Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Well, it's finally here! Today is the day you can make a change and make a difference. While things get a little heated in this forum, the common goal of those postings has always been to inform the readers. You hear all sides to the issues. Sometimes it is clean and sometimes it gets a little ugly. But the bottom line is that the posters share a common passion ?– to make a difference.

In what I feel should be my last posting, I would like to give you a little history about how SBH came about. I received a notice in the mail about a proposed annexation and rezoning very close to my house. It involved an area where my kids play and conduct their ?“adventures?”. Growing up in a rural area, I was blessed to have the great outdoors and all it offered as my ?“kingdom?”. The years of playing in the hills and woods gave me what I feel was balance and a constant amazement, appreciation and passion for preservation of those hills and woods. I can remember so few times that we were stuck indoors, regardless of the weather, that they are too few to mention. We hiked, hunted, fished, and climbed trees, built forts and tree houses. We rode snowmobiles, motorcycles and anything else with a motor and a way to steer through the hills and valleys. We camped out for days on end through the summers and felt protected by the wilderness. We could be gone from sunup to sundown without our parents worrying about where we were or if we were safe. We were always in the woods, up the hill or down by the river. We were always having fun. Yeah, yeah, I know ?– Pollyanna lives, but this is the way it was.

Times change, you grow up and you move on. One thing that never changes is your appreciation of where you came from. Somehow, after many moves around the country, I ended up in Pickerington. I was fortunate enough to get a decent job, found a wonderful person to spend my life with and have the greatest kids that anyone could ask for. Life in Pickerington is very different than where I came from. There are few opportunities to explore the woods. There are few hills to climb. I slowly became a suburbanite. However, there was a little patch of woods a ways out behind the house and when the kids got old enough, I began taking them out there to show them things that they wouldn?’t learn in school. I showed them deer and how to track them and find their beds. I showed them how to catch fish with their hands and I showed them how to care for the woods.

Soon enough, some land near where we are was annexed and rezoned. I thought that with the many mature trees throughout the area, it would make a real nice setting for the houses. I left for work one morning and they were just starting to bring in the excavating equipment. When I got home, they had clear cut the entire area! Acres and acres of trees that had to be 50 years old or more were gone. There was nothing left but piles of debris.

Fast-forward to the notice about annexing and rezoning the area much closer to my house. The very area where I was beginning to share a little piece of my childhood with my children. I went to the meeting. There weren?’t too many people in attendance on that issue. Apparently the athletic boosters were planning a mass student attendance on another issue more interesting to the citizens of Pickerington than just another annexation and rezoning. Well, those of you who are frequent readers of this forum know the rest so I won?’t repeat it here. Suffice it to say that the two of us that dared to speak out against their proposals were treated rudely, unprofessionally, and for the most part, like we weren?’t even there. This was my first exposure to the Mayor, the City Manager and their minions. They left a lasting impression.

continued..

By Soap Box Hero

Swan Song

One fortunate part of the evening was I got to meet a guy named Bob Harding, the other speaker addressing the Board. After the Board blew us off, we left the room in favor of the students and boosters. We had a long talk and I found similar opinions about what was happening around us. He mentioned this website and I logged on. The rest is history.

Oh sure, I get a little out of hand at times, and I have even been asked to wait for a little while before I actually hit the POST button to make sure I am not writing in anger. Sometimes I do and sometimes I haven?’t. What I have found is there are a lot of kindred spirits that contribute to the forum, too. I also found that there are those brave enough to write letters to the editors of some of the local media and suffer the consequences. I applaud them. Unfortunately what I also found are some rather subversive and uninformed posters whose intent is nothing more than to attempt to create hate and discontent and also unfortunately, I have been drawn into their game on occasion. They are malicious people, some of who have direct influence on our children and that worries me. Hopefully my kids won?’t have to come in contact with them.

Well, enough about me. Let?’s talk about you. You have a chance today to begin to make changes in our community to bring Pickerington and Violet Township and our School District back to the places of high regard they once were and not the target of statements like, ?“Don?’t do it like Pickerington?” or ?“Don?’t end up like Pickerington?”. Sure our quality of life has not degraded to the point of no return. Our taxes have not become so high that we are forced to consider leaving. The possibility of cooperation between the City and Township has not vanished. The Schools still rank high and are the prime reason for people wanting to move here, thanks solely to the teachers. They are the silent river running through the district that makes us what we are.

Today is your chance to participate in securing a future here that all sides agree we want, need and deserve. The course to be taken to secure this future is what you will be voting on today. You choices of candidates will affect whether we take a sensible, balanced and manageable approach, or just keep going the way we are. Annex and rezone, annex and rezone. There is no plan as to how to handle how the Pickerington of 2011, 2021 and so on will become. We deserve better than a sea of houses and a school levy to decide on every November. We deserve better, we should demand better and we should vote to make it better.

Hopefully I have informed you, agitated you to make a stand, or at least made you laugh. Soap Box Hero was created to encourage you to vote to make a change. If I have done so, I feel I have accomplished something. If I have offended you, please accept my apology. All, that is, except you-know-who. I sincerely DO NOT apologize to you. I thought we could have a spirited discourse but you took me to your level and I never want to go there again.

The elections are here and Soap Box Hero is gone.


By Soap Box Hero

Shared Compassion

Dear Soap Box Hero,

Please accept my sincere apology, if my campaign rhetoric has offended you. It wasn?’t my intent. My greatest strength as a person is also my greatest weakness ?– I push hard.

Don?’t let my words offend you. Understand my compassion for family, schools and the environment. We share a common love for the outdoors and unfortunately our paths will never cross to share our common concern for the environment.

I?’m a rather simple person. To understand me, all you have to do is look at my roots near the Wayne County/Holmes County border ?– the heart of beautiful Amish country. My father came from a farming family. My mother?’s dad was a medical doctor ?– a dying bred of general practitioners who delivered over 10,000 babies.

My grandfather served on the school board for 25 years, my dad served an additional 18 years and my mom was a schoolteacher. I am proud to say that in probably 100 years no one in my family has ever voted against a school levy or issue in any school district in the State of Ohio. As a son of a member of our school board, one of the most important events that I can remember growing up was the suicide of our superintendent?’s wife, a close friend of the family. It was our family?’s opinion that it was caused by the tremendous demands placed on the superintendent and the constant criticism that he and his family had to endure. I am proud to say that any superintendent and the teachers as a whole in any school district in any community that I live in will have 100% of my support as long as I shall live.

Soap Box Hero, we share a compassion for the outdoors. Arbor Day in my family is big celebration. We plant every year as many trees as the builder who built our house cut down. I vote for candidates in every election, regardless of party, with a strong commitment to the environment. I serve on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Alliance for the Environment. The biggest part of my business is to educate manufacturers and the construction industry on how to balance environmental concerns with business issues. I currently boycott Exxon gas stations and products due to their total lack of support for the environment and the Kyoto Protocol.

Again, if my words offend you, I am truly sorry. The words came from the mouth not the heart.