Magnetic Springs Mayor Chad Wilson, who took the role after the resignation of Kathy Cantrell in March, has a 10-year plan for the village. Wilson outlined 10 key areas of focus, pictured above, that range from community engagement to connectivity all with the hope it will position the village to grow and prosper moving into the future.
(Graphic submitted)
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Magnetic Springs’ new mayor is nearly a month into his leadership position and he said while he sees the challenges ahead for the village, he’s optimistic it’s moving in the right direction.
Chad Wilson, the council president who moved into the role after the resignation of former mayor Kathy Cantrell late last month, said he wants to see the village grow and prosper and believes there are opportunities to do that.
“We’re uniquely positioned exactly halfway between Delaware and Marysville and what a great place to be in for potential,” he said. “Because those two cities are only going to expand outward and we’re going to be very fortunate, I hope, in the future, to be right in the middle of some great opportunities down the line.”
Wilson said Cantrell and the council have worked hard over the years to get the village on sound financial footing as well as getting many things in place to benefit residents down the line as possible.
Whether that is the sewer project partnership between Magnetic Springs and the Village of Richwood or working with the North Union school district to reclaim land that formerly held a school – that property will eventually become a park – Wilson said things are starting to take shape.
Challenges are plenty though, he said, especially being a small village where limitations start in the town’s budget.
“We have a very small budget, we don’t have a lot of money,” he said, noting the village operates on an annual budget of between $35-40,000. “So there’s not a lot of discretionary spending that goes on in the village, it’s pretty much ‘do what you need to do’ and that’s it.”
The village relies on aid elsewhere in the form of grants, donations, contributions and volunteer work to do things like keeping village property mowed.
Though in the last year, the village did appoint a zoning officer to make sure properties are maintained and trash is cleaned up.
“We’re going to start fining (residents). We are serious about this,” he said. “We are going to get this village cleaned up and so you’re just going to have to take it a step at a time.”
He said pride in the village is key to residents keeping up on those tasks without enforcement and while in the past community involvement hasn’t been widespread, that may be changing.
“I think that pride has been there all along but you have to provide the residents an outlet to be able to show that pride,” Wilson said. “I think if we increase the participation in the village council meetings, which are monthly – we had, I’d say, 25 people there last month, that’s the most I’ve ever seen. I think it’s great.”
He said it’s also important to get a wide range of residents involved as the current population skews older. Wilson said 34% of the residents are over the age of 65 and 12% are under 18.
Getting people involved can further shape the village, he said, which is really the goal, not a single person or small group making all the decisions.
“But then part of the plan needs to be not council or the mayor dictating from on high what is it is were going to do, it’s forming committees with the residents of the village and letting them provide their input and their ideas on what should go in a park or what should go in a long-term tax increase plan or expansion or acquisition of properties or whatever we need to do, it should be up to the village, it should be up to the residents, it shouldn’t be a decision blindly made by council,” he added.
That being said, Wilson came to the job with a plan and started by getting village records, history and other important information onto a new website.
He said the plan, however, is the thing he hopes guides the village forward over the next 10 years. The plan looks at areas of focus as well as working toward the village’s 150th anniversary, which he hopes to celebrate with a festival.
“I tried to come up with the 10 biggest areas I thought we needed to focus on,” he said. Those areas range from forging community partnerships to the village’s economic development and growth.
“Really, long-term, we want to get some small businesses into the community,” he said. Given the small budget, he said he wants to get other sources of revenue coming into the village. That could also come from those partnerships with other places in the county.
“There’s space available for businesses to come in,” Wilson said. “I think it would be great if the village could move towards somehow acquiring some of those things as longer term investments that we can use to make up some of that shortfall that we have today with such a small budget.”