Lowrey, McIntire and Reynolds were elected to council in November 2011 as the city continued to work to rebound from a financial crisis due in part to a previous administration’s decision to co-sign for the bond for the now defunct New Carlisle Twin Creeks Subdivision. The city became responsible for payments after the death of the developer in 2007.
This year, New Carlisle was forced to make more than $100,000 in budget cuts, eliminating two of its four deputy positions and other cuts, but kept its pool open.
Bill McIntire
McIntire wants to remain on council to try attract new businesses and restaurants and possibly look into electronic bill paying for city services such as water bills.
But he said current efforts to do that has been hampered by financial issues and other problems.
“Over the last four years it’s been crisis after crisis and so we’ve been working to get it stabilized,” McIntire said.
McIntire said the city’s finances are in better shape because voters in May approved a half-percent income tax for police protection that generates $500,000 annually.
But McIntire said officials need to be good stewards of city funds before embarking on new projects.
“We’re not at a point where we have only a couple hundred dollars in the bank account like we did,” he said. “But at the same time that doesn’t mean we can … start whole new projects. We need to wait and make sure we stay stabilized and we can pay for any issues that come up.”
McIntire voted against cutting deputies and the pool, opting for other cost-saving measures.
The city transferred about $38,000 to the pool. But reduced pool operating costs in 2015 resulted in only an $8,000 loss, officials said.
“The biggest thing that made us financially stable is the voters voted on the income tax issue,” he said. “You can cut a little bit here and there, but at the same time that was a huge surge in funds that helped us pay for police.”
Ethan Reynolds
Reynolds ran in 2011 because he felt city council needed someone who is fiscally responsible.
He said he wants to remain on council to reduce city debt and regain public trust.
“We have a $1.8 million debt, which is very concerning to me,” Reynolds said. “We have two deficits. We have a deficit dealing with Twin Creeks facility and we have a debt in dealing with the public trust, and I’d like to tackle both deficits.”
Reynolds said the city has seen business growth downtown and wants that to continue, but he that the city still needs to cut spending.
In addition, he wants to develop reciprocity agreements with cities to increase revenue because a lot of residents work outside the city.
Reynolds said citizens pay 3.5 percent in income taxes to Springfield, for example, and then pay 1.5 percent in taxes to New Carlisle.
“If we can work with cities and other municipalities we can negotiate these deals,” he said. “If a village like Catawba can negotiate (reciprocity agreements) then there’s definitely an ability for New Carlisle to.”
Reynolds voted against cutting deputies and favored closing the pool.
“I think it’s much more important to have police protection,” Reynolds said.
Mike Lowrey
Lowrey, a lifelong New Carlisle resident, said he wants to remain on council and do everything he can to make the city a better place to live.
Since joining council in 2011, he’s most proud of putting pressure on businesses that sold items that could be used for illegal drug use.
“We made it harder for them to sell. It can’t be out in open view, it has to be under a counter where no one can see it,” Lowrey said.
He also worked to improve the efficiency of the city pool, which lost about $40,000 last year but just $8,000 this year.
“I think the pool is a very important thing to have. I worked close with the city manager and a couple private citizens to see what we could do with the pool to … either make money or get it to where it doesn’t lose hardly any at all,” Lowrey said.
Lowrey said law enforcement is more important than the pool, but one deputy costs $92,000. He said closing the pool would not have brought back a deputy.
“Safety is the No. 1 thing. But I knew with hard work we would could get the loss of the pool down and we did,” Lowrey said.
Darryl Bauer
Bauer, a former New Carlisle mayor, city councilman and WHIO and Springfield News-Sun reporter, said the city needs new leadership.
“The city is not in real good shape,” he said. “Some of their decisions, frankly, I don’t agree with. Cutting the number of deputies in half was a very, very bad idea. You just can’t whittle down law enforcement to the point where they don’t have the proper resources. I know it’s tough when you have to balance the budget … but you have to really prioritize what’s most important.”
Bauer said he supported purchasing the pool in the 1980s when he was on council, but added when cuts needed to be made officials cut the pool.
Bauer also said he’s concerned about the city’s finances and infrastructure.
“A lot of streets are deteriorating very badly. They need to be replaced, repaired. Some of the streets are beyond repair; they just need to be totally reconstructed at this point,” Bauer said.
He said council has to prioritize and take care of the basic services citizens deserve.
When Bauer was on city council he and other council members were recalled due to citizen concerns after an error by a city manager caused the city to go into financial watch.
“I don’t think there were any illegalities or wrongdoings,” he said. “It became political differences. It was unfortunate because it mired the city in a lot of negativity. I think it’s unfortunate that nobody did anything wrong and yet they faced a recall.”
William Lindsey
Lindsey, who frequently attends city council meetings and questions council decisions, said he did not agree with the budget cuts city council members made earlier this year.
He also said he’s concerned about the double payment on Twin Creeks that almost put the city into fiscal watch.
Lindsey said the city pool should have closed after it sustained a $40,000 loss and didn’t agree with the police cuts.
“Any time you have to cut deputies there should be other things on the block before you get rid of any fire or police personnel,” Lindsey said. “Without one or the other or both, you will have chaos.”
Lindsey acknowledged the pool lost less money this year, but he continues to be concerned about the lack of transparency on city council.
“I don’t believe the council makes themselves available to the citizens. I would do that. We have email addresses as council members. I would publish mine. I also have a personal Facebook account. If somebody wants to talk to me, I’m not that hard to find,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey graduated from Vandalia-Butler High School, joined the fire department in 1971 in Butler Twp., and helped start start Vandalia’s fire department, from which he retired in 1983.
He has been a manager at a martial arts school for eight years and retired from the Moraine Assembly plant in 2006.
Bob Alexander
Alexander said he wants a seat on the city council because he believes he can make a difference in how the city does business.
He said the city has made some questionable financial decisions in the past.
“My goal if elected is I want to look and see how the city is run and make sure the expenditures that are being spent are justified,” Alexander said.
Alexander said his No. 1 priority if elected would be to regain the public’s trust.
“The people of New Carlisle have to have a ‘buy-in’ on the city’s decisions that affect the lives of its citizens either directly or indirectly. People want to be informed on how the decision process works,” Alexander said.
Alexander is the general manager of the New Carlisle Knights, and baseball team for players over 30 years old.
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