Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

July-August 2001 PATA Newsletter (maps posted on ''Our Pages''

Aug 28, 2001

Debt ?– you be the judge!

The May/July issue of the PATA newsletter got a good deal of attention in various public meetings and even in the press. The stir was caused by our article on the indebtedness of the City of Pickerington, ?“City in Big Debt??” (see PATA web site www.neighborhoodlink.com/org/pata.

There were two main parts to this article. The first part was an attempt to explain ?“Inside Millage.?” The editors of the PATA newsletter regret to report that there were factual errors in the way this portion of our article was presented. Basically, a dissertation on tax millage and the ?“Inside 10 mills?” could be written only in an extensive text, and would still be somewhat difficult to explain. PATA regrets the oversights and apologizes to anyone who was offended or misled because of the mistakes.

The second portion of the article had to do with the indebtedness of the City of Pickerington. While City Officials have since skewered PATA members for the writing of this article, the facts are the facts. The city?’s debt continues to rise. All cities incur debt. So the fact that Pickerington continues to incur debt should be a surprise to no one. And city officials are quick to tout their strong bond rating, saying that they must be in good shape if lenders continue to want to do business with them. The City of Pickerington?’s July 31, 2001 debt schedule totals $13,527,338.66.

The question yet remains, how is the city investing the money that it borrows? Is the answer, doing the things that it needs to do to build more houses within our community? You
be the judge! Today there are roughly 9,000 city residents in Pickerington, living in roughly 2,800 homes and apartments. Already on the books to be developed residentially are new neighborhoods that will add roughly 2,400 homes to the city, adding approximately 7,400 new residents to the city tax base. Throwing in the sites now being proposed for annexation by City Council and the city will double in size in the near future, based on annexations and approved residential zoning already on the books. Appearances are that the city is investing large sums of money in efforts to build more and more homes, with little effort to build any offsetting commercial / industrial tax base.

HOME AWAY

Nearing 5,000 0

New residences Promised Business Park
* see the enclosed maps for more details

The maps contain the boundaries of Violet Township with the irregular borders of the PLSD marked.

When the subject of commercial development arises, city officials are quick to tout the fact that they have added nearly 500,000 square feet of commercial development within the city limits in the past several years. There are two unfortunate points that they fail to mention when discussing this. First, apartment complexes are counted as commercial development, even though they clearly bring more residents to the city, and often add more students to the schools. When you subtract the apartments from the equation, the total amount of commercial development within the City of Pickerington in the recent past (including the Kroger complex) would fit inside of Eastland Mall! To think that a City the size of Pickerington can only develop enough commercial real estate to fit within a small suburban mall with room left over is disappointing to say the least.

Another defense city officials bring up when confronted with the lack of commercial development is ?“we?’re doing much better than the Township.?” While a portion of this is true because Pickerington has annexed nearly all of the ripe commercially developable land from the Township, the fact remains that the Township has not taken a great many steps to develop land commercially either. The recent signing of the Cooperative Economic Development Agreement between Violet Township and the Village of Canal Winchester was a significant step forward. Yet, more could be and should be done by the Township as well.

Over the past several weeks we have had the opportunity to speak with many Pickerington, Violet Township, and Fairfield County officials about the future of the area. It seems that everyone has the same long-term objective for our area: That it continues to be a great community with a strong school system, that is a pleasure to live and work in. If everyone has the same objective, why is it so hard to get on with it? Why are the residents of our community continually subjected to the pointless bickering and posturing that goes on by some of our elected officials?

Isn?’t it time to drop the rhetoric and take action? As individuals who are not a part of the political machine in either the Township or the City, it seems so clear to us that what is needed is a plan, and cooperation.

Imagine if elected officials from the City of Pickerington, Violet Township, Canal Winchester, the Pickerington School District, Fairfield County, and all of the other governmental entities that are a part of Violet Township (including the Canal Schools, Bloom Carroll Schools, SW Licking County Schools, Reynoldsburg Schools, etc.) ?– imagine if all of those people got together with a group of citizens, and everyone put aside their individual political agendas, and looked at where we want this community to be 20 years from now. I would bet that most everyone in that room would have a very similar vision of the future of our community. That part should be easy to agree on.

Imagine then, if all of these officials could agree on that vision, and then they could craft a plan for roads, schools, zoning, commercial development, industrial development, residential development, water and sewer, technology, parks and recreation, and preserving natural resources.

Imagine after that, if all of these officials could then sign off on the plan, agree to live by the plan, and agree to get together periodically to adjust the plan. Wouldn?’t that make a great deal of sense?

It is time to get over the misconception that life in Pickerington is P.I.E.

Perfect ?– ?“As is ?…. All is well with our
Community.?”
Instant ?– ?“Plans and actions don?’t need to
involve all community members,?”
Easy ?– ?“Emergency --- cause it?’s faster!?”


It seems that all of our elected officials have the good of the community at heart. And all of them have said over time that they would like to see more planning in the area and more cooperation between the different governmental entities. Now is the time to stop talking about it and start doing it.

Our governments need to come together to form a long-term plan for the growth of our community. Growth is going to happen. The Pickerington area is a very attractive part of the Central Ohio landscape for many reasons. Our schools are some of the strongest in the state; we have nice neighborhoods with good people living in them; and our community is safe, clean, and well maintained. This is a great community and it will continue to grow. Trying to STOP the growth would be foolish. Trying to plan for and appropriately manage the growth would be something that any elected official should be held accountable for.

It?’s time to start holding our elected officials accountable for the planning for and management of the growth in our area.

They?’re at it again! ?— 380

On September 4th a public hearing will be held to review the City?’s plan to annex the ?“Painter/Kohler?” ?– soon to be Homewood - properties that lie across from Diley Middle School. While it?’s clear that annexation is imminent, it is tremendously disappointing that once again the City is going to allow mid-level density housing in this new neighborhood. Over the past several months many citizens of both the City and the Township have raised concerns at City Council meetings and hearings about the annexation of the ?“Diley?” ?– now Dominion - property. The fact that the city (via a ?“pre-annexation agreement?”) had already agreed to the building of 520 new homes in this area. Even if this land was not ripe for commercial development, an argument city official have made that many disagree with. City officials continuing to allow (and encourage) developers to come into our community and build up to and above 2.6 homes per acre on major parcels of land shows that city officials are more interested in building an income tax base, than they are in protecting the future of our schools.

An attractive alternative would be for the City to annex the Painter/Kohler properties, maintain buffers around Pickerington Ponds (with increased recreational opportunities). Zone the land with 20,000 square foot lots the way the Township does (as opposed to 8,500 sf lots as the City currently is doing), and develop a community that has a better mix of higher and mid-level income housing that will provide greater long-term support for the school system.
It would also be great if the City would work with developers to make contributions to the school system, as has been done by John Donnelly and David Ruma in recent Township developments.


The public hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 4th, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Lockville Rd. The membership of PATA encourages all citizens to attend this hearing and let these elected officials know your thoughts on this topic.


Be true to your school (system).

As everyone is well aware, the school year for the Pickerington Local School District (PLSD) begins very soon. The PLSD is one of the most widely recognized school systems in the State of Ohio, and is building a track record of success that most communities would envy.

As the school year starts, there is still no contract between the Teacher?’s Union and the School District. While the teachers have said that there will be no strike (thank goodness), they have also said that they will not be working any ?“extra hours?” as the school year begins. It seems most unfortunate that the two sides have not been able to come to an agreement on an appropriate pay raise for the teachers. While the membership of PATA does not wish to take sides in this disagreement, we do feel that is was highly inappropriate for the school board to approve a pay increase package for school system administrators while still negotiating with the teachers. That being said, PATA, as do all citizens in the school district, encourages both sides to work together to resolve the teacher?’s contract issue, and get back to running a great school system.

Request for Public Hearing

In a very interesting sequence of events, the City of Pickerington is seeking to increase the water sewer capacity in the city from 1.8 million gallons per day to 3.5 million gallons per day, nearly doubling the sewer capacity for the Hill Road facility. This facility dumps wastewater (currently within EPA regulations) into Sycamore Creek. With the expanded capacity, the facility would exceed current limits for levels of NH3N (ammonia) that can be dumped into any waterway. A quote from the Public Notice printed in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette reads ?“The discharges from this facility, if approved, would result in degradation to, or lowering of, the water quality criteria developed to protect aquatic life and human health set forth in OAC 3745-1.?” The City apparently is trying to obtain a variance from some of the limits so that the facility?’s capacity can be expanded, and more homes can be built.

The interesting part is that City Manger, Joyce Bushman, first attempted to get EPA approval without going through the standard public process. In a letter dated October 26, 2000, Ms. Bushman attempted to include the plant expansion as part of the standard annual renewal process required by the Ohio EPA for municipalities that operate wastewater treatment facilities.

Once it was determined that the EPA would not allow this type of process to proceed (renewal plus expansion ?– in a manner of fact matter), a formal request was submitted by the City in December of last year. Public Notice was published in the Lancaster newspaper, and citizen?’s requests for a public hearing were made. The City then withdrew their plant expansion request. Now expansion plans have been re-submitted, again publishing a notice in the Lancaster papers. In taking this last course of action the City has rendered mute previous requests for public hearings that citizens have made during the late April ?– early May timing of the earlier public notice. The feeling of the PATA organization is that the city is clearly trying to avoid public hearings on this issue, but that a matter as important as this clearly is to the future of our community should not be done behind closed doors.

Action you can take
To voice your opinion about the wastewater treatment issue, you can request a public hearing on this issue by writing (by September 7, 2001) to: Ohio EPA
Division of Surface Water
Attention: Permits Processing Unit
PO Box 1049
Columbus, OH 43216

Old time residents will remember past situations where either water or sewer availability limited or slowed the rate of residential construction. Much has happen since those earlier limiting factors and the results, in part, are now a traffic congested commute, a still overcrowded school system with more and more and more to come. Through all of this we still have no business park ?– and the broaden tax base that this community so desperately needs.

The maps listed within this newsletter best illustrate our past ?– and at this moment ?– our current direction toward the future. Should you require a larger version of these maps they are available by contacting PATA. We will also post these maps on our web site for wider availability.

Since December of 1999 I have been working as the Editor of the PATA newsletter. The July/August issue will be my last as I am devoting my time to run for the office of Violet Township Trustee. I look forward to campaigning this fall, and to earning your support for this election. I would like to thank all of our readers who have offered support and words of encouragement over the past nine months, and encourage all of the PATA membership to continue the tremendous efforts to bring important issues to the attention of the citizens of our great community.
--Jeff Fix


Our Thanks and future best wishes for all of Jeff?’s endeavors. ?– Bob Harding Contact Person.