[Foreword: To the rue of everyone who publishes anything, nobody reads everything. Since the Thursday, February 13, article in the Record Courier has affected the survey that Todd Peetz has conducted at the request of the trustees, and since you may not have read it, here it is in its entirety except for the photograph. It is put here with the permission of the newspaper.]
Mantua surveyed on school's uses.
Online questionnaire asks what should be done with building on National Register of Historic Places
By Diane Smith, Staff Writer
To get opinions on its old school, Mantua Township is going decidedly "new school."
The Portage County Regional Planning Commission has asked the community to fill out an online survey to determine what ought to become of the landmark Mantua Center School.
The century-old building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Todd Peetz, director of the Portage County Regional Planning Commission, said the commission was asked by township trustees to facilitate the discussion, and is doing so at no cost to the township, using the township's technical assistance hours.
The survey, at Surveymonkey.com, asks respondents to rank from one to five various proposed uses, such as township or sheriff's offices, a community center, to house a non-profit, general office space, a business incubator, day care center, a place for classes, retail, museums, or a hall for special events.
It also asks them to specify other uses, what other uses would help the Mantua-Shalersville area, and if they know of people or businesses looking for space.
Replies will be accepted through Tuesday. [Blogger: That was February 18.]
The township purchased the building from the Crestwood Local School District a decade ago, when the school district opened its new primary and intermediate schools. The lease purchase agreement will be paid off this year, Peetz said.
The building consists of nine rooms, including seven classrooms. Other than offices for the township's fiscal officer and zoning inspector, a long-term use hasn't been determined, and the size of some rooms makes the building difficult to rent. *
The future of the old township school, located north of S.R. 82 on Mantua Center Road, has been a major community topic for several years. Some in the community want to see the building used for a variety of purposes. Others believe the township has already spent too much money on the old school house.
The Regional Planning Commission sponsored meetings on the school in October and January [Blogger: Reported in The Weekly Villager and, I believe, The Community Journal] , and a third meeting** is tentatively set for Feb. 20 to go over the results of the survey and discuss recommendations.
"Most people said they want to see it saved," Peetz said. "They don't want to see it torn down. There's a lot of sentimental value. A lot of people say they want it to be used as a community center, for youth or seniors."
However, Peetz said he has suggested income producing uses, such as a flea market or consignment shop, to help the township pay for maintenance.
Peetz said there are issues with wheelchair access, prompting talk about an elevator. The building may need to tap into the sewer system, and the heating system is 25 years old, with no air conditioning.
"There are a lot of things that need to be done," he said. "The challenge is how do you do it without it becoming a money pit?"
The survey is at www.surveymonkey.com/s/KYJHHVJ.
[Diane Smith's contact information is given at the end of the article.]
Blogger: OK, let's start at the end and work back through several things.
First, Todd Peetz did not give Ms Smith the link to the survey, which was intended for the Chamber of Commerce in order to get input from business and community leaders and possibly realtors. As a result of the link being published, the survey became invalid as an inventory of the views of a targeted group. The effort Todd put into that section of the survey was therefore wasted.
Second, Todd did not remember saying anything about the school being a money pit. [However, that term has been used liberally in the hostile comments about the building in a number of township meetings and elsewhere. And its position as the last statement about the discussion with Todd ends the article on a very negative note.] Todd also felt that the overall tone of the article gave the impression that he was more negative about the school building than he is, since he said that he tries to be value neutral in his approach to issues.
It should be clear from the above two paragraphs that I talked with Todd about the article. He was amazingly forthcoming about the whole thing.
Sewer system
The comment about tapping into the sewer system (which goes down S.R. 82) did not come up in our conversation, but I had investigated that to some extent when that sewer line was installed. The school has its own septic system which handled the needs of several hundred students a day for years. Vic Grimm became certified, is the operator of record for that system, has filed all necessary reports, and has kept it operating properly. His taking on that responsibility saves the township all of the fees that would be required if those services were contracted out--something like $1500/year, if I remember correctly.
There is another piece to this tapping into the sewer system, which has been brought up during public comment and was also mentioned in the study conducted in 2002 regarding renovating the school for use as a school. That is the study that came out to $1.6 million for renovation and which John Festa has referred to several times. A good many people believe that this is a ploy to convince people that the building will be too expensive.
Tapping into the system would cost at least $25,000, according to my discussion with someone at the County level, and that is without running into problems. Doing that would also require everyone on School Lane and on Center Road to the place where Wayne comes in (I believe) to tap into the sewer line. Then there would be use fees. The argument about the sewer line gets pulled in whenever the intention is to put a negative spin on the building's age.
Now for the asterisks.
*Difficult to rent: Rooms can be reconfigured and partitioned. Again, this did not come up in my conversation with Todd. He has certainly been involved in enough building projects to have seen many interior changes made to improve usability. This is another negative slant. So is the repetition of "old."
**The Feb. 20 date. That was a regularly scheduled trustees meeting, not a special community meeting, as implied in the article. This is one of several phrases that make me wonder if Ms Smith talked to someone in addition to Todd without mentioning that person.
Perspective
For anyone in close, all of this is important and meaningful, and many of us are highly skeptical about a number of things. For anyone not in close, this post may seem a bit much. However, the fullness of time will clarify many questions.
The results of Todd's work will be presented at the first trustees' meeting in March, which will not be the regular date. Because of the role the newspaper article played before February and because it was at least mentioned at that meeting, I wanted to give any blog reader who had not seen the article a chance to do so.
The next trustees' meeting, at which Todd Peetz intends to present the results of his information gathering, will be Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Township Hall unless something bumps the time.
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
