Stow City Council
Vote Nov. 8th!

Last night was the swearing-in of Stow’s new (and returning) elected officials.

Jim Costello was elected as council president, with John Pribonic as VP and Mary Bednar as pro tempore.

Here are the committee chairs:

Planning – Bednar

Public Improvements – Pribonic

Roads and Safety – Rasor

Finance – Riehl

Sara Drew was sworn in as the new mayor. I have to tell you, there is an optimistic tenor around the city, even among those traditionally thought of as “rabble rousers.” I think even the most dissatisfied residents are willing to give Sara Drew a chance. I certainly am, and I’d ask you to do the same.

As for actual business, we reconfirmed Nancy Kroft onto the Urban Forestry Commission and Pete Mihalek on the Planning Commission.

Council will meet for committees on Monday at 5:30 p.m.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and holiday season!

Please note that Stow City Council and the other elected officials will be sworn in on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at city council chambers. It is open to the public, and there are refreshments served after.

I am hopeful and optimistic that our city will fight through the difficulties we face as a more cohesive organization, and that Stow will have in place more competent and more honest leadership for the next term.

Tonight was the final council meeting of the term. My notes are below…

• The leaf pickup program ended on Thursday. This is the earliest we ever completed it.

• By a 4-2 vote, council approved a four-year extension of John Earle’s contract. I voted “no,” as did Joe Hickin. … I think John is one of our best employees. He’s smart. He has invaluable institutional knowledge. I would even call him a friend. However, I believe the practice known as “double-dipping” is wrong. “Double-dipping” is where an employee “retires,” begins to collect his state pension, and then returns to work for the same entity and in substantially the same position. It’s an enormous cost to our state pension system. With that said, this was one of my most difficult votes of the term.

• I also voted “no” on renewing the contract of Fred Hanson, the course superintendent at Fox Den. Since the city took over the course, it has been no secret that Hanson and golf pro Tom McKinney don’t get along. It’s gotten to the point where Hanson does not technically even answer to McKinney, which is the standard chain of command at every other golf course. We have serious problems at Fox Den, particularly with the conditions of the course, and this sort of personnel issue only makes things worse. Hanson’s legislation passed by a 4-2 vote.

• We voted to cancel our scheduled meeting for December 29, which means this term is over, as is the 16-year council career of Janet D’Antonio. I would like to thank her for her dedicated service to the city. What I liked most about Janet was that we could have an intense debate, but she would be friendly afterward. That is missing too often from our politics.