Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

There are a lot of good ideas and thoughts presented on this website, and a few of them have lead to some significant action. But, in light of council's inaction following the passage of the November initiatives, it seems most of our options, while appropriate, require more organization or resources than are available.

Perhaps I am viewing this too ''simplistically'' (due to my lack of legal and political experience) but a suggestion that Lisa Reade made on a prior posting seemed to be an exception. I am talking about the idea of attempting to get an initiative on the ballot to put a moratorium on sewer taps.

With the huge margin of support for the November initiative regarding tap ''give aways'', it seems that any future initiative that so much as included the words ''sewer'' and ''tap'' would surely pass. While there may be some skepticism from some portion of the electorate regarding a recall (certainly not from me) I doubt you'd find much resistance to signing a petition dealing with this issue.

As she also suggested, it seems likely that such an effort might have an impact even before it was completed. Council has proven with the November initiative regarding emergency legislation that they are pragmatic enough to compromise only if they find themselves between a ''rock and a hard place''. Isn't that where they would be if they felt that a legal petition was headed their way that would impose these restrictions on them via citizen referendum. Wouldn't they then be likely to give consideration to Mr Shaver's proposed moratorium on housing...or a less restrictive moratorium on taps? Is there a potential that this could impact their plans to spend all those tax dollars on new water treatment facilities?

How long could it take the folks who've come through so effectively on past initiatives to put together enough signatures to get this done?

I'm a little too politically ignorant to answer my own questions here, but unless there's something I'm missing, this one sounds like a potential winner...

referendum on sewer expansion

Since council will soon consider voting to expand the sewer plant to the tune of 9 million dollars, and currently (stay tuned) there is not a possibility to pass legislation via emergency since we still have vacant seats, we could referenda the vote to expand the sewer plant, effectively limiting sewer taps to only the current capacity and what Fairfield County and Canal Winchester can provide in their service areas, many of which are in areas that the city wants to annex.

I do not care if landowners annex, as long as there are no incentives to developers/ landowners like increased single family home density vs. what the Township zoning process would likely allow (less than 2.0 per acre) tap fee waivers, TIFs etc.The sewer plant expansion will allow the city to duplicate services in the Fairfield County and Canal Winchester current service areas. This is a complete waste of resources since both of those entities would serve any annexed Pickerington land within their areas, why does the city have to offer a choice of sewer providers? Most people do not care where they flush, but they do care if have to pay exhorbidant fees to flush their toilets, and that is where all of this is leading everyone.

I also think that it will cost far more than 9 million dollars in increased school levies to pay for the 4000 homes this sewer expansion will allow! WE must stop it NOW.

Stop the expansion

For those of you that still think that the current Mayor and the City Council minus David Shaver are now seeing the light and they plan to reduce the rate of residential growth in our city please think it over one more time.

Please ask your self why our city would need additional sewer capacity for at least 4000 more homes here in Pickerington when we can?’t afford to educate the children currently in our school system let alone the thousands more that will come from these additional homes? Please also remember Canal Winchester is providing sewer service for both Fox Glen (Old Diley Farm 540 Homes) and Sycamore Creek (750 homes) and they still have a few years yet to build those projects out. They have annexed 312 acres (682 homes) south of the city and the county will service that area as well as the Viola Park sub-division along Pickerington Road. Currently there are only about 3000 homes in the entire city of Pickerington.

Yes we can run an initiative calling for a moratorium on sewer taps for two or three years. It is clearly legal and it would take about thirty days to get everyone out and get those petitions signed and sent to the Board of Elections. We wouldn?’t be able to vote on the issue until November 4th 2003.

What is of even greater concern is the expansion of the present sewer plant. If the service committee votes to expand the sewer plant that will allow sewer capacity for 4000 additional homes in the City. Even if that was the only sewer plant around that is a ten year supply of new homes folks. We as citizens of Pickerington must STOP this expansion.

Clearly Maxey and Parker will vote to expand. Base on what? I don?’t know. Also note neither of them have children in the school system. Once it reaches the council it will be after March 1st and Lou Postage will be able to make the appointment to the two council seats. If they have 6 votes then they can pass that expansion ordinance as emergency.

We as citizens can only then run an initiative on the ordinance reversing it. We couldn?’t get to vote on it until November and they could start work on the project in the mean time.

If they pass this ordinance as a non-emergency then we can run a referendum on the issue and once we file the petitions and they are certified then they can?’t proceed with the project until we all get to vote on it in November.

Obviously if the Pickerington City Council votes this sewer expansion in as an emergency then the only way to stop them is with a recall. Clearly if they didn?’t get the message last November then they will never get the message. If the two new guys they appoint vote with them as emergency then it would be time for all of them to be recalled. I doubt David Shaver would vote for the expansion. I hope the citizens of Pickerington pay attention the next few weeks because our future will be on the line.

DO WE NOW HAVE A LEADER FOR A RECALL?

Service Meeting

We need to have a large & vocal showing at the Service Committee Meeting on February 20th at 7:30pm.

Maybe 100 City Residents should all ask to speak against it. Maybe Township Residents should talk about the school we will help pay for as they add an additional 4000 homes to our school system.

This effort needs to be Community Based & Community Driven. A few dedicated people can't save the city for everyone else - we need support from everyone. There is strength in numbers.

FYI - anyone can help getting signatures - the more help the easier it is - if we have 40 carriers they each need to get 20 signatures. If we have 60 carriers they each need to get 13 signatures. Talking points are provided so anyone can do this. Don't depend or assume the same 30 people can run out & do a petition. Help is needed & appreciated.

I agree with Gary - this seems to be an issue to take a stand on in some fashion - we need to see what happens at the Feb 20th meeting first.