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On Wednesday morning, November 1, members of Oakwood City Council, Oakwood Board of Education, Wright Library Board of Trustees and respective staff members from these groups met to discuss topics of common interest and relative to community concerns. Such meetings are held regularly twice a year. This is the second meeting that has included Wright Library. The inclusion of the library allows greater scope of discussion items and better sharing of information and viewpoints.
The history of our joint meetings recognizes that communications and cooperation enhances all our agendas and benefits the community as a whole.
At our recent meeting discussions ranged from future tax levies to community safety issues to shared reports on current projects. Much information was presented and discussion focused on common interests and the coordination of efforts to achieve results. In this manner we can provide mutual aid to each other in cost effective, non conflicting ways. With correct and adequate information we can move together to benefit our citizens.
Not all communities enjoy this cooperative effort from leadership groups who respect each other and share a common goal of community excellence. We invite citizens to utilize this forum by bringing issues, concerns, rumors, questions regarding the community at large to anyone of us for inclusion in future agendas. The synergistic benefits of joint consideration offer opportunities to build an even stronger community.
Judy Cook, Mayor
Beth Merritt, President, Oakwood Board of Education
Judy Thompson, President, Wright Memorial Library Board of Trustees
Taking advantage of the new morning light brought on by this weekend’s rollback of DST, I turned my Sunday morning “fix” of DLM coffee, pastry and NY Times into a prolonged walk of my Oakwood neighborhood. As I walked down East Dr and turned north onto Delaine, I gave up enjoying the stroll and concentrated instead on the mess I found…namely, three large Hefty bags (plus one 24 can case) full of empty beer cans and an assortment of empty whiskey and vodka bottles.
Most people I know have come across these hastily discarded bags of empties on Sunday mornings at one time or another, finding them anywhere and everywhere – whether it be Park Rd, Ridgeway Ave. Hathaway or Aberdeen….come Sunday morning, we all have accepted the fact that there will have been at least one underage drinking party somewhere in Oakwood; and that the kids not being able to take so many empties home, will simply discard them out the car windows at some point furthest from where they live. This blatant discarding within city limits seems to reinforce the idea that these children are used to thumbing their nose at the Safety Department officers and enjoy flaunting their behavior in front of them.
With the large amount of “empties” being discarded, the police surely understand that Oakwood does not have an occasional drinking problem; indeed we have a whole culture of “binge” drinkers in our schools who in any other light would be called “functioning alcoholics.” With the recent editorial and testimonials in the Register, one wonders when we as a city are going to get serious about this problem…or if, as with the deer issue and the Sugar Camp issue, we will only mobilize after the fact and be forever in a reactionary mode? It seems that we can save the deer, and protect our green space, but we cannot find the resources or compassion (over the span of the past twenty years) to save our children from not only their own poor judgment but ours also.
Putting aside the time worn excuses of “sowing one’s oats”, “rites of passage” and “putting too much stress on our students” – the simple fact is that drinking under the age of 21 is forbidden under state law – period. That law was designed to save the injuries and fatalities that unwise and excessive consumption almost always cause in inexperienced drinkers. People wishing to get around this by providing “supervised and chaperoned” parties are missing the point; especially if they are thinking that is all of the drinking that their children are involved in. If the students were just drinking
“at home”, the need for secrecy wouldn’t necessitate the weekly dumping of empties along our streets. No matter where it is done; at home, in the parks, on the streets…it is STILL AGAINST THE LAW. Crossing into the Oakwood city limits does not exempt anyone from this law.
So what will it take to get students to give up their code of silence that enables these students to continue to act with such impunity? Just what will it take for the school officials at both OJHS and OHS to just shut down all activities until the behavior is stopped? (More than one school system has resorted to this and waited out the cancellations until it had the desired effect. Parents who listen to their children know that the current policy of sitting out a “game or two on the bench” or missing school for “1-2 day suspensions” is considered a “joke” by both the drinkers and non-drinkers alike.)
Moreover, when will the city officials finally get a clue and develop a community wide Youth Task Force, taking advantage of the local Youth Officer, Youth Pastors, School Administrators, OCC officials and even merchant representatives – all of which profess to be ready to work on and provide the community with an overall K-12 support system?
One also wonders when will the Oakwood Safety Department take the initiative and start putting more officers on the streets? The old adage that there is never a cop around when you need one is certainly true on our streets these days, and especially true on Friday and Saturday evenings. When we citizens find these bags on Sunday mornings, we have to wonder how the kids can drink so much beer without being seen by police officers out on patrol? Apparently the drinkers know that the officers are so few and far between that the chance of being observed is nil. Every time those students drop their bags or empties out the car window, they are doing so with a satisfied smugness – more or less stating “we had a party and we got away with it – again!”
And last, but not least, what will it take to shame our parents into being a parent to their student children instead of being their best friend? When will they start caring enough to realize that they really do need to know where their child is between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. on the weekend nights? When will they care enough to realize that their child has a hangover every weekend, not a “touch of the flue.” When will they be brave enough to listen to the officers who come to their door, instead of threatening them with endless lawsuits or trying to cajole them into accepting lawless behavior as “normal kid stuff?
If you ask the parents or the Safety Officers in Moraine, Kettering or Dayton what happens when a child is caught drinking in their jurisdictions, you will get a far different story than you would get here in Oakwood. Why has Oakwood become such a safe haven for such outrageous behavior?
The parents, the schools, the city and the Safety Department have all dropped the ball on this issue and the effects are coming home to roost. I guess it would just be easier to continue to honor the age old traditions here and keep turning our heads when we see underage students buying cases of beer at the local carry out, ignoring the back seat conversations about who is having the party this weekend, and to keep renting those buses and limos for our children…after all, no one has gotten hurt…YET!
D. Collins
Oakwood parent
We truly have much to appreciate and be thankful for here in Oakwood. That said, this year in particular there have been several issues that have sparked passionate citizen discussion. While debate is healthy and reflects how much citizens care about the future of our community, too often debate focuses on our differences rather than on the many positive things that make Oakwood such a unique and special place in which to live and work. Let me take a moment to highlight four significantly positive things about our community.
Community Spirit: Everyone who attended our first-annual “Family Fall Festival” two weeks ago experienced our wonderful community spirit and witnessed our creative talent, primarily that of Leisure Services Director Carol Collins and her staff; and also saw the beautiful and very unique scarecrows that adorn Shafor Boulevard and cumulatively took hundreds of citizen hours to design and build.
Old River Fields: The acquisition of this 28-acre athletic/recreation area is clearly our single most significant event of the year. We now control our own destiny for athletics and recreation. As a city, our most recognizable limitation is space. Owning this large piece of property nestled against our northern corporate boundary is truly something to celebrate.
Great Public Servants: We are blessed with many outstanding public servants. There are the obvious ones – our elected officials and city staff personnel – but there are also the many volunteers who assist in significant ways, and often out of the public eye. They are the members of our city committees. They are too numerous to list in their entirety, but let me at least present to you the leaders of our most active committees:
Budget Review, Dave Dickerson.
Planning Commission, Bill Kendell
Board of Zoning Appeals, Jim Faulkner
Board of Health, Dr. Greg Ramey, Ph.D.
MLK, Jr. Breakfast, Kristin Motlagh
Environmental, Dr. Darrell Apt, D.V.M
2008 Centennial, Madeline Iseli & Dick Good
Centennial Film, Harrison Gowdy
Comprehensive Planning, Mayor Judy Cook
Property Maintenance, Kip Bohachek
Regarding city staff, our two most recent hires, Public Safety Officers Glen Evans and Greg May, just graduated from the Ohio Fire Academy. Both officers distinguished themselves. Glen was the class honor graduate and was selected to deliver the commencement address on behalf of his class. Greg was a member of the 3-person company that finished first in the critically important test of reacting to a fire call. His company responded in 68 seconds, about one-half of the 120-second national standard.
Fiscal Responsibility: We do not presently need to raise taxes to support city services. This is something we must celebrate, particularly because we have not raised property taxes since 1991 or income taxes since 1984. We have a talent-laden 37-member citizen budget review committee and budget-conscious city council that do an excellent job of overseeing our fiscal actions.
NOTE: Next Tuesday we will have a property tax renewal issue on the ballot. This is simply a continuation of an existing tax which generates approximately $473,000 annually for general operating expenses. If approved, Oakwood citizens and businesses will continue paying the same amount of city property tax dollars that were levied 15 years ago, when the last increase occurred. No one will pay a penny more.
I could go on and on highlighting things for which we can be thankful… our top-notch schools, the safety of our community, our beautiful homes, wonderful neighborhoods, etc. I am certain that you could add many other things to the list as well. Let’s remember to be thankful and to celebrate these good things.
Norbert Klopsch
Oakwood City Manager
“I George Bush do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
“…I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me…”
Only thirty five percent of Americans believe the Constitution has been preserved, protected, and defended since the year 2000. Only twenty five percent think frequent White House guest Rush Limbaugh is an honorable man. There is considerable overlap in the two groups. Only a fool would believe these numbers constitute approval.
More than one hundred American soldiers died in Iraq this October. Today, the Vice
President blamed those deaths on the fact that America still holds free elections. The Vice President implied that if we only suspended our democratic institutions, Iraq would become a safe and democratic country. Sixteen percent of Americans believe this man.
If we are adults, we ask, who is responsible for this insanity? The disturbing answer is, sadly enough, the voters of Southern Ohio. And so, with tenuous hope that the Bush administration will not cancel next week’s election, the egregious violations of decency and intelligence committed in 2004 can be reversed.
I suspect those who voted against George Bush and his neoconservative handlers will do so again. Therefore it becomes a patriotic obligation for those who supported these liars in the past, and those who declined to vote, to actively move this country towards a sane and normal political center on November 7, 2006.
The week of October 15, I sent an email message to Mike Turner’s web site. I asked if Mr. Turner was aware of and supported the fact that the Bush administration had deployed the USS Eisenhower, the USS Enterprise, and the USS Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group off the coast of Iran. Neither Mr. Turner nor his staff lowered their lofty standards to reply to a constituent.
What we do know is that Mr. Turner fully supported each and every mistake the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld cabal made in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The same administration that promised us that WMD in Iraq were a slam dunk, that we would be greeted as liberators, and that, quoting Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, “Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that. It won’t be a World War III,” must not be trusted to blunder further in the Middle East. Mr. Rumsfeld, we are soon to reach five years.
It is the United States Constitution and its protections of individual rights that separate our country from others. The right of habeas corpus is the centerpiece of those rights. The denial of that right, no matter by whom or in what time of crisis, propaganda, or hysteria, is as intolerable an action as our government can commit. Our government is supposed to be by, for, and of the people, not by, for, and of the President and his political party.
Richard Chema is not connected to the ineptitude, crimes and lies of the Bush administration in any way. Also in his favor is that he has no connection with past Democratic administrations. His credentials as a public servant and a military officer are absolutely impeccable. His public service has included extensive experience fighting crime and terrorism; no other candidate has such a record. Mr. Chema is not an ideologue and will not march lock-step with any cheaply bought Washington fraternity to limit the freedoms Americans cherish. Turner cannot make the same claim.
If you voted for George Bush or Mike Turner, I suspect you’re feeling a little raw these days. After six years in office, Bush long ago betrayed his religious base and now has set off in betrayal of every political virtue the Republican Party ever held. The Iraq War has lasted longer than WWII and Bush once proudly claimed will last well beyond his presidency. In recent days Bush has flip flopped and declares he is not satisfied with the way things are going in Iraq. Does Mr. Turner choose to stay the course or not? If his car were heading into a ditch, would he not change course?
Seventy percent of the American people have disapproved of the Iraq War for years but lately it seems with the future of the Republican Party at stake the administration’s leading minds have become startlingly flexible and open to change. The key to judging Bush and Turner is that they have always and only cared about the extreme far right wing of the Republican party and keeping it in power by whatever means necessary; including, but not limited to, torture, fear mongering, spying on Americans (Bush says he only spied on foreign terrorists, but the only evidence for that claim is his word, the same word he gave when he promised Saddam hung a mushroom cloud over the heads of Americans), goading Israel into a war it lost, faked announcements of terror attacks, zero prosecutions of accused terrorists grandly paraded before the media but never arriving in a court of any kind, and calling those Americans who disagree with him, cowards and traitors. Can it be that Bush and Turner are correct that seventy percent of Americans are cowards and traitors? I have my doubts and hope you do to.
Nothing is given to mankind and what little men can conquer must be paid for with unjust death. But man’s grandeur lies elsewhere, in his decision to rise above his condition.
From Bush’s favorite author, Jean Paul Sartre. We can rise above the veniality of the Limbaugh’s, Rumsfeld’s, Turner’s and Bush’s and it is time to do so.
Lee Kellogg
Oakwood
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