VIEWPOINTS
June 15, 2011
EDITORIALS
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LETTERS
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COLUMNS
Editor Theresa Herron | therron@communitypress.com | 248-7128
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CH@TROOM
Community Journal
Your Community Press newspaper serving Bethel, Chilo, Felicity, Franklin Township, Moscow, Neville, Tate Township, Washington Township E m a i l : c l e r m o n t @ c o m m u n i t y p r e s s . c o mm
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JOURNAL
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Thank you, Chief Smith
James T. Smith has served as the police chief of Pierce Township for 10 years and brought the department to a new level of professionalism and created a group of well-respected law enforcement officers. Chief Smith made it a practice for himself and the officers to wave to the residents while patrolling the streets of the township and promoting a good working relationship with the community. Chief Smith obtained numerous grants to supplement the operating budget and create new programs for the department and its officers. As a result of his efforts, Pierce Township Police Department received two fully-equipped police cruisers. A few years ago, Pierce Township residents approved a tax levy
to fund the operations of the police department through the year 2015. Chief Smith has worked diligently to operate the department within the budgetary constraints and provide an adequate level of staffing, police personnel, to protect the residents of Pierce Township. In closing, Chief Smith, the residents of Pierce Township will be forever indebted to you for your service and dedication. Thank you. Dennis M. Luken Pierce Township
There are many to whom I owe a special thanks, i.e., officers, volunteers and members of WAA, the Mayor - Mary Ann Lefker - Superintendent Jeff Weir, the Class of 1964 and all of the dear students the parents intrusted to me. I didn’t do anything special as “Walk on the Moon” (I wanted to walk in outer space), but I hope that the teachers and I created the educational tools to reach their goals and dreams. Thank you for honoring me. Elsie Minnick Marathon
Thanks for the honor
Be truthful, honest
I wish to express my sincere thanks and gratitude for the very humbling, but beautiful experience of being the person of honor June 4, 2011, by the Williamsburg Alumni Association.
I think it was ironic that Pierce Township Trustee Chris Knoop was one of the trustees that conducted the discipline procedures of the police chief and the township lawyer. Talk about ethics, it has
been brought up before that he has not resided in the township the past couple of years and is not entitled to even hold the job of trustee. I assume he thinks that he is above the law. Come on Mr. Knoop, it’s time for you to be truthful and honest with the residents. Tom Martin Pierce Township
Exactly what was cut?
West Clermont board of education cuts 50 (June 1, 2011). When will the board of education realize that we (those who vote) want to know exactly what is being cut and what is being done to prudently manage the budget. Exactly – not phrases such as “cuts 50.” And totally agree with volunteer/parent, Jeff Kohls. “This levy
failed for a reason: There’s no trust in the school board.” The public wants and requires better communication and full disclosure to “cuts” … administrative vs. teaching positions for a start. Jackie Renner Union Township
Boycott Batavia
As a member of the UC Clermont College faculty, I will do all that I can to encourage all faculty, staff and students to boycott all Batavia businesses if the annexation occurs. This is nothing but a money grab. Michael R. Preston DMD Assistant Professor of Biology Academic Coordinator, Biology UC Clermont College Batavia
Batavia’s plan: Effective, fair for the village’s future In 1814, George Ely laid out the village of Batavia and Samuel Gilbreath opened the first store. In three years, Batavia will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the establishment of our village. We are working today to make the residents of Batavia and all of Clermont County proud of our village and make it a first-class county seat by the time the anniversary comes around. Smaller communities and business districts have been under pressure throughout Ohio and America for about two generations. The suburban boom after World War II, together with the development of good cars and highways, contributed to American prosperity. But those develop-
ments disrupted the older communities. Local hubs such as Batavia have had to find new roles. Regional shopping complexes now comJohn mand the retail Thebout business, and business Community older districts are Press guest plagued by columnist v a c a n c i e s . Batavia’s downtown area shows the loss. Magnifying the problem is another reality. Circumstances have choked off Batavia’s ability to renew itself. The county seat
was once between two and three percent of the county’s population. Batavia was home to all the important offices of county government. Today Batavia is the smallest county seat in Ohio, as a percentage of population. In raw numbers, Batavia is 87th of 88. The 2010 census puts us at less than one percent of the Clermont County population, with 1,509 people in a county of 197,363. The one smaller county seat is in Fayette County, population 29,030. Clermont County has two townships larger than that. While Batavia has been locked into its borders, the county offices have been moving to the unincorporated part of Batavia Township on
the village line. The Probate Court moved out in March. The Economic Development Office moved April 15. These moves and others have starved the village for revenue, and state funds have declined. Batavia is operating on too small a scale to keep up the public places, and we have nowhere to turn for additional funds. But every problem is an opportunity. We need substantial investment to bring roads, sidewalks and public places up to standards. We need major improvements to help the existing community and make Batavia a better place to invest. That all takes money. The county offices are off the property tax rolls. To make the kind of investment we need, put-
Pierce Twp. needs some spring cleaning After reading the article on-line about Chief Smith, Pierce Township police chief, I am beginning to wonder if Pierce Township needs to do some late spring cleaning. I was among the citizens who attended the special meeting of the trustees Friday, June 2, and we waited several hours for the trustees to come out of executive session. Most present seemed to have some knowledge about what the trustees were talking about. The Chief was going to “retire” but the question was, “Why?” It seemed to happen suddenly and at least one person was there to congratulate the chief on his retirement. Of course, when someone in
OFFICIALS DIRECTORY Ohio House of Representatives
Ohio Rep. Joe Uecker (R-66th District) may be reached for questions or concerns at his Columbus office at 614-466-8134, 513-532-0912 via e-mail at Joe@JoeUecker.com. Ohio Rep. Danny Bubp (R-88th District) may be reached for questions or concerns at his Columbus office at 614-466-8134 or via e-mail at district866@ohr.state.oh.us.
Ohio Senate
Ohio Sen. Tom Niehaus may be reached at 614-466-8082, e-mail tniehaus@ mailr.sen.state.oh.us, or write Ohio Senate, Room 38, Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Include your home telephone number and address.
this position legitimately retires, there are announcements well ahead of time and congratulations and parties to honor the person are Gloria White typical. At this point, Community Press guest this won’t hapand it is columnist pen very sad indeed that one needs to end what appears to have been a successful career on such a sad note. Chief Smith and Ms. Fran Kelly, law director for Pierce Township, were apparently caught in a ques-
tionable situation, on a holiday in the chief’s office. There were witnesses to what happened but both Ms. Kelly and Chief Smith have denied that there was anything other than “smooching” and comforting hugs. It is hard for us to understand how they see that what they have done is harmless in any way. All too often we see people who are in power have the attitude that it is OK to step across the line and get away with it. This is, indeed, arrogance to the highest degree. So what does it matter what the general public thinks as far as they are concerned? What difference does it make to the dignity of the office that one holds and what
kind of example does this set for fellow police officers or those who work in our township government? What is the level of trust and respect that one should expect when an impropriety such as this occurs? As far as this citizen is concerned, both Chief Smith and Ms. Kelly should resign immediately and take their leave. Yes, I do feel sorry for them as I would for anyone else as this is indeed a difficult matter for them and for their families and friends, but what has happened needs to be acknowledged immediately so that Pierce Township can move forward and put this mess behind. Gloria J. White is a resident of Pierce Township.
ting the burden on the remaining taxpayers, we would need a property tax of about 40 mills for 10 years - or 80 mills for five years. That’s silly to think about. Batavia needs to annex state and county facilities that have located on its borders. The village’s 1-percent levy on wage incomes will go a long way towards solving the problems of being Ohio’s tiniest county seat. Is it fair? Yes. State and county employees have as much responsibility as anyone to pay for the upkeep of county infrastructure. Nobody likes to pay more taxes, but somebody must pay the cost. John Thebout is the mayor of the village of Batavia.
About letters & columns
We welcome your comments on editorials, columns, stories or other topics. Include your name, address, cell and home phone numbers so we may verify your letter or guest column. Letters may be no more than 200 words and columns must be 400 to 500 words. Please include a color headshot with guest columns. All submissions will be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. Deadline is noon Friday. E-mail: clermont@communitypress.com. Fax: 248-1938. U.S. mail: The Community Journal, 394 Wards Corner Road, Suite 170, Loveland, Ohio 45140. Letters, columns and articles submitted to The Community Journal may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
Ohio should reduce local government The article on dissolving Amelia Police should really start a larger discussion. Rather than just dissolve the police force, dissolve the whole village. There are over 3,700 “local entities” in Ohio, some with as few as 30 people. Moscow for example has only 224. Since each entity gets “revenue” by way of taxes, there at a minimum is someone getting paid to oversee the spending. Of course there is some sort of government, police and fire services that would also have a “chief.” All of this costs money. Amelia is just a great example. Part of it is in Batavia and the piece on the south side of Ohio Pike is totally surrounded by
Pierce Township, the residents are already residents of Pierce and can vote in our elections. If you made the village go away, they are already part Stan of this existing Shadwell structure. To that Community suggest they contract out Press guest police services to columnist Clermont County, when in fact the Pierce police have to physically drive through Amelia to get to part of their jurisdiction is ludicrous. I guess the mayor does not
want to acknowledge the fact that his little fiefdom is really part of a larger entity. He also did not deign to mention that during the acrimonious discussion over dissolution of the village in May 2009, one of his key points against dissolution was; “as a village we have our own police force where the officer may be your neighbor and certainly knows you by name, if we folded into a neighboring township we would lose this.” My how times have changed, he now wants to eliminate the very same police force and even says the future of the village may be in doubt. What a waste of time energy and cash resources the last two years have been, we could
have saved the cost of the police chief, the administration and god forbid the mayor’s salary. Take this example and repeat it across the whole of the county and the state and think about what we could save. Instead of fighting over casino taxes or SB 5, why doesn’t the state government propose reducing the number of legal entities in the state, lets set some arbitrary minimum level of people 10, 15, 20 thousand, but just have a plan. Ah! But this would reduce the ladders by which the very same people in the state government have climbed to their positions and help erode their power base. Stan Shadwell is a resident of Pierce Township.
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Community Journal Editor . .Theresa L. Herron therron@communitypress.com . . . . . . . .248-7128 Office hours: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday | See page A2 for additional contact information.
248-8600 | 394 Wards Corner Road, Loveland, Ohio 45140 | e-mail clermont@communitypress.com | Web site: www.communitypress.com