Looking for fertile ground

By Doug Page | Thu, May 8, 2008, 10:54 AM

Nature has a wondrous way of renewing itself.

Wind, animals, fire, rain all spread seeds. Some fall on ground that will nurture them. Others do not. There are enough seeds that fall on fertile soil to grow, blossom and spread their seeds to other fertile soil.

Take my dandelion-infested front yard, for instance. Somebody, please, take my front yard. My back is killing me after a day of cutting out those yellow-flowered so-and-sos.

Farmers often follow the same practice of sowing their crop. Winter wheat seed is often planted in the fall and sprouts before a killing freeze. It then lies dormant over the winter, often protected by a covering of snow. When the soil warms in the spring, the wheat grows. But it needs the cold of winter to complete its growth cycle.

It takes faith to plant something in the fall and wait until spring some six months later to see if it will grow.

Stay with me here. I’m about (finally, often says the wife) to make my point.

Cities often do the same thing.

They’ll buy a large tract of land, run water and sewer to it and wait — often years. During that wait there is plenty of grumbling.

Taxpayers, as is their right, want to see some benefit, some service for their dollars. I wish I could use some of my tax dollars every time I go through the grocery checkout or stand at the gas pump.

Folks in Brookville, for instance, six years ago saw the city annex 81-plus acres and run water and sewer to it. That wasn’t cheap.

Now there is a huge warehouse about finished with another planned. That’s 400 new jobs coming soon.

Likewise, Trotwood dropped $2 million in 2000 into buying land for an industrial park. For seven years, most of the land lay fallow. Last year, the city landed a $32 million auto parts warehouse set to open in August.

That’s another 300 to 400 new jobs for a city recovering from the loss of the Salem Mall.

It hasn’t been easy, this waiting. That’s money that could have been spent elsewhere. But city councils decided the seeds needed sown.

It’s picking the fertile ground that’s the trick.

There aren’t many dandelions in our world economy that can flourish in any soil. If my front yard were an industrial park, I’d be a wealthy man.

The Salem Mall area, now known as the Landmark project, will someday blossom. As will the Village of North Clayton.

Trotwood spent $3.5 million to buy the defunct mall property in 2004. Since then, the city has attempted to secure enough retail leases to make the mixed-use plan feasible. They’ve come close, but not close enough.

With the economy down throughout the region, it’s a tough row to hoe when you add to the mix the city’s financial condition.

Just like you and me, the city isn’t seeing its income growing at the same time the costs of everything is going up.

Clayton is in a somewhat better shape. The plan to develop north of Interstate 70 required water and sewer to the site at National and Hoke. The city got a great deal from Dayton on water and the state on sewer.

Current costs are around $200,000 annually. Those will decrease as development takes root and impact fees come in.

We need the patience of the farmer who sows his winter wheat and has to wait six months to see it flourish.

We’re in an economic winter. Spring will come.

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One intersection, three pharmacies

By Doug Page | Mon, May 5, 2008, 10:15 PM

One intersection, three drugstores.

What’s up with that?

Traffic can’t be that bad at the Englewood intersection of Union Boulevard and Wenger that drivers require that many aspirins. Yet on the front page of the May 8 Neighbors section is a story about Walgreens getting approval for a new store across the street from Rite Aid Pharmacy and Kroger, which houses its own drugstore.

“It’s warfare,” said Irene Dickey, a University of Dayton lecturer in the School of Business.

“They wouldn’t have gone there if the numbers weren’t right,” she said. Walgreens either believes there is enough business for three stores or that it is a strong enough operation to beat out the competition, she said.

Dickey explained the numbers companies look at goes beyond the simple demographics of the Census to something call psychographics. That is a look at the behavior of people in a particular area. Are they health conscious, for instance. That would have a great impact on a drugstore.

In addition, companies will often have access to the accounts of health care facilities and insurance companies. “AARP has collected a lot of data,” she said, “that they make available for a price.”

According to Dickey, Walgreens is a hot brand at this moment. The company reported record earnings and sales for the second quarter of this year and for the first half of this year, according to the company’s Web site.

“They are in a huge growth phase,” Dickey said. “The more stores they have, the greater the economies of scale.”

Examining the various data helps a company cut down on the risks of locating a new store. Failure of a store can have a huge effect on companies.

“The consumer might drive by and notice that a store is closed. They may not need anything at the moment, but that closed store will affect how they think about the brand,” Dickey said.

“Walgreens is a strong brand. A failure, or failures, could cause the demise of the brand name, lead to a negative perception.”

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Kick ‘em while they’re down

By Doug Page | Mon, May 5, 2008, 11:30 AM

It was a great put-down line.

Roger Clemens, the one-time pitching legend, is said to have said when asked of his one-time hometown of Dayton: “The best view of Dayton was in the rearview mirror of our family car leaving town.”

Sounds like a line from a country-western song.

Turns out The Rocket’s life is straight out of a country-western song.

Steriods, 15-year-old singer, bartender, golf pro’s wife.

Yo, Rog. You’re family-values act is looking a bit thread bare.

If I were to pick a title for your life, it would be “Your Cheating Heart”.

I’m mighty glad you left town when you did. Disavowing any allegiance to Dayton makes it a whole lot easier to take cheap shots while you’re down.

Karma baby.

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Frank talk

By Doug Page | Fri, May 2, 2008, 09:55 AM

Hats off to Trotwood officials.

They are willing to talk about “the problem whose name cannot be said.” And talk about it in front of voters.

Municipal and school leaders have long whispered to each other about the issue. Localities depend on property taxes, income taxes and state funding to keep their government running. Schools tap the same sources.

The unwritten agreement throughout the state had been cities relied on minimal property taxes and got the bulk of their bucks from income tax.

The school district would depend on property taxes for its local funding. An income tax was to be left to the cities for the most part.

Then the Supreme Court stuck its nose under the tent, declaring four times the state’s method of funding public education unconstitutional. Rather than fix the system, the Legislature chose to tinker with funding formulas. The result was school districts never knew one year to the next how much they would get from the state.

Then the economy went south.

Talk in Columbus turned to cutting the Local Government Fund upon which cities, townships and counties depend. Then ways were found to siphon funds from education. Then cities started to see their income tax revenues level off or decline. School districts saw property values decline and the tax delinquency rate increase.

“The state of Ohio giveth and the state of Ohio taketh away,” Lowell Draffen, Trotwood-Madison superintendent, said last week at a joint meeting of the City Council and the school board.

“We face the same kind of issue the city has,” he said.

The school district is planning a new levy on the November ballot that would raise $2.6 million annually. The board is in the midst of cutting $1 million from this year’s budget and $1 million from next year’s.

That will just about cover a projected 2011 deficit.

That’s the same year the city is expecting a shortfall. It will be asking voters to renew two street levies in November, one for 1 mill, the other 0.74 mills.

“We’ve been streamlining our budget since 2002,” said Mike Lucking, city manager. “Any further cuts and we’re starting to amputate our organization.”

Things are tough all over. The schools need money. The city needs money. I could use some, too.

I’m sure there are more folks in worse shape.

“Both of our houses are in financial trouble,” councilman Rap Hankins said. “Our citizens are in financial trouble.”

No one argued with that.

One retired citizen did ask Draffen what the heck he expected voters to do in November.

The retiree said he was voting his pocketbook and would vote against any tax … from anybody.

There it was, out in the open.

Better there than restricted to the corner table of the coffee shop, the back pew of the church, or the toxic anonymity of an Internet message board.

Out in the open, voters and officials can begin to discuss how to weather this storm. That the city and the school district are both on the November ballot is a distress flare in the night.

The city, school district and residents are best served by the frank discussions.

For the city, school district and residents to succeed will require cooperation and a buy-in to the concept of paying forward.

We all sit in the shade of trees we did not plant.

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Etter ends 32 years with Trotwood police

By Doug Page | Thu, May 1, 2008, 09:45 AM

TROTWOOD — Last year was tough for the police department, but not the reason Public Safety Director Mike Etter left last week.

“It’s a chance for me to continue to do what I love, law enforcement,” Etter said about his departure from the department where he has served for 32 years. He began this week as the Dayton International Airport police chief.

Several years ago, Etter opted to enroll in a deferred retirement program, which allowed him to work and continue to accrue retirement benefits. That program, however, required him to retire at a set time.

Etter had about three years left, when the offer came from the airport, which has a different pension.

“I get to keep doing what I love,” he said.

That love was tested last year. Two off-duty Trotwood officers were shot — one fatally — in separate domestic incidents. Officers also were involved in two controversial tasings.

Both the SCLC and the NAACP have praised the department for its investigation of the incidents.

What Etter wants people to know is his appreciation of the opportunities he has been given and “the fantastic people I worked with.”

He became a patrol officer in 1978 and chief in 1993.

The case that has stuck with Etter was the death of 2-year-old Erick Nobles while Etter was interim police chief. The boy’s mother drowned the child the day after Christmas 1992 in their Dayton home. Two weeks later, she showed up at the Salem Mall, clutching the boy’s jacket and claiming he had been abducted.

“I got the phone call at home,” Etter recalled. “The whole community was looking for the child. Everyone rallied around the family.”

Police had their suspicions but it was still hard when those suspicions were confirmed. “That innocent life lost. It was hard,” Etter said.

The mother was later found guilty of murder and is serving a 15-year to life sentence.

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