Episode 22 - Rex Parsons Batavia Township Trustee

We've been living in sin so long.

All

Welcome to episode 22

of Let's Talk Claremont. I am your host, Patrick,

and thank you for tuning in. I always, you know, recording days are always some of my favorite days, and I'm I'm really happy to be back in front of this microphone talking to you.

So, we're getting new listeners week over week, which is great. And if you are new, let's, just talk about what we're doing here. We're gonna read a little bit of news from around the county, then we'll get into our interview,

then we'll wrap up with some events that you may or may not be interested in. So with all that said, let's jump right into it, and we're gonna talk about Clermont County first.

A bat tested positive for rabies. The Clermont County Public Health Department

said the bat was from Goshen Township.

They also said there's no public threat, so

don't don't panic or anything.

But as a brief public service announcement,

don't touch bats. Not not a good thing to do.

So moving on from that, let's talk about Batavia Township. The, Batavia Township Trustees are holding a public hearing on September 2

at 06:00PM,

and this is for a proposed amend for proposed amendments

to the Batavia Township zoning resolution.

Now the zoning commission has already held its public meeting on August 14

and voted four to zero to recommend

approving the proposed changes.

And I know we talked about this a couple of times in in past episodes, but,

just a quick recap of what the amendments affect.

It's gonna cover temporary uses,

portable storage unit regulations,

sight distance requirements,

which is the sight triangle thing, which regulates

how much, you know, vision you have around intersections, essentially.

It's also going to address outdoor and self storage standards,

parking and loading requirements,

and finally, signage standards and enforcement

provisions.

So if you're in the township and you're you're interested in the zoning amendments,

I would go to that public hearing and hear what they have to say.

Moving on to Milford, we have an update on

the paid parking.

Now, if you recall from last week, Milford City Council is looking at charging for parking in two city owned downtown lots.

Street parking will remain free, but there were some people worried that parking would push more cars onto the neighborhood streets.

We actually had our I think this might be our very first boots on the ground report from producer Molly Shell. So thank you, Molly. She left a Facebook comment on our most recent episode,

and she said I could read it out. So here's what she had to say.

Those of us for Milford, we do not want paid parking. And, also, what came out of Tuesday's meeting was the contractor that's putting in all the new development

has screwed up the sewage system so areas flood, and it sounds like the new city manager

pretty much said the residents that already live here are going to get stuck with that cost.

Then she also said that should be, your conversation in your next interview, which I'm reading this off. So there you go, Molly.

So thanks to Molly for that boots on the ground update.

She also suggested that I watch the council video,

but I tried and I couldn't find it. They they have the eight nineteen

minutes.

I'm sorry. The eight nineteen minutes have also not been published, and the agenda,

and as well as the, meeting packet, it wasn't very helpful.

So we're gonna keep our eye on this one, and we're gonna look into what's going on in that new development. And once I can find that council video or rather when they publish it, I'll look through that video, and we'll give you an update of what's going on there. But if anyone has more news about the parking or about this development, please let me know, and we'll we'll talk about it

on air.

So more from Milford. Milford exempted Village School District. Much like New Richmond,

they've got a new cell phone policy.

The use of personal communication devices during the school day is now prohibited,

and this includes, but is not limited to, cell phones, wireless earbuds, and smartwatches.

So cell phones must be turned off or silenced and kept completely out of sight

from the start of the school day until the end of the school day, including study halls and lunch periods.

Devices also must be stored in backpacks or locked in student lockers during the school day. Now if a student does need to get an urgent communication from family or

news about extra extracurricular

activities,

families should contact the school's main office.

Students also have access to their school email accounts, and coaches or extracurricular

advisors

are encouraged to use email for all team or club

communication.

And if you remember, this, much like New Richmond,

is part of new Ohio regulation that requires k through 12 students to keep cell phones put away during the school day.

We've got some more school news, and this comes from Goshen Local School District.

The Mar Cook Elementary is receiving a $5,000

literacy grant. Now this is to support the Accelerated Reader Program that encourages students to take home a book every day and read it with their families.

So thanks to this grant, each teacher is going to get a $100 to purchase new accelerated reader books for their classroom,

and the remaining funds are gonna go toward,

books for their book vending machines. And this is a cool idea. I've never heard of this.

They, apparently have

book vending machines that allow students who've been recognized for good behavior

to redeem a token and get a book. I think that's a pretty cool idea.

All of this is thanks to Danielle Styles, a k through 12 literacy coach who applied for the grant. So congratulations, Danielle, and congratulations

to Goshen Local School District.

Moving on to Williamsburg Township.

Design Within Reach is expanding their distribution facility.

The project involves a 1,000

oh, I'm sorry. A 112,320

square foot addition, man, that was tough to get out, to the existing site,

bringing the total size to more than 730,000

square feet. This project's projected to create

30 new jobs, support local businesses, and bolster Claremont's economy. So good news out of Williamsburg.

Some more school district news.

West Claremont School District is hiring. They're looking for paraprofessional

subs across the district. Now to apply for this, you need a high school diploma, you need to pass a background check, you need a valid driver's license or ID or Social Security card, and an educational aid permit

with an ESEA

endorsement.

And you can go to their website to apply for that.

So that's really all the news we have, but we do have the first ever Let's Talk Claremont restaurant review. My wife and I wasn't recently. It was a couple weeks ago. I just kept forgetting to do it, but we went to the new Dave's Kitchen and Bar, and it was very good. It had a great atmosphere. It's kid friendly. We bought our our son. He's one and a half, and, you know, that was no problem.

I had a cheeseburger, which was really good. My wife had, I think, a pesto chicken sandwich, which was also very good.

But they also have a great selection of steaks, and all of them looked delicious.

They're a bit pricey,

but they looked awfully tasty. I I would recommend it. If you're looking for a a nice place to take your family or a place to go on a date or something like that, I'd head out to Dave's Kitchen and Bar, especially if you're in the mood for a for a good steak.

I also have an another personal boots on the ground report.

I went to the East Clermont Kiwanis open house. I believe it was yesterday, and it was great. You know, I don't know too much about Kiwanis. You know, you drive into a town, you always see that sign, and I think everybody's seen a Kiwanis pancake breakfast, things like that, but I never really knew

what they were all about.

Seems like it's just a group of people that are really dedicated to community projects, and they're doing them around the county trying to make it a a better place. They've got a laundromat,

bookstores, which are kind of

books that they have in laundromats that kids can read and take home. They're also doing the fields of of honor, which is a bunch of flags that they're gonna put in Batavia honoring veterans.

And I'd encourage people looking to get involved in their community to check out the Kiwanis.

And we're gonna have somebody on to talk more about that. I actually go to a gym with the incoming Kiwanis president. So we're gonna try to get Calvin on, and he can give us his best Kiwanis pitch and tell us, all about what they're doing around the county.

So that is all we have, and that's gonna lead us into our value for value pitch. We are a value for value podcast.

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We wanna talk about the things that you wanna hear, that you're interested in, that's gonna go on around the county, and we wanna talk to the people you wanna hear from. You know, interesting people doing interesting things. That's kinda what we're all about.

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So for our interview today, we're talking with Rex Parsons, Batavia Township Trustee.

He's a really nice guy. Not that I'm surprised by that, but, I've really enjoyed talking to to him. When I got there, he took me around the Batavia Township Community Center, showed me all the stuff that they've been working on in that park, which is incredible.

And it was it was really nice because everybody seemed to know him. And if he didn't know them, he just introduced himself and struck up a conversation.

Literally, one of the most personal guys I've I've ever met. So So in the interview, we talk about what a trustee actually does because, frankly, I didn't know. And then we get into zoning. We talk a little bit about that Batavia,

Kerfuffle,

and we talk about, you know, growth, how the county's growing, a little bit about how annexations work,

and some of the park upgrades they're working on. So it was a great interview. And I know he's running for trustee again in November, so we we are gonna try to get him back on to talk about his candidacy. He didn't wanna talk about it on this podcast. And to his credit, he didn't wanna do that because he didn't wanna mess up what I was doing. So I really appreciate Rex for doing that. But we will try to get him back on to, hear his pitch for why he should be a a trustee and and what his visions are for the future of Batavia Township.

So with that, I hope you enjoy the interview.

Okay. We'll start this like I start all the other interviews that I've ever done. Just tell us who you are and what you do. Okay. I am Rex Parsons, and I am

a a trustee for Batavia Township. Okay. So I think my first question is gonna be,

what

do township trustees do? Like, what what does your day to day look like?

Well, day to day,

really,

we answer questions,

from the general public. That's the one of the first things we do and try to engage the general public.

But, we have staff here at the township that we are constantly interacting with.

We have, several departments within the township. We have zoning.

We have roads,

and the road department, and and we have cemeteries that we operate.

We have parks,

law enforcement, and Batavia Township is handled by the Clermont County Sheriff's Department through a contract. Okay. So on a on a regular basis, I'm interacting with public and interacting with staff at the at the township here. Okay. So what

what would what is the difference between, like, villages and townships, and and how do they interact with each other? Okay.

Good question. So,

townships were started in '16, I believe, twenties. It was brought over from Europe by the pilgrims when it came over. Okay. There are over 20 states, I believe, that have a township form of government. Nothing West Of The Rock or excuse me. Nothing West Of The Rockies. It's all on the East Side Of The Rockies. But,

in the state of Ohio, there are 1,308

townships,

and they're all different. They're all unique. They're all different sizes. They all offer different amenities.

But on a regular basis, what we do is is our roads. Okay. We do take care of roads. We we administer zoning.

We also work with,

zoning and then, parks. We have that that department. But we actually work with the local governments, you know, quite quite a bit. We have about 80 miles of roads. So kinda I'll kinda give you idea what happens. So most of those are subdivision roads. Okay. And we have to maintain those roads. So,

on a regular basis, the, a developer or somebody will come in and they'll build a road. Mhmm. The Clermont County engineer's office will inspect that road.

Then that road, if it passes inspection, is turned over to the township. Okay. If it's a subdivision road. So we take care of it. So 80 miles we have about 80 miles of basically subdivision roads.

Okay. Then,

and those roads have multiple jurisdictions. Some of those are,

you know, go up to the village of Batavia. So when they go up to the state, so we have to kinda or the county, we have to kinda work with them on on where those roads are located and maintaining those roads. Okay.

So so it's mainly just

taking care of roads? Well, yeah. Not not entirely that. We have a zoning. So we we we have a zoning classification for Okay. All the parcels in Batavia Township.

A large part of the agriculture,

some of them are, industrial and commercial, and some are residential.

So What what does that because I I I don't even know this. What is kind of the what would you say? Like, of the business breakdown

of the township in terms of, you know, commercial, residential,

industrial?

Yeah. So we actually have because we're the county seat, we actually have a lot of tax exempt property within our township. Okay.

All the county offices would be tax exempt. You'd have the hospital.

Mhmm. You'd have,

the jail,

the you'd have, UC Clermont.

It's tax exempt. It's tax exempt as well. So,

those are kinda exempt.

Then we have we have industrial areas. So some of it's up by the airport. Mhmm. We have the industrial area by what used to be the former Ford plant, which is where

Houdamaki is now Yeah. Yeah. On on 32.

And some of that area around in there is is considered industrial. Some of it hasn't been developed yet that way. But and then we have quite a residential,

group of, property in our township as well. So you've been you're a lifelong resident. I am.

And you started in government

the township government in February?

I did. But, I was in village council in Batavia for two terms, eight years,

before that. So

So how have you

because

Clermont is obviously growing. So from your time starting in city governments to now, like, what what do you see as some of the biggest changes and and perhaps some of the biggest difficulties that we're facing? Well,

good questions. We've we've had a lot of growth. When I started with the township, I think we probably had probably 12,000

residents. Mhmm.

And now we're probably

28 or more.

28,000. Yeah. Yeah.

So, there's been a lot of growth. And trying to maintain our identity

during that period of time,

and it is is kind of the the battle that we have.

Traffic is kinda one of those things that you can

you can kinda be on the front end of it. Like, when the property is developed, if if access to that property

is gonna create a problem, then that developer will have to put in turn lanes or make road improvements

around that development.

But,

other than that, you're kinda almost

unfortunately, I have to hate to say this. It's reactive instead of being proactive. Yeah. So when they're, you know, bottlenecks start to occur, you figure out the best or there's a safety issue, you try to figure out the best way to to fix that problem. Sometimes,

lately, it seems like everybody wants to put a roundabout in. Yeah. I've noticed a lot of the roundabouts,

are,

are they, you know, they're they're they're good and bad. You know? Some people can't figure out that when you wanna go left in a roundabout Yeah. That's not You have to go around to the right to get there. Yeah. I've had people in roundabouts

that they'll just stop Yeah. And try to, like, let me through. And I'm like, no. No. No. No. No. Keep going. Go. Yeah. You're in the circle. You've got the right one. You gotta keep going, man. Yeah. The interesting part about I didn't know this till we ask our deputies one of our meetings. You're actually supposed to use your turn signal when you get out of the the roundabout. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't know. I know. I I didn't do it either. I didn't quite understand. He said, no. When you're in a roundabout, you've got the right of way. But,

by law, I believe you're supposed to signal that you wanna Really? Exit the right of the roundabout. So See now, here I was thinking I knew how to work roundabouts.

I've been doing it wrong the whole time. Sitting here making fun of people that don't know how to use them. Right. Right.

So

So,

if we can talk about just development

a little bit, because

for me,

it's great that the county and the township are growing, but I think there's probably a balance that you need because you don't want to grow too fast and just have everything paved over.

How do

how do you see the development of the township

going in the future?

I believe with the improvements that have occurred in,

the the Eastgate area that this this part of the the the county, this part of the township is gonna be more and more susceptible to growth Mhmm. And more and more homes will be built.

I feel that there's a

it's changed our community. Mhmm.

Some for the good, some for the bad. Sure. But and I I've seen a lot of changes over my life here. Mhmm. And,

I mean,

you have to kinda, in a way,

try to understand that and try to learn live with it and try to try to block it out because, you know, so many of these subdivisions you know, I happen to live in Lexington Run.

But some of these subdivisions are built on what used to be farms. Yeah. And,

you know, they've they've come to the township, and they've asked for zoning to put that in, a township or the village. Mhmm. And they've done that. And so you get more and more residents. And, you know, people as a whole,

we we kinda push back against change. Yeah. I do. And Yeah. And, unfortunately,

in a way, we have to embrace it

and adapt to it Mhmm. With it with with reason. I mean, I mean, there has to be some control. And we we do our best to control it considering landowners' rights Mhmm. And,

and then the rights that we have as trustees. We're you we are statutory

government. We have,

laws that we have to abide by by the state of Ohio Mhmm. That are written in the state code. So,

we are home rule townships, so we have a little more authority, but we do not have the authority that a city or a village does. Okay.

So we cannot implement implement income taxes, for instance. Okay. I didn't know that. So yeah. So,

we we have to we would have to use

some people, some townships will will use do what they call JED, which is Joint Economic Development District. Yeah. And they'll use

the income tax from a city or a village that's neighboring Okay. To overlay an income tax on the workers in that

that area. Okay. And then so that's a source of revenue for them. And we have we have not done that. What are your other sources of revenue as a township?

So we work on inside millage. Okay.

Inside millage is not voted upon.

A voted levy would be like a school. Yeah. It would be,

you know, when we've had to put levies on for our police protection, it goes just for that purpose. Okay. The levy is written such a way that the money that comes in, it can only be used for that.

The fire department, whatever, those are called voted millage. And that's over and above the 10 mill floor. And a millage is if I remember correctly, it's like a a thousandth of a dollar? I believe so. Okay. Yeah. I believe so. I'm I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but Yeah. But so there's 10 mil that's not voted on. Okay. And So if you live in the township, you're just going to pay 10 mil

of taxes to It's gonna go. And it's and it's really not a lot. I mean, it it's money, but it's not a a ton of money. Yeah. You know, most of your

typically, the most of your school just most of your, tax bill goes to the school. Sure.

But so

so we don't have any voted millage for the township government in and of itself. We do have two mill that's voted for our police

police department.

And what we do with that money is we contract with the Claremont County Sheriff's Department to provide

eight deputies Mhmm.

To, that are that are central just to Batavia Township. Gotcha.

So, so we worked on inside millage. Okay. And,

you're probably gonna ask what what's that amount? I would guess

that probably the average

property owner of a $100,000

home, a 150,000 homes probably gonna pay probably less than $30 a year. Yeah. It's not a lot of money.

So in talking about development,

because there there was an episode I did not too long ago about,

because in the beginning, I'll do a little bit of news about what's going on in the county and and I'll look at the State House sometimes.

There's a bill, and I believe it was Adam Bird who put it forward about annexation,

about how that happens. Mhmm. Can you just talk about annexation and and how it happens, what it is, and and, like, what it's used for? Sure. First of all, you're referring to house bill one thirteen, the Advert.

Yeah. And and all three of the trustees, all three of us, myself,

and Jim Sauls, and Randy Perry, we went all all went up to the State House and testified on that back in the day. I don't know if I knew that. Yeah. We really feel that annexation laws in the state of Ohio are

are very skewed towards the villages and the cities. Mhmm.

We'd like to see a little more equality in that. There is no way for a township to get any property back from the village, but there's lots of ways for it to get it from the town from the township to the village.

So,

currently and I think,

what happens is some of the property is,

has to have a small touch like 5%.

And in the case of, a development or late the latest annexation that occurred from Batavia

Township.

There was

a couple different types of annexation that used an expedited two on the second attempt because the first attempt failed. Yeah. Because that attempt allowed the county commissioners to decide the overall good Right. For the community.

Well, they did an expedited two

type on the second annexation, and it took that power away from the county commissioners.

And I think what Adam Bird's bill is saying that, hey,

there needs to be elected officials

that because this affects the whole county. It doesn't just affect Batavia Township or Batavia Village in this case. Yeah. There needs to be somebody that's standing up a little higher looking down and saying this is good for the community. This is bad. Yeah. And then in the case of the county commissioners, they were concerned about the effects

of that annexation to the Claremont County Airport.

Yeah. And I that when I was looking at that bill, it kind of blew my mind that there were certain annexation processes that Yeah. Just kind of they're almost automatic. Yeah. It's like nobody votes on them. Nobody's done. It's just If the paperwork's put in right Yeah. It then happens. The county commissioners don't have a say. And it seems like what that bill is trying to do is put the commissioners to say, this isn't for the good of the county or it is. Go ahead. You know, whatever. Exactly. And that's the reason why we all went up and testified. We we feel really strongly about that. We feel we need this to be some modification to the laws that's written today. When you so you spoke a little bit about the annexation up by the airport. None of that was in the news recently.

Can you explain what kinda what's going on there and kinda what the

contention is? Yeah. So,

the developer brought that property

to the township,

and,

he wanted some density that we were not comfortable with and we're not we don't think it fits well into the community. Mhmm. And so we said we weren't interested in in that. So he ended up going to the village, and

I do not know the exact numbers, but he was able to get an agreement with the village where they're gonna pay for they're gonna reimburse him for some expenses relative to developing that property. Okay.

That's also gonna be a CRA. Right? Or It's a CRA. I can't remember what that stands for. But, essentially, they don't have to pay Community Reinvestment Act or area. Yeah. So,

what happens is those that move in there

don't have to pay a proper real estate tax. Now,

the property is is,

has a tax on it now. And when they start subdividing it, those that they will still pay that, and it's a small amount. It's unimproved property. Right. But so when you build your $203,100,000

dollar home, you're not building you're not paying tax Right. On that improved Right. So that goes into what they what is called a pilot payment. And so it's payment in lieu of taxes. Okay. Okay. So that goes that will go right to the village, and they can do whatever they want with it then.

Oh, that'd be a nice It goes in the general fund, I believe. So,

I think they they

they,

have agreement with,

probably the developer to reimburse him for the expenses or to pay for the expenses upfront. I don't know the true mechanics of it. Sure. I don't I'm not privy to that. I haven't asked. So Is it still ongoing? Because I haven't seen it anything about it in the news. I don't know. I actually don't know where it is in

in terms of resolution, like, what happened with it. Right. So, the village had a meeting, and there were a lot of people spoke against it. And so they went ahead and passed it. Mhmm. And then within the thirty day time frame, they did what they called a referendum. Okay. So they started they circulated a petition,

presented it to village council.

So the theory there is that that

that issue would be on the ballot at the next general election, which is would be coming up this fall on November 4.

Well,

they started that process and and and so then then the village turned around and

took away they actually

changed their motion and their vote and took

the took the development away. Okay. And then within a few minutes, turn around and put it right back on again. And they did it as emergency this time. Okay. So when that's there's an emergency, it takes effect immediately, and there's no thirty day waiting period. There were therefore, the referendum was was invalid.

So So they could village councils can do that? They can They can.

They can

if it's a true emergency I was about to say, like, what are the criteria

for an emergency? I I do not know that. Okay. You know? So but that's what they they ended up doing. So they did it as emergency.

So,

the same development. Well, well, actually, I don't know at the meeting. I was actually at the meeting that they did that, and I'm not sure if they ever really discussed. I'm for sure they didn't discuss how many units they were approving or anything like that. So that was probably negotiated later.

So that happened. So

in that process, the Claremont County Airport,

I believe, filed and, actually, there was a resident that filed a motion that they had violated several a couple of different laws. One of which was the open meetings act where they have to advertise that they're gonna be taking that, and they didn't I don't believe they didn't do that in that case. I was there. I didn't see it either.

So that's in court. Okay. And I've been So it's it's in court right now? It is. Still kind of up in the air? It is. When I know the airport, I think had some concerns too about about development that close to the airport. Yeah. I think I read in a, an article.

It was like, you know, in the minute those people start moving in, is the minute we start getting noise complaints. Yeah. So,

you know And they use leaded gas on all those planes. Oh, do they? Yeah. I mean I didn't know that. Yeah. They do. So,

it's not a healthy place to be around. Yeah.

A plane on a regular basis for that purpose. It's crazy to think that what is it? It was in the sixties.

Yeah. Everybody was using leaded gas. It's just everybody's breathing leaded. Yeah. You remember when they had the little,

restrictor than your gas can in your I think so. In your your car so you couldn't put the nozzle in the Yeah. They do that with diesel now because there's been a couple of times when I've tried to put these in my car. So why isn't this fitting?

So,

so why don't we talk about some of the things that the township is doing? I mean, we just walked through this beautiful park over here. Do you wanna talk a little bit about, you know, what you're doing here and and around the township to

beautify it and improve it? Yeah. So we're at 1535

Clough Pike, and we have a, a park. It's about 71 acres. Our administration building is here.

We have,

several

amenities that we've developed over the years. It's not happened at once.

We've done it, again, through a a period of partnerships

with a couple different agencies to make them happen. You know, we've used Ohio,

clean, clean clean funds to do a, a walking trail that we call the Lewis h Moore Memorial Walking Trail. He was a trustee for 30

here at the township.

And then we, we've used also some other money,

to the high the Claremont County Park District. I think I showed you some of those AED units that we have. Yeah.

Very clever design. It's a cabinet that has an it houses an a d AED in it.

It's locked, and it's got a keypad on it. And so in order to get into the eight to the cabinet and open it up, you have to call 911.

And so that immediately starts the ambulance this way. But when you do that, they will give you the a code that you will put in and open that cabinet door and get that AED so you can yourself. And it's it's and you open them up, and it tells you exactly what to do. Yeah. You know, where to I mean, I think there's, like, little stickies that you put on the there's just and an AED, I guess, of it's a defibrillator. Right? That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. So we have two of those at the park, and we got again, those were with the Clermont County Park District funds.

We have a dog park that it's called the David Stricker dog Park, and that was with a,

also with a grant from the Claremont County Park District.

It's in one acre park that has, an area for small dogs and large dogs.

It keeps them separate. Mhmm.

Very popular. We we actually got some money from Purina.

It it came down with I I think it was $20,000

that we used to put some amenities in in in there as well. Nice. And,

let's see. Then we also had, we put an early warning siren up on top of our our we have a concession stand in the middle of our four ball ball fields, and we wrote a grant for a, It's like a tornado siren. Well, it's not we have a tornado siren as well, but this is actually early warning siren for lightning. Oh, okay. So,

That's nice. Yeah. So that was also a grant that we got from Claremont County Park District.

So that goes off in advance of if lightning if conditions are correct for lightning, it'll go off. And

so, hopefully, people understand and and and get out of the you know, get into a shelter. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully.

So, and so we have that. We have a like I mentioned, the walking trail goes around. We actually just added this past, two year year year ago now, we added a a Frisbee. Yeah. Excuse me. A disc golf course. I keep calling it Frisbee. I know it's not.

Somebody my age You might get some disc golf fans out there. I don't wanna I don't wanna make them mad.

So we have a disc golf course, 18 holes, and,

it

we pretty much did it ourselves. We had a a gentleman help us with the design, and and you can you get here and you can tell pull up the app on your phone. It tells you where the next hole is, how far it is to that hole. And I guess it tracks scores too, I believe, so you can see how other people are scoring on it. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of it's in a shaded area, so it really That's really nice. And it's kinda challenging because,

there's a lot of trees in that area, but it really helps with trying to be precise with your throats. Yeah.

Those guys with those big cases we're talking about full of So then we've got, of course, we've got the,

we've got two playgrounds. We've got two picnic shelters.

And the the the playgrounds were done with what we call a community build. We we took,

there's a construction crew that will come and put these playgrounds up. However,

we decided to just use a a supervisor,

and then we had put out a call for public to come help. And we had a lot of people come from all over Clermont County, really. We had people from Pierce Township and some from right here in Batavia come and help us. You know, we drilled the holes, tell us where you drill them here. We drilled a hole, and then we would you know, you have to have some people help and try to pull both everything together. Like a barn raising horse. Pour the pour the concrete together, get them stand up, put the level on them. So,

it saved us some money and the and the residents some money. Yeah.

We have three pickleball courts, and we're right now in the process of building two more.

That is pickleball has really taken off in the It has. It has. I can't remember when I first heard of it, but it seems like it's everywhere now. Yeah. It's everywhere. What amazes me is when we go out there, there's so many young people that are playing it now. I think it was maybe five or six years ago, it was kind of that's what you do when you retire. Yeah. But now it seems like it's more and more younger people doing pickleball. Yeah. It's a younger person's sport now, I guess.

So pickleball, then we,

I mentioned our playground. We have

a couple sunshades we have in the back because we have a,

we have a splash pad that we put in this year, which is new. Mhmm. And, it's been very popular.

It's a great place to go and get it. So splash pad doesn't have a pool of water that you have to worry about somebody drowning or anything in, but it it dumps water down on you or it squirts up. So but there's nothing that you're gonna drown in. So We take our kids to I think I was telling you that when we're walking around. It's great for kids. Yeah. Because you're right. You don't have to worry about anybody falling at a pool and drowning. Right. And, man, does it get their energy out. Yes. Like, they're done. Parents love that. It's great.

Aunts and uncles, grandpas and grandpas. Yeah.

Parenthood has been for me mostly is trying to figure out how to make tiny people tired.

That's a full time job. It is. It is an all day job.

Good for you.

So anyway, we we're we're proud of what we've got, and there's so there's several things I didn't mention. You know, we've got a soccer,

area for soccer teams. We actually have

a a a a league that plays here. And I'm I forget the age of the kids, but they you know? Then we've got knothole baseball.

And then we also have a field that UC Clermont,

plays their

men's baseball on,

and it was done in a coordination

with the with the UC and with the Reds Community Fund.

And Jay Bruce over underwrote the whole thing at the time or a portion of it. And, when Jay did that back in '20

I'm not sure of the year, 2010, '29,

He did not name it after himself. At the time, a lot of those Reds players, when they would do that, they would name it after themselves. Yeah. But Jay did not. Jay decided that he wanted to memorialize

the scout that that brought him up through the Reds organization.

His name,

was,

I mentioned his name, but I've forgotten it just for a second. But That's alright. He did a, he did a great job. Wilson Brian Wilson. Brian Wilson. Excuse me. Yeah. I got so many notes here in front of me. I should look at my notes. Brian Wilson,

was the scout that discovered Bray Jay Bruce and and kinda brought him up, and, he passed away tragically from a heart attack.

And so, Jay wanted it in in his name and did so,

so UC put Claremont plays out there, and they've been very successful. They have a great coaching, great, great staff, and, some great players they brought through. When is baseball? Because that'd be fun to go see a Clare UC Claremont. It's a spring sport. It's a spring sport. Yeah. Yeah. February, March. Okay. You know, it's like you think of yourself, you're like, who wants to play baseball on its ankle?

Well, honestly, I think I'm not sure who wants to play baseball, period. Sometimes, but

not to be disparaging against any baseball players. Gotcha.

So you've been like I said earlier, you've been doing this you've been in

government for twenty some plus years.

Mhmm.

What drove you to actually start down this path?

Well,

my dad

my dad served on village council in Batavia for a number of years.

And

I remember him coming home

and talking about the meetings and how they were doing something, what he felt good for the community. Mhmm. And

I I think about that, and I think, you know, I I really just wanna first of all, I wanna follow my dad's footsteps, but I also wanna I wanna leave this community a better place than when I found it Yeah. Or when it found me. So,

I I think in a way,

that we've done that.

The the issues that I have are, you know,

like, when you cut your grass, you get done cutting your grass, and you look down and say, that looks nice. You know?

But this is kind of a long term thing. It just takes a it takes a long time. You do things little bits and pieces a day at a time. So sometimes at the end of the day, you think, well, I didn't do anything today Mhmm. When in fact, you kinda put more bits together Yeah. Of the the mountain that you're that you're you're trying to help build. Yeah. Especially when you look back over the years. You know, like, you you take a week and say, oh, man. What did I really do this week? Yeah. But then you look back five years, you know, oh, okay. It was all part of that. Yeah. Yeah. It was all building on that. Right.

So as a as a trustee, as somebody in local government, what are some of the most

I mean, outside of of, you know, making a community better, what are some of the most rewarding things

about the job?

Well, you know, it's it's actually the culmination of building something that we've done over a period of time this park. You know, we've got the active parts of this park, which I kinda talked about. We've also got passive areas because not everybody wants to. Some people just would like to go walk through the woods Yeah. And and see the birds and the and the bees and the flowers and that kind of stuff. And we have that portion of that here at the township. Mhmm. And I think the rewarding part is working with the community.

As I mentioned to you earlier, there are parts of the park that had a,

boy scouts have come in and and built,

projects Mhmm. Whether they they've made trails for the area, a few bridges for people to get across, some creeks in the back.

I think it's just building all that together Mhmm.

And bring seeing people come in and use that

when

they they would have gone somewhere else Yeah. Or not gone anywhere. You know? Yeah. That's the great thing about like, the anything that in for for kids. Playgrounds

or the splash pad, you'd see them out there playing and getting exercise. I mean, I remember when I was a kid growing up, I I mean, we did all kinds of things. Just the stone you give them a ball and start throwing it around. We had rock fights. Yeah. We throw rocks in there. We weren't that violent. But

but We got in trouble for it. We weren't

our parents quickly told us to stop throwing rocks. Throw rocks. Yeah.

So that's probably the most rewarding part is seeing what we've done over the years. So what about challenges? What's some of the most challenging parts of this job?

The challenging parts is the township trustee is sometimes, you know, a lot of people, they'll want you to,

to do things you can't by law. Yeah. Because I as I mentioned, we're a statutory government.

And Can you explain I'm sorry. Can you explain just a little bit about what that means? Yeah. So the state gave us certain powers. Okay. And then we have to live within that. Okay.

So,

we we don't build roads. A lot of people say the township should build roads. Well, we we typically don't build roads. We would partner with people Right. To do that. And, you know, and that's when I say people, I'm I'm only talking about the Clermont County engineers' office. You know? We use them quite a bit. You know? We

we I kinda pride we pride ourselves on working with the entities that that support us, and we support them, Clermont County engineers. You know? We we have a paving project we do every year, and, we've we've partnered with them so that they can,

come in and pave their roads. Some of those in their township and some other parts of the county. But we add our paving project onto their list so that we can get a better price. And so then now

now that we know what roads

that they know what roads were paving in Batavia Township and then vice versa, we know what roads they're gonna pave. So,

those relationships to me are very important.

Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your challenges part.

So it's tough when people don't

quite understand Quite understand that. Essentially.

Yeah. Yeah. So they'll come up and Well be grumpy about not having a road paved.

There's a tendency sometimes to blame the government if, you know Yeah. And they want the government to fix it or the government broke it. Yeah.

And sometimes we can help, and sometimes

by law, you know, we don't have any authority on that kind of stuff. So, like, if you get in dispute with your neighbor about the yard or something like that goes on, they come to the township and and they want township to fix it.

And, you know, it's if it's off the right of whack, we can't go in there and start mowing somebody else's grass. Yeah. Or if there's an issue like that. Yeah.

I imagine that's gotta be a little difficult because I They can. I myself don't really know Yeah. What trustees do. And if my if, you know, the road outside my house was all potholed up and, you know, I'd Yeah. You'd probably be the first one I talked to. Yeah. Yeah. And I probably wouldn't be happy when I was talking.

You're already mad.

Yeah. Those are that's not a good a good way to start a conversation when somebody's already mad. Right.

You know, I had a question, and it flew right out of my head.

Oh, I can't remember it.

Oh, I know what I wanted to ask. So if people

are want

more information, they wanna stay involved, they wanna stay up to date with what's going on in the township and what the trustees are doing, what's the best way of doing that? Well, we have a website.

It's bataviatownship.org.

They can certainly go to that.

They can come to our meetings, and we would we would encourage anyone

who has a question about how the government works and what we do, come to a meeting and see.

You know, we meet on the first, typically, the first Tuesday of the month. Mhmm.

We have to change that occasionally. This building is actually a polling location. Okay. So this November 4, when people come here to vote, we'll have to flex our meetings. Okay.

So, we'll probably

probably go to one. I think we've already gone to Wednesday, the following day after the election.

And, like, for instance, we just had the national night out that occurred on the the Tuesday. Saw those. Those are really cool. Yep. That's a How'd that go? Went great. I mean, it was a little we had a little rain, but it didn't it didn't dampen,

did not dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd. We had a good crowd. And, it's really a great program, I think, to to

to

see

so many of the kids these days,

or they they see a deputy or a police law enforcement officers

as the bad guys because they may be hauling

somebody to jail. Maybe it's mom and dad. Maybe it's somebody else. But they're really just they're average people upholding the law Mhmm. That we all should be living by. Yeah. And to see them when they're not to see them on a one on one when they're maybe in uniform, but they're talking to you as a as a as a kid and having fun with you, you know, and throwing a ball with you or whatever and putting on an event like they do here. Yeah. I think it goes speaks volumes on on on to

to set it planting that seed Yeah. That they aren't bad people. They're they're they're really just to pull them along, they're good people. I heard it I read a quote recent not a quote saying I don't even know what it was. I just it was like a little comment on a blog post somewhere.

But it said,

people don't realize

that government isn't a place. It's people. Yeah. Like, that's that's what all of this is. It's not some monolithic.

It's just people Right. Doing people things. Yeah. And and we're we're providing services for residents on a different level than, like, the village of Batavia and Clermont County and the state. You know, we're we're all working for the residents at a different level.

There's certain things by law that we can do and the same thing occurs,

applies to the other agencies as well. So Now you've mentioned a couple times,

November 4 in the elections.

Is there any, like, ballot issues in the township that people should be aware of or any kind of things that we we as a township will be voting on that we should pay attention to? There is.

There is, we did approve a development over on 222,

State Route 222

in the township, and I and it's called,

well, it's on the former property of, at Kluba or the Kluba Farm. Mhmm.

So that's gonna be on the ballot. We did approve some homes there at a a density right around two units per acre. And Okay. And the residents,

didn't didn't appreciate that. And,

we worked with the developer to do what we thought was the best that we could do at that time. So that's gonna be on the ballot, and that would that would pull that development off. It'd be a referendum.

And there's also a ballot initiative

to do away with

article 38 of our growth main of our zoning code, which is the it's it's the PUD section. Okay. That's a section that we use,

for developers to come in or and it doesn't have to be a developer. It could be a proper single property come in.

But, if you were to let's just say you had a 30 acre parcel and you want to put

homes on that 30 acres and you want to put,

let's just say you want to put 15 homes on it.

Well,

you can certainly do that through zoning.

However, with the PD,

we're able to

preserve a part of that property for green space.

Okay.

So it's never built on, and it's green space that perhaps that those group of 30 homes could actually,

or fifty fifteen homes could actually use that green space as a common area. So I'd so the township, if somebody so like you said, if you had 30 some odd acres and you wanted to obviously, you'd have to go through zoning, but there's a clause in there that says that

the township has the right to designate

some kind of green space within that development. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So that so that property then becomes the property that everybody can use in that development. Okay. And then also in that, we can actually, through the PD process, you can actually the county would require,

might require what they call stormwater detention.

Okay. So one of the things that we have in in an area like this is people that around it, they always complain about flooding coming from the other people's property. Mhmm. Well, with using that PD, we're able to designate a certain area of that for for stormwater detention. So stormwater detention

would be an area that would be low and it'd have piping in it. It might fill up with water Mhmm. During a rainstorm and then slowly let out after the rainstorm's over. So it doesn't flood the neighbors. Right. So it's not running off. Right. Yeah. Right.

So

and it might be more efficient too because you you could it could lead to less roads throughout. In other words, if somebody's got an r one development, they've got all these single driveways coming off of the road to to reach those parcels.

And with the PD, you would allow them to kinda put a a a road down the center with with lots coming off of that road,

and then do some stone and then,

sometimes that's more efficient Yeah. Than having individual driveways. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. So and then, of course, in that process, the developer may also recognize that he has to make some improvements on the road that it he touches or in in or in and around

and, may have to put in, you know,

turn lanes where you'd slow down you turn off the road and turn in or widen the road so you get in and out. Yeah.

Make site site,

site angle site, angle

improvements,

those kind of things. Okay. So those are the two that'll be Those are two. Okay. And then there's also I just found out that our fire department, which is covered by central joint fire and EMS district, so CJ Fed Okay. They are gonna be putting a levy on to vote us for as well. Okay.

So So I'm backing up to the the PD one. That is to remove that

so we would not have that ability to designate. That's correct. Okay. I wanna make sure. That's correct. And then the, fire levy.

Yes. Correct.

Cool. So

this is almost

more for my sake. So when I do the new segments in the beginning, I try to look at,

the meeting minutes.

And

I, for the life of me,

not for the life of me, I have trouble kind of deciphering them and what's actually going on. So when I'm looking at these minutes,

my first question would be, what is the difference between a consent and a non consent

agenda?

Do do you have that at the trustee level? I see a lot of that at commissioner's meetings.

I'm not sure I've seen

I guess the overall question is is how do the meetings actually run? Like,

what what do you guys talk about? What do you decide on? Okay. Good question. We we start off, of course,

every every meeting start up with the pledge of allegiance, and we try to recognize usually sometimes, if we'll have anybody in the in the audience who's a veteran or something, they'll ask them to lead them.

So and, of course, we do roll call. And then we the first thing we do is we usually would would,

approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Mhmm. We do that because

they're draft until we do that. So they're given to us in advance. We look them over. Any changes that we suggest or make, then we bring it to the board, and then we make those changes. Okay. So all that's been done. And so at the meeting, we're approving the the minutes from the previous meeting. Okay. Okay? So then and then then we go through and, approve our agenda for that day,

And, and then we'll we'll approve the financials. So,

we are we have four elected officials here at the township. We have three elected trustees and one fiscal officer. Okay. So,

and and every township's like that.

So we we end up,

letting the fiscal officer go through the financial because she's handling that. Mhmm. But we have to approve payments, and we do that at the same time. Okay. So those are all the, like,

x amount of money to

somebody that fixed the storm drain or something like that. Correct. Correct. Correct.

So,

once we do that then, and we usually typically will have our, we have law enforcement come to every meeting and give us a monthly report. And so,

he will come and speak

and, go through the the last months.

And then we we kinda highlight we think it's good for people to see where crime occurs in Batavia Township. So he he actually shows a map Okay. On where crime

has occurred ways. He he he's specific on on break b and e's Mhmm. Bargo loy and also on drug overdoses because

that has been a big problem. It's still a problem in the township. How I was about to ask if it's getting better. It's getting better. Okay.

So

and, of course, you know, usually, they're there. When they go, they usually administer Narcan. Mhmm. And then

sometimes they get taken to the hospital and sometimes they don't. Yeah. It's their choice. Yeah.

So we go through that, and then we'll start with committee reports.

I sit on a,

the cemetery board. We have a we actually have a,

a cemetery that's a union cemetery that's operated

by Batavia Village and Batavia Township because it's in both entities. Okay. So there are three of us that sit on that board. There I I sit on the board representing the township.

We, there is one village council member that sits on that representing the village, and then we together appoint a member at large. Okay. So we have monthly meetings. So I always bring

since I said, I always bring everybody and the trustees up to date on how the last meeting went. Okay. And then the other two trustees sit on the Central Joint Fire and EMS board. There are five members on that board. There's two from village council. There's two from the township,

and then there's a member pointed at large. Okay. And so they go through those numbers too. Okay. So then we have, typically, we would have Taylor Corbett who's our zoning planning and zoning director. He would give us a report.

Then our

service director, Cody Smith, will give a report, and then our Karen

Swartz, our

township administrator will give a report. I've actually talked to,

Karen. Help me set this up. Okay. Great. If you see her, tell her I said thanks. I will tell her. That was very nice of her. Yeah. So,

and then, of course, we go into we go into public participation. Now we don't allow we don't we don't

limit how long people wanna talk. So they can talk

for as long as they want? As long as they want. Okay. You know, we're there for them. Do you ever get somebody doing, like, crazy filibusters or something? No. We haven't. You know, I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you.

People come to our meetings, they're passionate about something. Yeah. Yeah. And and I think we try to understand that passion Yeah.

Because it's important to them, and therefore, it's important to us too. So can anybody, when they come to a meeting, they can get up and talk about whatever they want? Sure. Okay. Sure. Now, typically, I'll be honest with you. Typically, if there's somebody who wants to present a program

or something, they they would actually call and be placed on the agenda. Okay. So we would have a clue. Okay. Sometimes they'll they'll wanna bring a PowerPoint or to show, you know, something they they they want us to show us, and then we always request that in advance. Okay. So we can have it uploaded on the screen, and we can do that in advance.

But there's no restrictions to No. Anybody who wants to come and talk? No. No. You know, we meet

usually once a month. However, we will have to schedule other meetings, but on a regular basis, it's once a month. And it's important

that we get to hear from the public. Yeah. So

so once they speak, then we start into some some some regular business items.

We'll a lot of times, we'll have a we may have somebody that hasn't cut their grass or they've got a junk vehicle that has to be towed or the grass has to be cut, and we have to go through that.

We don't actually have to go out and see the site, but they show us pictures of it. Mhmm. So they they'll show us on the screen and show us what the issues are. And if we agree with that, then we'll go ahead and we'll we'll we'll do a motion and to accept the recommendation on staff to go ahead and and mitigate that that that issue, whether it's tall grass or

garbage or an old an old vehicle sitting around, that they've been notified that they need to move it. Okay. So if I have a neighbor that isn't mowing his grass and he's got a bunch of cars on his lot, I can come to the township trustees and say, like, hey. You can. The best thing we need to do would probably be to to, call the office Mhmm. And let them know that there's an issue, and then our our our zoning inspector would go out and make sure that there is an issue with the issue. If he agrees with it, then he'll take pictures and

and and document it. And then they'll they'll serve them. We have to serve them three times, I believe, with notification.

Okay. So he'll have to put a door You can't just somebody can't just say, like, hey. My neighbor doesn't cut his grass, and then suddenly Yeah. This down chips on him. Yeah. Then that takes a while. Yeah. There's a process that we have to follow. Yeah. Yeah. I imagine. Statutory government. Yeah. Like a statutory government. Yeah.

If we can I'm sorry. I'm going back a little bit. But I I was thinking about our talk about development.

How

how do you interact with developers? Like, what does that

relationship look like between trustees and a developer?

We we don't we really have a limited amount with the developer. The developer will will bring it into us

once they've gotten everything together. But as far

as we have staff and we have a zoning consultant that meets with

the developer on the front end Okay. To go through. And

we've got a lot of experience with them. Jonathan Wilker has been our consultant for a number of years now, and then Taylor Corbett's got a lot of experience as well as Karen Schwartz, our administrator.

They'll meet with them and try to,

you know, go through some of the issues. You know? Like,

it's easy. Like, they'll say, oh, we got some neighbors or we got some residents close by over here. You're gonna have to gonna have to, you know, buffer them somehow, whether it's with trees or landscape, whatever. So that when we see the plan, we've already had a set of eyes look at it. Okay. So so how it typically is done is a developer will come in. He'll first thing he'll do is it will go to the county with the plan. Mhmm.

Excuse me. They'll go to the county, and the county will will input. The county will look at water and sewer. Mhmm. Make sure they have water capacity and sewer capacity,

and they'll actually have the county engineer look at it to make sure that roads,

are sufficient leading to it. You don't want to plunk down 300 people if the roads can't handle. No. You no. You do not.

And then, and then at the same time, the fire department looks at it to make sure that, you know, what they wanna do is they can get a fire truck in and out, but there's adequate water supply to do that, so on and so forth.

So they do that, and then it goes to the county. He has a hearing on it, and they make a recommendation to our zoning commission. Then our zoning commission will hear it. And this process takes about three months, and the zoning commission will hear

it usually about three months. And then the zoning commission will hear it, and

they'll make a rec recommendation to the township. Okay. So now we've had all those eyes to look at this plan before we see it. Yeah.

So

a lot of the,

a lot of the

the issues have been mitigated by that point in time, or we know

that, for instance, that they told the developer you need to put a a a turn lane in here, and he doesn't wanna do it. Yeah. So it comes to us with that. Hey. There's there's an asterisk right here because you need to do this. And

so

Yeah. Because I've the reason I was wondering that is because, I mean, these developments, big money. So I imagine there's there can be pressure

to get something done. Yeah. So it's nice that there's almost kind of, like, buffers. Like, you've got

the, township administrator and you've got zoning. And so there's kind

of, I guess, what would you call it, checks and balances? Yeah. There is. Yeah. There is. And along the way, we've collaborated. Well, we haven't collaborated. We've we've we've informed the schools that there's a, you know, that's coming up. So so they know. Well, because, like, with the CRA thing, I think that I think that was another point of contention

was that if you have all these people that aren't paying an adequate amount of property tax Yeah. But then you're also adding all of these students to schools and people that need fire and EMS

and police,

like, how do you Yeah. How do you balance that? Right. Where's the money coming from? Yeah. Yeah. You can't just appear out of thin air. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

I think

I think that's honestly all the questions I have. Okay.

But before we go, why don't you if there's any upcoming events or anything that you wanna plug or anything like that, just I'll give you the floor.

Well, I appreciate that. The Bulldog Blast is happening here at the township. We

we're very strong partners with, the local entities I as I'd mentioned to you, and the school

has a fundraiser. They it's called the Bulldog Blast, and it's a three ks five ks

run that they do here. And I gotta be honest with you. I have I'm gonna do a little plug for myself back several years ago.

Probably four or five years ago, I entered.

Yeah. I didn't run. I walked. Yeah. But I won my class.

My my and I'm like, I couldn't believe it. They called my name, said, you know,

your division, I won. I said, how did I do that? I was the only one in my class. So

Wait a minute. Take the wins when you get them. Hey.

They had an age group, so I was so happy. I I was looking for a trophy, but they gave me a nice certificate. Yeah. I was I was happy to get that. But, anyway, we had that bulldog blast. I believe that's coming up. I'm pretty sure it's this Saturday, I believe. Okay. But,

they'll have a number of people here, and and, they'll they'll actually use a neighboring subdivision to run some of the people through. Nice. And, they work you know, when you do these kind of things,

you're thinking, public roads, you're gonna have people running. Yeah. We'll have the sheriff's department here, and they'll have cones. They'll they'll they'll be on top of it, make sure everybody's safe. Yeah. You know? So That's good. It's, it's a fun event.

We just had a national night out.

There's really events

Oh, they're here all the time. As part of the podcast, I try to do a rundown of events. So it'll be news and then an interview and then a rundown of events going on in the county. Yeah. There's stuff going on Yeah. Everywhere. Yeah. It's Shakespeare in the Park and at Shiloh, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just had moving and, we had three movies here at the park. We just had our last one,

last weekend, I guess. So What movies were you showing?

Wow. Oh, you're testing me.

High School Musical

Moana to,

sorry.

Two out of three is not bad right now. No. That's okay. The third one, but 66%.

Feel like Fifth Third Bank here.

You know, a couple of other things we do do,

we have a maintenance department, which we haven't talked about Oh, okay. That,

we maintain

when I say maintain,

we service,

provide services to about 80 miles of road. Okay. So

not so much this time of year.

You know, some of our roads rural like,

Greenbrier Road and, Elk Lake Road, and we have to take a bush hog and cut back Oh, sure. On sides of the road so that because the stuff over over

grows over. Yeah. But in the wintertime, though, the subdivision roads and those other roads, as I mentioned, will have to plow snow. Yeah. And so

80 miles of road doesn't sound like a lot, but right away, you have to think, well, that's 80 miles of road, but then there's there's a lane going one way lane, so that's so now you gotta double that because there's two lanes. And then typically, when we're we're snowplowing,

we actually have to make four passes to clear the road because you got to go down the middle Yeah.

Down each side, and then you gotta cut back on the sides to get it back off the road. Yeah. So it takes

Yeah.

So it takes a lot of time. Yeah. And we've got a great department that takes care of that. It doesn't I mean, even 80 miles, that gets you close to Columbus if you think about it. Yeah. Yeah. We don't want it. Yeah. Yeah. So,

it's a you know, and and that requires specialized equipment to do that. You know? We have

a rock we have a salt rock salt,

barn that we store salt in.

And,

you know,

we used it. We didn't have that. We had to buy it from the county. This has been several years ago, and there's times when you have a bad winter

that the county would run low, and they would they would cut us back. Well, so then we ended up building our own salt dome. That's nice. And, then there's been times when we've actually let local

other local governments use that salt because we've had enough for ourselves.

Are we the only township that has a salt dump? No. No. The other other ones do. Okay. But I can remember Stone Lake Township, I think, a couple times came down and got some salt. We've I think we've even shared some with the

with schools because they get theirs from the county Yeah. Yeah. And the county cut upcharge

them? No. We don't. It's actually, we just ask them to bring it back. Oh, nice. So, you know, when the county gets theirs in, just bring us that load of salt Yeah. Yeah. And just dump it. Yeah. And It's probably a better idea than that. Than trying to generate an invoice and get paid back and forth. More neighborly too. Yeah.

Yeah. So,

we we're really pretty good partners with, you know, folks. I mean, there's times when we'll we'll share equipment with other townships,

and, we've done that with, Pierce and Union and sometimes with the Village Of Batavia. We've shared equipment. Not likely, but

Well, like I said on our walk, I

in doing all of these interviews and meeting all of the people around Clermont County, it really does

it's a good community, and it seems like people genuinely do want the best for their community and their neighbors. And it seems like everybody's really working towards a goal of making a better place Yeah. Which is nice. Yeah. And at the end of the day, that's kinda what we're supposed to do, I think. You know? I agree with that. I don't I don't ever think that that, that a government should be the first thing on there, the headline on the newspaper when you pick it up. Yeah. Not that anybody reads newspapers these days. But Well, hopefully, they're listening to this podcast. Well, let's hope. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So,

well, that's like I said, that's all I've got. Okay. Is there anything else you that I didn't, ask you about? I think you covered pretty much everything. Thank you so much. Well, thank you very much, and I appreciate you doing this. And I'll call it a successful podcast. Alright. Same here, Patrick. Thanks. Thank you.

Well, thanks again to Rex for sitting down with me, and I hope you enjoyed the interview we did with him. Like I said in the beginning, I really enjoyed it.

And, we're gonna get him back on, because I I do wanna hear about his and his campaign. And and, frankly, I'd like to hear more about what it's even like to run for local office because I I don't think that's an experience many people get to have. So

thanks again to Rex.

So let's talk about some events.

First up, we have Creek Days at the Park on August 29 at 1PM at Sycamore Park. It is a free drop in program where kids and families

can cool off in the creek with some, unstructured

but supervised play.

It's great to get the kids outdoors. It's great to explore aquatic life and to cool off on a summer afternoon, although it has been unseasonably

cool.

You do not need to register, but do bring some water ready shoes.

Next up, we have dog days of summer dog hike on August 29

from 6PM to 07:30PM

at the oh, man. I really hope I'm pronouncing this right. The Kili Nature Preserve.

It's a guided evening hike with your dog. There will be a scavenger hunt with some fun, small prizes

and, splash in the creek afterwards for your dog. I guess you could too if you really wanted to, but it's mainly for the dogs.

It is free. There is no preregistration

needed. Just bring your dog on a leash and enjoy some nature filled fun.

Next up, we have live music, Anita and the Daves at Harmony Hill Winery on August 29

from 5PM to 9PM at the Harmony Hill Vineyard and Estate Winery.

It's a free, free event. Wine and food are there available for purchase, obviously. I mean, it's a winery. I hope you'd be able to buy wine there.

But you get to enjoy an evening of live music in the vineyards, with local band, Anita and the Daves, and they perform an eclectic mix of folk and classic rock. And this is all gonna be in Harmony Hills Outdoor Amphitheater.

They tell you to bring some lawn chairs or blankets so you're comfy. They'll also have some wine tasting wine bottles available

from the winery,

but you can bring your own picnic snacks. It's also family friendly and small leashed dogs are allowed.

Next, we have Shape of Nature morning walk on August 30 from 9AM to 10AM at East Fork State Park. This is a free naturalist led program from the Ohio State Parks. You get to discover shapes, colors, and textures in nature during a gentle morning walk. It's fun for families and amateur nature photographers,

and they say you'll never look at leaves, rocks, and clouds the same way again,

which is interesting because I'm really not sure how I look at all those things now.

But you do not need to register, and it is suitable for all ages.

Leaf prints. It's a craft at East Fork, August 30 from 10:15AM to 11:00AM.

This is gonna be at East Fork State Park Nature Center. It is a free creative activity following a nature walk. You'll use leaves that you gather from, your walk and you make your own leaf print, to take home.

All materials are provided, and kids can learn about tree identification

while making a messy masterpiece.

I still like that bit of copy. Messy masterpiece.

You do not need to sign up, but parents should accompany young children.

Next, we have music in Hausserman Park.

Laga I'm not gonna be able to pronounce this at all.

Laganapi,

Mardi Gras on the river. This is gonna be September 3 from 6PM

to 8PM. It's a free outdoor concert.

Details were kinda sparse about this. All I know is it's really a free outdoor concert. So if anybody knows more, email me and let me know. But it sounds like it's it's Mardi Gras themed. So, you know, Mardi Gras is a fun time, so I imagine this will be.

We have open house with friends on September 4, four to 7PM at the Pattison Park Lodge. This is Claremont County's annual open house,

and,

it's a free event. And they'll have live music by Ma Crow. They'll have animal ambassadors from Raptors Inc,

which I imagine

are are birds like owls and hawks and things like that.

And, touch a truck, which I'm not sure what touch a truck is.

But, you will also get a sneak peek of all their educational programs, volunteer opportunities,

and meet some of their community department, partners.

There will be light refreshments.

It's free, open to all the public, and all ages are welcome.

We have yoga in the park on September 6 at 9AM at Sycamore Park. It's a gentle outdoor yoga session. It's geared towards adults and teens, and it is beginner friendly.

It's free. No registrations required.

And it's held rain or shine unless, you know, there's a tornado or something. Obviously, you won't be doing yoga during that.

But they tell you bring a mat or a towel and some water.

This one, I have no idea what this is, but it sounds kinda wild. It's a cryptid

puppet show.

September 6, two to 3PM at the Bethel Branch Library.

It's a family puppet performance

with a playful cryptid theme.

Now, the only

the only thing I know about cryptids are like Bigfoot, you know, cryptozoology,

that kind of thing. So I'm wondering if that's what that is.

If it is, let me know because that

that sounds hilarious and fun.

But the library notes a cryptid scavenger hunt

afterwards with a small prize.

You should check the event listing for any registration notes, but it is free.

So those are the events that we have for you and that will lead us to the last

bit where I, ask for money because

we are a value for value podcast. That means if you find value in what we're doing, we just ask for a little value in return in the form of time, talent, or treasure.

For time and talent, let us know what's going on in your community. Let us know what the news is, what people aren't talking about that they should be talking about,

who we should be talking to, the interesting people in your community that are doing interesting things. We wanna talk to them. We wanna let the rest of Clermont County know the cool things that they are doing.

We also have a Facebook page that you can connect. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot about the treasure part. I can't forget about the treasure part.

We accept donations. So go to our website, let's talk clermont.com.

Click on the donations tab, and you can donate via PayPal or Stripe.

Any dollar amount is greatly appreciated. It helps us keep doing what we're doing, bringing you local news stories and interviews with local people.

But for donations, $50 and above, you will get a special mention on the show. And for donations, $200

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and we'll read a note live on I guess not live, but we will read a note on air from you, and that note can be anything. It can

be what you had for breakfast that morning, it could be what's going on in your community. It could be a rant about something. I don't care. I'll read it. I'll read whatever you have to whatever you put on paper, I will read.

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Love to hear from you. So just send us a note, and,

that'd be great.

We finally have a new oliveism.

So she recently started kindergarten,

and she brought home a little,

worksheet. It had a whole bunch of numbers printed off and then a little box below that you would get you're supposed to write the number, and it teaches kids how to write numbers and identify numbers.

And my wife saw that, and she was like, oh, this is this is great. All of you did such a good job. And I've looked at her and said,

Harper did it for me.

And

then proceeded to look at my wife and went, shh.

And, understandably,

Katie looked at her kind of with a scowl,

and Olive said, oh, don't worry. I gave her a fist bump for it. So so thank you, Harper, for getting my daughter through kindergarten.

It's much much appreciated. And to Harper's parents.

So that's the oliveism we have for you today.

Thank you very much for listening. I hope you enjoyed the show, and we will see you next week.

Let's Talk Clermont