A couple of hundred people have come out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to enjoy a “Community Day” in Olmsted Falls. “Community” is something that Olmsted Falls City Councilman Gary Thompson has been thinking about, lately. He says it’s not easy telling a local citizen that he can’t help them, but it happens all the time.
GARY THOMPSON: We ask where they live. And when they give their address, it turns out they’re in the Township. So, we say, “We’d love to help you, but you’re not in our jurisdiction.”
For the better part of two centuries, Olmsted Falls and Olmsted Township have been separate communities --- on paper. But, they have more in common than just their names. They already share the same school system, the same churches, the same zip code. And in about three weeks, area residents will vote on the idea of taking that one step further --- the creation of a commission to study the idea of merging. For Township native Jeanine Kress, there are all sorts of reasons to merge.
JEANINE KRESS: Economies of scale would be one. But, there are other issues, including clout in Washington and Columbus. Being a bigger city, that could be a relevant issue.
As it is, Olmsted Township residents have watched neighboring cities nibble away at them for years. For instance, Berea was able to annex land along a major industrial corridor because the city offered landowners improved services and waterlines that the Township wasn’t able to provide. Local historian Bruce Banks says that when they lost that land, they also lost revenue.
BRUCE BANKS: The tax base keeps shrinking, because you have less real estate tax, so it gets more and more challenging, the smaller you get.
But, Banks says not everyone in Olmsted Township …population 10,500… is so sure that banding together with the Falls…population 8,000… will be to their benefit.
BRUCE BANKS: Some of the people in the Township feel that their control of their destiny will be diluted if we become part of something bigger.
This isn’t the first time a merger between the Township and Olmsted Falls has been proposed. Several previous attempts have failed to win over the public but more may be willing to at least consider the idea this time. Longtime Township trustee Karen Straka has opposed past merger efforts, but says she won’t stand in the way of residents who would like to see the issue studied.
KAREN STRAKA: I support the people’s right to vote on the issue, and I’ll help them in anyway I can, but I don’t feel there’s an overall financial benefit for a merger to take place.
Olmsted Falls mayor Bob Blomquist is more upbeat about the prospects. By conducting a merger study, he thinks that these two small communities could be trail blazers that others would emulate.
ROBERT BLOMQUIST: It would be the perfect case study. As the region looks to consolidation, as it looks to combinations of different ways to deliver government services, we could answer a lot of broader questions, and perhaps demonstrate a little leadership to the rest of the county and to the region.
Voters from the Falls and the Township will decide November 3rd whether or not they want to be part of such a case study.
