Letters: Etna trustees must work cooperatively and collaboratively with each other
Etna Township moving in a positive direction, trustees' president says
I want to thank our Etna Township residents, businesses, township employees, our boards and commissions, our regional partners and my fellow trustees for the progress we have made in the first nine months of 2024. It truly is a team effort and Etna is moving in a positive direction.
For example, the Board of Trustees: recently hired a talented and accomplished township administrator; hired a new full-time administrative assistant; our Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission intern will stay on as a part-time employee until the end of the year; a records management program has been implemented; both in-house and outside planning and zoning consultants have been retained for plan reviews; a full-time zoning and code enforcement officer is on board; the township received a $32,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; we successfully completed the purchase of the park property and have been awarded a $150,000 grant from the state capital budget to make improvements to High Point Park; completed the Refugee Road improvement project; implemented an agenda and minutes software program; implemented important zoning reforms; successfully established a solar exclusionary zone; will soon implement an updated comprehensive land use plan; and has applied for an additional $500,000 grant for the Pike Street improvement project.
It is imperative the trustees work cooperatively and collaboratively with each other, our residents, businesses, boards, and regional partners to keep Etna Township moving in the right direction.
Gary Burkholder, president of the Etna Township Board of Trustees.
Kudos to Newark Councilman Marmie - now city must address scoreboard
After viewing the video of Newark City Council's Sept. 16 meeting, I changed my mind about criticizing Councilman Doug Marmie and the city’s lack of proper oversight of its self-funded medical plan.
On Aug. 19, Marmie, a 23-year councilman and chair of the council's finance committee, announced that taxpayers might have to spend up to $1 million to shore up the city's self-funded medical plan due to large hits it took earlier this year plus increase health care costs up to 30% for employees.
During the Sept. 16 Council meeting, however, Marmie proposed some long overdue changes for the medical plan, which amounts to about $6 million annually with taxpayers contributing 85% of the cost. So kudos to Marmie!
Assuming Marmie’s changes go through, he deserves all the credit for standing up in the face of my recent criticism and I applaud him for “doing the right thing.“
Now, will the city address Service Director Dave Rhodes, with help from former YMCA Sports Director Adam Jenkins, for making numerous blatantly false and misleading statements to Council to obtain a $340,000 electronic scoreboard for a baseball field at Don Edwards Park? This has been a financial disaster that the Council would have never approved if the truth had been told.
Come on, Council, what Rhodes and Jenkins did was dishonest and just plain wrong. Do your job — it's the "right thing to do."
Dave Froelich, Newark
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Cooperation, collaboration needed for Etna to move forward