By Joyce C. Young
President
Washington Township
Board of Trustees
It is always a thrill and a privilege to report on the many activities and accomplishments of Washington Township. It’s also a challenge to highlight the most significant of these for the year 2006.
First of all, I want to commend and thank the 380 employees, part-paid volunteers and elected officials for continuing to find ways to make an excellent organization better. Citizens expect excellence in the services we provide – public safety, road maintenance, fire protection, land use planning – and we strive not to disappoint them. We do this in the most cost-effective way possible, and have once again earned high marks, an unqualified opinion, from the Auditor of the State Of Ohio.
The Fire Department is a noteworthy example of the excellence we strive for. It ended the year by taking the final step toward accreditation with the completion of a comprehensive strategic plan. The five-year accreditation process has provided a system for the township to assess our community’s needs and a method for the fire department to evaluate its performance. Our fire department will be one of only four in Ohio to receive this distinction.
The fire department made 4,367 emergency medical runs and 1,057 fire runs. It instituted around-the-clock staffing at the beginning of the year, purchased two new medic units, and provided hands-on training to students and experienced firefighters. The department also kicked off its first Citizens Fire Academy, a five-week program teaching emergency services for all citizens.
The April opening of Rec West marked a tremendous expansion of recreational opportunities with the transformation of an old movie theatre into a multi-use facility with a game room, a 250-seat auditorium with up-to-date technical equipment, community meeting space, and a mini-gym. This provided much needed space for classes formerly crowded into the Recreation Center, which saw 134,131 visitors in 2006. To help these visitors gain quick entry into the Rec Center, a card reader was installed to allow pass holders to swipe their cards without stopping at the front desk. In a continuing effort to serve families in Washington Township, the Rec Center launched another after-school program, Teen Taxi, for middle school students.
Woodland Lights has become a family tradition in this area, and offered new attractions to the 21,783 people who attended this year. Town Hall Theatre also has established a niche for itself by providing quality children’s theater. Last year, 25,890 people attended performances there.
The Create the Vision Implementation Task Force, charged with carrying out the 198 strategies outlined in the comprehensive plan, won an Award of Excellence from the Ohio City/County Management Association. Now that it has completed 120 of those strategies, it will move into a monitoring role, as Centerville and the township continue to work together to implement the remaining mid- and long-term strategies.
One of those strategies was to update the zoning resolution to incorporate the goals outlined in the Create the Vision Comprehensive Plan. Township trustees, members of the Zoning Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Visual Improvement Program Committee have met monthly to update the resolution and will present their recommendations in 2007.
Washington Township is widely recognized as an excellent location for businesses, as demonstrated by 240,150-square feet of new commercial space approved for zoning permits in 2006. We welcomed them formally at the Second Annual Business Breakfast in September.
The Public Works Department completed two sidewalk installation projects, one north of Whipp Road on the west side of Far Hills, and the other on Paragon Road north of State Route 725 to Congress Park Drive. Residents are complimenting Public Works on timely leaf removal.
The Visual Improvement Committee continued to enhance our community by offering gardening classes for the first time this year. Once again they recognized those residents whose properties were outstandingly beautiful, and they planted lovely flower beds in all public locations, streets and township facilities.
The Washington Township Substation of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has maintained an outstanding clearance rate of 46 percent for criminal cases. Deputy Tony Ball was honored with the "John Kalaman Officer of the Year" award by the Noon Optimist Club. The sheriff’s office, along with the fire department, began conducting child safety seat checks on a monthly basis after a study by the National Safe Kids Association showed that 85 percent of child restraint systems were misused. The Sheriff’s Office also started aggressive enforcement of overweight vehicles to improve public safety and reduce road wear.
Once again, I want to thank all the people who had a part in this and particularly mention several people. The first is Sandy Spees, the dynamic woman who contributed so much to Washington Township’s beautification and who passed away suddenly this fall. I want to congratulate Chief Ken Parks, who announced his impending retirement this year. And I want to welcome Jesse Lightle, who joined us this summer as our new deputy administrator.
I also commend the group of township employees and elected officials who traveled to Slidell, Louisiana and Gulfport, Mississippi where they delivered four of our old, but usable, police cruisers and one medic unit to communities hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with the elected officials and staff to serve the citizens of Washington Township.