News archive

Election is over.  

New page has will turned.

Now that the election is over I'm looking forward to the next two years.  I know I've been lax in posting to the Mayor's blog this last couple years.  It is my intention to going back to writing at least weekly.  I'm hoping these next couple years many of the articles I write will have a positive tone and others will explore the pros and cons of different ways to approach how the city does…

DDN article concerning staff at General Council Meetings

I suggested months ago that we stop asking all of staff to come to Council meetings if it was preventing them from preparing written reports prior to committee meetings. Today, days before the election that request was twisted into an article from the DDN. http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/…/huber-heights-cha…/npB3R/

Below you can see the example of what staff needs to be protected from.  If…

Letter to Ward 6 residents

Ward 6 Letter endorsing Richard Stan


Ward 6 endorsement letter back page


Here is the letter from the Fire Fighters Local 2926.  After the letter I put links to the interview videos so you can

Fire Station support - yes - but I've never supported the 2025 plan

I did a quick search of this site to see what I wrote concerning the proposed fire station / fire house:

This first post predates the 2025 plan so you can see I've always been against the promise to lock the city into just providing current levels of services.  On April 6, 2014 I wrote:

How about Police and Fire services?  Is it really realistic to ask for a levy that does no more than…

Recent videos from Local 2926 interviews

The original post is  below and also the original controversial video.  Watching the full interviews are more informative so if you are time limited skip the write-up and the first video and watch the full interviews first.  They can be found below the first video. 

Original with updates ————–
The Executive Committee of Local 2926 invited the candidates to speak to their members.  They video…

Housing to Youth

I was looking at the procedures to start an llc and found this interesting in the context of all the questions about Concept 1.  I wonder if they have the referenced letter and if they do why they didn't provide it.  It certainly would have helped their credibility. 

Some of the reasons to add an attachment would be in the following situations:
* The business name you have selected is already in

I'm always looking for your input to help me improve the discussion

 This week I've been following comments to a DDN article about the construction of the Fire Station.  It would be more beneficial to me if more of these discussions helped me do my job. For instance if you fast forward to 1:25:10 of the administration committee video you will see that I asserted that we had not passed a budget for the Fire Station. This is wrong. We passed a budget on Sept 14, 2

$17 million or $8.5 million council chooses $8.5

There was a decent discussion on the subject of the Carriage Trails Supplement last Council meeting.  I recommend watching the video on the City's Website. Putting the bottom line up front; if the City didn't supplement the building of Carriage Trails it would likely net $17.4 million dollars over the next 21 years.  If council keeps supplementing the development the most it can net is $8.5…

Election message for the residents of Huber Heights

For three years prior to being elected and in the two years since being elected I've asked current council members to adopt standard practices like going out and bidding major contracts, adding a means for us to recover our costs if a contractor fails to perform and requiring a conflict of interest statement for a businessman like Mr. Conaway that is being paid both by the City and by the…

2040 Long Range Transportation Plan

Subject:        Public Participation Meetings to be held regarding the 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan Update. 
Dayton, OH - The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC) will hold a series of Public Participation Meetings regarding the 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan Update as follows: 
 

  • Tuesday, October 20, 2015 
Troy-Miami County Public Library – Multipurpose Room
419 W. Ma

Ed Lyons - Thank you council for a billion dollars!

Thank you council for giving us a billion dollars, "that's billion with a b".  This was Ed Lyons showing his understanding of economic development at the announcement of "The Heights" development project just before he was elected to council.

Not all browsers show the embedded video.  If you can't see the preview view it directly from YouTube 


 
If Ed Lyons, Jan Vargo, Karen Kaleps or Lu…

Ed Lyons - Thank you council for a billion dollars!

Thank you council for giving us a billion dollars, "that's billion with a b".  This was Ed Lyons showing his understanding of economic development at the announcement of "The Heights" development project just before he was elected to council. 


 
If Ed Lyons, Jan Vargo, Karen Kaleps or Lu Dale were capable of understanding what it takes to produce economic development they would have…

There are reasons I like Richard Stan for Ward 6 Council Representa…

Ed Lyons has been useless in helping me do my job of making sure the public understands the decisions Council makes on behalf of the City.  I just came upon this article by Richard Stan that makes me believe things could be much better next year.
 

From the desk of Richard Stan:

Rebuttal to Ed Lyon’s Speech to the League of Women Voters on Thursday, Oct 1.

My honorable opponent, Ed Lyons, spoke…

Update  15  Oct  –  Another $579,000 wasted by Council

There was a decent discussion on this subject.  I recommend watching the video on the City's Website.  The discussion starts at 58 minutes and 48 seconds.  I thought I would  produce a table below based on the numbers provided to show how much would be collected if the developer were to sell 30 houses per year and the city netted $53,000 per house (we don't provide any supplement) versus…

Update $651,651 (not $1 Million) dollar deficit in City Budget

6 Oct 2015
Tonight we had an administration committee meeting and further discussed the 2016 budget.  Let me first say it has always been my objective to have informative discussion at committee and general council meetings.  When I am successful there will be many times when we will start with preliminary numbers and facts and they will be honed as we get deeper into the discussion.  So a…

Concept One Academy - new application to be discussed at Public Wor…

Tuesday at the Public Works Committee meeting there will be a discussion on the application for a major zoning change for the old Lamendola School Property.  A company called Concept 1 Academy desires to house up to thirty-two 16 - 18 year old males.
 
The read ahead within the agenda found on the city web site contains:
 
Staff Report, Minutes of the Planning Commission Hearing, Decision Record,…

Committee of the Whole - 7 of 8 council members did not attend

Facebook is alive with a discussion about the Committee of the Whole meeting 7 of the 8 council members did not attend. 
 
Here is a little background; there was a Public Works Committee meeting scheduled for 4:30 followed by a Administration Committee meeting at 6:00 pm.  Thursday July 16 at 5 pm we got notification that the Admin Committee meeting was cancelled due to a lack of agenda items.  Thursday night I called a Committee of the Whole meeting and notification went out on…

Family Disc Golf Day August 9th

I have been talking about a Disc Golf event since the beginning of the summer with a couple of different concepts. With the help of the Parks and Recreation Board and DDGA this idea of a introductory Family Disc Day emerged. For more information; direct registration or to volunteer to help go to Family Disc Golf Day in Huber Heights.  

Last week I took Irvin out to play disc golf for the first

Give $15,000 to Developers or $4,000 to longtime residents.  How sh…

This article is another attempt by me to get council to compel staff to compute real numbers that justify giving the developer of Carriage Trails $15,000 per house in financial aid.  I bring this up because Tuesday night council decided not to give a widowed retiree and long time property tax paying resident a $4,000 supplement to help her fix the lateral that connects to the sewer on the other side of Harshmanville…

City to buy nearly "free" land and Lamandola vote likely Monday

Two interesting items on the agenda for the Council Meeting Jun 22, 2015.
 
The Lamandola property zoning issue will probably be voted on tomorrow.  At least it should be voted on.
 
I personally don't believe they will be opening an official school.  With that I don't believe that Planned Public is the proper zoning if they  believe they qualify for that zoning based on their business being a school.  However, the dilemma is what would be the proper…

Two sets of books to track Music Center and Aquatic Center costs.

Last council meeting I asked about the way the financial report in the weekly report tracked the costs of the Music Center.  What prompted this question was that I heard other council members say we've had more than $1 million dollars in ticket sales yet the weekly report showed receipts of only $437,674.55.

Currently both the Music Center and Aquatic Center are managed by contractors so the…

The pictures make it obvious a no bid contract for the new Fire Hou…

Sometimes when you know something is wrong you have to take actions that are painful.  I fully expect that these pictures of Mr. Campbell and Mr. Conaway will get distributed over and over again this election cycle.  I should not feel bad about spreading them myself, but I do.  However, it's incredible that Councilman Ed Lyons and Councilwomen Jan Vargo and Lu Dale don't realize that incidents…

Updates:  Zoning of old Lamandola School to allow Private Residenti…

Updates - 23 June 2015
Too much going on to post all the updates but I'll get some now and I'll post others as they occur.

The most important is that the Applicant withdrew the application before the Jun 22 council meeting.  The paper tells us that the intention is to make a new application so  it can be heard by the planning commission on July 14, 2015.  

From the news article and from the…

Fire House Management Contract - Part 1 - the Contract

Monday June 1st 2015 at the Safety Service Committee meeting we discussed at length the management contract for the building of the new Fire House.  There are two themes to this article.  First I'll talk about some of the specific items in the contract I suggested but were rejected - for instance a conflict of interest / ethics clause so the project manager would have to act in the best…

Fire Pits and Campfires

Yesterday a resident asked me about the need for a permit for small fires in their back yards.  I'd like to thank Chief Ashworth for providing this response:

Mayor,
Open burning is regulated in three areas; The Ohio Fire Code,  the Ohio Administrative Code (Chapter 3745-19 Open Burning Standards) and RAPCA which is the Montgomery County Regional Air Pollution Control Agency.  We also post on the Fire Division’s web site those laws pertaining to the guidelines.

Say hello to the Mayor at the Chamber of Commerce Business Expo

Thursday evening Jun 4th from 5 to 8 pm at Wayne High School, 5400 Chambersburg Rd the Huber Heights Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Community and Business Expo.  I will be there and have a booth so that we can talk about City business and the community.  I learn the most when you tell me what you're thinking and what is important to you.
 
We can also talk about the things that I know people are already talking about.  For…

Fishburg Road (west of Old Troy Pike) will be closed from Elysian W…

City of Huber Heights – Road Closure
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 4, 2015
 
Fishburg Road (west of Old Troy Pike) will be closed from Elysian Way to Aaron Lane for one day on Friday, May 8, 2015.   The road will only be closed during the day from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.   The road is being closed in order to finish installing a new storm culvert on the south side of the road to fill…

Election Day Tuesday - Matt Truman - Video - Council at Large

Matt Truman started Brick City Town Hall a Facebook page designed to talk about City issues.  You can see his campaign Facebook page here.


 

 

A short video for you this morning. Thank you all for your support and well wishes, as the election is just around the…

Posted by Matthew Truman for Huber Heights Council At Large on Tuesday, April 28, 2015

And don't forget to check out the…

Election Day Tuesday - Glenn Otto - 30 Minute Q &A - Council at Large

Sunday at 6:00 pm Glenn Otto will be doing a live YouTube Question and Answer session.  

 You can pass him questions before hand via his Facebook site

Put it on your schedule.  You will also be able to watch the reply at the same You tube address:





And don't forget to check out the other council at large candidates:


 

Election Day Tuesday - Jaclynn Shook Flier - Council at Large

I spoke with Jaclynn Lee Shook today.  I really like the idea of having a contracting officer on Council.  Here is a copy of her flier. 



Jaclynn Lee Shook Flier
Jaclynn Shook  Jaclynn…