Fairview faces challenges just as founders did, mayor says
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published March 17, 2010

In her annual State of the City address before the Chamber of Commerce March 10, Mayor Eileen Patton noted qualities such as self-reliance and grit were needed by the community’s founders 100 years ago.

She quoted from Margaret Schaefer Goeblet’s local chronicle of the city, “Fairview Park in Historical Review”: “1910 was an era when people solved their own problems on a local level. Its citizens almost immediately became involved in the needs and concerns of their fellowmen. They accepted — even welcomed — a personal commitment to make their town what they wanted it to be. Folks saw things that needed to be done and found the most effective way of doing them.”

Noting that money from federal, state and county sources has been slashed, Patton said that today, just like 100 years ago, Fairview Park must solve its problems at the local level.

“As we celebrate our centennial and reflect over the past 100 years and read about the challenges that the early families of our community had to overcome, we build on that strength knowing they weathered many storms and survived, and we will too,” Patton told the luncheon audience at the Gemini Center.

Mayor Eileen Patton addresses municipal finances during her annual State of the City Address March 10 at the Gemini Center. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

As one might expect, Patton immediately addressed the budget crisis facing her city, one that forced city employees to take a pay freeze along with other concessions.

NASA Glenn’s decision to move its civil employees out of two Brookpark Road buildings will cost the city over $250,000 in income tax revenue, the mayor said. In addition, income tax revenue decreased by $164,200 in 2009, Patton reported.

Declines in property taxes, 13 percent of which go to pay municipal expenses, will result in $298,062 less in the city’s general fund, Patton said. In addition, money allocated to the city from the state and county is $83,013 less than received last year, she said.

These dire numbers added up to a budget deficit of $1.7 million.

Patton’s administration invited city employees to form a financial committee to deal with the crisis. After a series of meetings, the administration and unions agreed to the following plan:

• City employees — both union and nonunion — taking a pay freeze at 2009 levels for 2010.

• City employees all enrolling in the low-option cost-saving health care plan.

• Union employees and nonunion staff taking five nonpaid furlough days.

• The mayor, department directors, and police and fire chiefs taking 10 nonpaid furlouigh days.

• City Council members taking a 4-percent cut in pay.

Even after these actions, the city faced a deficit of $500,000. The mayor then proposed, and City Council on Monday passed, a monthly trash collection fee of $10. The fee will go into effect April 1.

The city has focused on programs to strengthen its neighborhoods, the mayor said. These include the implementation of the inspection and licensing of 191 rental homes in the city. The city also continues to license 39 apartment complexes consisting of 1,783 apartment suites.

Because major projects such as the redevelopment of Westgate and the construction of the Fairview Office Center just off Brookpark Road have been completed, building permits issued by the city were down by 302 applications last year compared to 2008, Patton said. The estimated valuation of construction throughout the city was also down by $ 3.4 million, she said. This downturn can be attributed to the struggling economy as well, Patton said.

The city’s service department completed installation of permanent restrictors on all stormwater catch basins to slow water flow into the sewers to prevent flooding in residential homes, Patton reported.

“This work marks the completion of this program, which began in 2007, and together with some of the larger sewer projects previously completed, has resulted in no reports to the city of basement flooding in more than two years,” Patton said.

On the Web:

• City of Fairview Park