Poland utility fee wise investment

Poland utility fee wise investment

This letter is written to the voting residents of Poland village regarding the storm water utility referendum.

1. All residential units will pay only $3.50 per month ($42 per year)

2. Non-residential units (properties) will pay $3.50 per 2,500 square feet of impervious impenetrable or hard surface) 10,000 square feet (4 x $3.50) would be $14 per month. The fee fairly charges properties that contribute the most to discharges into the storm water system!

Billing would be administered by Aqua Ohio quarterly. The elected officials of Poland village are under a federal EPA mandate to reduce pollution in storm water run off, control illicit discharge and educate the public in practices that reduce abuse of the storm water system.

The storm water utility fee would provide over $75,000 per year into a specific fund for upgrading the existing storm water system. Federal and state public works grants can then be applied for using a portion of this important fund to double or triple an individual project amount, thereby allowing the village officials to accomplish larger projects.

This writer has worked with the federal and state grantsmanship Programs for over 32 years (retired in 1992) and I cannot think of a better way for the village residents to assist in up-grading their daily living conditions, then to vote “yes” on November 8, 2011 at the polls.

The overall cost is minimal, but the benefit to village residents is priceless.

Ralph J. Mentzer, Poland

Support Austintown Senior Center

Do you need a friend, do you need friendships?

Are you staying at home for want of somewhere to go? Con join us at the Austintown Senior Center where you are catered to in every way possible, even to having movie nights, bus trips to places of interest, games to play and fitness machines, to name a few. For the sum of $2 you can eat a meal that is good and nutritious.

Please vote yes on the Austintown senior service levy. Our all-volunteer staff still needs some cash flow to keep these many service running.

Join us and keep active. Keep fit and be happy — from an 88-year-old member.

Grace Williams, Youngstown

Public employees have it made

With all the hype about SB 5 we have heard, some basic facts about it haven’t been publicized very well.

Here are benefits that government employees enjoy that those of us working in the private sector couldn’t dream of:

1) Paid sick days, (in most cases 15 per year). Nobody in the private sector gets paid to call off work. 2) Accumulating sick days and vacation days from one year to the next so they become a lucrative “golden parachute” at retirement. 3) Longevity pay. Purely a government employee union invention and perk. 4) Step pay. If you’re a government employee and you take some college courses, you get paid more because of that, whether your education got you a promotion or not. 5) The DROP pay program, where policemen and firemen can collect their full retirement pay after 20 years but continue working for 3-8 years as if they hadn’t retired (double-dipping), and then collect a huge cash sum from DROP when they retire for good. Unbelievable. 6) Twelve paid holidays a year. Many private sector workers get no paid holidays, and those who do, only get five or six. 7) Hazardous duty pay. Don’t policemen and firemen know they could be in harms way when they apply for the job? 8) Gold-plated medical benefits. A large percentage of private sector workers have no medical insurance, while all government employees enjoy maximum medical, dental, and vision coverage with low co-pays and deductibles. And yet, they have to audacity to complain about paying 10 percent of their monthly medical premium when private sector employees who do have coverage pay 25 or 50 percent of their premium.

If you think public employees should continue to be spoiled at our expense, then vote no. If you think it’s high time we got government spending under control and public employees’ compensation comparable with the private sector that pays for government, then vote yes on Issue 2.

James Dunlap, Mineral Ridge

Those at the top have it better

There are two aspects of Issue 2 that have not been addressed adequately. If Issue 2, with all of its restrictions, and limitations, is fair to a low level clerk working in local government, making $20,000 to $30,000 per year, why is it not fair to apply those same restrictions and limitations to Mr. Kasich, Mr. Neihaus, and Mr. Batchelder, and the rest of our elected officials? Can anyone say “hypocrisy?”

The next item is the pay raise for Senate staffers from 4 percent to 33 percent. Nine of the nineteen workers granted raises, enjoyed increases in excess of $10,000, plus lump sum payments worth several thousand dollars in retroactive pay.

Republican Senate President Tom Neihaus asked his chief of staff to review salaries of Senate workers, comparing them to similar positions in the private sector, and said he felt comfortable approving the raises. The private sector? Can we back up just a bit?

Is this the same private sector that has suffered from stagnant wages, and increasing costs for retirement and health care, the very reasons this administration claims Issue 2 is needed? If this is indeed the case, why would these underpaid Senate staffers ever consider leaving their public sector jobs, with their “lavish benefits,” and “gilded retirement packages” for a job in the private sector? This administration says one thing, then does the opposite for their own. Again, can anyone say “hypocrisy?”

Republicans in power had the opportunity to do what politicians are supposed to do, and that is negotiate. Instead, they chose to dictate, and that was wrong. Gathering all stakeholders together to work out an agreement would have been preferable to their heavy handed, “my way or the highway,” style.

Force them to do the right thing. Vote no on Issue 2.

Christopher Crowe, Canfield

Don’t take away workers’ voices

Should Issue 2 pass, quali- ty services and safety given and expected from teachers, nurses, police officers, fire fighters and other public employees may not be possible — through no fault of their own.

As an American I would feel robbed if I found my voice being silenced. I find it very scary that any American or group of people would be denied their free right to speak and bargain for their needs.

As a senior citizen, I find myself worrying more and more about what has happened to the America I grew up in as a child?

The drastic changes taking place in our country today are not for the good of its own people. I believe in peaceful protest and it’s time American voices were heard and government officials be made to honor the promises that got them elected. It’s time for freedom loving Americans to be of the dream and be heard.

A no vote on Issue 2 supports and protects the rights of others as well as our own and shows how much public servants are valued and respected.

Mary Lou Jurina, Youngstown