Laubach Town Hall

Good Morning,

For those interested, I will be holding my 2nd town hall meeting of 2011 this evening from 5:30-7:00PM . It will take place at Atrium Medical Center's Professional Building on the 5th floor. Please feel free to attend.

Thanks,

Josh Laubach

Mr. Laubach, I would very much like to attend. Unfortunately, my son has to work tonight and I will need to be home providing care for my wife.

If I may, I would like to use this forum to ask what I would ask you if I could attend. As always, it is your choice whether to respond or not.

1. How do you feel about the airport situation? Similarly, how do you feel about Sunset Pool? Did the city do the right thing in filling in the pool site? What do you think the city ought to do with regard to airport operations? What is your opinion concerning the demolition of the various buildings around town and what is the plan to fill all of those "greenspaces"?

2. What is your opinion on the progress of PAC and the downtown area to date? How do you feel about the Cincy State situation right now and how do you feel about the success of the campus plan?

3. Does anyone on council or in the city building have as their top priority, getting decent jobs in this town? If so, could you outline the plan and when any measurable results could be seen? To date, we haven't seen too much progress being made in that area of city government as to attracting any real jobs other than fast food and lower echelon industrial park jobs. The only exception is, of course, the new coke plant for AK. Need more than 75 decent jobs here.

4. How do you feel about the overall direction of the city as to preparation for the future. The current condition of the city doesn't seem to present itself in a positive light IMO. If positive, can you elaborate for us as to any news that could be construed as positive that we may or may not know about?

5. What impact, in your opinion, has Section 8 overabundance had on the city as to service stress, image and economic impact? What are your thoughts on lowering the numbers?

I have more questions but will stop at this point.

Thank you for any response you choose to provide.

Thanks to Mr. Trick for opening his doors and to the organizers for promoting to getting to the bottom of this crime problem in this town.  Both officers very informative along with Mr. Adkins who had to once again let us know the issues involving section 8, uphill battle.  Very interesting hearing from the landlords and the amount of damage and theft they deal with.

Hey Spider,

Vet,

pacman---Mr.Adkins attended the meeting @ the Chamber last night(well-attended---17 including 2 from police--ED rep Hamet and CR czar Adkins).

 We were informed last night that the Section 8 number is now over 1700 and growing.

Mr Nagy,

Pacman wrote: Mr. Nagy, I will try to make it to Mr. laubauchs next meeting but right now, I am still learning how to avoid walking into walls and getting hit by cars.  Thank you for attending the meeting and respresenting the citizens.

Paman,

ground swat wrote: Mr. P the way things are going out at the highway you really don't need to make them much bigger there's not a whole lot of NEW signs going up!  How I tell visitors to get to the hospital is to take a left after you pass the 55gal barrel that still sitting in the Duke gas station.  Just under the high tension wires.

Ground Swat,
Sure, but how do you direct them to the Professional Building entrance??? Hint: Do NOT tell them to "look for the sign" unless they have someone riding with them to do the "looking".

Well, Kohler’s plan seems to be to hide all hints of business, commerce and industry from sight; allow a few small signs very low to the ground and then force the owner to plant trees or bushes in front of them so that, within a year or so, no one will be able to see them.  A “quaint village of about 20,000” is the way it was stated in the Master Plan I believe.

I just can’t understand why the City’s senior staff is ashamed of our businesses.  Can’t they understand how the revenue is generated to pay their salaries and benefits???  We need some stern and specific policy changes made regarding true “business friendliness”.  If it takes a housecleaning at City Hall to accomplish this, then so be it.

Vet,

Thanks for the questions. I will give some brief responses.

1. How do you feel about the airport situation? Similarly, how do you feel about Sunset Pool? Did the city do the right thing in filling in the pool site? What do you think the city ought to do with regard to airport operations? What is your opinion concerning the demolition of the various buildings around town and what is the plan to fill all of those "greenspaces"?

-At this point, all parties concerned have moved forward and an agreement has been made in reference to the issues at the Airport.   
I understand many people had a desire to see Sunset remain open. However, the economic factors made this unrealistic. There have been many discussions concerning the pool and no viable options were put forward. I think removing the pool was the right decision.

2. What is your opinion on the progress of PAC and the downtown area to date? How do you feel about the Cincy State situation right now and how do you feel about the success of the campus plan?

-I am encouraged by the amount of interest in the PAC and I believe this is going to be, not the only, but a big economic driver for downtown.   In terms of Cincinnati State, I see them coming to town and playing a large part in the redevelopment of downtown as well. Things are moving along in making this campus a reality.

3. Does anyone on council or in the city building have as their top priority, getting decent jobs in this town? If so, could you outline the plan and when any measurable results could be seen? To date, we haven't seen too much progress being made in that area of city government as to attracting any real jobs other than fast food and lower echelon industrial park jobs. The only exception is, of course, the new coke plant for AK. Need more than 75 decent jobs here.

-Jobs are the desire of all communities and Middletown is no exception.   The economic development department and others are doing what is within their means to bring jobs to Middletown.   Changing Middletown’s image from the outside along with economic incentives and selling our location will bring more jobs to our community.

4. How do you feel about the overall direction of the city as to preparation for the future? The current condition of the city doesn't seem to present itself in a positive light IMO. If positive, can you elaborate for us as to any news that could be construed as positive that we may or may not know about?

-I don’t want to minimize the issues we are facing in Middletown. From state cuts to our budget to crime, we have challenges as a city that will require difficult decisions and perseverance.   However, all is not lost either. We have good news in a number of areas. Our airport is bringing large amounts of visitors into town. Agree or disagree with what they are, there are things happening downtown; Broad St. Bash, PAC and Cincinnati State just to name a few. On the East End, have the Greentree HSA , a new VA Center, YMCA, Paychex and the Atrium campus along with many other developments and opportunities.    Next month, we will see the start-up of a $350+million investment from Suncoke. We have also had investments from Wausau Paper in their facility downtown.    There are positive things taking place in Middletown.

5. What impact, in your opinion, has Section 8 overabundance had on the city as to service stress, image and economic impact? What are your thoughts on lowering the numbers?

-The saturation of subsidized housing, in my opinion, has been detrimental to Middletown and those who are in need of housing assistance. It is not possible for Middletown to survive with the level of concentration that we now have. The loss of tax revenue coupled with the strain on our services makes both the City and those receiving assistance worse off.
It is my opinion that we must reduce the concentration of subsidized housing in Middletown. However, the restrictions that HUD puts on MPHA make it difficult to just arbitrarily “lower numbers”. In fact, complying with HUD’s Section 8 program, leaves us with very little control. It’s a sad fact, but in the past we invited the federal government into our community and now we must play by their rules.
The task ahead of Middletown, in terms of Section 8, is difficult but not impossible.   The policies adopted some months back create incentives for those on the Section 8 program to live outside of Middletown.   In addition, it holds landlords and tenants accountable and removes those from the program who are criminal or are breaking program rules. This is a significant step in the right direction.

Mr. Laubach, with your response on the demolition of Sunset Pool in mind, how do you feel about the city having given over a million dollars to the golf course over the last five years?

Isn't it somewhat hypocritical of the city to continue to spend approximately $200,000 per year on the golf course with no financial ROI in sight while demolishing Sunset Pool due to economic concerns with operational costs quoted that were approximately 25% of what the city has been pumping into the golf course each year?

Furthermore, how do we justify demolishing the pool at a cost of around $70k when it costs less than that to operate for a season and we still had nearly $20k from AK Steel earmarked only for the pool that is sitting unused? Was it a smart decision to demolish the pool when it could have just as easily been left alone?