| Middletown City Managers Weekly Update to Council August 16, 2009 |
| Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:00:26 AM - Middletown Ohio |
Photo By: Randy Lewis
Weekly Update to City Council
from the City Manager
August 16, 2009
Joint Meeting Agenda
Please let me know if you have any feedback on the draft agenda for the joint meeting with the schools and MUM on September 8. We will have a Council meeting at 5:30 prior to the joint meeting at 6:30 – all at Highview Elementary. The draft agenda is voluminous, and so we will need to eliminate some items so that we can finish by 8 p.m.
Passenger Rail 2nd Meeting
Ohio Rail Commission and ODOT are hosting a second Cleveland‐Columbus‐Cincinnati 3C “Quick Start” Passenger Rail Workshop on Thursday, August 20th, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. (Registration starts at 9:30 a.m.; no lunch will be provided) at The Fawcett Conference Center 2400 Olentangy River Rd. (off State Route 315) Columbus, Ohio 43210 www.fawcettcenter.com. A few staff members will be attending, members of the public and Council are also invited, but please RSVP via email to mkeister@engagepublicaffairs.com if you are planning on attending.
Second Hand Merchandise Business meeting
As planned, we met with a couple of owners of second hand merchandise stores on Monday to get their feedback on the proposed ordinance. We will provide this feedback to council.
911 Dispatch Funding ‐ PSAP
New State Law requires that only 5 of the 6 dispatch centers in Butler County receive the PSAP funds for dispatch centers. The group that determines which 5 of the 6 dispatch centers receive the funds is the Butler County 911 Planning Committee. By State Law, the members of the committee are designated. Hamilton has an automatic seat because they are the most populous city in the county. A majority of cities and villages of Butler County need to agree on the appointment of one more city representative to this goup. Several entities met and
determined that the best approach – and a very creative approach! ‐ was to make the appointment on a rotating basis among Middletown, Fairfield and Oxford for one year each. These are the three cities that have dispatch centers that might be affected – in addition to Hamilton’s.
The entities also provided for the establishment of an intergovernmental agreement among the six PSAP's to redistribute a portin of the funding to the sixth PSAP (since after March 1, 2009 only five may receive payments). Oxford, Hamilton and Fairfield are taking measures to pass this process by resolution. We will bring this to the next Council meeting for your consideration. We would still need to obtain approval from three other cities or villages in the county in order to have a majority as requied by statute. The County has agreed to work with the other cities and villages in order to get agreement.
Fire Division Training
Yet another exciting training event is scheduled for August 18 – 20th from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. at MFD Headquarters Station. We will have on‐site Search and Rescue Maze from the Clermont Co. Union Twp. Fire Department. This maze gives our firefighters an opportunity to practice firefighter survival skills associated with operating in small spces, collapse situations, limited clearance escape scenarios involved in search and rescue. We have extended an invitation to neighboring FD’s and expect some (Madison and Wayne Township) to take advantage of this resource. We have had this training aid here in the past and it was well received. All of our on‐duty personnel will participate.
From the Wall Street Journal – Fastest Dying Cities
Dayton and 9 other cities were named to the Forbes Fastest Dying List in 2008. Middletown had the dubious distinction in 2009. As you can see from the article below, Dayton sponsored a symposium for the cities named on the “2008 list” to address the issue. I thought you might be interested to see what other cities had to say; many thoughts that we’ve had.
Response to the Fastest Dying Cities
'Fastest Dying Cities' Meet for a Lively Talk
By DOUGLAS BELKIN
DAYTON, Ohio ‐‐ Here's an idea for saving Rust Belt cities: Tell bloggers and radio stations to stop calling your town a basket case.
That was one suggestion from representatives of eight of the 10 cities labeled last year as America's fastest dying. They met at the Dayton Convention Center last weekend to swap ideas about how to halt the long skid that's turned cities like etroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y., into shorthand for dystopia.
The city representatives lunched on $6 sloppy Joes and commiserated through Power Point strategy sessions: Lure back former residents, entice entrepreneurs and artists, convert blighted pockets into parkland.
What emerged was a sense of desperation over the difficulty of rebounding from both real problems ‐‐ declining populations, dwindling tax bases ‐‐ and perceived woes.
Valarie McCall expressed frustration at marketing a city that still echoed the image of the polluted Cuyahoga River catching fie. "That was 1969," said Ms. McCall, Cleveland's chief of governmental affairs. "Come on, I wasn't even born then."
Last year, Forbes.com used long‐term trends of unemployment, population loss and economic output to devise a list of "America's Fastest Dying Cities." A few months later, Peter Benkendorf was eating chicken tacos when he hatched the idea for the symposium.
Mr. Benkendorf, a 47‐year‐old Dayton resident, said he was angry the article ignored efforts by the cities to attract small businesses and entrepreneurs. He thinks these cities are poised for reinvention.
"For a long time, people thought granddaddy was going to come back and make everything all right again," said Mr. Benkendorf, referring to the manufacturers that decades ago built the economies of cities like Dayton. "People have begun to realize that's not going to happen."
Mr. Benkendorf, who directs an arts program affiliated with the University of Dayton, named the symposium, "Ten Living Cities." Dayton skeptics called it "Deathfest."
One was college student Joe Sack, 22. "It's like a gambling addict [trying] to help an alcoholic," he said while at work in a coffee shop. "It's hard to see what they can learn from each other."
Dayton, which has a population of 155,000, has since 1970 has lost more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs a year and a third of its residents. NCR ‐‐ the cash‐register and ATM maker ‐‐ once employed more than 20,000 here. This summer the company said it would move its headquarters and 1,000 jobs to Georgia.
The cities' meeting began Saturday with Forbes reporter Joshua Zumbrun telling the city representatives and about 100 visitors hat his story was among his most popular. Then he apologized for any hurt feelings.
Representatives of Dayton, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo; Canton and Youngstown, Ohio; Flint, Mich.; and Charleston, W.Va., took turns talking about their plans. There was little discussion of how cities might pay for the initiatives.
Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin ran to the podium for her talk. "If you look under the surface, you will see that we are developing a boutique city," she said. She didn't elaborate on what she meant.
But the city is working with hospitals, universities and a U.S. Air Force base to rebuild neighborhoods. About 500 abandoned structures will be razed this year with $3.5 million in federal stimulus money. Neighbors can annex the empty lots or the city will plant prairie grass and call them parks, said John Gower, Dayton's director of planning and community development.
"We can't go back and recreate the neighborhoods of the 1950s and 1960s, but we have a huge opportunity to create a new form for our cities," Mr. Gower said. "People want to live in beautiful places near green space."
In a historic reversal, the cities are embracing plans that emphasize growing smaller. In Buffalo, where more than a third of the students drop out of high school, Michael Gainer, executive director of Buffalo ReUse, is putting young people to work dismantling some of the thousands of abandoned homes and selling the scrap materials.
A councilman from Charleston described how the city lured "The Worlds Strongest Man Competition." It was shown several times on ESPN, she said.
Matt Bach, public relations manager for Flint's convention and visitors bureau, said the image most closely linked to Flint was a scene from Michael Moore's 1989 documentary "Roger and Me": a woman skinning a rabbit to make a fur coat. The Dayton audience groaned in sympathy.
Mr. Bach described how he is fighting back. After a Canadian radio station aired a "This Ain't Flint" campaign to cheer up listeners depressed about Ottawa's economy, Mr. Bach orchestrated a letter‐writing and email effort to stop the ads. The station awarded Flint more than $60,000 in free radio time that Flint used to air spots about vacationing in Michigan.
Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams talked of helping startup companies. This month, his city was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the 10 best in the U.S. to start a business.
Mr. Williams, a tall 37‐year‐old with a background in banking, argued that some who have moved out of Youngstown may consider moving back. A University of Pittsburgh demographer is tracking former residents with the idea of telling them about the city's new directin. "We don't want to force anything on them," said John Slanina, a Youngstown native working on the project. "But we want people to know, 'Hey, Youngstown is changing, take a look.'"
Mr. Slanina said he's optimistic about the future of his hometown. But for now he lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has no plans to move back.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A3
Upcoming Events
August 18 Middletown City Council meeting, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers
August 19 Tree Commission meeting, 5:30 p.m. ‐ Parks Building,
August 21 Farmers Market, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ‐ Central & Broad St.
August 28 Farmers Market, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ‐ Central & Broad St.
September 1 Middletown City Council meeting, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers
September 4 Farmers Market, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ‐ Central & Broad St.
September 7 Labor Day, City Building Closed
September 7 Summer Sound Concert Series Labor Day Concert, 7:00 p.m. ‐
Woodside Cemetery and Arboretum – Middletown Symphony
Links for additional information:
City Manager’s Weekly Update: www.cityofmiddletown.org
Middletown Community Calendar: http://www.calendarwiz.com/middletowncalendar
Pothole Patrol: www.cityofmiddletown.org or call 727‐3691 (Option 2)
Have a great week! Judy
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