In recapping the year, I commend the many community groups, organizations and volunteers, and also want to include the usually unheralded efforts of our city employees. It is difficult in government work to balance declining income and yet meet increasing public expectations, but our officials and employees were up to the task. Through the cooperation of management and labor, I am proud to say we continue to weather the storm. Through retirements and attrition, we have been able to lower the workforce, reduce costs and maintain all services without layoffs and furloughs. Our departments have operated frugally and in some cases, understaffed. All this is reflected in our General Fund finishing in the black for the second year in a row, with a positive balance of $234,846.00, and in All Funds to the good for $6,327,783.00. Nearly 30% of that can be attributed to the Utilities Department turning around what 5 years ago, was a dangerously low reserve balance in their fund. Now they are able to pay off some debt early, thus saving our tax-payers money while assuring adequate funds are available for maintenance and emergencies. However, not just Utilities, but all our departments take seriously the public trust of the funds allotted to them. From street to cemetery, fire to recreation and throughout, our supervisors understand the responsibility of public service.

We are not out of the fiscal woods yet. The lingering recession, the burden of the state reducing local government funds and elimination of the estate tax in another year, will require us to continue to weigh the services we provide with the monies we receive. It is imperative that officials, management and unions work together to cooperate on all levels; independent actions and personal agendas are not only counterproductive, but undermine the purpose of government service. We are charged to be wise stewards of the responsibilities entrusted to us and that we must be. This coming year will bring careful scrutiny of wages and benefits that are a significant expense to the city. For the past three years, this kind of joint effort was shown when our employees agreed to wage freezes and concessions. I look for that continued spirit of cooperation in balancing our fiscal restraints with the needs of our workforce.

Looking forward into 2012, we need to focus on the primary and essential functions of government, one being the safety and protection of its citizens. I believe we have always had a safe community to live in. Last year it was necessary to negotiate a reduction in the sheriff contract due to our continued revenue decline, which in turn, resulted in staffing reductions. Planning for this year, we reviewed appropriations with the sheriff last November for the 2012 contract. I set a goal to restore an additional $50,000. to our current monthly contract and we were able to identify the source to fund it. However, final end-of-the-year actions by council, led to that commitment being removed and delayed till 2012. I will again propose that appropriation increase to council and hope they agree this support is vital to the safety and security of our citizens.
Recently, we have had a series of break-ins by a group of vandals and thieves. The Sheriff is committed to apprehending the perpetrators and we should be resolved to fully support that effort, not just in word, but also in deed. Main Street has been one of the areas targeted by these criminals. We have a beautiful downtown, but we need to help our merchants in many ways. We have far too many vacant storefronts, and vacancies lead to vandalism. I’d like to see a 12% reduction in vacancies by the end of this year, and 40% by the end of 2015. I believe these are obtainable goals. I’m asking each of the 3 groups that have been working to improve the downtown area, to come together and find a common vision and plan: “The Towne Centre Association”, The Port Authority’s “Our Town Coshocton” and “The Project to Restore America”.
I’m also calling on council’s Grants & Economic Development Committee to explore giving landlord tax credit incentives for allowing several months of free or reduced rent to businesses moving into vacant storefronts. In conjunction with these initiatives, I’m commissioning a study of the Downtown and Chestnut Street Bridge lighting issues. The deteriorating condition of the electrical infrastructure leads to whole rows of lights going down. We need to know the solution and projected costs to repair this ongoing problem.

People view our Main Street from different perspectives. Today, we can see vacant buildings but some locals still remember the days when storefronts were filled and vibrant activity was up and down the sidewalks. Our First Friday celebrations have been successful in returning that excitement each month. But it will take personal involvement and commitment by merchants, organizations and agencies to make that an everyday activity. Commitment, such as the kind that was shown 30 years ago by a young entrepreneur opening a fledgling Hallmark store, and using her love of the downtown area, her store became an anchor and shining beacon for others to build around. Sue Border’s enthusiasm and distinctive personality surely will be missed, but her contribution to Main Street will live on.

Other initiatives for 2012 will be to consolidate our Street and Cemetery Departments along with maintenance responsibilities to create a new Department of Public Works. This will allow our supervisory positions to better manage a broader scope of areas and utilize our workforce more efficiently.

We will actively pursue the oil and gas industry to market our city’s greatest asset, our water capacity. Millions of gallons of water are used in the hydro-fracking process. What has been an apparent over-capacity since our water plant upgrade ten years ago, now appears to be a tremendous opportunity. We have both a robust water source with our well fields, and have a proven distribution method to meet the demands. I welcome this market opportunity, and have the hope that the county will be in a position this year to finalize a water agreement with them. We have been in recent contact to reopen the discussions, finalize the terms and close the deal. They expressed their willingness to go forward.

As we had hoped last year, the city’s major project on the agenda will again be to rebuild the Sheridan Road infrastructure. Engineering, and then seasonal delays, caused us to put off this project till this year. We are on course to bid the job within the next month and a half with the start date to be set this spring. Though it will be a messy, temporary inconvenience to the area residents, the ultimate outcome will be reliable water delivery and some beautifully paved streets.

Finally, I want to address the 800 pound gorilla that has taken up residence here in the city. That is the Ethanol Plant issue.
It was with high expectations and much fanfare from the state level that Coshocton was awarded the earnestly sought construction of a new ethanol plant in Ohio. Hardly could any community turn down an opportunity like this for well-paying jobs and the promise of spin-off businesses. We as a city had a key component to draw them to our county and that was the capacity and ability to upgrade our wastewater plant to treat their discharge, and that we did, with a $5,000,000 investment in the latest biothane technology.
So far, that joint risk has not panned out and to the contrary, the state has moved onto their next hopeful projects. That leaves us holding millions in wastewater debt and the Ohio Department of Development demanding grant repayment of $700,000 for the plant’s failure to meet federal Low to Moderate Income hiring requirements. We have been very longsuffering with the ethanol executives in their effort and hopes of reopening the plant and fulfilling the LMI requirement. I have sincerely appreciated the State’s willingness to extend deadlines to us, but it is time to get this gorilla off our backs solely and get relief from the sources that helped put him there. We need help to resolve this potential crisis and I will continue to appeal to the various state departments, and our state and federal legislators as well. We need more cooperation and common sense compromise to restore hope to us that state and local partnerships, for the economic good of all, are worth entering into.

I look forward to the future opportunities I see on the horizon and the resolution of projects and issues that have lingered long.

I am more encouraged now than ever before, that we are turning the corner on the struggles we’ve been challenged with.

I remain steadfast in my belief that Coshocton is a beautiful and blessed city, worthy of the tremendous effort of the many who work faithfully to see it prosper into the next millennium.

May God bless you and this great city.

Mayor Steve Mercer