Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Attention Reporters for the Media

We know that the reporters for at least the SE Messenger, This Week in Pickerington and the Columbus Dispatch read this forum. We are never too sure about the Pickerington Times-Sun.

Immediately below under the discussion topic ?“Questions for the Trustees?”, there are 8 important questions that need to be asked of the Violet Trustees and their faithful minions serving as elected representatives of the city of Pickerington. At the same time, it is my humble opinion that these questions also need to be asked of the Township Director, the Township Finance Director, the Pickerington City Manager, the Pickerington Finance Director and the Pickerington Development Director.

There is nothing I would rather do than to ask these questions myself in a public forum, but having experienced ?“Pickerington Paybacks?” by our beloved mayor, I will save myself and my family the pain and suffering with again subjecting us to the retribution of his honor.

Members of the press, we are all as sick and tired of the subject of the economic agreement between the city and township as you are. However, with the questions written below, it might be time to pout this to rest once and for all. At the very least, these questions and any answers you might get (and I doubt there will be any) could be fodder for your editors in speaking their mind in their editions.

Thank you from the residents of the city of Pickerington.

To the Reporters of the Media

More of us agree as well these questions need to be addressed and the best way for everyone to see the answers is in the newspapers we read.

Please address these questions to the elected officials so all of us can see the answers.

By More Residents of Pickerington

Time for some complete answers

Yesterday and this morning I posed some questions that need to be answered truthfully by the Township Trustees and Councilman Fix. Up to this point we have received no direct answer from ?“their?” side on this matter. Mostly what has been given as answers is news clips designed to mislead the public into thinking this is a great deal for the city. By using code words and phrases that spark the interest of the public only to have no substance to the issues at hand.

One of those phrases was when asked about the city conforming it boundaries to form a a paper township Mr. Fix could not give a straight answer only to say, ?“that it would tear this community apart?“. What does he base his statement on other than his own opinion? It is very apparent that Mr. Fix went into these talks with Gary Weltlich and Fix was intimidated by the present of Daddy Warbucks. He simply acted like a little girl afraid to challenge or even ask questions of Weltlich to get a 7 to 0 vote of Pickerington City council. Fix would rather ignore the fact that the Pickerington taxpayers are paying to the township nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year for NOTHING in return. Fix complains about not having enough police officers to serve Pickerington but he willing allows without question Pickerington Taxpayer?’s money to go to the township that would be enough money to hire three Pickerington Police Officers. One of the important responsibilities to be a Council member if to hold the purse strings of the city. Even if Fix is against forming a paper township shouldn?’t he at least ask about where the money is going in the township? There are reports that he didn?’t know anything about this inside millage going to the township. He only learned of the millage after Mr. Hackworth brought it up in a service committee meeting in December.

Now I believe last year that the Violet Township Fire department changed their 911 service to that system up in Gahanna. That removed over $80,000 from the Pickerington Police department budget thus a fourth office is gone.


Since PATA was formed early in this century they always complained about the incompetence of the City government. Please go back and read the newsletters and the postings. Many of the complains that were lodged against the city a few years ago have been corrected prior to Fix being elected to office. Some before the Shaver gang of four was elected. The fact is the city has made huge strides in controlling the growth and increasing the property valuation per student in the last 4 years. Yet this agreement still wants the Township to control residential growth and they have little or no control over their zoning laws as illustrated by the recent spot zoning going on in the township.

The City has lower residential zoning density than the township. The city has not had any new residential plats approved since 2002. The township continues to plat residential. The percentage of commercial development is nearly 50% of the city total development for this coming year. The city enacted residential design guidelines. The city enacted impact fees to help pay for a portion of that new growth both residential and commercial. Despite the impact fees on commercial development there still seems to be steady commercial growth in the city and very little in the Violet Township and in the PLSD.


By Disgruntled Taxpayer

News writers-Make great story

I hope someone from the local media does read this site. They will be doing their Pickerington reading audience a TREMENDOUS service if they can get answers to these tough questions.

Also...it would be great if a public forum could be held in which these questions were addressed. It would also be a service to the community if the Trustees and Mr. Fix could bring a financial analysis of how the proposed ordinance benefits the taxpayers of Pickerington. People have been asking for #'s for months and noone has yet to produce any.