Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Three newcomers among council candidates
Thursday, August 25, 2005
By MACKENZIE WHITE
ThisWeek Staff Writer
November's race for Pickerington City Council will include at least three newcomers, but one long-time member has said he won't run again.
In the school board race, meanwhile, only one incumbent planned to file with the Fairfield County Board of Elections as of ThisWeek's press time.
Both Violet Township trustee incumbents have said they'll run again.
The deadline to file is 4 p.m. today, Aug. 25.
Newcomers Cristie Hammond, Keith Smith and Tory Kramer have thrown their hats into the ring for four city council seats. Council incumbents Mitch O'Brien and Mike Sabatino said they plan to run again but Doug Parker, who was appointed to council in December 1999, said he won't seek re-election. Parker cited the ''time constraints'' of running his business, ISG Vending.
Bill Wright, who also is up for re-election, had not returned calls seeking comment by press time.
Hammond, 52, a member of the Pickerington parks and recreation board, said running for council is a logical progression. When she applied for her spot on the board, she said, ''I made it clear that I wanted to serve the city in some capacity and this is another step in that direction.''
Kramer, vice chairman of the planning and zoning commission, said this is his first time running for elected office.
''What am I getting myself into?'' he quipped.
He and Smith had not filed as of press time, but said they planned to.
Kramer, 41, said his time on the commission influenced his decision. He echoed Hammond's sentiments, saying council is the ''next logical step.''
''To me, it's all a way of giving back to the community,'' he said.
If elected, Kramer said, ''I think primarily my goals are to continue the good work that we've accomplished in planning and zoning, and that's creating a Pickerington that we can be happy with today and also tomorrow.''
Kramer, who has a 15-year-old son, Dustin, with his wife, Cathy, was involved in forming the residential design guidelines the city is considering.
''The one thing that I hope that we get out of this is the ability to allow ourselves to be a little bit flexible,'' he said. ''We're not saying that these residential guidelines are going to be either a black or a white scenario. We're going to have some gray in there.''
Kramer, a nine-year resident of Pickerington, works in data security for Limited Brands.
Smith, chairman of the city's property maintenance task force, is a 28-year veteran of the Army Reserves. A lieutenant colonel who taught a masters-level program for U.S. Army officers, he retired earlier this month.
Smith has lived in Pickerington nearly two years. He said his top goal, if elected, is to ''continue some of the positive actions that have begun over the past couple of years with city council and to help ensure that they actually come to fruition.'' Among these, he said, are the city's growth management plans.
''I would like to explore some possibilities of giving our seniors some sort of a (financial) relief,'' he said.
He also said he wants to ensure that the city provides residents with the best services possible, and plans to support the police department financially so that it is ''among the best in the state.''
Smith, 49, works as an internal consultant. He and his wife, Becky, have two adult sons.
Hammond, who said she is semi-retired and has worked as the community educator for a social service agency, said a number of people had asked her to consider running.
Also a nine-year Pickerington resident, she said she hopes her life experiences will be an asset.
Talks with residents have shown that they are concerned with the rapid growth and issues that come with that, such as increased taxes and traffic, she said.

Here it comes continued

''Obviously, you cannot stop growth,'' said Hammond, who is married to husband, John, and has three grown children. ''But you need a balance between residential and commercial-type growth, again, just to keep the tax base, the money issues, to the point where people can continue to live in the community -- where longstanding residents won't be forced out.''
O'Brien, who was appointed to council in 2004, said he considers traffic and growth to be the city's ''two big issues.'' The city has begun plans to improve the traffic light system on state Route 256, a project O'Brien has pushed forward.
Continuing with the city's growth management and comprehensive land use plans are among O'Brien's other goals, he said.

Marching to a different drum

Sabatino, who has been appointed to council twice -- once in the 1980s and again three years ago -- said he will continue to stress better citizen involvement, if re-elected.

''I think the city needs to do a better job of hearing out the citizens and not allowing the community to become galvanized over issues before they move in with legislation,'' he said.

Following the 76 Trombones

Three school board seats are available in the November election but only one incumbent, current board President Lori Sanders, plans to run again. Incumbents Wes Monhollen and Gail Oakes said they will not seek re-election.
Sanders, who said she planned to file before the deadline, said deciding whether to run was ''a tough decision.''
Part of her decision, she said, depended on how much time she must devote to her job as an occupational therapist with various school districts.
Oakes, meanwhile, said she will devote more time to her family and to her family business, Capitol Citicom Inc. She, like Sanders, is serving her second school board term.
''It isn't that I didn't like it,'' she said. ''It's somewhat time-consuming.''
Monhollen, who is ending his first term, said it is ''somebody else's turn. I did my civic duty.''
He said he plans to spend more time at a lake home he purchased in Tennessee.
According to the Fairfield County Board of Elections, if no one runs for the remaining school board seats, the board could appoint people to those spots.
Write-in candidates also have until Sept. 19 to file with the board of elections.
Two Violet Township trustee positions are on the November ballot. Chairman Terry Dunlap and Harry Myers Jr. have filed for re-election but no other candidates had done so as of Tuesday.
Dunlap is serving his third four-year term. If re-elected, he said, he plans ''to expand what we can do with limited home rule.''
The township also must begin to ''be innovative'' in maintaining quality road service while faced with rising material prices, he said. Dunlap said a road levy may be in the township's near future, but trustees will ''find ways to delay that as long as possible.''
Dunlap said the township also will continue to work with Canal Winchester and Pickerington on cooperative economic efforts.
Myers is serving his first term.
''We're a growing township and we need to keep changing with the times, see if we can bring some advantages to the township with this home rule form of government,'' he said.
He called the Cooperative Economic Development Agreement the township has with Canal Winchester a ''top priority.''
The township and village are considering making Pickerington a part of that CEDA as well.