All America City

MJ:
Adkins: Goal is to make Middletown ‘All-America City’ by 2020

By Ed Richter
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN —
In 1958, an “awakened” citizen effort drew up a 14-point program for Middletown’s progress. That program addressed several issues that city leaders at the time acknowledged, including infrastructure, public safety and keeping schools up to date.

As work started on many of those fronts and problems were addressed, Middletown was designated an “All-America City” by Look magazine. City Manager Doug Adkins says it can happen again.

And his goal is to see Middletown achieve that “All America City” designation — again — by 2020, he told the Middletown Rotary Club during its meeting Tuesday.

After working as a city prosecutor and community revitalization director, Adkins said he’s seen and read many of the city’s master plans that have been developed between the 1950s and the 2000s.

Adkins, who was hired as city manager last summer, said he “found” his hook after learning what did and didn’t work as a result of those plans.

“The first step is to understand that Middletown can not and should not be the city it was in the 1950s,” he said. “The world has changed.”

“Word isn’t getting out about Middletown to the region and the community,” Adkins said as the reason he would be hiring a communications intern to get the word out via social media and other platforms. The use of an intern was also noted in the 1958 “All-America City” article.

As for a plan, Adkins reviewed the highlights of the 2015 initiatives and goals which includes focuses on public safety, the restructuring of the public safety departments, the need to be fiscally sustainable, leading the local fight against heroin use, develop housing, parks and recreation plans, and address quality of life issues. He also said every city department has specific, measurable goals and objectives with timelines to complete which will be posted to the city’s website.

“2015 will be a planning year,” Adkins said.

He also said the city has to work at attracting businesses and creating jobs. In 2015, Adkins said the economic development department would be revitalized along with infrastructure improvements, a 25-year paving program, working with various community partners, updating the 2005 master plan, and the city’s antiquated zoning code

“Business wants certainty,” Adkins said. “The end goal is to make it easier to do business with and in the city of Middletown.”

Let's review.

A city that:

has crumbling streets and infrastructure
has a school system that is a bottom tier performer
has the highest taxes in Butler Cty
has a very limited job list paying decent wages with benefits
is tailored to low paying service job selections
has over twice the amount of Section 8 it is suppose to have
has put out the welcome mat for low income
is on the Forbes fastest dying city's list
has no econ dev plan to attract new business
is not business friendly and places many roadblocks to impede new business development
is revenue starved
has many empty lots where buildings once stood with no replacement buildings to follow
loans money to friends who have yet to show any of us any end results
is a hotbed for heroin use
has downsized the fire dept with an emphasis on reducing safety aspects for the people
has a poor, dysfunctional teacher/admin relationship within the district
has a very poor reputation/ image in relation to surrounding communities
caters to the few while ignoring the majority
has tried many projects that usually result in failure- IE Lake Middletown, Bicentennial Commons
has had many industries leave including corporate offices- some due to embarrassment in entertaining clients in town.
lacks a decent entertainment choice/dining choices
has an arts area that is in constant movement but never settled and is always in change offering a small percentage of the population any interest
has inept leadership capable of making unbelievable decisions and always going the wrong direction
conceals, at times, information from the general public with an exclusionary program centered on keeping people on the outside looking in
moves money around from fund to fund doing it's best to mask the money flow from the citizens
never listens to the people unless they are friends of the city
places incredibly inept people in key decision-making positions
uses non-logical methods to determine solutions to city issues.....

You tell me if Adkins has a candidate for All-American city status or not.

When Doug Adkins gets AK Steel to move out by 75 near the Atrium, Middletown will be named an All American city. He also gets the partner who bought the First National Bank and Bohannon's son as a social media intern. Discussions are taking place now to move AK back to Middletown.

hope u 2 b correct, factguy
When u say 1st nat bank, do u mean former bank 1 building?
what is happening there?
remember--u told me that I could not have that building for less than $300,000-$400,000 and probably not at all. Also, what about the $300,000 that we have invested in the Rose Furniture building to pay for "stabilization"?, Inocome, job creation and tax revenues provided by the Pendleton project? Taxpayer funded, so reasonable to want 2 know what we have actually received for our investment.

I like Mr.A, and hope that he can pull off a lot of his plan by 2020, since we have fallen so far behind the rest of the area. We have been stonewalled and misled by our admin for so long, that it will take a while(+ a lot of good/transparent relations) to regain full confidence. Lip service only goes so far, though it can be a true beginning.

What about the Studio/Strand/Hobby House(that we paid $90,000 to purchase), the old Wards building, Ligon service station etc. that were promised to be demoed decades ago(and were funded to be demoed)? The old library building with the roof caving in?

Why are we spending so much on Narcan and heroin addicts, when drugs for more productive uses + public safety response costs in an area challenged by public safety funding? The success rate for curing this addiction is not so good and the cost is very high(esp when u factor in that most go on disability and/or other govt.subsidy programs for the rest of their lives).

Give us the facts behind/corroborating your vague statements. So far, you have been more smoke than facts.

Fair enough spiderjohn. There is considerable planning which all the pieces are to fit in place. Meant BankOne and was thinking about a joint public relations effort in the works with Cincinnati State and the city not yet public. Rose Furniture delay has been on hold while Mike Robinette and his partners get the old court house restored in Hamilton. It should be starting by April. Don't underestimate the behind scene discussions with Mayor Mulligan and AK executive office. There is a very strong relationship and negotiations have been ongoing for months. The Mayor kept R & D from moving to West Chester. 

I had heard that AK was being priced out of West Chester and would return for the right lease $$.

lol--I remember when the soap box derby ran down Central Ave, finishing at Shafor St.

Hey--something has to happen at the interstate mall. Those venues don't excite me, though they play to our demographics. Honestly, I have never visited any of those businesses so far(including Burlington). I operated next to a Buffalo Wing place on Roosevelt, and it was nothing but trouble. Then Marty K and Council emergencied the building to be a strip club OVER everyones' objections--then busted it for doing exactly what we knew they would do. Remember that fiasco? Helped to bury that strip center.

Hopefully I will still be alive in 2020 and will probably still own property here--plan to enjoy it all then.

think about this, factguy---I felt more comfortable and expected a better listen from that Council and Admin back then than I do the current group. Myself and most of my business + social friends have completely given up on the current situation, have no desire/reason to address them, and are capable of living our lives/operating businesses without them.

Sad that it has come to that, but it has.

Hopefully u can show us differently from here on out.
We honestly would prefer to be a REAL part of it all.

Fact Guy, great news!!! I hope all of your news comes true as I believe it will. You're right!!! Great things are happening. But, alas, you are wasting your time on this site posting positive news. The nattering naybombs of negativism cannot get out of the 50's and realize that the doo wop era is over. AK could relocate 10,000 jobs here and these people would say why weren't there 11,000 jobs? Spider-John is the only reasonable person on this site when it come to forward positive thinking. The rest are stuck in prior administrations. I don't patronize those low end establishments either but they are a great start for the people in this town. If they can keep the thieves at bay this should establish a good stepping stone to lure more lucrative retail establishments/restaurants into town to support the relocation of AK's HQ. AETNA would be a HUGE score!!! Bright things are coming our way gents....I know it is hard but try to be a part of the solution. If not get out of the way

middiemom wrote: Fact Guy, great news!!! I hope all of your news comes true as I believe it will. You're right!!! Great things are happening. But, alas, you are wasting your time on this site posting positive news. The nattering naybombs of negativism cannot get out of the 50's and realize that the doo wop era is over. AK could relocate 10,000 jobs here and these people would say why weren't there 11,000 jobs? Spider-John is the only reasonable person on this site when it come to forward positive thinking. The rest are stuck in prior administrations. I don't patronize those low end establishments either but they are a great start for the people in this town. If they can keep the thieves at bay this should establish a good stepping stone to lure more lucrative retail establishments/restaurants into town to support the relocation of AK's HQ. AETNA would be a HUGE score!!! Bright things are coming our way gents....I know it is hard but try to be a part of the solution. If not get out of the way

middiemom, you missed your calling. You arrived here on earth too late. You were better suited to give Custer some advise when he was surrounded at Little Big Horn. Perhaps you could have helped him deny his fate telling him good things are about to happen while showering him with your dream world/who needs facts rhetoric.

And no, there is "nothing to get out of the way of" as the ideas being bantered about by the eternal optimists here have a slim shot of happening. The talk of things happening being "right around the corner" are bogus until there is proof produced. Until then, nothing but empty talk, just like your buddies at city hall practice each and every day. Since I'm not spiderjohn I would be in the "unreasonable group". I assume most here are being labeled as such because we don't salivate on every morsel of crap mentioned by city hall as you gullible optimists do. We form opinions based on what we see and have seen like a reasonable person does. And, we don't believe the dream weaving done by the city has any merit.

Great things are happening she says. How come we haven't noticed? Must be very subtle in nature.

Part of the solution? Comical mom. What solution? Haven't seen one in decades around here. City leaders have no solutions.......that work. Or, do you mean solutions like Lake Middletown, Bicentennial Commons, Cincy State reality versus projected success, the carnival lights at the I-75 interchange signifying the circus is in town, The City Centre Mall, The non-progression, non-stable arts dream downtown, companies leaving left and right with no replacements, a lack of decent standard of living jobs, the non-success to date of the Atrium area as a medical megaplex with medical facilities lining the streets promised. Just a few examples of your "solutions" your side of the fence has produced so far.

Your side needs to show us something of content. Then we'll talk.

Factguy:

Knowing how long these plans take to be set in motion, how will Obama be involved in the pipeline and massive infrastructure deals when his term runs out in two years and he won't be a participant? As slow as these things move, alot could happen, including cancellations, before implementation.

Is it a fact that Severstal will locate to this area and impact Middletown proper as much as you describe? Or, is this speculation and a "maybe" on your part?

Ok, so the Governor gets elected to a VP seat in Washington. Doesn't mean we in Ohio, much less Butler County will feel the impact and be a favorite target for growth by Kasich. Look at Boehner and look at how long he has been in Washington. Now consider how much he has done for West Chester and SW Ohio and how little he has done for Middletown while in office. Hell, he doesn't even know where Middletown is as his visits are that infrequent to this city. Boehner goes where the money is. No money in this city as compared to others so he has no interest here.

Brownfields are too expensive to re-create into green re-usable land. I doubt if there would be that much interest in the brownfields "west of I-75" which would encompass most all former industrial sites and the downtown in Middletown. I would think, by sheer brownfield site numbers in Middletown, that they would move south of Middletown to concentrate that effort.

Factguy:

"Although it will be years before the bridge is complete, new businesses will be moving in a logistics management and centralization will grow greatly, as Obama, Boehner, and the two senators from Kentucky, including Paul, will be using this as a deal as big as the TVA, building damns, and the other historic achievements."

Again, Obama will be gone before this bridge is completed. I would imagine there is a chance they might lose a project supporting senator or two in Kentucky at some point in time. With the initiators of the project gone, will there still be support to carry on until completion? ....or will another group in charge at that time redirect the importance of this and drop it to a second tier item making it incomplete?

Never know. Even long term Boehner may be gone before everything is said and done. Politicians are replaced. Priorities change with each new group in power. Boehner may hang it up.

A toned down elation may be in order here to avoid disappointment. Alot of obstacles to overcome before these proposals are a reality.

lol--thanx middiemom
not that many on either side of all of this view me as that reasonable

I agree with a lot of the basis for negativity here, though you can only take it so far and say it so many times...eventually you have to start thinking, then working, toward solutions. Unfortunately most of my solutions have not been that well received in the bunker. I think more like a businessman than a bureaucrat, weighing all possibilities.

Have spent most of my life here---remember a lot of good and not as good. Mostly think about the good though, and hopefully beginning to see the sun shine here again. I keep waiting for a new generation to grab the reins, and keep wondering when and why so long in coming.

I hope that u turn out to be correct on a lot of this, factguy...

Fatctguy

I think we need to talk about the bright pink elephant standing in the middle of the room with a blanket on his back that says EPA.
Middletown has an expensive and serious problem with pollution and then we have the separation of the sewers.
We have kicked all these cans down the road for years.
We are talking millions of dollars and City Hall has depleted the fund.
Where will all this money come from?

FactGuy. I'm having a lot of trouble swallowing what you're selling. Certainly AK's acquisition will mean a lot of consolidation of jobs at AK's headquarters and MAY result in a few additional jobs, but how this translates into moving their headquarters to Middletown is beyond me. Certainly they have a long term lease at their West Chester location that would cost a lot to terminate. Plus they would have the cost of physically moving. It just doesn't add up. At most maybe they would create a satellite operation in Middletown, but even that doesn't make much sense since it would be a hindrance to communication.

As to Obama giving up and letting Keystone move forward that too is a pipe dream. He's in the process of adding large areas of Alaska to the no drill area in hopes of getting rid of the Alaskan pipe line. I just don't buy it.

Regarding the other potential's I don't have enough knowledge to argue one way or another.

I hope you're right and I'm wrong, but I don't think so.