Swank 'excited' to return to Madison trustee's seat

MANSFIELD - Former Madison Township trustee Catherine Swank said she is “excited” about returning to the position and will work to improve the road department as well as the board’s response to public concerns.

Swank, who previously served as a township trustee from 2000 through 2007, was returned to office in the Nov. 5 general election, defeating current trustee Tom Craft by a vote of 621 to 564.

The 70-year-old retired teacher ran a campaign in which she expressed concerns about the safety issues in the street department and the fact that some of the equipment breaks down “a lot.” Swank said the department has only three employees, which creates a safety issue because no one is available to control traffic on road projects.

She also feels the lack of employees means roads are plowed in a less timely manner when it snows. “The roads always were plowed before people go to work and now that it’s down to three employees, it’s difficult to do that,” Swank said. “Plus, if all three guys are plowing, nobody is getting any rest.”

Swank would like to increase the road department staff, including part-time help in the summer, to improve the safety issue.  However, she said she doesn’t know when or if that or any other ideas she has in mind — including the zoning department — can be done until she reviews township finances with the fiscal officer.

“I’ll be gathering more information and see the exact amounts in the township funds,” Swank said. “You can’t make a decision until you see where you are."

Despite the loss, Craft said he believes he did the best he could to take care of the issues that residents brought before the board. As he did during his campaign, he pointed out that some of his accomplishments during his more than seven years in office, include purchasing new equipment for the road department, updating fire department equipment and being part of negotiating two union contracts that dealt fairly with everyone involved.

Craft said the part of the job he liked the most was dealing with the township employees and residents. “When I took office to replace Mark McDaniel, the meetings were nothing but negative and now we might all disagree about something, but we all laugh after the meetings,” he said. “I think that is a great accomplishment.”

Craft said he might run again for trustee in the future. “But for right now, I’m going to enjoy my time off and if they need any help, I’ll be glad to help them,” he added. “I wish the best of luck in the future to Mrs. Swank and the other trustees.”

Madison Township voters also approved a 3.5-mill additional continuing fire levy by a vote of 697 to 552 that will provide $505,200 in additional operating funds for the fire department. The main goal of the levy ultimately is to increase staffing levels at the department’s two fire stations.

Madison fire Chief Ron Luttrell says passage of the levy will allow officials to stabilize funding until the first receipts from the levy are received in April. 

“Part of the levy money will assist with eliminating deficit spending that we always see during the first quarter of the year. That’s not good Business 101,” he explained.  “It’s not good to go into the negative at the first of the year and spend money we haven’t gotten yet and this will do away with that.”

Luttrell said he has hired three people to start training in December and hopes to have them “on board” in January. The move will allow him to have two part-time firefighters on per day and keep minimum staffing levels at six per day.

Long term, Luttrell would like to stabilize the workforce and hire full-time personnel to replace some part-time personnel to assist with staffing needs and help contain overtime costs.  “Part of that is that there is a limited supply of part-time personnel we can hire,” he said.  “We’re also limited by the State of Ohio in the number of hours each can work a year, so we have to keep an eye out so we don’t go over 1,500 hours per year.”

Luttrell said the new levy also will allow officials to move some of the smaller equipment expenses from the equipment levy fund to the operating fund and leave the equipment fund for larger projects such as refurbishing an older medic unit. Another long-term plan includes working with the trustees to rebuild the department’s two fire stations.

“We’ve already started the first phase at the station on Belmont Avenue, which is additional living quarters for fire personnel out there,” Luttrell said.  “We’re also looking at a couple of other options with each of those, one of which is obtaining funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

The chief said he is grateful for the public support the department receives and that if voters approve an operating levy that will be up for renewal in 2020, he hopes the dollars can be stretched for five years as long as there are no unexpected expenses.  “We’ve been frugal with our money and would not ask for a levy if we do not need it,” he added.

Al Lawrence is a correspondent for the News Journal and may be reached at sawchak1@brightnet.