Mayor’s Briefing also Addressed Park Work and Park Plans
Chillicothe — Mayor Luke Feeney addressed the paper mill situation and Yoctangee Park plans in his briefing to council on Monday, but did not comment on his veto of the controversial Anti-Camping ordinance / Chapter 555 revision.
My video camera failed to include audio with its video, so you can hear Feeney (though with gravelly audio) on council’s official YouTube video of the evening, from 18:35 to 32:30.
Highlights of his briefing:
- We’re 13 days into the announcement of the closing.
- A shock on April 15th, but feeling better on Friday – “We were in a in a very bad place that Tuesday, and we’re not in a great place now, but that news on Good Friday gives us some hope.”
- He will talk about how this impacts the mill, and then how it impacts the city.
- Families of workers need to be allowed to deal with this.
- Feeney has been with the city since 2015 and never saw such a response from officials like the rally on Friday, April 18th – he had never seen all the officials who appeared then in same room. This is a lot of political weight.
- He will keep council and the community informed.
- This must be a group effort. The paper industry is narrowing, but Chillicothe’s mill has valuable assets.
- The Pixelle paper mill is the city’s largest employer; there are larger ones outside the city limits, but 100% of mill employees pay the city income tax.
- That is $1.4M to $1.5M, about 8% of the city’s total income tax.
- In 2013, the calculated impact of the mill was 13% – now it’s 8% thanks to diversification.
- But that does not include ancillary businesses like timber and mill maintenance.
- The income tax is the city’s bread and butter, but it also impacts on other incomes.
- The city must approach on two fronts:
- Be optimistic: keep the mill open and/or keep employees there.
- JobsOhio is working on jobs retention.
- Feeney believes there is capital out there to keep it open.
- But we must be realistic about the city budget if it closes after December.
- Feeney has instructed all directors in city government to look at their budgets.
- The city auditor will have a “tax budget” prepared in July, though that is not the final say.
- The city has financial reserves that should get it through attrition, but he’s unsure after a closure on January 1st.
- The city relies on the income tax.
“I will say: My optimism level on Tuesday, April 15th, was just about zero. My optimism on Good Friday was way higher than zero.”
(See my report on the “paper mill response team” with the Ross County Commissioners soon.)
Mayor Feeney also said that when he heard the city was getting the Appalachian Community Grant, he could not imagine the difficulty of getting through the process. (There has been pushback against the plans, criticism of various aspects of the designs, and frequent alterations.)
That evening, council voted unanimously to accept the traffic and street plan for the ACGP renovation in and around Yoctangee Park – including cutting off the interior park road, making the lakeside road two-way, and keeping one roundabout at Yoctangee Parkway and Mill Street.
Feeney commented after work on the poorly drained parking lot for the basketball courts and baseball diamond of Bolmer Field: the “pond” now looks like the recently renovated Pump House parking lot, and looks great. (Hear Chillicothe Parks & Recreation director Bill Bonner explain the situation).
Feeney also said they are getting the city pool filled up much earlier, unlike fighting leaks like last year.
