Mayor remains optimistic about improvements in Newcomerstown

NEWCOMERSTOWN — Mayor Pat Cadle remains bullish on the future of the village and gave his “State of the Village” report when Newcomerstown council met on Jan. 3.

“We are ready to begin the new year of 2022! I would like to thank the many residents who took the initiative and made their homes and properties better," he said. "It displays a pride that helps our community stand out. There were many who decorated their homes this year for the holidays that added more color to our streets. I don’t think I have seen so many colorful lights and displays for quite a while. 

“I would like to thank our council and village employees for their hard work and efforts to provide the services necessary to operate this Village. But as we get prepared for that New Year, we need to look and review the past year to feel good about our successes and improve on those areas that we can and will need to do better.

“The village departments achieved 71 of 95 goals in 2021 for a 74% completion rate. This is 6% below our average for the past five years. We need to do better.

“There were great achievements, with the opening of the Simonds-Heller Park and Boat Ramp, and the reopening of the Southside Park with new playground equipment. Both parks are being utilized a lot since opening. A contract was signed with Westfield Conservancy to put 20 acres of solar panels on the landfill. The Village would get paid $15,000 per year, which will be revenue for the parks. John Resh, our parks and recreation superintendent and Dave Harris, his part-time assistant, have done a great job of taking care of all three parks. There are plans to increase the number of trails, clearing more areas along the river walk and expanding the Simonds-Heller Park. We will work on all the trails. The area for a dog park still needs cleared of invasive species vegetation. We invite the teachers at our schools to utilize the Simonds Heller Park as part of their class and students’education.

“With the assistance of $200,000 in state and federal grants, the Village will remove the rest of the cement base left at the Simonds Plant as well as the last two buildings. The area will then go through a Phase 2 testing by the Ohio EPA so that any remaining ‘hot spots’ can be removed, and the land can be re-utilized. There is interest in the community to save a portion of the remaining building for future community use but not the former administration building. The building and grounds involved will need to be purchased by the outside group to privately develop the building and area.

“The administrative offices for the village will be moving to a new building in 2022. The former Morgan’s Pharmacy was purchased last year from Terry and Gary Baker. The building is a positive move… with space going from 2,500 square feet to 6,000 square feet, which will allow for growth for the administration. There will be new offices for our park and recreation superintendent/manager and a new office for the new part-time zoning officer. One of the main reasons for the move came from the 2020 residential survey naming the steps to the mayor’s office as an impediment, mostly to the elderly and handicapped. All offices will now be on one floor. Blueprints are being completed by Ron and Zach Van Wey from V2 Architects. The timeline is to put out bids in late January to early February, select a construction company, and start building to hopefully finish this summer. An open house for the community to view the building will be planned after its completion, and after everything has been moved in.

“The administration and department supervisors have set 114 goals for 2022. A few are finishing goals set last year that did not get completed. An example is our paving program. Only East State Street and North College Street were completed. Part of the reason was the supply chain was unavailable, but mostly we did not get our contractor soon enough. I have to do a better job with that schedule. We are pushing to get the uncompleted paving from last year done as well as this year’s paving started this spring.

“The Strategic Planning Commission was completed, and Council passed the new Zoning Program Ordinance last year. This will have little effect on the majority of our residents. The Commission made zoning as least restrictive as possible but provided a set of rules to protect property owners. We currently have 82 structures built on someone else’s lot-all of which will need to be changed. It is also for developers to follow as we continue to market our available land for new housing additions to the Village. The rules are available on the Village website. The Strategic Planning Commission will now start creating a five-year plan in the areas of importance for the positive growth of Newcomerstown.

“Shannon Kincaid, our administrative assistant, has been improving our Village website and Facebook page to provide residents with access to more information concerning the new zoning program as well as ordinances that have been approved in the past.

“The Water and Wastewater Department has several projects planned for this year. We received notice we will receive a $94,300 grant to assist with the relining of the Adena Drive sewer line. There will be an extension of the S. College Street sewer line as well as a bypass corrected by the fire house on S. College Street. Both will be funded with American Relief Program funding for infrastructure. We are waiting to see if we will receive another grant for $134,000 to extend the N. College Street sewer line.

“The Cemetery Department was separated from the Street Department in order to provide more attention to both departments. With a short staff of three this past summer, and because there was less seasonal help, more time was scheduled to keep up with grass cutting the cemeteries and village properties. This caused less work to be done on streets and alleys, and there was a lot of work that needed to be done. That will be different this year.

“We have been told that our communication to residents needs to be better.  We use the newspaper, the radio, the website, Facebook, and a newsletter that our administrative assistant has created. Water bills have been suggested to make announcements to the public. So we will use the water bill more often as it gets to all residents, but the drawback is that it only goes out once a month so news may be delayed.

“Overall, 2021 was a good year for our Village. We made progress but still have many areas to keep improving. The Covid virus is still among us and will continue to affect us during the next year. Throughout the past two years we all have had to make choices that affect our families pertaining to the virus. We will continue to try to get test kits from the Health Department. 

“Our budget saved more revenue in 2021 than in 2020, even with an inflation rate of 6%. That is a credit to our fiscal officer, Lisa Stiteler. All our employees will receive raises for 2022. We need to keep competitive with the job market in the areas around Newcomerstown. 

“Newcomerstown is fortunate to have a caring council, efficient departmental supervisors, and hardworking employees. We have improved in so many ways from where we were five years ago.

“But we have to continue to improve at providing our services to the community.  More exciting days are coming. We just need to keep setting worthwhile goals and working hard toward them to continue to build the town towards the future.”

— Submitted by Ray Booth