Fairfield council incumbents to focus on development

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By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer Updated 6:53 AM Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Incumbent Fairfield councilmen Tim Abbott, Tim Meyers and Mike Oler will be re-elected to their seats since they are unopposed.

And it will be a busy next four years for the now two-term council members.

Abbott said property maintenance has been an area of focus the past four years, and will continue to be one over the next four.

“The council has made significant strides in property maintenance, and that will be one area we will need to continue to focus on,” Abbott said.

Meyers said by ensuring properties are kept up to city standards will increase home values.

Oler wants to see a concerted effort to curb property violations at the city’s apartment complexes.

“A few of our apartment complexes have become ridiculous and we need to step up the enforcement and take any action necessary to get the job done,” Oler said. “There are decent people that live there, and decent people need to be able to lead a decent life.”

He’d also like to see an increased effort for penalizing zoning violators.

Another area of focus for Abbott will be the city’s finances.

“We need to spend a lot of time and a lot of effort making sure we’re doing the right things for the city and the tax payers,” he said. “Our revenues have been down 4 percent the last two years in a row. We don’t know if that will turn around in 2010 or not, but we need to make sure that we’re prepared and that we’re doing all we can to find new ways to bring new revenues in the city.

Another way to bring in additional revenues is to recruit in new businesses, which is Meyers’ top priority.

“I think a strong industrial base that brings high-paying jobs into the city, as well as high-tech jobs, are always good,” he said.

He also wants to bring in new restaurants which compliment existing restaurants.

Both Abbott and Meyers would also like to see more joint economic development districts, like with West Chester and Fairfield townships.

In the next four years, Meyers would also like to see city leaders advance and build their relationship with the school board. He said a strong relationship could foster ideas or projects.

By 2011, Meyers said he wants to see the proposed city dog park planned for the Black Bottom property happen.

“The engineering will be finished by the end of December, and hopefully next year if capital allows we’ll be pouring concrete to put in an infrastructure,” he said.

By 2013, he wants to see 20 percent of the city’s non-emergency vehicles replaced with ones that use some type of alternative fuel.

Oler would also like to see certain council-manager briefings televised. He said there are some briefings with information citizens either should know or need to know.

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