Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

It looks like the wheels fell off the cooperation cart last week. I guess the question is were those wheels ever securely attached to the cooperation cart? After years of annexation wars and infighting between the City of Pickerington and Violet Township the trustees showed their distaste for the City and her residents in favor for a different school district at the expense of the township?‘s own citizens.


The City has tried to get involved in a cooperative move for years now with the Township and each time the township has rebuffed Pickerington in favor of Canal Winchester.

What Pickerington must do is retreat and reevaluate their position. The City of Pickerington has given this effort over two years to work and they have gotten no where. In the last six months after their election I understand that the Trustees have been making public threats against the City. Clearly these guys are not going to work with Pickerington and it is time to stop the con game being played by the Township.

1. City council move to create a paper Township.

2. Create your own Fire Department. I have a friend that works for the Auditor of State and he tells me that the Fire Department would be divided up proportionately. So what ever Pickerington Taxpayers have put into the Fire Department would be what they get out of it and those assets that are split up would be determined by a Court.

3. End the Talks about the Joint Parks Board. The fact is that unless the Township is ready to pass a Parks levy of 3 Mills or more then they are only wanting to feed off of the taxpayers of Pickerington again and exploit the current Pickerington Parks system.

4. City Council put your finances in order and prepare for battle with the Township. Annex every thing in sight and remove as much as possible from the township tax coffers.

5. Then there is the Ricketts. Currently they want to sell their property out on Refugee and Pickerington Roads. If that property remains in the Township, Terry Dunlap has already planned to partner with Canal Winchester and that will place the future growth and development solely in the hands of Canal who will need to provide the roads and other infrastructure needed to support the big box. Canal and the Big Box developer like Wal-Mart (see this morning?’s Dispatch) and will they really care what you people in the township want? The Trustees will be the minority on a 3 member JEDD board. Rita you can?’t do that to this community. Go to the City and apply to annex your lands.

6. City Council place traffic signals at the main roads coming into Pickerington from the Township. Extend the township residents trips to work in the mornings. Some of that tax money that would have been coming from inclusion into the CEDA would have been good to use to improve the Pickerington area roads and traffic signal system. Let the Township suffer for their government?’s action.

7. Then those that live in Pickerington should call the group in Groveport to start the process of forming a City School District. Separate your city district from Violet Township local School District and their school board.



By Broke city taxpayer

City needs to say UNCLE

Broke, my man, you may have stumbled across something here. If we consider that all of the Pickerington Local School Board members reside in Violet Township and all of the Violet Township trustees live in the unincorporated areas of the Township the City taxpayers are currently being dictated to by so called representatives that do not share the pain of the City taxes.

Does anyone know the name of the group or the contact person in Groveport that is trying to create the Groveport City/Village schools system?

Let Columbus take care of its own students and let Violet Township take care of its students. If that isolates some of the students let them get absorbed into the surrounding school districts.

If Pickerington decides that they no longer want to fight the Township?’s ?“boxing in?” zoning strategy then look inward and create you own City and provide only for your own citizens. Pickerington has no obligation to subsidize the other taxpayers in the District.

If the Council is reluctant to act maybe we can form a new group and do it by an initiative.

If the school district is around 10,000 student then around 35% live in the City (my guess). If the number of students in each grade level were all the same that would mean Central HS would only have 1100 students, Ridgeview would only have 550, Diley Middle would only have 550, Between Pickerington Elementary and Heritage there would only be 1,345 plus the land at Sycamore Creek. If the City is not growing in the future then there will not be a need for future buildings. If Canal is so interested in getting into Violet?’s pants that they can educate the southern half of Violet Township.

I think we all need to start the process of doing our homework here and first approach the Council and if they refuse to act start two initiative petitions one for a paper township and the other for a Pickerington City School District.




By I'm with you man

Threats duley noted

My man; I believe the $120,000 or so a year that Violet Township gets from Canal Winchester from their Canal Pointe development will be a small amount to consider when they view the big picture.

I would suggest to the Trustees do NOT go into any debt soon. You all may have now over loaded your humming bird butt with your alligator mouths.

Divorce Issues

Dear Broke City Taxpayer,

When a divorce involves substantial amounts of money, and affects the lives of many, as is the case with this one, some forethought and asking the right questions are in order. In response to your items, I have the following comments/questions:

1. OK, so the point in creating a paper township is to take money away from the evil soon-to-be-ex-spouse. Good. Revenge is always sweet. But have you really thought through all the services the Township provides? You addressed the Fire Department. Of course, that also comes with EMS services. But there's also street plowing in the winter - are you ready to take that on with the same service level the Township provides? If not, residents will be very unhappy after the first snowfall. Have you talked to any but the handful of residents who post here? Word on the street is that most people are happy with Township services. Remember, if you're going to take a huge political step, be prepared to land on your face.

Maybe you could ask some Columbus residents how they feel about services once Columbus conformed its paper township boundaries and took the Park Place subdivision out of Violet Township.

2. Can you create a smaller fire department that will run with the same cost-efficiency as the larger township fire department? If not, you'll be looking at placing levies on the ballot, which will be political suicide. The other option is to let it burn, baby. Just like the old farmhouse on SR 256, which conveniently burned to make room for a strip mall.

3. Ending talks about a joint parks board is kind of a ''who cares?'' We truly have more pressing concerns.

4. By annexing everything in sight, you will be raising taxes on township residents who become city residents. It's fine by me, but maybe others might be a little concerned about this. The piper will need to be paid come election time. But, then again, it's not my butt on the line.

5. Ah, the Ricketts. Wake up and smell the coffee. Either Rita Ricketts quit caring about this community back when she wanted to sell to Dominion, or she's had some early-onset dementia. Forget about Mrs. Ricketts. She long ago forgot about you.

6. Yes, yes, yes! In a divorce, definitely screw the tramp! However, state law may come between you and sweet revenge. Apparently you can't put in traffic signals willy-nilly just make someone's morning commute longer. And then there's the cost of each light. Surely there are better, legal, cheaper methods of revenge.

7. This one is interesting, and I've been wondering when someone will take up this call to arms. The biggest difference I see between the Groveport Madison School District and the Pickerington Local School District is the state's rating. You see, Groveport's rating is in the dumper, and Pickerington's is pretty good. Despite all the insults hurled toward the school board, they do a pretty good job of educating students. The Ohio Board of Education may be unconvinced that a split in the school would be for the benefit of the students, and may even see through your desire for revenge, students be damned!

But if you want to put in the time and money to create a Pickerington City School District, go for it. You may find you don't get a lot of support, though, once people realize all the rich township residents won't be in the city schools.


By Proceed Cautiously