Star Beacon
January 30, 2008 06:48 pm
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For years, everyone agreed people were just too negative in Ashtabula County.
Just when you thought it wouldn’t get any worse, the county has taken a giant step BACKWARD. We are more negative than ever and it is thanks in part to government officials and those who want to be government officials.
We all know the story about Conneaut, how the administration there apparently didn’t follow the proper steps to secure a Community Reinvestment Act tax reduction for massive renovations to the Cleveland Hotel.
The result was questionable closed-door sessions with the school board and giveaways to the school system, because the city apparently didn’t properly get the board’s approval.
It wasn’t a good thing. Lots of people weren’t happy. I wrote a whole column about it. Read it again if you’d like at http://bobleb.blogspot.com/2008/01/lessons-not-learned-about-tax-abatement.html.
But guess what? I got over it. I’m OK. My blood pressure is fine.
I made my point on how the city screwed up and went on with my life.
But others aren’t. There’s new people on council. There’s people outside of council who want to play out the great tax break debacle forever. No matter what the cost.
The result is an investigation of City Manager Douglas Lewis. Oh yes, and Lewis apparently got angry with Duane Burdick, who operates Burdick Plumbing, because Burdick came out against Lewis’ rental inspection program. Lewis ordered the city not to hire Burdick Plumbing for any city projects. Shortly afterward, Lewis realized the order was stupid and rescinded it.
Haven’t we all said and done things in anger we later regret? If Lewis admitted guilt and is sorry, what’s the point of an investigation?
These indiscretions are topics for meeting after meeting. The Cleveland Hotel investors have been thrown under the bus merely for accepting the tax break they were promised.
And let me tell you, those investors did what they said they would do. They are transforming that place from a decaying shell to a sparkling structure.
They talked at first about doing more business in town. Is there a chance now?
There are reasons to criticize Lewis, but he worked hard to get the Love’s Travel Center by I-90, helping to sail the project over many rough waters. He’s reported to be working on more projects in that area, plus he’s been working to get a new grocery store in the Gateway Plaza.
But if you were a business person who could settle in any number of communities, would you consider a place in such disarray, where you don’t know if the city manager you are working with will even be around?
Then there’s Ashtabula. People attending the Jan. 22 council meeting were treated to a night of threats by various parties who all have an ax to grind.
Some on council want City Solicitor Michael Franklin to write a resolution supporting schools in the city and have him search for property.
OK. Drugs abound in Ashtabula. Downtown is looking shabby. We have shootings, stabbings, murders, poor housing, a lack of industry, a lack of commercial enterprises and council feels it needs to take over the job of the school board? You would think council has so much on its plate it wouldn’t want to take on any more. If people on council are so concerned about schools, why not resign from council and run for school board?
Now Franklin does make himself a target, since people elected him solicitor and he remains an elected member of the school board.
Still, it doesn’t justify council members threatening not to hire assistants for him because he won’t become their real estate agent. While council says it might withhold necessary tools to do his job as punishment, Franklin in turn has threatened to report council to the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Since council is powerless to decide anything about where schools are located, does this do anything but hurt the community?
Let us not forget the great lodge closing proposal in Geneva-on-the-Lake. Two commissioner candidates are running on a platform that they would close the Lodge and Conference Center at Geneva State Park during the winter and somehow this would force the state to take more of a hand in its operations and take the financial burden away the county.
Huh? If there is any area of the county doing fairly well, it is the western section. That’s thanks to the lodge. Now we are going to close it, run the risk of losing business, for dubious reasons?
There’s a trend in all of this. We see threats, we see accusations. We don’t see positive alternatives. Those stirring the pot are doing nothing to move their communities forward while beating old issues to death.
Conneaut could be boasting about its developments at the freeway, the hotel renovations that will attract new residents and businesses to the central section of the city, but instead is mired in controversy.
Ashtabula could boast it is getting at least five new elementary schools and just outside of town a new junior high school to go with its state-of-the art high school with its huge auditorium and new stadium. That could be advantageous in attracting people, industry and business to the community.
And the new outdoor swimming pool at the lodge is another plus to capitalize on.
All of these events could help mark the rebirth of the county, along with the new health and science building at Kent State.
Instead, we have people who find it more important to be combative, to seek revenge, to slam the other guy no matter the cost.
Some clergymen and former council members in Conneaut are trying to reverse the trend. Crushing the opposition may make some people happy. It does nothing for the general good of our communities.
I have thought of a way all of this could bring people into the community. As you are entering the county on I-90 we can put up a sign: Welcome to Ashtabula County: Watch us shoot ourselves in the foot.
Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com.
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A ROBERT LEBZELTER column