The Village of Minerva Park faces three main issues in the next four years: the Village budget, the continued maintenance of a highly visible and effective safety services, and the bolstering of the Village’s image through code enforcement, zoning ordinances, and infrastructure improvements.
Without a doubt, the number one issue of the Village is the budget. Minerva Park’s revenues are decreasing due to the continued unemployment, poor housing market, and turbulent economic times which not only affect the income of residents, but also lower Franklin County real-estate evaluations, which also decrease Village tax revenues. On top of these dilemmas, Federal and State government cutbacks are drying-up grants the Village has depended upon for years. In addition, services and the cost of goods continue to escalate, especially those associated with gasoline and health insurance, two major components of safety services. I will address the third and second issues first.
When surrounded by the same environment, it is human nature to become accustomed to that environment. The current homeowners look at their property differently than a prospective buyer. You may be used to the water stain on the basement wall, but to a prospective buyer, it might as well have a bulls-eye around it. The next time you drive or walk through the Village, I want you to pay close attention to the number of faded and rusted no parking and stop signs, deterioration of paint on fire hydrants, and the condition of curbs. Check the condition of the crumbling concrete walls at the dam spillway, the broken stone walkway walls, the missing fountains in the south lake, and the condition of the playground equipment. These are all small observations individually, but as a whole, they speak volumes to visitors and prospective residents, and they do see these things differently than we residents. Many long time residents of the Village remember a time when such things were not true. When voluntarism of Village residents was greater in the past, which helped maintain much of the infrastructure, which now require paying a contractor or vendor..
As far as the second issue, the one and only thing that keeps the surrounding deterioration and plunging property values out of our Village is the thin blue line our police officers draw around our Village. Without this instrument of law enforcement, our Village would be just like the surrounding area with high crime rates and plunging property values. However, that protection costs money just as the infrastructure maintenance mentioned above.
That brings us back to issue number one, financing the Village. Undoubtedly, you will hear from the other candidates that the resolution of this issue simply means cutting bloated expenses and keeping the budget balanced with revenues already in place. While it may be true that new eyes on the revenues and expenses may resolve some constraints, it is highly unlikely cuts alone can balance our budget, which is required by State of Ohio law, while keeping services at the same or better level. Safety services takes up well over one half of the general budget.
If elected this fall, I propose to investigate the drafting of a safety levy to be put on the ballot in the coming year. A safety levy could alleviate some of the burden on the general fund and thus free funding for the repairs and maintenance of the infrastructure mentioned earlier. No one wants to pay more taxes, especially me, but such a levy, in my opinion, would cost far less than the proposed “gated community” idea and could reach the same goal of making our Village safer and raising our property values as a whole. The amount of such a levy would need to be determined after a careful examination of projected budgets. But remember, as residents you will have the authority to approve or disapprove any levy at the voting booth. Learn more at http://www.minervapark.net.
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