Just to be sure that everyone gets it, the state of the township is dire. The finances are not being well handled, but I am not going to go into that in this post. It has been said elsewhere.
The climate is toxic. If you haven't read "The Underbelly" post, you need to do that. But in case it's "too much work," here are a quick rundown and some additions.
People who have spoken their minds to take issue with the Township Machine--and make no mistake, there IS a political machine in the township, and it is no cleaner than any other political machine--have received anonymous letters or cartoons, all of them insulting, stomach turning, obscene, or threatening. A few people have quite a trove of them.
Efforts have been made to get Dave's signs banned. They are legal by township zoning regulations, and since they are Dave's view and in many cases are political speech, they are protected under the law, so eat your hearts out, impression managers and beauty police. Past the natural beauty of our 25 square miles and the goodness of most of the residents, what you are trying to conceal by censoring honest observation is rotten.
Since the Veterans' Memorial freight train was set in motion, the abuse has escalated from verbal attacks by mail, the Record Courier "Sound Off!"--all by heroically courageous anonymous commentators--and slurs on the rogue website--this time by assumed names--to physical vandalism.
People in the judicial system will tell you that domestic violence begins with verbal abuse, "progresses" to physical acts like punching a wall or shoving the weaker person, and then flares into physical attacks. The pattern is well documented, and women who do not have the courage or the means to leave can and do end up dead.
So, here we are in beautiful Mantua Township, with people's houses being smeared with eggs and feces, their mailboxes being egged at an hour when it was highly unlikely to have been done by kids, and something planted in a yard to sabotage the owner's tractor when he mowed.
What's next?
The rogue website has been loudly and proudly advertised as an informative source for the residents, uncensored and criticized almost not at all, uncensored/unedited with only two comments never posted.
Well, news for them: It has been censored.
Every honest, ethical person that I know of who has gone onto that bulletin board has come away feeling sick and soiled. Those people will not post anything, even in contradiction, because in order to do that, we would have had to make our identities and our e-mails known--and we have not trusted the group behind that site not to harass us and infect our computers.
So we have censored that site by not posting anything on it.
We may have completely misjudged those upstanding voices of "information" telling us that they speak for the good of the township--but since when have name calling and lies and verbal abuse served any good?
Meetings are unpleasant to awful. In order to sign in, a person has to run what feels like a gauntlet of glowering faces and inhale a miasma of tobacco smoke and often alcohol fumes. One person in that bunch--he ususally is there early--consistently waits until it appears that no one else will arrive and then goes to the back of the room to sign in. Sometimes that is after the meeting has been in session for 20 minutes. So he has the last word.
"Called to order" is an oxymoron. There is a constant muttering from the back of the room, where apparently the real meeting is taking place before the one in the township hall is adjourned. Upon adjournment, the muttering bunch takes off for wherever the real real meeting will be held. John Festa is usually at that one.
Added to the general noise is sneering at comments made by people who are not in the "in" group.
When I made a comment in a blog post about a cheap shot one of them made at me, at the next meeting that person was standing over me calling me a liar, the blog a liar, threatening me with a lawsuit. And breathing alcohol fumes on me.
Suddenly, the rogue website bulletin board seems to be cleaned off. A couple of things happened to precipitate that, but it has not gone away. Now, to do anything on it, apparently you have to be admitted to the club, with your e-mail verified before getting (so I have been told) a password.
Is this the township you thought you were living in? Is this an atmosphere you want to live in? In this atmosphere, anyone not in the "in" group can become a threat. What has happened to others who are seen as threats is described above.
I have gotten a lot of inches of type on that website. When I told a friend about it, he laughed, said that was great, and then said: "It means you have power. You bother them." I may have said that in an earlier post.
That kind of power garners attacks and lies.
The anonymous attacks began almost like flipping on a switch four years ago. If you don't like the atmosphere that has steadily grown during that time, you can change it (as I keyboard this) in just about a week.
Vic Grimm and I each separately and on our own decided to run again or to run. No one drafted us, recruited us, or groomed us. No one told us it would be wonderful. We both know better.
If only one of us is elected, we lose the township and the school building and whatever shreds of respect we still have among neighboring townships, our former contractors, and our vendors. If neither of us is elected, it will happen even faster. If both of us are put in office, then the voters will have confirmed my belief that
good prevails.
I trust that it may be so--but only if this time good people act.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
$igns, $igns, $igns
$igns. All over the place.
'Tis the season, and like it or not, everybody has to do it.
When I was racing, the dictum was that you had to be willing and able to match your competition's best effort, which was often expressed in what racers called "cubic dollars," rather than cubic inches.
Or you had to be able to out drive them. Some drivers were really that good.
When I decided to run, a friend told me (and maybe this showed up in an earlier post) that the opposition had "buckets" of money.
As David Farragut said in the Battle of Mobile Bay, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead." [Note: Originally I had the speaker wrong; it's been corrected now, thanks to someone with a better memory for history than I had in this case.]
What do the signs really tell anyone? I know of people who have put up signs just as favors to their neighbors. Others had no idea who the people were whose signs they gave permission to someone else to put into the yard.
Still others OK'd them just to avoid conflict and badgering.
So all anyone really can tell about signs is who has $$$$$.
Why would anyone spend as much to run a campaign as the position pays in a year? Right now, trustees make less than $10,000 per year.
One of my favorite Bible quotes is "By the work you know the workman."
The signs show who is joined at the hip, or in this case the center post. Good decisions come from bringing differing perspectives to a situation, not rubber stamping each other.
The signs imply how governing will be carried out: by hiring it done, or by using time and personal effort--being hands on, in other words--to accomplish goals. The first way spends money. The second conserves it.
As our hand painted 4 x 8 signs show, Vic and I, obviously, are hands on. We are running in conjunction with each other. We are not Siamese twins.
'Tis the season, and like it or not, everybody has to do it.
When I was racing, the dictum was that you had to be willing and able to match your competition's best effort, which was often expressed in what racers called "cubic dollars," rather than cubic inches.
Or you had to be able to out drive them. Some drivers were really that good.
When I decided to run, a friend told me (and maybe this showed up in an earlier post) that the opposition had "buckets" of money.
As David Farragut said in the Battle of Mobile Bay, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead." [Note: Originally I had the speaker wrong; it's been corrected now, thanks to someone with a better memory for history than I had in this case.]
What do the signs really tell anyone? I know of people who have put up signs just as favors to their neighbors. Others had no idea who the people were whose signs they gave permission to someone else to put into the yard.
Still others OK'd them just to avoid conflict and badgering.
So all anyone really can tell about signs is who has $$$$$.
Why would anyone spend as much to run a campaign as the position pays in a year? Right now, trustees make less than $10,000 per year.
One of my favorite Bible quotes is "By the work you know the workman."
The signs show who is joined at the hip, or in this case the center post. Good decisions come from bringing differing perspectives to a situation, not rubber stamping each other.
The signs imply how governing will be carried out: by hiring it done, or by using time and personal effort--being hands on, in other words--to accomplish goals. The first way spends money. The second conserves it.
As our hand painted 4 x 8 signs show, Vic and I, obviously, are hands on. We are running in conjunction with each other. We are not Siamese twins.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Report and Opinion, 10-22 Meeting re School
Late in the day on Tuesday, I got a call saying that Larry Leitzow had been calling all over the township to get his group to come to the meeting to discuss uses of the school. So when I got to the Civic Center and found the parking lots filled to capacity and then some, I expected another gathering like too many trustees meetings.
What a wonderful surprise upon walking into the building! The far greater number of faces were obviously much more accustomed to smiling than sneering, and although I don't know everyone behind one of those pleasant faces, I know many of them. They are positive, honest, many of them dedicated to their churches, also dedicated to community service, thoughtful, and mindful of what a community needs to be a community, not just a name on a map.
[Just as an aside, is there some logical reason that a meeting about the school was not held AT the school building?]
Maybe the pleasant atmosphere was because Todd Peetz and Claudia James conducted the meeting, and the format did not give opportunity for verbal abu. . . er, public comment.
We all received a little pack of 5 Post-Its and filled in our responses to the following prompts:
1. What do we want for the building?
2. What do we NOT want for the building?
3. What are our concerns?
We put our Post-Its onto newsprint sheets headed by the prompts, and when they had all been posted, Todd read each one aloud, establishing categories as he did. Claudia wrote the categories on the newsprint and tallied the number of responses in each category as we went on.
The next step was interesting and very revealing because of the way it was done. We were given 4 green sticky-dots to put on the categories most important to each of us. The results were striking: a long row of bright green dots on "Keep the Building." The uses were for township offices, community activities of all kinds, and rental.
Five responses were to tear the building down, and two more mentioned putting the township garage on the school building property. I can tell you, having done the blog post about John Festa's proposal for a multi-use government building on the property, that putting the garage there is a smoke screen for tearing down the building.
What people did NOT want was for there to be more delays to using it, a tax, or for it to be torn down.
Concerns included divisiveness over the building and that one person would stack the board of trustees so that the building would be torn down. The main concern other than that was over maintenance--a valid issue..
[Well, rental would cover at least part of the cost of owning the building, if two of the trustees got their acts together on behalf of the township instead of their personal-agenda bosses. Debby Vogias had waited patiently for the basement to be done so that she could have her pre-school there. The first thing John Festa did was run her off, with threats of legal action, among other charming things. Jason did not oppose that action. He could have.]
A number of comments mentioned the historic status of the building, implying its importance as a source of community pride and identity.
The results of this exercise were the same as what the trustees had determined before purchasing the school building in 2004 by going out and talking with residents. According to Vic, they found only about 20 people who objected or had reservations. He himself found only 6 people who opposed the idea.
Connie Leedom was one of the three trustees at that time. Steve Oros was the other. Interestingly enough, at that time Larry Leitzow voiced no objection, possibly because [as I understand it] he and Connie were friends. That is not a criticism of anyone. But with Connie off the board, it all changed and Vic and Mark took beating after beating about the purchase decision.
So, here we are, after four years of stalling since Jason was elected, having promised, among other things, to work to get us into the school. In fact, he has opposed it, sometimes overtly and sometimes with ostensibly plausible rationalizations--but rationalizations only.
To repeat: The results of of the 2004 face-to-face canvassing of the township residents were supported by the Tuesday meeting. It's called re-inventing the wheel. It eats up time and money, and it stalls until the building is paid off and the trustees can do what they want to do--or are told to do--with it.
Sixty-seven people came to this meeting, only fourteen of them what I charitably call "hostiles."
If you think that those numbers and the overwhelming desire for the building to be kept made any idfference, guess again.
Larry Leitzow was overheard to say that we've got to tear that building down. That from the man who took me to task in a trustees meeting for saying he wanted to do just that: "I never said to tear it down."
Well, he did. If you haven't read the post titled "Rules for Liars," you might do that next.
And Larry intends exactly to pack the board of trustees with a third person he can boss. He's two thirds there right now--and you might ask yourself how well that has served the township.
Does that agenda to destroy the school explain to you anything about the concentrated attacks on Vic? He can't be bought (Larry owes him more than he owes Larry in the calculus of who has done what for whom), and he doesn't fold when he's bullied. So he can't be bossed.
One more thing: A favor done for you with a hook in it is not a favor. It's a bribe. And a favor done for you in the physical world--fixing something that has broken or isn't working right--does not earn your vote in the world defining the quality of our lives. To use a previously favorite phrase of Larry's, that is not an apples-to-apples transaction. The only person who deserves the use of your vote is you.
What a wonderful surprise upon walking into the building! The far greater number of faces were obviously much more accustomed to smiling than sneering, and although I don't know everyone behind one of those pleasant faces, I know many of them. They are positive, honest, many of them dedicated to their churches, also dedicated to community service, thoughtful, and mindful of what a community needs to be a community, not just a name on a map.
[Just as an aside, is there some logical reason that a meeting about the school was not held AT the school building?]
Maybe the pleasant atmosphere was because Todd Peetz and Claudia James conducted the meeting, and the format did not give opportunity for verbal abu. . . er, public comment.
We all received a little pack of 5 Post-Its and filled in our responses to the following prompts:
1. What do we want for the building?
2. What do we NOT want for the building?
3. What are our concerns?
We put our Post-Its onto newsprint sheets headed by the prompts, and when they had all been posted, Todd read each one aloud, establishing categories as he did. Claudia wrote the categories on the newsprint and tallied the number of responses in each category as we went on.
The next step was interesting and very revealing because of the way it was done. We were given 4 green sticky-dots to put on the categories most important to each of us. The results were striking: a long row of bright green dots on "Keep the Building." The uses were for township offices, community activities of all kinds, and rental.
Five responses were to tear the building down, and two more mentioned putting the township garage on the school building property. I can tell you, having done the blog post about John Festa's proposal for a multi-use government building on the property, that putting the garage there is a smoke screen for tearing down the building.
What people did NOT want was for there to be more delays to using it, a tax, or for it to be torn down.
Concerns included divisiveness over the building and that one person would stack the board of trustees so that the building would be torn down. The main concern other than that was over maintenance--a valid issue..
[Well, rental would cover at least part of the cost of owning the building, if two of the trustees got their acts together on behalf of the township instead of their personal-agenda bosses. Debby Vogias had waited patiently for the basement to be done so that she could have her pre-school there. The first thing John Festa did was run her off, with threats of legal action, among other charming things. Jason did not oppose that action. He could have.]
A number of comments mentioned the historic status of the building, implying its importance as a source of community pride and identity.
The results of this exercise were the same as what the trustees had determined before purchasing the school building in 2004 by going out and talking with residents. According to Vic, they found only about 20 people who objected or had reservations. He himself found only 6 people who opposed the idea.
Connie Leedom was one of the three trustees at that time. Steve Oros was the other. Interestingly enough, at that time Larry Leitzow voiced no objection, possibly because [as I understand it] he and Connie were friends. That is not a criticism of anyone. But with Connie off the board, it all changed and Vic and Mark took beating after beating about the purchase decision.
So, here we are, after four years of stalling since Jason was elected, having promised, among other things, to work to get us into the school. In fact, he has opposed it, sometimes overtly and sometimes with ostensibly plausible rationalizations--but rationalizations only.
To repeat: The results of of the 2004 face-to-face canvassing of the township residents were supported by the Tuesday meeting. It's called re-inventing the wheel. It eats up time and money, and it stalls until the building is paid off and the trustees can do what they want to do--or are told to do--with it.
Sixty-seven people came to this meeting, only fourteen of them what I charitably call "hostiles."
If you think that those numbers and the overwhelming desire for the building to be kept made any idfference, guess again.
Larry Leitzow was overheard to say that we've got to tear that building down. That from the man who took me to task in a trustees meeting for saying he wanted to do just that: "I never said to tear it down."
Well, he did. If you haven't read the post titled "Rules for Liars," you might do that next.
And Larry intends exactly to pack the board of trustees with a third person he can boss. He's two thirds there right now--and you might ask yourself how well that has served the township.
Does that agenda to destroy the school explain to you anything about the concentrated attacks on Vic? He can't be bought (Larry owes him more than he owes Larry in the calculus of who has done what for whom), and he doesn't fold when he's bullied. So he can't be bossed.
One more thing: A favor done for you with a hook in it is not a favor. It's a bribe. And a favor done for you in the physical world--fixing something that has broken or isn't working right--does not earn your vote in the world defining the quality of our lives. To use a previously favorite phrase of Larry's, that is not an apples-to-apples transaction. The only person who deserves the use of your vote is you.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Rules for Liars
There are only two rules for liars, and one corollary:
First, don't.
Second, don't do it if you'll get caught.
Corollary: You will usually get caught. See Rule #1.
What does that have to do with anything?
Well, I want to thank the wanderers in the wilderness of the rogue website for resurrecting something that I had been told was too old to bring up.
Here it is: A post on the rogue website asserts that I sent ominous letters to poor "Leitzo" (writer's spelling) and that I didn't realize I had been caught on security cameras at the funeral home taking photos.
This is what happened: On a bright, clear, sunny autumn afternoon, I parked my unmistakable blue Honda Civic Si--perhaps the only one in northern Portage County--on the berm across from Dale Turner's to take some photos of road signs. It was broad daylight, in case anyone missed that detail in the first sentence, and I was standing out in plain sight, fairly distinctive of physique myself, and taking photos for at least 5 if not 10 minutes. My purpose was to take pictures, not count cars, but there were many.
Who knows how many people saw me out there in plain view? Who needs security cameras for someone who is not only not hidden, but who is making not the slightest effort to hide?
Whoever put up that post said, "Da!" and something about the security cameras--that, in effect, I was pretty dumb to get caught like that.
Well, here's the best part: There are no external security cameras at the funeral home, so I was not "caught" on them. I know there aren't any because I asked. [Note on 10/25: There were no external security cameras at the time when I took the photos. If there are now, so what.]
This gets better the more you look at it.
The truth was sufficient: There I was. So either Larry or his mouthpiece told a lie that was totally unnecessary. Did either of them know there were no cameras and just make something up? Or did one of them know and tell a lie to a gullible hanger-on who then recounted it? And it was a lie about a fellow business man. This could be a trifecta.
Second, that "ominous" letter. Poor Larry. He must have been feeling left out of the anonymous letter boom.
Well, he didn't get it from me. If he thinks he did, I want to see it. He can bring it to the next trustees' meeting.
Better yet, if it was ominous or threatening and he knows it came from me--he claims he knows that--then why hasn't he taken it to his lawyer? I am one of the two people in the township Larry seems to dislike the most. Why has he not yanked me into court and had his lawyer rake me over?
Do you think that maybe, just maybe, since he looks like the best candidate to have told the first lie--and my absolutely most abject apologies if he was not--he may have told this second one as well?
So--look at this cluster: A lie about security cameras.
A lie to someone, apparently a friend, who passed it on. Is this how to treat a friend?
A lie about a business associate.
A lie about receiving a letter.
Can someone who tells a completely unnecessary lie be trusted to tell the truth about anything that stands in his way or opposes his agenda?
How many other friends have been treated like this one?
First, don't.
Second, don't do it if you'll get caught.
Corollary: You will usually get caught. See Rule #1.
What does that have to do with anything?
Well, I want to thank the wanderers in the wilderness of the rogue website for resurrecting something that I had been told was too old to bring up.
Here it is: A post on the rogue website asserts that I sent ominous letters to poor "Leitzo" (writer's spelling) and that I didn't realize I had been caught on security cameras at the funeral home taking photos.
This is what happened: On a bright, clear, sunny autumn afternoon, I parked my unmistakable blue Honda Civic Si--perhaps the only one in northern Portage County--on the berm across from Dale Turner's to take some photos of road signs. It was broad daylight, in case anyone missed that detail in the first sentence, and I was standing out in plain sight, fairly distinctive of physique myself, and taking photos for at least 5 if not 10 minutes. My purpose was to take pictures, not count cars, but there were many.
Who knows how many people saw me out there in plain view? Who needs security cameras for someone who is not only not hidden, but who is making not the slightest effort to hide?
Whoever put up that post said, "Da!" and something about the security cameras--that, in effect, I was pretty dumb to get caught like that.
Well, here's the best part: There are no external security cameras at the funeral home, so I was not "caught" on them. I know there aren't any because I asked. [Note on 10/25: There were no external security cameras at the time when I took the photos. If there are now, so what.]
This gets better the more you look at it.
The truth was sufficient: There I was. So either Larry or his mouthpiece told a lie that was totally unnecessary. Did either of them know there were no cameras and just make something up? Or did one of them know and tell a lie to a gullible hanger-on who then recounted it? And it was a lie about a fellow business man. This could be a trifecta.
Second, that "ominous" letter. Poor Larry. He must have been feeling left out of the anonymous letter boom.
Well, he didn't get it from me. If he thinks he did, I want to see it. He can bring it to the next trustees' meeting.
Better yet, if it was ominous or threatening and he knows it came from me--he claims he knows that--then why hasn't he taken it to his lawyer? I am one of the two people in the township Larry seems to dislike the most. Why has he not yanked me into court and had his lawyer rake me over?
Do you think that maybe, just maybe, since he looks like the best candidate to have told the first lie--and my absolutely most abject apologies if he was not--he may have told this second one as well?
So--look at this cluster: A lie about security cameras.
A lie to someone, apparently a friend, who passed it on. Is this how to treat a friend?
A lie about a business associate.
A lie about receiving a letter.
Can someone who tells a completely unnecessary lie be trusted to tell the truth about anything that stands in his way or opposes his agenda?
How many other friends have been treated like this one?
Sunday, October 20, 2013
More Hanky Panky with Signs
When Dave and I went up to the corner of his place this morning to put up a 4 x 8 sign for me, we found two yard signs, one for Vic and one for me, planted well within the right of way. I removed both and re-planted one.
I did not put them there; Dave did not put them there; Vic did not put them there. We haven't figured out yet where they got lifted from.
When I began this whole venture, someone with experience in this sort of thing advised me to check my signs often to see if any had been removed and also to see if they had been taken from where they were posted with permission and put onto someone else's property who had not given permission.
This is for the person on Brent Simon's website who claims not to have seen any nastiness in the township: Open your eyes. Denial is not a river in Africa, and saying that red is green doesn't change the reality, although color.blindness may be a factor.
I did not put them there; Dave did not put them there; Vic did not put them there. We haven't figured out yet where they got lifted from.
When I began this whole venture, someone with experience in this sort of thing advised me to check my signs often to see if any had been removed and also to see if they had been taken from where they were posted with permission and put onto someone else's property who had not given permission.
This is for the person on Brent Simon's website who claims not to have seen any nastiness in the township: Open your eyes. Denial is not a river in Africa, and saying that red is green doesn't change the reality, although color.blindness may be a factor.
Offer to Paint Twp. Hall Accepted 10-17-13
[Blogger Foreword: Between now and November 5, the blog will give meeting highlights as I see them. I will continue to do public comment. This meeting began with discussion about the financial report, the intention of which on Jason's part was to be clear that the money is being managed well. The bottom line for the last several years does not bear that out completely. That will all require a separate post.
[In addition, regarding the finances, Marie announced that she had developed a spread sheet that she thought would answer the questions about what has actually been spent on the Mantua Center school building. She passed out copies to everyone and requested that it be given to Brent Simon to be put on the township's website, mantuatownshipohio.gov. Check the website for that. Public comment, when it is posted, will also contain something about that.
[This post is going to focus on the Township Hall project.]
Town Hall Updates and Next Steps
Jason: Yesterday [Wednesday, October 16] Vic and I both went to talk with Steve Coon. Vic met first and then I met with him so as to be sure not to violate any sunshine laws.
Vic asked if Jason had gotten an e-mail about that today. Answer: Yes.
Vic: At 5:30 today we had a conversation. His offer is still good to come up and get this building painted. We have to supply the paint--talk to Linda Ehlert. Steve Coon will come up and scrape and paint it. He said he would do it for whatever the contractor would charge us. Steve will come up and do it free of charge and we can take that money and put it into the/a school fund.
Jason read the e-mail. [Blogger: I will get a copy and post it exactly as written; for now, this key statement pretty well defines Steve as I am acquainted with him.]
Steve: I am hoping to energize your community into a jump start on your building.
Jason: I did not know him going in on this. A few things I did not realize: He is the largest restoration contractor in the state of Ohio. His walls are plastered with different projects that he has done to restore buildings both inside and outside. They are beautiful works of art.
He donates $100,000 a year and supports 15 baseball teams. He has over 100 employees. He said he thinks of his community as all of Ohio. He does work all over Ohio and other states and is very well known in the restoration business.
There were some questions about his original proposal. One was about the fund, transferring money to save the school. I asked him about what he meant. Steve said that "save" is maybe not the correct terminology--he just wanted to help the community. Maybe we can take 80% and put it on the school. So, what he said is that his intent is to inspire the community to say that this is a great work after he is done. He does not want any credit for it or any one person to get recognition for his work, and he does not, either. It is just to benefit the community.
He is hard to describe, but he is a person you want to listen to. He is true in his offer, and he really does want to help. We have about 3-4 weeks and then all bets are off. He is a very nice guy. His work precedes him.
Vic: Tonight when I talked to him, they were presenting him an award for donating someting he did three years ago. [Blogger: I called Steve on Friday to thank him and learned that the award was for work he has done to revitalize downtown Canton.]
Vic, continuing--Did you see the picture of him shaking hands with George W. Bush? He owns 37 historical buildings. He is just a person that you really want to know.
Jason: Just to back up--he will supply a 60-foot snorkel and barricades and the work[ers?] to do the job. The township is to supply the paint. He will caulk the wood and before that will pressure wash to remove the loose paint. If we accept this, he will want to start ASAP.
Vic: There is a lot of family [in his business]. The receptionist that day was his daughter. I really would like to see the township go ahead with this so it can be painted and the shutters put on.
Jason: We can discuss the money at the next meeting or so. We were going to spend it anyway, so to be able to spend it somewhere else would be good.
John Festa: I was not able to go to talk to him. But I would have liked to have had the opportunity to talk to him and feel I deserve some consideration.
Jason: I can give you his cell phone number. My fear is that if we do not move on it at this meeting the building will sit like this for the whole winter.
John Festa: How long will it have to dry?
Jason: He is the expert.
Vic: The Sherwin Williams paint is Resilience. [Blogger: I believe there was some debate between John Festa and Vic about which paint John had recommended some time ago.]
John Festa: I do feel I should have had some consideration.
Vic: You had the opportunity to go to the meeting.
John Festa: You did not call me and say you were going. Did you leave me a message?
Vic: You called me at 6:10 [Blogger: I am not sure of which day this was; I know there was a phone call to Vic from John Festa on Friday, late in the day. Not sure this is the call. I will check on the details that came too thick and fast to get completely, and they will be added in italics, but just not now.]
John Festa [said something I missed. He and Vic, if I remember correctly, were talking over each other to some extent.]
Vic: On Tuesday morning Jason e-mailed down to Chris Meduri, and there was a reply.
John Festa: Jason did not say we were going.
Vic: I make a motion that we go ahead. Jason seconded.
We have to get it done this year. It will only get worse. The community needs to get it done as soon as possible. We have talked about it at meeting after meeting, and we have to move forward. [Blogger: I did not note who said this, but it sounds like Jason.]
Vote: John Festa: Abstained. Jason: Yes. Vic: Yes.
[Blogger: John Festa proceeded to sulk. Then, peripherally, I thought he was looking fixedly at me. So I looked back. He finally asked why I was staring at him. I think I said that I was just returning the favor, or that it seemed as if he had been staring at me. I will check the recording, but just not this minute. Since John Festa's question was the equivalent of a blink, I looked elsewhere. He continued to glare; I looked back; he said, "Payback," I half smiled, and Sue Skrovan, next to me, asked what was going on. I said, "We're being children." This is all on the video, and I have been told (have not looked at it) that this section of it defies description.]
Blogger closing note: I will listen to this section of the meeting and add anything significant in italics in this post. Also, in talking with Steve Coon on Friday, I asked him about something that Joyce Barrett, Executive Director of Heritage Ohio, had told me about how Steve got his start. That is a fascinating only-in-America story that I think all of you would really appreciate.
[In addition, regarding the finances, Marie announced that she had developed a spread sheet that she thought would answer the questions about what has actually been spent on the Mantua Center school building. She passed out copies to everyone and requested that it be given to Brent Simon to be put on the township's website, mantuatownshipohio.gov. Check the website for that. Public comment, when it is posted, will also contain something about that.
[This post is going to focus on the Township Hall project.]
Town Hall Updates and Next Steps
Jason: Yesterday [Wednesday, October 16] Vic and I both went to talk with Steve Coon. Vic met first and then I met with him so as to be sure not to violate any sunshine laws.
Vic asked if Jason had gotten an e-mail about that today. Answer: Yes.
Vic: At 5:30 today we had a conversation. His offer is still good to come up and get this building painted. We have to supply the paint--talk to Linda Ehlert. Steve Coon will come up and scrape and paint it. He said he would do it for whatever the contractor would charge us. Steve will come up and do it free of charge and we can take that money and put it into the/a school fund.
Jason read the e-mail. [Blogger: I will get a copy and post it exactly as written; for now, this key statement pretty well defines Steve as I am acquainted with him.]
Steve: I am hoping to energize your community into a jump start on your building.
Jason: I did not know him going in on this. A few things I did not realize: He is the largest restoration contractor in the state of Ohio. His walls are plastered with different projects that he has done to restore buildings both inside and outside. They are beautiful works of art.
He donates $100,000 a year and supports 15 baseball teams. He has over 100 employees. He said he thinks of his community as all of Ohio. He does work all over Ohio and other states and is very well known in the restoration business.
There were some questions about his original proposal. One was about the fund, transferring money to save the school. I asked him about what he meant. Steve said that "save" is maybe not the correct terminology--he just wanted to help the community. Maybe we can take 80% and put it on the school. So, what he said is that his intent is to inspire the community to say that this is a great work after he is done. He does not want any credit for it or any one person to get recognition for his work, and he does not, either. It is just to benefit the community.
He is hard to describe, but he is a person you want to listen to. He is true in his offer, and he really does want to help. We have about 3-4 weeks and then all bets are off. He is a very nice guy. His work precedes him.
Vic: Tonight when I talked to him, they were presenting him an award for donating someting he did three years ago. [Blogger: I called Steve on Friday to thank him and learned that the award was for work he has done to revitalize downtown Canton.]
Vic, continuing--Did you see the picture of him shaking hands with George W. Bush? He owns 37 historical buildings. He is just a person that you really want to know.
Jason: Just to back up--he will supply a 60-foot snorkel and barricades and the work[ers?] to do the job. The township is to supply the paint. He will caulk the wood and before that will pressure wash to remove the loose paint. If we accept this, he will want to start ASAP.
Vic: There is a lot of family [in his business]. The receptionist that day was his daughter. I really would like to see the township go ahead with this so it can be painted and the shutters put on.
Jason: We can discuss the money at the next meeting or so. We were going to spend it anyway, so to be able to spend it somewhere else would be good.
John Festa: I was not able to go to talk to him. But I would have liked to have had the opportunity to talk to him and feel I deserve some consideration.
Jason: I can give you his cell phone number. My fear is that if we do not move on it at this meeting the building will sit like this for the whole winter.
John Festa: How long will it have to dry?
Jason: He is the expert.
Vic: The Sherwin Williams paint is Resilience. [Blogger: I believe there was some debate between John Festa and Vic about which paint John had recommended some time ago.]
John Festa: I do feel I should have had some consideration.
Vic: You had the opportunity to go to the meeting.
John Festa: You did not call me and say you were going. Did you leave me a message?
Vic: You called me at 6:10 [Blogger: I am not sure of which day this was; I know there was a phone call to Vic from John Festa on Friday, late in the day. Not sure this is the call. I will check on the details that came too thick and fast to get completely, and they will be added in italics, but just not now.]
John Festa [said something I missed. He and Vic, if I remember correctly, were talking over each other to some extent.]
Vic: On Tuesday morning Jason e-mailed down to Chris Meduri, and there was a reply.
John Festa: Jason did not say we were going.
Vic: I make a motion that we go ahead. Jason seconded.
We have to get it done this year. It will only get worse. The community needs to get it done as soon as possible. We have talked about it at meeting after meeting, and we have to move forward. [Blogger: I did not note who said this, but it sounds like Jason.]
Vote: John Festa: Abstained. Jason: Yes. Vic: Yes.
[Blogger: John Festa proceeded to sulk. Then, peripherally, I thought he was looking fixedly at me. So I looked back. He finally asked why I was staring at him. I think I said that I was just returning the favor, or that it seemed as if he had been staring at me. I will check the recording, but just not this minute. Since John Festa's question was the equivalent of a blink, I looked elsewhere. He continued to glare; I looked back; he said, "Payback," I half smiled, and Sue Skrovan, next to me, asked what was going on. I said, "We're being children." This is all on the video, and I have been told (have not looked at it) that this section of it defies description.]
Blogger closing note: I will listen to this section of the meeting and add anything significant in italics in this post. Also, in talking with Steve Coon on Friday, I asked him about something that Joyce Barrett, Executive Director of Heritage Ohio, had told me about how Steve got his start. That is a fascinating only-in-America story that I think all of you would really appreciate.
Signs Stolen
On Saturday morning, Matt Parsons rang my doorbell to say that a sheriff's deputy was on Vaughn Road filing a report about campaign signs that had been stolen.
According to Matt, Norm Erickson discovered it in driving around (I assume to check to see if just such an event had occurred) when he saw one of his 4 x 8 signs in the yard. Yard signs for Matt, Jason, and me were the rest of the haul. I think Matt said that there were 8 of his and 2 of Jason's, and I found one of mine. That might explain the one that disappeared from a spot on Mantua Center Road.
Vic did not have a sign in the batch.
First of all, I thank Matt for coming to tell me about the event.
Second, something about this is off--not logical. Yes, yes, theft is not logical. But there were some really stupid things about it, things that made no sense to Matt, either.
Thanks to the pervasively nasty atmosphere in the township, I ended up thinking that this is some kind of put-up job.
Later in the morning, Jason and I talked when he called to let me know that I had by mistake put two signs in the wrong spot, and we talked about the theft.
This is what I told Jason: The only person who did not have a sign in the pile was Vic. I expect that the anonymous commentors on Brent Simon's website will accuse Vic of having done this because no sign of his was stolen. That's the kind of twisted thinking that is being put out on that site. Jason thought it was unfortunate.
Is this blog post going to be part of solving the problem?
Well, according to the poster (or maybe posters) on Brent's site, I am almost singlehandedly what's wrong with the township. Uh huh. From what I can see, that opinion is because I have chosen to make sure that theirs are not the only voices telling what's happening here.
Secrets foster corruption. Ignorance is bliss, remember? Learning that there are snakes in paradise is not pleasant--but knowing is the first step in fixing things. Knowledge is the source of freedom and power.
According to Matt, Norm Erickson discovered it in driving around (I assume to check to see if just such an event had occurred) when he saw one of his 4 x 8 signs in the yard. Yard signs for Matt, Jason, and me were the rest of the haul. I think Matt said that there were 8 of his and 2 of Jason's, and I found one of mine. That might explain the one that disappeared from a spot on Mantua Center Road.
Vic did not have a sign in the batch.
First of all, I thank Matt for coming to tell me about the event.
Second, something about this is off--not logical. Yes, yes, theft is not logical. But there were some really stupid things about it, things that made no sense to Matt, either.
Thanks to the pervasively nasty atmosphere in the township, I ended up thinking that this is some kind of put-up job.
Later in the morning, Jason and I talked when he called to let me know that I had by mistake put two signs in the wrong spot, and we talked about the theft.
This is what I told Jason: The only person who did not have a sign in the pile was Vic. I expect that the anonymous commentors on Brent Simon's website will accuse Vic of having done this because no sign of his was stolen. That's the kind of twisted thinking that is being put out on that site. Jason thought it was unfortunate.
Is this blog post going to be part of solving the problem?
Well, according to the poster (or maybe posters) on Brent's site, I am almost singlehandedly what's wrong with the township. Uh huh. From what I can see, that opinion is because I have chosen to make sure that theirs are not the only voices telling what's happening here.
Secrets foster corruption. Ignorance is bliss, remember? Learning that there are snakes in paradise is not pleasant--but knowing is the first step in fixing things. Knowledge is the source of freedom and power.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Crucial Meeting About School
A community meeting to discuss the uses and/or disposal of the Mantua Center school building is scheduled for
Tuesday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. at the Civic Center.
The announcements and advertisements that I have seen have made it sound as if realtors, the business community, and non profit representatives are the ones who will be discussing this topic.
THIS IS A PUBLIC MEETING.
We can still lose the school building. The agenda for it from the back of the room since the 2009 election has been to do something with it other than the trustees' stated purpose in 2004.
This meeting, conducted by Regional Planning, and the ones that appear to be planned to follow, is your chance to be heard.
Show up.
SPEAK UP.
And on November 5, vote for two trustees who will work for the whole township, not just for the interests of the people bankrolling campaigns with thousands of dollars worth of flashy signs.
My take on the meeting is that anyone who is interested, not just Mantua Township residents, should come and at least make a statement by sheer numbers, even if commenting is restricted in some way.
If you have a facebook page and care about this, please put it on facebook as well.
Tuesday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. at the Civic Center.
The announcements and advertisements that I have seen have made it sound as if realtors, the business community, and non profit representatives are the ones who will be discussing this topic.
THIS IS A PUBLIC MEETING.
We can still lose the school building. The agenda for it from the back of the room since the 2009 election has been to do something with it other than the trustees' stated purpose in 2004.
This meeting, conducted by Regional Planning, and the ones that appear to be planned to follow, is your chance to be heard.
Show up.
SPEAK UP.
And on November 5, vote for two trustees who will work for the whole township, not just for the interests of the people bankrolling campaigns with thousands of dollars worth of flashy signs.
My take on the meeting is that anyone who is interested, not just Mantua Township residents, should come and at least make a statement by sheer numbers, even if commenting is restricted in some way.
If you have a facebook page and care about this, please put it on facebook as well.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Township Hall--Report, Discussion, Public Response 10-3-13
[Blogger: A friend told me at the beginning of this campaign season that I could not spend the time on the blog that I had been up to that point. Absolutely true. I believe that this post and the one that above may be all there is time for this meeting. There was some commentary by John Festa, I believe, about the Weekly Villager article about the dirty business going on in the township. I will review that and see if there is time to include any of it, but it will not go in today.]
Vic led off with some new business: Have any of you contacted Steve Coon?
Jason: I had called and left a voice mail but never heard anything back.
Vic: I left you both a message for his direct e-mail. He was on the way back from Cincinnati. His offer is still good, but we are running out of time. I just want to know how you feel about his offer. All we have to do is supply the paint.
Jason: The only problem I have is the correspondence he sent back was sent to a resident and not to a trustee. It sounded as if the Mantua Center school was in dire straits. I want to make sure he has all the correct information.
Vic: He was at the school and took a tour.
John Festa: I left two e-mails and a voice mail and I still have reservations about why he did not approach the trustees and I have quite a few questions.
Jason: Can we go meet with him?
Vic: I told him we had a meeting this evening and I would bring this up and I will talk to him in the morning.
John Festa: If he will talk to you but not to us, maybe we would have [do have?] questions.
Jason: I don't quite understand how painting this building will help save the Mantua Center school.
John Festa: I have been in business a long time and it is few and far between that someone just comes and donates a $9,000 job.
Vic: I will give him a call in the morning and we can set up a meeting.
John Festa: I have a problem with why he won't call me.
Vic: He said that the best he could do right now was to have you e-mail him.
John Festa: If you do speak to him tell him we would really lilke to talk to him.
Vic: He is highly regarded in the industry.
John Festa: I did some checking on him. It sounds too good to be true. Ask questions.
[Blogger: The meeting moved on to chip and seal and then questions about the current state of activities at the school building. That is a separate post. My response in Public Comment to the above follows. You will see why when you read it.]
Carole Pollard, 5359 Allyn Road: I am the resident that Steve Coon addressed his e-mail to, and the township would never have known he existed if it were not for The Mantua Restoration Society, which made it possible for me to go to the Heritage Ohio annual conference. That is where I met Steve.
I think that because there is so much zeal in the township for having new stuff and getting rid of old stuff, that many people do not appreciate the passion, intensity, and dedication of people who make their livings in historic preservation. Steve is for real and I turned that information over to the trustees in a meeting formally.
I read it to you, I gave it to you, and I have stayed out of that ever since. It is up to the trustees. Vic has become the lead person on the Township Hall, and it made sense that Steve would be dealing with him.
In terms of that word ["save"], I think that much ado is being made about it. There are many definitions of that. But I also want to tell you that I talked to someone yesterday who said that one person in the township thinks that the original school building should be torn down. Period, end.
That is not an assumption. It has come from too many places to consider that it is not real.
So I think the school building is still under threat. These two wooden buildings also on the National Register are not under threat despite how much more fragile they are than that triple-walled masonry building.
You have an offer that is real even though in the ordinary world it sounds too good to be true. I think it is genuine, and if you look at all of Steve's projects he is perfectly capable of doing this. I think he is a man of honor and a man of his word, and it is hard to find that these days.
[Blogger: OK, here are some pieces of the rest of the story:
First, that "one person in the township who thinks that the original building should be torn down." What's the big deal about one person?
Well, when that one person is Larry Leitzow-- who said after Jason was elected that things would change in the township now because "his man" had been elected;
who engineered John Festa's election and then made sure everyone knew who was in charge of that by keeping one of John Festa's campaign signs (slightly modified, I understand) on the side of his barn for nearly the next two years;
who got 54 of Jason's 63 signatures on nominating petitions;
when Larry Leitzow--who is clearly working to get "his" third trustee into office--is that one person, does anyone need to have it spelled out about who will probably (like 99.9%) be running things if all the money being spent on signs buys another election?
Second, I have heard that "tear it down" story from five different people, each one of whom had gotten it directly from Larry. (I will say that one of those people told me that the phrase wasn't "tear it down," but that was clearly the intent.) I am not just spreading something that has been floating in the wind without sources or verification.]
[Blogger, continuing: As I keyboard this, the October 17 trustees meeting is tonight. The township hall and Steve Coon's offer will certainly be on the agenda.]
Vic led off with some new business: Have any of you contacted Steve Coon?
Jason: I had called and left a voice mail but never heard anything back.
Vic: I left you both a message for his direct e-mail. He was on the way back from Cincinnati. His offer is still good, but we are running out of time. I just want to know how you feel about his offer. All we have to do is supply the paint.
Jason: The only problem I have is the correspondence he sent back was sent to a resident and not to a trustee. It sounded as if the Mantua Center school was in dire straits. I want to make sure he has all the correct information.
Vic: He was at the school and took a tour.
John Festa: I left two e-mails and a voice mail and I still have reservations about why he did not approach the trustees and I have quite a few questions.
Jason: Can we go meet with him?
Vic: I told him we had a meeting this evening and I would bring this up and I will talk to him in the morning.
John Festa: If he will talk to you but not to us, maybe we would have [do have?] questions.
Jason: I don't quite understand how painting this building will help save the Mantua Center school.
John Festa: I have been in business a long time and it is few and far between that someone just comes and donates a $9,000 job.
Vic: I will give him a call in the morning and we can set up a meeting.
John Festa: I have a problem with why he won't call me.
Vic: He said that the best he could do right now was to have you e-mail him.
John Festa: If you do speak to him tell him we would really lilke to talk to him.
Vic: He is highly regarded in the industry.
John Festa: I did some checking on him. It sounds too good to be true. Ask questions.
[Blogger: The meeting moved on to chip and seal and then questions about the current state of activities at the school building. That is a separate post. My response in Public Comment to the above follows. You will see why when you read it.]
Carole Pollard, 5359 Allyn Road: I am the resident that Steve Coon addressed his e-mail to, and the township would never have known he existed if it were not for The Mantua Restoration Society, which made it possible for me to go to the Heritage Ohio annual conference. That is where I met Steve.
I think that because there is so much zeal in the township for having new stuff and getting rid of old stuff, that many people do not appreciate the passion, intensity, and dedication of people who make their livings in historic preservation. Steve is for real and I turned that information over to the trustees in a meeting formally.
I read it to you, I gave it to you, and I have stayed out of that ever since. It is up to the trustees. Vic has become the lead person on the Township Hall, and it made sense that Steve would be dealing with him.
In terms of that word ["save"], I think that much ado is being made about it. There are many definitions of that. But I also want to tell you that I talked to someone yesterday who said that one person in the township thinks that the original school building should be torn down. Period, end.
That is not an assumption. It has come from too many places to consider that it is not real.
So I think the school building is still under threat. These two wooden buildings also on the National Register are not under threat despite how much more fragile they are than that triple-walled masonry building.
You have an offer that is real even though in the ordinary world it sounds too good to be true. I think it is genuine, and if you look at all of Steve's projects he is perfectly capable of doing this. I think he is a man of honor and a man of his word, and it is hard to find that these days.
[Blogger: OK, here are some pieces of the rest of the story:
First, that "one person in the township who thinks that the original building should be torn down." What's the big deal about one person?
Well, when that one person is Larry Leitzow-- who said after Jason was elected that things would change in the township now because "his man" had been elected;
who engineered John Festa's election and then made sure everyone knew who was in charge of that by keeping one of John Festa's campaign signs (slightly modified, I understand) on the side of his barn for nearly the next two years;
who got 54 of Jason's 63 signatures on nominating petitions;
when Larry Leitzow--who is clearly working to get "his" third trustee into office--is that one person, does anyone need to have it spelled out about who will probably (like 99.9%) be running things if all the money being spent on signs buys another election?
Second, I have heard that "tear it down" story from five different people, each one of whom had gotten it directly from Larry. (I will say that one of those people told me that the phrase wasn't "tear it down," but that was clearly the intent.) I am not just spreading something that has been floating in the wind without sources or verification.]
[Blogger, continuing: As I keyboard this, the October 17 trustees meeting is tonight. The township hall and Steve Coon's offer will certainly be on the agenda.]
Monday, October 14, 2013
Mantua Twp. Trustees 10-3-19: Highlights & Lowlights
Bloggger Foreword: At the beginning of my campaign, a friend told me that I could not campaign and continue to put so much time into the blog. Absolutely true. The posts about the October 3 meeting will be as indicated above: what I think is important during this last short period before the election and what those parts of the meeting reveal both about issues and intentions, and about character and allegiances. And spin. Let us not forget spin.
The meeting began with the financial report, which should be available from the official minutes by Friday October 18 or shortly after. Marie asked for a reallocation from Road and Bridge to supplies. Jason so moved. Passed.
Jason asked about the carryover. Marie thought it would be pretty close to last year's and that the revenues would be close to breaking even.
Jason wanted to know about the carryover for next year. Marie did not have that with her but thought that it would be close to last year: about $600,000.
Jason: There has beenb some speculation that the trustees have spend a lot of money in thelast couple of years. It is our job to spend the money wisely. We get a $600,000 carryover for next year if the figures are correct. So if you can say that is fiscally sound, I would say that is fiscal responsibility. Our job as trustees is to spend money. People pay their taxes and expect services.
Marie: I am concerned because the funds have dropped by $100,000 for each of the last two years, but this year you have been holding [the line].
Jason: In the past couple of years we spent more than we received.
Marie: It was a lot.
Jason: We would have to spend $605,000 this year in order to go into next year ____[Blogger: I need to check this.]
Jason, continuing: I wanted to make that perfectly clear.
[Blogger: Three things: First, Jason did, in spite of this set of remarks, go to Janet Esposito (Portage County Auditor) to see if there was a way to get more money, and she told him that the only way to get more was to tax to get it. She also told him that the township was spending more than it was taking in and to spend less. At that point, Jason began asking Marie for her advice in meetings, rather than telling her that it was a trustees' meeting when she would try to offer information on the financial implications and realities of a proposed action.
Second, despite Jason's statement at Candidates' Night that there had been no red flags about the township's financial status, if you go to January of this year, you will see Marie's letter to the trustees about the unsettling effect of the drop in cash balance during the past two years.
Third, at Candidates' Night, when the discussion turned to plans for the Mantua Center school building, suddenly money was tight and a bond issue was probably going to be necessary to do the renovations. How can money be plentiful and then suddenly, only a few minutes later, be tight?
Item #3 above is as I remember the evening. I am sure that since it is not verbatim, it will be attacked elsewhere. Tough. At the outset, all was rosy and we were in great shape with a "rainy day" fund of $600,000. A bit later, without a prepared statement, but speaking on the spot about the school building, still a political issue and still under threat of destruction , suddenly money is tight.]
[Blogger: Since the finances are so crucial, I will make a separate post in the near future dedicated to how they work and what is at stake here. Trying to insert that information into the post for a meeting gets too knotty.]
Zoning Inspector, John Dickey: [Blogger: This will be a once-over.] Essentially, John Dickey is bothered with how long it takes between notifying a person of a problem with zoning and getting action. He wants it cut to 30 days.
Also, there is clear indication that a maintenance resolution is going to come up, requiring residents to maintain the appearance of their properties to some kind of standard according to someone else's idea of acceptability.
[Blogger: I am aware that my place has been criticized because I let everything in the yard grow as it will. So there was, first, a bloom of a beautiful native grass called red top, which puts a haze of soft burgundy about 2-1/2 feet off the ground and is especially visible in the morning with the sun behind it. Then the Queen Anne's Lace came on, followed by golden rod, wild asters, and ironweed.. Little or none of that is visible unless someone drives in, looks, and then goes off to make nasty remarks. I call that trespassing. Is this what we want--to be governed by snoops? Now, having said that, I also have to say that what grew up in my yard this year ended up being a bit much even for me. I think a beautiful wild garden/yard may be more work than cultivated beds.
I have had a choice of how to spend my time, these past couple of years. One choice would have kept me at work in the yard. The other choice is what produced the blog and prompted me to run for trustee. I decided that the township needed me more than a yard screened by an impenetrable hedge and invisible from the road needed to be mowed and groomed to suit someone else.]
Roads: There is ditching to do on Pioneer Trail, which seems to be the only culvert/ditch work that will be completed this year. The list will be reviewed and people will get letters notifying them of the decision, which seems to me from past meetings to be an explanation that the work will not be done this year. [Blogger: This little section is not intended as a criticism; it is what I remember from the meetings.]
Frank Horack reported on the Veterans' Memorial.
Trustees Reports
Jason reported on the mini excavator. The jist of it is that by selling/trading in the road grader and taking advantage [I believe] of state bid discounts the machine would cost $41,912.43, to be paid for with a $10,000 down payment at an interest rate of 4.8% for a 3-year lease/purchase arrangement. Monthly payments would be $954.15.
Vic pointed out that there will be additional costs for chains and binders, a minimum of 4 of each. He also did not think that the amount offered for the grader was enough and is not in favor of that decision. A used but well maintained mini excavator had been offered to the township for $20,000, including a trailer.
Continuing: The grader is not costing us anything. It can grade and berm and has been used for snow removal.
Vic thought we should wait until next year and put some money away. He questioned how much it would be used any more this year, and we will have a brand new trailer sitting outside. When it was new the grader cost over $150,000.
John Festa: But we are not using it.
Vic: Is it because nobody knows how to use it?
[There was more discussion about this, with one objection being that berming with the grader required putting the excavated dirt in the ditch or in the middle of the road. The talk has been that the township will hire the county to do this. Anyone who lives on Sheldon Road north of SR 82 had a chance to see this operation at work: a grader, fancy that; a conveyor; and at least one truck--with a total crew of three, as I understand it. All I know about the cost of that is that the three workers from the county will cost $95.00/hr. I have no idea what the equpment rental would be.]
OK. Some things will be skipped: Insurance, the telephones and computer hookups at the school building.
This is a logical place to end this post; the next piece of business concerns the township hall and will make a unit of its own.
The meeting began with the financial report, which should be available from the official minutes by Friday October 18 or shortly after. Marie asked for a reallocation from Road and Bridge to supplies. Jason so moved. Passed.
Jason asked about the carryover. Marie thought it would be pretty close to last year's and that the revenues would be close to breaking even.
Jason wanted to know about the carryover for next year. Marie did not have that with her but thought that it would be close to last year: about $600,000.
Jason: There has beenb some speculation that the trustees have spend a lot of money in thelast couple of years. It is our job to spend the money wisely. We get a $600,000 carryover for next year if the figures are correct. So if you can say that is fiscally sound, I would say that is fiscal responsibility. Our job as trustees is to spend money. People pay their taxes and expect services.
Marie: I am concerned because the funds have dropped by $100,000 for each of the last two years, but this year you have been holding [the line].
Jason: In the past couple of years we spent more than we received.
Marie: It was a lot.
Jason: We would have to spend $605,000 this year in order to go into next year ____[Blogger: I need to check this.]
Jason, continuing: I wanted to make that perfectly clear.
[Blogger: Three things: First, Jason did, in spite of this set of remarks, go to Janet Esposito (Portage County Auditor) to see if there was a way to get more money, and she told him that the only way to get more was to tax to get it. She also told him that the township was spending more than it was taking in and to spend less. At that point, Jason began asking Marie for her advice in meetings, rather than telling her that it was a trustees' meeting when she would try to offer information on the financial implications and realities of a proposed action.
Second, despite Jason's statement at Candidates' Night that there had been no red flags about the township's financial status, if you go to January of this year, you will see Marie's letter to the trustees about the unsettling effect of the drop in cash balance during the past two years.
Third, at Candidates' Night, when the discussion turned to plans for the Mantua Center school building, suddenly money was tight and a bond issue was probably going to be necessary to do the renovations. How can money be plentiful and then suddenly, only a few minutes later, be tight?
Item #3 above is as I remember the evening. I am sure that since it is not verbatim, it will be attacked elsewhere. Tough. At the outset, all was rosy and we were in great shape with a "rainy day" fund of $600,000. A bit later, without a prepared statement, but speaking on the spot about the school building, still a political issue and still under threat of destruction , suddenly money is tight.]
[Blogger: Since the finances are so crucial, I will make a separate post in the near future dedicated to how they work and what is at stake here. Trying to insert that information into the post for a meeting gets too knotty.]
Zoning Inspector, John Dickey: [Blogger: This will be a once-over.] Essentially, John Dickey is bothered with how long it takes between notifying a person of a problem with zoning and getting action. He wants it cut to 30 days.
Also, there is clear indication that a maintenance resolution is going to come up, requiring residents to maintain the appearance of their properties to some kind of standard according to someone else's idea of acceptability.
[Blogger: I am aware that my place has been criticized because I let everything in the yard grow as it will. So there was, first, a bloom of a beautiful native grass called red top, which puts a haze of soft burgundy about 2-1/2 feet off the ground and is especially visible in the morning with the sun behind it. Then the Queen Anne's Lace came on, followed by golden rod, wild asters, and ironweed.. Little or none of that is visible unless someone drives in, looks, and then goes off to make nasty remarks. I call that trespassing. Is this what we want--to be governed by snoops? Now, having said that, I also have to say that what grew up in my yard this year ended up being a bit much even for me. I think a beautiful wild garden/yard may be more work than cultivated beds.
I have had a choice of how to spend my time, these past couple of years. One choice would have kept me at work in the yard. The other choice is what produced the blog and prompted me to run for trustee. I decided that the township needed me more than a yard screened by an impenetrable hedge and invisible from the road needed to be mowed and groomed to suit someone else.]
Roads: There is ditching to do on Pioneer Trail, which seems to be the only culvert/ditch work that will be completed this year. The list will be reviewed and people will get letters notifying them of the decision, which seems to me from past meetings to be an explanation that the work will not be done this year. [Blogger: This little section is not intended as a criticism; it is what I remember from the meetings.]
Frank Horack reported on the Veterans' Memorial.
Trustees Reports
Jason reported on the mini excavator. The jist of it is that by selling/trading in the road grader and taking advantage [I believe] of state bid discounts the machine would cost $41,912.43, to be paid for with a $10,000 down payment at an interest rate of 4.8% for a 3-year lease/purchase arrangement. Monthly payments would be $954.15.
Vic pointed out that there will be additional costs for chains and binders, a minimum of 4 of each. He also did not think that the amount offered for the grader was enough and is not in favor of that decision. A used but well maintained mini excavator had been offered to the township for $20,000, including a trailer.
Continuing: The grader is not costing us anything. It can grade and berm and has been used for snow removal.
Vic thought we should wait until next year and put some money away. He questioned how much it would be used any more this year, and we will have a brand new trailer sitting outside. When it was new the grader cost over $150,000.
John Festa: But we are not using it.
Vic: Is it because nobody knows how to use it?
[There was more discussion about this, with one objection being that berming with the grader required putting the excavated dirt in the ditch or in the middle of the road. The talk has been that the township will hire the county to do this. Anyone who lives on Sheldon Road north of SR 82 had a chance to see this operation at work: a grader, fancy that; a conveyor; and at least one truck--with a total crew of three, as I understand it. All I know about the cost of that is that the three workers from the county will cost $95.00/hr. I have no idea what the equpment rental would be.]
OK. Some things will be skipped: Insurance, the telephones and computer hookups at the school building.
This is a logical place to end this post; the next piece of business concerns the township hall and will make a unit of its own.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Connecting dots, following strings
A couple of earlier posts (much earlier) have been based on public records and their value in giving us important information that can too easily be obscured by spin and charm or just by the fact that we have to go looking a little for the information.
This post may be startling if you have not done any public records checking. But it is just as available to every reader as it is to me.
How do we know who to vote for? Everyone running can be engaging and appealing to someone in the voting population. If every candidate in every race, not just the township, were as good as each looks, wouldn't we be blessed?
Looking behind the front can be an eye-opener. Here is what can be learned from looking at the nominating petitions for the five candidates for Mantua Township Trustee.
Oh. Nominating petitions. Every candidate has to get a specified number of valid signatures from registered voters. The Board of Elections supplies the forms, each of which can contain 18 signatures. The person who carries the petitions and gets the signatures is called a circulator and signs his or her name.
Lots of interesting things show up: who circulates the petitions, how many signatures each circulator gets, and who signs, which reveals connections and allegiances. No wonder detective fiction is popular.
Here are the Mantua Township candidates, their circulators, and the number of signatures for each circulator.
Jason Carlton: 63 signatures. Circulator: Larry Leitzow, 3 forms and 54 signatures. Circulator: Jason Carlton, 1 form and 9 signatures. If any of us had any doubts about where Jason's allegiance is, they have been erased now.
Victor Grimm: 62 signatures. Circulator: Victor Grimm, 26 signatures. Circulator: Susan Skrovan, 36 signatures. Spread over the township.
Matt Parsons: 48 signatures. Circulator: Matt Parsons. Many signatures from Wayne Road, where Matt lives. A great many not from Wayne Road are the same signers as on Jason's petitions circulated by Larry Leitzow. It should come as no surprise to see signs for Matt and Jason joined at the center post.
Dawn Pechman: 31 signatures. Circulator: Dawn Pechman. Twelve signatures from Robin Park, where
Dawn lives. The rest mostly (but not all) from Winchell and Chamberlain Roads.
Dawn also has 46 entries on the Portage County website under CourtView. Ten of them list her as a debtor.
Carole Pollard: 45 signatures. Circulator: Carole Pollard. Signatures are spread across the township, with almost none of "the usual suspects." Talking to those people was the start of my campaign, and I have moved on from there. Some time ago I checked my own court records. While building my house, I fired the first contractor. He and I filed lawsuits against each other, and he filed for bankruptcy I also have several speeding tickets.
This post may be startling if you have not done any public records checking. But it is just as available to every reader as it is to me.
How do we know who to vote for? Everyone running can be engaging and appealing to someone in the voting population. If every candidate in every race, not just the township, were as good as each looks, wouldn't we be blessed?
Looking behind the front can be an eye-opener. Here is what can be learned from looking at the nominating petitions for the five candidates for Mantua Township Trustee.
Oh. Nominating petitions. Every candidate has to get a specified number of valid signatures from registered voters. The Board of Elections supplies the forms, each of which can contain 18 signatures. The person who carries the petitions and gets the signatures is called a circulator and signs his or her name.
Lots of interesting things show up: who circulates the petitions, how many signatures each circulator gets, and who signs, which reveals connections and allegiances. No wonder detective fiction is popular.
Here are the Mantua Township candidates, their circulators, and the number of signatures for each circulator.
Jason Carlton: 63 signatures. Circulator: Larry Leitzow, 3 forms and 54 signatures. Circulator: Jason Carlton, 1 form and 9 signatures. If any of us had any doubts about where Jason's allegiance is, they have been erased now.
Victor Grimm: 62 signatures. Circulator: Victor Grimm, 26 signatures. Circulator: Susan Skrovan, 36 signatures. Spread over the township.
Matt Parsons: 48 signatures. Circulator: Matt Parsons. Many signatures from Wayne Road, where Matt lives. A great many not from Wayne Road are the same signers as on Jason's petitions circulated by Larry Leitzow. It should come as no surprise to see signs for Matt and Jason joined at the center post.
Dawn Pechman: 31 signatures. Circulator: Dawn Pechman. Twelve signatures from Robin Park, where
Dawn lives. The rest mostly (but not all) from Winchell and Chamberlain Roads.
Dawn also has 46 entries on the Portage County website under CourtView. Ten of them list her as a debtor.
Carole Pollard: 45 signatures. Circulator: Carole Pollard. Signatures are spread across the township, with almost none of "the usual suspects." Talking to those people was the start of my campaign, and I have moved on from there. Some time ago I checked my own court records. While building my house, I fired the first contractor. He and I filed lawsuits against each other, and he filed for bankruptcy I also have several speeding tickets.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Candidates' Night--Summary
[Blogger: As a participant in the :League of Women Voters Candidates' Night, I did not do my usual shorthand note taking. However, since it was only last night, it is fresh enough to summarize and to comment on in researched information.
[I will say this right out of the starting gate: If the people of Mantua Township do not re-elect Victor Grimm, then the township deserves every piece of damage that I believe will occur as a result of throwing away the knowledge base Vic has in his amazing memory. The loss of knowledge, however, would not be as damaging as the loss of his independence and integrity--a word that gets thrown around a lot at times like these, but which actually means something, as anyone should be able to have seen last night. Vic and I are running on our own and financing our own campaigns. NO ONE OWNS US. NO ONE EVER HAS.]
The candidates for Mantua Township Trustee were all present: Jason Carlton, Victor Grimm, Matt Parsons, Dawn Pechman, and Carole Pollard.
We introduced ourselves and then questions from the audience were asked of the whole group so that there was a comparison of views and positions.
I will take care of one of the candidates right now: Within perhaps two questions, Dawn had run out of substance and reverted to her usual complaints about not being able to get public records. She replayed that "tape" for each question. Since she has never been refused, and since she has gotten somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 copies, some of them three times, her dissatisfaction is without merit. She also thought that I had gotten records she had not, referring simply to "another candidate." You have to know what questions to ask. The person meeting the request does not have to read anyone's mind.
The budget was presented in glowing terms, with Jason claiming that he was not aware of red flags, despite such allegations having been made. (That was an allusion to my assertions in my campaign materials.) Marie wrote the trustees a letter (posted in the blog) earlier in the year warning about the ominous trend of the spending, and in mid summer Jason went to Janet Esposito's office to see about how to get more money. When I talked to Janet on Monday morning (10-7), she said that the only way to get more money is to have more taxes, and she had told Jason that, I believe.
The cash reserve of $600,000 was referred to as a carryover, which is in accounting terms not quite accurate. The General Fund carryover established in the mid-July budget workshop which set the 2014 budget is only $17,000 plus a little--about 1/3 of the $50,000 that the fiscal officer prefers. I pointed that out, and Vic confirmed it. Vic also said that $600,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it can disappear very quickly in a township, and the amount for employee salaries has to be kept aside. In our township, salaries and benefits amount to over $154,000 per year.
Insurance got mentioned, and Jason's 10% give-back, documented recently in a blog post, was praised by Matt Parsons, who dances quite nicely with Jason. Vic said that he was now paying his own vision and dental insurance, a total that equals what Jason is contributing. As for me, I said that the insurance had always been an issue; that the insurance package the township has, which is generous, makes up for the lower salaries than are paid in the private sector, and that I am looking forward to learning more about it all at the special meeting tomorrow (10-10) with our agent/representative.
Matt, I believe, extolled the virtues of the mini-excavator which the township is going to purchase and praised the road crew.
A question was asked about the school--its use and whether the township should own it. Everyone said that the township should own it. Matt remarked on how "eeriely similar" it looked to when he had gone there, and Jason said that we needed a plan. I do not remember what Vic said about it, other than that we should keep it. He has been working in it, but since he is the only hands-on trustee we have left, and the Township Hall project has fallen onto his shoulders since John Festa deserted it in a snit after Vic told him that opening up the cupola during the winter/bad weather was a bad idea, progress on the school is slow. Progress on the Township Hall has been pretty much brought to a halt due to John Festa and Jason acting as if Steve Coon is a charlatan, rather than someone who has offered the township a double win by offering to paint the Township Hall in exchange for that money to be used on the school.
[Interestingly enough, if it had not been for that question, an attendee might have thought that the Township owns no buildings. Neither the Township Hall nor the school building was mentioned by Matt or Jason when it would have been pertinent to do so. But everyone knows, having been told twice, that we have 37 centerline miles of roads and they have been chip and sealed. It was also interesting that nothing was said about the Veterans' Memorial, except for a very oblique reference by Matt about "remembering those who have gone before."
I said several things about the school question. The township needs to own it; if it looks the same as it did years ago, it's because no one has worked on it, since buildings can't grow or evolve [like living things can]; we had heard campaign promises about this four years ago but that offers from volunteers to do work have been stonewalled; plans have to be developed--they don't just fall out of the sky.
Jason touted the focus groups, which I referred to in my opening remarks as unnecessary.
The question we all blew (or dodged) was what to do to have a more harmonious board. I led off on that, and what preoccupied me was the toxic atmosphere in meetings, which is generated by the "gallery" that is usually in the back of the room With that in mind, I said, "Beats me." And elaborated somewhat on the unpleasant atmosphere, the fact that good people are being abused, and that being there is no fun. Basically everyone else said pretty much the same thing.
HERE IS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: ELECT PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT BEING CONTROLLED BY ONE PERSON TO CARRY OUT HIS OWN AGENDA COMPLETELY IMMUNE TO ACCOUNTABILITY BECAUSE HE HIMSELF IS NOT ELECTED.
Clearly, Vic is one such independent person, and his opening remarks stated clearly that a trustee should come to the job with an open mind to serve everyone in the township, not to carry out special interests or a personal agenda.
As for me, the last thing in my opening statement was this: "The most important thing you should know about me is that I have no politically motivated favors to pay off."
The next two posts will present facts and the rest of the story (background and perspective) on some of the points made and will also support my statements about independence or being bossed by someone else.
[I will say this right out of the starting gate: If the people of Mantua Township do not re-elect Victor Grimm, then the township deserves every piece of damage that I believe will occur as a result of throwing away the knowledge base Vic has in his amazing memory. The loss of knowledge, however, would not be as damaging as the loss of his independence and integrity--a word that gets thrown around a lot at times like these, but which actually means something, as anyone should be able to have seen last night. Vic and I are running on our own and financing our own campaigns. NO ONE OWNS US. NO ONE EVER HAS.]
The candidates for Mantua Township Trustee were all present: Jason Carlton, Victor Grimm, Matt Parsons, Dawn Pechman, and Carole Pollard.
We introduced ourselves and then questions from the audience were asked of the whole group so that there was a comparison of views and positions.
I will take care of one of the candidates right now: Within perhaps two questions, Dawn had run out of substance and reverted to her usual complaints about not being able to get public records. She replayed that "tape" for each question. Since she has never been refused, and since she has gotten somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 copies, some of them three times, her dissatisfaction is without merit. She also thought that I had gotten records she had not, referring simply to "another candidate." You have to know what questions to ask. The person meeting the request does not have to read anyone's mind.
The budget was presented in glowing terms, with Jason claiming that he was not aware of red flags, despite such allegations having been made. (That was an allusion to my assertions in my campaign materials.) Marie wrote the trustees a letter (posted in the blog) earlier in the year warning about the ominous trend of the spending, and in mid summer Jason went to Janet Esposito's office to see about how to get more money. When I talked to Janet on Monday morning (10-7), she said that the only way to get more money is to have more taxes, and she had told Jason that, I believe.
The cash reserve of $600,000 was referred to as a carryover, which is in accounting terms not quite accurate. The General Fund carryover established in the mid-July budget workshop which set the 2014 budget is only $17,000 plus a little--about 1/3 of the $50,000 that the fiscal officer prefers. I pointed that out, and Vic confirmed it. Vic also said that $600,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it can disappear very quickly in a township, and the amount for employee salaries has to be kept aside. In our township, salaries and benefits amount to over $154,000 per year.
Insurance got mentioned, and Jason's 10% give-back, documented recently in a blog post, was praised by Matt Parsons, who dances quite nicely with Jason. Vic said that he was now paying his own vision and dental insurance, a total that equals what Jason is contributing. As for me, I said that the insurance had always been an issue; that the insurance package the township has, which is generous, makes up for the lower salaries than are paid in the private sector, and that I am looking forward to learning more about it all at the special meeting tomorrow (10-10) with our agent/representative.
Matt, I believe, extolled the virtues of the mini-excavator which the township is going to purchase and praised the road crew.
A question was asked about the school--its use and whether the township should own it. Everyone said that the township should own it. Matt remarked on how "eeriely similar" it looked to when he had gone there, and Jason said that we needed a plan. I do not remember what Vic said about it, other than that we should keep it. He has been working in it, but since he is the only hands-on trustee we have left, and the Township Hall project has fallen onto his shoulders since John Festa deserted it in a snit after Vic told him that opening up the cupola during the winter/bad weather was a bad idea, progress on the school is slow. Progress on the Township Hall has been pretty much brought to a halt due to John Festa and Jason acting as if Steve Coon is a charlatan, rather than someone who has offered the township a double win by offering to paint the Township Hall in exchange for that money to be used on the school.
[Interestingly enough, if it had not been for that question, an attendee might have thought that the Township owns no buildings. Neither the Township Hall nor the school building was mentioned by Matt or Jason when it would have been pertinent to do so. But everyone knows, having been told twice, that we have 37 centerline miles of roads and they have been chip and sealed. It was also interesting that nothing was said about the Veterans' Memorial, except for a very oblique reference by Matt about "remembering those who have gone before."
I said several things about the school question. The township needs to own it; if it looks the same as it did years ago, it's because no one has worked on it, since buildings can't grow or evolve [like living things can]; we had heard campaign promises about this four years ago but that offers from volunteers to do work have been stonewalled; plans have to be developed--they don't just fall out of the sky.
Jason touted the focus groups, which I referred to in my opening remarks as unnecessary.
The question we all blew (or dodged) was what to do to have a more harmonious board. I led off on that, and what preoccupied me was the toxic atmosphere in meetings, which is generated by the "gallery" that is usually in the back of the room With that in mind, I said, "Beats me." And elaborated somewhat on the unpleasant atmosphere, the fact that good people are being abused, and that being there is no fun. Basically everyone else said pretty much the same thing.
HERE IS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: ELECT PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT BEING CONTROLLED BY ONE PERSON TO CARRY OUT HIS OWN AGENDA COMPLETELY IMMUNE TO ACCOUNTABILITY BECAUSE HE HIMSELF IS NOT ELECTED.
Clearly, Vic is one such independent person, and his opening remarks stated clearly that a trustee should come to the job with an open mind to serve everyone in the township, not to carry out special interests or a personal agenda.
As for me, the last thing in my opening statement was this: "The most important thing you should know about me is that I have no politically motivated favors to pay off."
The next two posts will present facts and the rest of the story (background and perspective) on some of the points made and will also support my statements about independence or being bossed by someone else.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Candidates' Night 10-8
Mark your calendars:
League of Women Voters' Candidates Night is at the Crestwood High School Cafeteria at 7:00 p.m.
Word has it that it will be a big meeting.
I have been to a couple, and they are fascinating--worth the time.
League of Women Voters' Candidates Night is at the Crestwood High School Cafeteria at 7:00 p.m.
Word has it that it will be a big meeting.
I have been to a couple, and they are fascinating--worth the time.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Community Events--A Small Calendar
October 15: Flu shots at the Civic Center, 4-6p.m.
October 31: Trick or Treat. Coincides with the Village.
Every Saturday and Sunday in October: The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., has a donation-style food tent at Derthicks' Corn Maze.
Novermber 3: The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., Harvest Dinner at the Mantua Center School building. The ticket will be drawn to win Ellie Monroe's quilt depicting the school building. There will be, I believe, a silent auction and other activities.
Check mantuarestorationsociety.org for more information.
The first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in December: Country Fair Craft Show by Rotary of Mantua. Your blogger will try to remember to post details. This event is in conjunction with the Rotary Club's Christmas Walk.
October 31: Trick or Treat. Coincides with the Village.
Every Saturday and Sunday in October: The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., has a donation-style food tent at Derthicks' Corn Maze.
Novermber 3: The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., Harvest Dinner at the Mantua Center School building. The ticket will be drawn to win Ellie Monroe's quilt depicting the school building. There will be, I believe, a silent auction and other activities.
Check mantuarestorationsociety.org for more information.
The first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in December: Country Fair Craft Show by Rotary of Mantua. Your blogger will try to remember to post details. This event is in conjunction with the Rotary Club's Christmas Walk.
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