Dear Editor,
One of the issues on Nov. 7 that we will be voting on in Jerome Township is whether we will vote for Limited Home Rule (LHR), giving our township trustees more power to run various services in-house rather than rely on our Union County officials that have been providing them in the past.
The current township trustees have been busy selling the idea of divorcing the township from the county and going it alone. The narrative is the county is dropping the ball in the township when considering infrastructure. But for the record, Union County has already budgeted more than $35 million just in Jerome Township. And by law, all roads still must be engineered and approved by the county. Current trustees are blaming the county for the lack of progress at the Industrial Parkway and US 42 intersection. That jurisdiction falls under Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), not local.
In visiting with other townships in the state, which there are only 33 out of 1,308 that have adopted LHR, the consensus by far is don’t do LHR unless it is a joint decision between the county and township. But we are faced with this decision when relationships between them has never been worse. Also I was advised to wait until the population is greater in the township, somewhere around 30,000 in order to justify the additional costs of duplicating services such as engineering, safety services and road maintenance.
I have been personally chastised for suggesting before doing anything this serious in changing the governance in our township, to work to improve the working relationship between the township and county. It is true that those relationships have been uneven for a number of years. But I have gotten to know the folks on both sides and I truly believe all those involved feel they are acting in the best interest for their governments. But it has been my experience that when we work together, we can accomplish so much more than we can going it alone. I have been involved in helping to negotiate the last five farm bills. Every farm bill was a bipartisan effort, meaning there was agreement amongst some very different perspectives. Surely we can do better on a local level. What would happen if we formed some sort of mediation committee that would include members of Union County, Jerome Township, land owners, and businesses to meet together and develop a trust and transparency to aid us in getting the right things to happen at the right time? I would hate to see what could be a great opportunity in our future be destroyed because we went at it alone.
I am a resident of Jerome Township AND Union County. Why should I be asked to choose one over the other? Jerome Township is a special place to live, and it is vital that we do these things right. Let’s restore a good working relationship between the county and township before we do anything so radical as going it alone. Please vote “no” on Limited Home Rule on Nov. 7.
Fred Yoder
Butler Avenue, Plain City