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.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)