CLERMONT
Your Community Press newspaper serving Amelia, Batavia, Batavia Township, New Richmond. Ohio Township, Pierce Township, Union Township, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Township E-mail:clermont@communitypress.com Web site: communitypress.com We d n e s d a y, D e c e m b e r
Vol. 29 No. 47 © 2009 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Neighbors Who Care
Maybe they delivered a home-cooked meal when you were under the weather, or watched your children while you ran a quick errand, or helped you with yard work. They are “Neighbors Who Care,” and we think they deserve recognition. Again this year, The Community Journal will devote one of our holiday issues to honoring those in the community who have given a bit of themselves to make the lives of others better. No deed is too small (or too large). If you know a Neighbor Who Cares, tell us about them. You can nominate by sending an e-mail to clermont@ communitypress.com, or by regular mail to The Community Journal, Neighbors Who Care, 394 Wards Corner Road, Suite 170, Loveland, OH 45140. Include your name, address and phone number, as well as their’s.
2, 2009
B E C A U S E C O M M U N I T Y M AT T E R S
Union Twp. center could be accredited
By Kellie Geist
kgeist@communitypress.com
The Union Township Police Department communication center is on track to be the second accredited center in the state. Assessors from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies visited the communication center in midNovember for the center’s first onsite review. While the Union Township Police Department is accredited, this is the first time the communication center has pursued accreditation. The Union Township Fire Department also is accredited. “Accreditation is beneficial because it makes you put policies in place and it helps prepare you for things you think are never going to happen, like the wind storm,” said Union Township
Police Department Lt. Sue Madsen. The communication center handles all 911 calls for the Union Township police and fire departments. They also answer calls from Amelia for fire service and the non-emergency calls to the police department. The communications center employs 11 full-time dispatchers and two records clerks who are trained to answer 911 calls, if necessary. Madsen worked with Sgt. Mike Mills to put together the paperwork to address all 217 CALEA standards. Some of those standards include being able to address calls for people who don’t speak English, the type of training and technology available for dispatchers and even the appearance and uniforms of employees.
During the trustees’ budget work sessions in early summer, Police Chief Terry Zinser proposed not pursuing accreditation as a way to save money. However, the trustees felt the accreditation was too important to the township to cut. “We wanted to maintain the status of our police and fire departments and have our communications center accredited. Our police and fire is what’s going to help bring people and development back into our community,” said Trustee Bob McGee. Zinser said the accreditation also brings a fresh set of eyes in to review the department. “It’s beneficial for us to have an unbiased, outside assessment of our policies and operations. Policies and procedures in law enforcement and communications change often and the accreditation
Look for the high school basketball previews on page B1. To make room for those, we have moved the calendar and our regular columnists to pages B3, B4 and B5.
By John Seney jseney@communitypress.com
Unique careers
Center of business
Got a clue where this is in Batavia Township? If not, it’s time to go hunting in the neighborhood to see if you can find it. Send your best guess to clermont@communitypress.com along with your name and community. Or call 248-7130, ext. 341. If you’re correct, we’ll publish your name and community in next week’s newspaper along with the correct answer. To see who correctly identified last week’s clue, see page B5.
To place an ad, call 242-4000.
process helps us stay current,” he said. “I always like to have others see that we hold our employees to a higher standard.” But because Madsen wasn’t sure what direction the board was going to take, Madsen and Mills didn’t start the accreditation work until June. While it was a lot of handle in a short amount of time, Madsen said their work seems to have paid off. “The assessors were very impressed with our operation,” Madsen said. “It’s not official yet, but the assessors on-site said they were going to recommend us for accreditation.” Zinser said they are expecting to get a written report near the end of the year, but the accreditation will not be official until it is reviewed at the national CALEA conference next summer.
Pierce Twp. using new technology to send alerts
Columnists move to different page
Do you know someone who graduated from Bethel-Tate High School or FelicityFranklin High School who has a unique career? We would like to feature those people in The Bethel Journal. If you know a grad who has an unusual job, e-mail that person’s name and hopefully a contact number to therron@community press, fax the information to 248-7128, mail it to 394 Wards Corner Road, Suite 170, Loveland, Ohio 45140. Or call Editor Theresa L. Herron at 248-7128. We hope to run these features at the end of December.
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JOHN SENEY/STAFF
New church dedicated
The new St. Bernadette Church in Amelia was dedicated Nov. 22. For more from the event, see page A8.
New Richmond imposes 1 percent income tax By John Seney jseney@communitypress.com
New Richmond residents and workers will begin paying a 1percent income tax to the village Jan. 1. Village council unanimously approved the new tax Nov. 24. Under Ohio law, the village council can enact a tax of up to 1 percent without putting it on the ballot. The tax includes a credit of up to 50 percent for residents who pay income tax in other municipalities. In other words, a resident who pays a 2 percent income tax elsewhere would only have to pay one half of 1 percent to New Richmond. Council Member Gary Skeene said council imposed the tax because “the majority of the public see that we need it.”
V i l l a g e Administrator David Kennedy has said the tax is needed primarily because of the loss of revenue from Duke Energy’s BeckSkeene jord power plant following the deregulation of Ohio’s public utilities. The state has been reimbursing villages because of the loss of revenue from utilities, but those payments are being phased out and will end completely in 2017. The tax is expected to generate about $100,000 in the first year. After four years, it is expected to generate at least $200,000 a year. The money will be used to pay for general municipal operations including maintenance, new
equipment and capital improvements. The tax would be imposed on earned income received from wages, salaries and other compensation. Also taxed would be rental income, net profits of businesses in the village and gambling winnings more than $5,000. Exempt from the tax would be Social Security benefits, pensions, disability payments, alimony, child support, interest and dividends. The ordinance establishes a board of tax appeals to be made up of five individuals appointed by the mayor with concurrence of council. The tax will be administered by the Regional Income Tax Agency (also known as RITA), a non-profit agency which provides services to collect income tax for municipalities in the state of Ohio.
The Pierce Township Police Department has launched a new service designed to deliver important alerts to residents using the latest technology. The new service – called Nixle – recently was used to send out alerts about a suspect in a robbery at a service station. That was the township’s first use of the service. Officer Justin Doerman, the department’s information technology specialist, called Nixle a way to “establish communications with the community on a proactive basis.” Pierce Township selected Nixle because it has been used by other police and government agencies and is more secure than other social networking sites. The site is user-friendly and easy to sign up for, Doerman said. It can be pinpointed just to residents of Pierce Township. In addition to criminal activity, Nixle can be used for traffic alerts if a road is closed and notification of community events. Residents who want the service can decide if they want to receive the information by text messages on a cell phone or by email. “Instead of having to go to a Web site, the information comes to them,” Doerman said. Either Chief Col. James Smith or Doerman will decide what alerts go out on the system. The service is offered at no cost to Pierce Township and no advertising is attached to any public safety information. Smith called Nixle “a tremendous asset” as part of the department’s community outreach program. “It gives us the ability to give information to citizens in an electronic format,” he said. Residents can sign up for the service by going to the Pierce Township Police Department’s Nixle site at: www.piercetownship.org/main/wanted_persons.