BUSINESS SPOTLIGHTB1
Your Community Press newspaper serving Columbia Township, Columbia-Tusculum, Fairfax, Hyde Park, Madisonville, Mariemont, Mt.Lookout, Oakley, Terrace Park E-mail: easternhills@communitypress.com We d n e s d a y, D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9
Meet Nathan Thompson, owner of Abby Girl Sweets in Oakley.
Volume 74 Number 45 © 2009 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Project nears end
A flood control project which has had a significant impact on Fairfax will be completed in 2011. The final phase of the project started this month and will include work between Interstate 71 and the Ilsco Corp. property along Duck Creek Road. The Fairfax portion of the Duck Creek Local Flood Protection Project was completed in 2005 and included improvements along Red Bank Road, Fair Lane and Ford Circle. SEE STORY, A4
Layoffs looming
Mariemont may lay off three employees – two full-time firefighters and one full-time maintenance worker – to combat a portion of its projected $315,000 budget deficit. Village officials have discussed multiple options to reduce the deficit after voters overwhelmingly rejected a 4.75-mill operating levy in November. SEE STORY, A2
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What happened?
Details emerge in Terrace Park’s levy renewal blunder
By Lisa Wakeland
lwakeland@communitypress.com
Terrace Park police officers are now hand-delivering mail to village officials’ homes every Friday. Police are delivering the mail weekly because officials missed a deadline to place a 3.5-mill operating levy renewal on the Nov. 3 ballot after a letter from the Hamilton County auditor apparently was not opened in time. Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes sent a notice of the levy expiration to village Fiscal Officer Mark Holcomb that was dated July 13. But village officials remained unaware the levy was expiring until the day after the Aug. 20 deadline to place issues on the November ballot. That’s when Assistant Fiscal Officer Laurie Baird e-mailed Councilman Mark Porst, chairman of the village Finance Committee, stating that she received a levy expiration notice from the auditor. The e-mails were obtained by the Eastern Hills Journal What now? under the For more state’s openinformation on how records law. Terrace Park will P o r s t deal with the wrote back expiration of 3.5two days mill operating levy, later stating please see story on that if Terpage A4. race Park had a levy expiring, “it’s hard to imagine the first notice came August 21.” On Aug. 24 Baird e-mailed Porst and stated that she placed the first levy expiration letter in Holcomb’s mailbox at the village administration office in July. When the issue was first reported, Mayor Jay Gohman said that letter from the Hamilton
FILE PHOTO
Terrace Park Village Council and Mayor Jay Gohman discuss steps needed to initiate a Dec. 10 special election after village officials missed a deadline to place a levy renewal issue on the Nov. 3 ballot. The legislation to allow the special election died in the Ohio Senate Finance Committee. County auditor was placed in the wrong mailbox. Gohman later admitted the letter from the auditor was placed in the correct mailbox. “(The auditor’s letter) was put in a mailbox, someone didn’t pay attention to it and that was the problem,” he said. Gohman said the letter, however, should have been addressed to Baird, who he said is responsible for filing paperwork with the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes said notification letters are always addressed to chief fiscal officers because his office has no way of knowing which person handles the levy renewal issues in each municipality. “I don’t know who files paperwork, it could be anyone,” Rhodes said. “The chief fiscal officer is a generic term that should be clear to any local government,” he said. Gohman said Holcomb could have given the levy expiration notice to Baird, had the letter been received in time for the filing deadline. Holcomb declined to answer questions about the issue by phone and asked that any questions be sent to him by e-mail. When asked by e-mail if he
Deadline debacle When Terrace Park officials realized they missed the Aug. 20 deadline to put a 3.5-mill operating levy renewal on the Nov. 3 ballot they scrambled to get a bill through the Ohio legislature to conduct a special election in December. The bill passed the House of Representatives in late October and was sent to the Senate, where it stalled and died in committee. As a result, the village will not collect $366,000 the levy generated annually – roughly 22 percent of the operating budget. received the letter from the auditor’s office in July Holcomb wrote, “I did not receive this letter until after the deadline in August.” Holcomb did not directly answer a follow-up question of why he did not receive the letter until after the deadline in August. Instead, he wrote, “I, along with the council, have been working on this since we were all notified of the missed deadline.” Baird said it’s necessary for mail to be delivered to village officials because no one works in the administration office except herself and police department personnel. And village officials apparently rarely check their mailboxes at the
administration office, if ever. Porst acknowledged, in an Aug. 24 e-mail, that he has never checked his mailbox in eight years and relies on the “packet” system in which an officials’ mail is collected and delivered to their home or personally at a council meeting. Baird wrote on Aug. 31 that because of the levy renewal issue she is clearing mailboxes every Friday evening and sorting them for delivery. Gohman said every piece of mail coming into the administration office will now be inspected. “There’s a lot of junk mail that’s received and someone is going to have to do triage on the mail,” he said. Gohman, however, said Terrace Park won’t require officials to stop in the office to regularly check mailboxes because of the police officers’ weekly mail delivery. Police Chief Gerald Hayhow said mail has always been handdelivered to village officials, but it was sporadic – once every couple of weeks, at best. Gohman said using police officers as weekly couriers does not affect public safety. “(Officers) go around the village multiple times a day, so stopping at somebody’s house is not a big deal,” he said.
Seasonal party offers business opportunity By Forrest Sellers fsellers@communitypress.com
Madisonville will celebrate the season with a business party and a Christmas Eve ceremony. The Madisonville Business Committee will have its annual holiday celebration 6-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, at the Madisonville Arts Center, 5021 Whetsel Ave. The event will include live jazz music, refreshments and an opportunity for networking. It is geared for adults. “We’re hoping interested developers will come out,” said Deborah Tolliver, who is a member of the Madisonville Business Committee. Tolliver said one of the goals of the event is to raise awareness
about development opportunities in the area. Concept drawings of future development plans for the community will be on display, said Tolliver. An outdoor ceremony is planned for the following week near the decorated tree at Madison Road and Whetsel Avenue. The ceremony will be 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 24. It will include caroling and hot chocolate, said Kathy Garrison, executive director of Madisonville Weed and Seed Sustained. In preparation for the event, Garrison said local churches and youngsters from John P. Parker School have adorned the tree with ornaments.
FORREST SELLERS/STAFF
Madisonville Business Committee member Deborah Tolliver, left, and Kathy Garrison, executive director of Madisonville Weed and Seed Sustained, place ornaments on a tree in the community. The Business Committee will have a party Friday, Dec. 18.
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