Voter Guide: Enon Village Council

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

The Dayton Daily News, Springfield News-Sun and Journal-News invited local candidates to fill out the following questionnaire to inform readers.

VOTE FOR 4:

Paul D. Avery, Jr.

Education: Springfield Shawnee; Clark State Community College Associate’s of applied science with a major in criminal justice

Current Employment: Public Utilities Commission of Ohio

Community Involvement: Enon Girls Softball, SAY Soccer, MVYSA

Why are you seeking elected office? To give back to the community.

Why should voters elect you? Protect our village and keep it a desirable place to raise your family.

If elected, what will be your top three priorities? Keeping our water safe, our police force trained, attracting families to our wonderful community.

What specific plans do you have to address those top priorities? Monitoring our water wells, making sure our police department has the best training and equipment, promoting our new school and educators to families looking to relocate to Enon.

Anything else? I am married with two daughters, a son-in-law and a grandchild.

Benjamin Beair

No response

Rilla Fogle

No response

Rick W. Hanna

Education: Many technical and professional training courses

Current Employment: Social Security Administration; Self-employed; American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)

Community Involvement: Fall Senior Softball president; Enon Village Council 2010-present; Enon Village Council President (2018 to present); village of Enon Street & Sidewalks Committee chair (2010-present); village of Enon Public Safety Committee chair (2010-present); AFGE Council No. 220 Health & Safety Committee (Nationwide Social Security offices); AFGE Chicago regional health & safety coordinator; AFGE Local No. 3448 labor management vice president

Why are you seeking elected office? Since my initial election in 2010, our village administration has continued to improve our streets via public grants, the police department’s proficiency and professionalism, and general overall living condition for our citizens. Several years ago, financial advises reported that the village would be fiscally insolvent, however, we have tightened our belts and the village has remained in a very good position financially. I continue to be a voice for our citizens to present their issues to a person who will properly address the respective issues. My goal is to continue this positive movement into and through the next four years!

Why should voters elect you? I am very reactive to our community issues and citizen concerns. When issues emerge, I am very proactive in attempting to resolve the concern. I have attempted to address issues on social media by providing factual information on how the village has/will attempt to resolve them. I fought for years for the “right turn on red” at Main & Xenia, I initiated talks between the community and village to enable the food trucks to continue into 2021. The village continues to have issues with flooding after significant rain and I will often go to these areas during these events and attempt to assist our citizens and street/police departments. I attend various functions as a village representative in order to benefit our community. I remain open to assist any of our citizens on their concerns, and I want everyone to know that if I say that I’m going to do something, I do it!

If elected, what will be your top three priorities? 1. We have a brand-new school (K-12) that now exists in our village limits. This will call for a measurable increase in services that the village must provide. We have already seen issues in vehicular movement into and out of the campus, significant changes to the environment in and around the facility, and problems during the construction process. 2. Retain and continue to train our police officers in order to keep the police department as proficient and professional as possible for our citizens. 3. We have received a large amount of American Rescue Plan or ARP funding. These monies can be used to improve the village infrastructure and other specific needs related to the COVID pandemic. We need to ensure that we use these funds in a logical, prudent and necessary manner.

What specific plans do you have to address those top priorities? 1. We will be attempting to convene a focus group between the village and schools (including citizens) to mediate these issues. Initially it will be the mayor, village administrator and myself meeting with the school administration to attempt to resolve these issues and initiate new ideas to benefits all parties. There is a $2 million project on Enon Road that will address some of the traffic (vehicle and pedestrian) and safety issues that we presently experience. 2. We are presently addressing our pay scales for all village employees. Once this is completed, we can provide career options for our people. We continue to lose very good officers to other departments’ who pay significantly more monies and proved more benefits. The village has worked hard to properly screen all police applicants and this is a very expensive process, just to have officers quickly leave for other departments. We need to be able to provide a respectable wage and career options for all our village employees and we expect a resolution to this in the near future. 3. I have solicited suggestions for village projects and what our citizens would like to see the village provide. A few of these suggestions are doable via the ARP funds. We can also use these funds to repair/replace village infrastructure issues and we need to be very prudent to use these funds properly. I have previously reached out to our employees for suggestions and needs that may not get communicated to council on village needs.

Anything else? I work hard to provide a direct line of communication between our citizens and village activities via social media. This ensures our citizens of honest, and concise responses and clarification on issues in a timely and proper manner. I understand and attempt to maintain a positive lifestyle that our citizens would expect from their public elected officials. I am proactive in community events and open to suggestions or issues that concern our citizens during these times. I will continue to look for the possibilities/funding/co-ops available to improve our parks (including ADA accessible/compliant) to provide our citizens of well equipped and accessible facilities. I will be very proactive in our streets, police, water departments and all village services to provide our citizens with hard working, trained and productive employees to address your concerns! I do my absolute best to understand, address and resolve issues that are presented to me, and I pledge that I will continue to be a person that will serve you, our citizens, in a manner that you would be proud of!

Brenda Carol Sweet

No response