nothing this evening.

Dave Pollard, S.R. 82:  Let me say that as far as Meadow Creek and Old Taylor Woods are concerned, based on my experience up there, I fixed a 6" tile, and there was clay all the way down.  [Dave described lying flat and reaching the length of his arm down to work on the tile.  So--over 30" of clay, and not to the bottom of it?]  
I wish there was a way for the township to require the people who build houses and put in roads to do a better road.  A road that would hold up in Thornwood would never hold up on the land in Old Taylor Woods.  We are going to have the same problem in the next one because the builder will do the same thing again and the county will approve it.

The other thing is that what you are proposing for putting the school on the ballot is a referendum.  [Jason objected to that.]  Dave continued:  It is the equivalent of a referendum.  Put a road levy on the ballot--if the people said no, would that mean they did not want roads?  Put a road levy on and that would free up money for the school and it would make the roads look good.
To use the school referendum is short sighted and transparent.  We [the Mantua Restoration Society] formed to help.  Why can we[?] [you?] turn down free money?  We can buy the lighting but the trustees would have to do the rest.

Dan Cozzens:  You guys are doing a great job on the roads.  Keep it up.  Just because they [Old Taylor Woods] pay higher taxes does not justify paving their roads first. 
About the school:  getting your plan together is the smart way to do it.  any one would do that with their own house.  The ballot issue was just mentioned and not a certain amount of money.  You need to know what it will cost and what you are going to do.

Mr. Zula, Skinner Road:  You kind of answered some of my concerns in mentioning the big picture.  I wondered whether there was a master plan for getting this building renovated.  I don't understand why people are rushing. 
[Blogger:  Mr. Zula does not understand why some of us are "rushing" because he has not seen the twists and turns that have been made in opposing or criticizing the school.  First, it was that it taken too long--seven years!  It's too long!--and then, with the most recent election, suddenly everything has slowed to a crawl.  For example:  Cal Brant and Marie Stehli both submitted plans/proposals with cost estimates sometime during the summer.  Jason said three years ago that he would work to get us into the school and called a special meeting at the end of May 2012 that ran for about three hours, ostensibly to study getting us into the school. In all that time, no proposals or cost estimates had been made from up front.  Once Marie turned in something, then Jason reviewed it and added things to it.  That took at least two more weeks.  At least.]

 [Then, if I remember correctly, Jason asked Vic and John Festa for their input.  Vic gave his at the next meeting.  John Festa had to study it more and opined as how there was no rush.  I think it took him at least a month to get his list together, and it contains things that (a) have been deemed unnecessary or even harmful to the building by experts in the field and (b) will cost thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.  So 6 weeks and probably more like two months--at least--have been taken up on that.  At this meeting, Vic's desire for a purchase order for the lights--the same lights that Jason has spec'd out in his list--was deflected.]

[Those of us who attend many to all of the meetings know what happened because we saw it for ourselves.]

Vic:  When we did the annex we got a price and we came in way low.  That freed up money to do other things.  The outside work, the outside parking lot, was estimated at $30,000.  We did it for $22,000.

Mr. Zula:  If there is a plan, the school should be included in it.  Why would you be afraid to give us a figure on this?  Is there a cost analysis on this?

Vic:  You have to understand that the building is split into three different groups--education, business, and assembly.  We had a meeting in 2010 and decided to begin with the annex.  We had to get to the building department, and they finally accepted it as assembly.  [Blogger:  That apparently simple thing took a long time and did not occur until there was a new supervisor in the building department.]

Mr. Zula:  Can you give a figure?

Vic:  Not yet.

Mr. Zula:  I am just asking for a figure.  If you just did a little here and a little there, you have yourself a money pit.

[Blogger:  And there you have the negative buzz words:  plan, cost analysis, money pit.  Jason is doing a cost analysis now:  the big picture.  I'm not quite sure why Vic is the one being asked for that prematurely.  When Marie analyzed the actual cost per person to that point, about a year and a half ago, her figures were called lies.  As far as a master plan is concerned, I am inclined to believe that it would have been subjected to such ferocious Monday morning quarterbacking that it would have looked like confetti--like what was done with Marie's suggestions, but not nearly so gently.  Again, my remarks are the result of having attended nearly every meeting for the last 7 years or so--such fun! (Not.)  Merely my opinion?  It's based on a lot of hours of observing all the jockeying from the back and side of the room.]