Depending on your background and interests getting the best value for our tax dollars will mean different things to different people. I start this section of the essay by pointing out the things that attracted my wife and I to Huber Heights. This will help you understand some of my current positions and help you understand the direction of future decisions.
You can see from reading the first part of this essay that I mentioned police and fire services as my first priority for the upcoming year. Part of the reason they rise to the top is because they should be the top of the list for any mayor. I know our residents need and want strong safety services. A high proportion of our population settled here in the 1960’s and 1970’s and it is important we have strong EMS to be able to serve all our residents. When we were planning to move to the city, a low crime rate was important to my wife and I. For a community of diverse, working class population Huber Heights has a very good reputation as a peaceful community.
There were three other main considerations we evaluated when picking Huber Heights. The cost of living in the city, the school system and the commute to work. The commute to work will be the most relevant in my outlook on many important issues like, the Brandt Pike Revitalization Plan, Carriage Trails Supplements and The Heights Development. I will talk about those in later essays. The rest of this essay will discuss how the school system and home value influence our satisfaction with the city.
Back in 2006, our evaluation of the school system was positive enough we felt comfortable sending our children to Titus elementary. Just like it did for us, the reputation of the Huber Heights and Bethel school systems affects the types of people that settle in the city. Fortunately, both school districts have a positive influence.
The one aspect the Huber Heights City Schools and their supporters have that does not get the public recognition it deserves is school facilities provide the focal point of much of the City activity. It is not only Wayne football and basketball that draw in the community. Youth basketball, ROTC and the Lego Robotic Challenge help keep cars in the parking lots. There seem to always be events at the Athletic Club. I enjoy the choir and band performances.
The School Systems are separate and independent from the City government but it is in the Mayor’s and City government’s best interest to have strong school systems. Strong school systems help draw in those people that value education and generally these families bring more economic activity and benefits.
There are a number of ways for the city to help strengthen the schools. Many of the Huber Heights City schools have traffic flow issues that city officials can be more proactive in helping to alleviate. I often think the City’s public relations coordinator could help bring more attention to the plays and other performances of both school systems and to the city’s seniors and other residents.
Highlighting quality activities provided by the schools and drawing people to those activities strengthens the schools and makes it more likely they will receive the support and resource needed for further success. Successful school activities can lead to a stronger community interest and make it more likely for members of the community to want to organize similar activities for adults. The Tuesday night open mics and Friday night plays that should be filling the Eichelberger Amphitheater should be organized and performed by Wayne and Bethel graduates that still hold that performance passion. Our public relations coordinator can provide the right environment to make this happen.
If this essay were just about what the Mayor planned to do in 2017 than I should not have spent this much time so early in the essay. The City and the Mayor have very little influence over the schools. This amount of time was appropriate because this section of the essay is about what drew my family to Huber Heights in order to help you understand my decisions and priorities.
So far I highlighted crime rate and safety services, then schools. It would not be possible to emphasis enough the influence of being able to purchase a 4100 sq ft house[1], with 6 bedrooms and 1.25 acres for $235,000 had on helping Marylin and I pick this community. Remember we moved here in 2006 right before the housing bubble burst and I was stationed at Edwards AFB just prior to being assigned here. A friend of mine purchased a 1400 sqft house just outside the Edwards gate for more than $500,000 dollars in 2005. So, our price comparison model started out very skewed. But even compared to the houses we looked at in Washington Township, Beavercreek and Centerville we would save $60,000 or $70,000 just on the price of the home. Add to that the commute to work is seven miles and 15 minutes and Huber Heights looks much better than any of those areas that feed into the I-675 gate. You get a lot of house value for your dollar when you buy in Huber Heights. That is one part of the calculation in the cost of living equation.
In the following essays, you will see that road conditions and taxes play a significant role in my decision calculations as the Mayor because they play a significant role in my decision making as an individual. The next three essays, “North of Taylorsville Road”, “South of Taylorsville Road” and the final essay, whose titled is still TBD, will address specific items of interest such as Carriage Trails, the Heights, and Brand Pike revitalization. Somehow, I am going to have to figure out where to put my support for both the single trash collection decision made in previous years[2] and support for making sure Energy Aggregation gets implemented.
Read the first essay: Mayor's Vision - Part .2 Continue to the next essay Mayor's Vision: North of Taylorsville Road or the next after that Mayors' Vision: South of Taylorsville Road
[1] It is interesting to see all the different measures presented for house. It was listed by the county as 4100 sqft when we purchased it. After we purchased it they listed it as 3300 sqft with 800 sqft of (unfinished) basement. Today I see they have decided it is 2,688 sqft with 1000 sqft of something other than living space. If we ever decide to sell it will be important to get the sqft right. That is not on the horizon yet.
[2] Yes, I see the continuous Facebook chatter about our trash collection and yes it will be interesting to see if Republic actually did record an issue I had with their service that did not get resolved in the way their guidance shows they will resolve that type of problem and yes this change in days proposal was a fiasco, but that does not change the fact that my service costs half as much as it did three years ago and that the wear on our city streets has been reduced significantly (Form page 24 of this study you see that one pass over a residential street by a garbage truck does approximately the same damage as 10,000 passes from passenger cars). Additionally, the complaints I see on Facebook would not want me to trade the services I get now for the restrictions I see almost everywhere else. Who here wants to buy special bags at 10 times normal price in order to put their leaves in? My relatives in SC get to rent one trash can and if their weekly trash does not fit in it they either save it to next week or take it to the dump themselves. It is a month or more wait for my parents in NY to be able to arrange to have a couch taken. So if you have not heard it from me before, “Thank you Karen Kaleps for the good work you did in organizing the process that got us single hauler trash service for the City”.
Edited