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Portage County village works to increase its income tax base
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: June 6, 2013
As the economy battles back from the recent recession, many local governments are instituting policies to help guard against future fallouts.
In the Portage County village of Garrettsville, officials are focused on building up the business base to increase income tax revenue.
“The key thing for us is building a nest egg, which we can only do by growing our industry,” said Mayor Rick Patrick, former council president who took office in July 2012 after Mayor Craig Moser passed away.
At the beginning of the downturn, Patrick said the village lost Amweld Building Products, which announced plans to close its Garrettsville and Niles plants in the fall of 2007, moving its metal doors and frames production to Mexico instead. Amweld also decided to move its headquarters to Stow.
“We lost about 130 jobs in total which is a big deal in our small village,” said Patrick.
“At the time we had just passed a 1/4 percent income tax increase to help plug the budget gap, and then Amweld went out,” said Patrick.
“Income tax is our major source of revenue next to property taxes. As a result, we instituted a hiring freeze and we did not replace the workers who left. We also cut back on raises and were cautious about our spending. For example, we changed some of our annual purchases to every other year.
“We are still pretty solid,” said Patrick. “We did have some foreclosures but overall our real estate has fared pretty well.”
Patrick said the village did not apply for Moving Ohio Forward demolition money because the foreclosed homes are in good condition.
About three years ago, village officials retained economic development consultant, Joseph Mayernick, to help attract new companies. Mayernick worked with village officials to negotiate a deal with Michael Diskin, who owns Durajoint Concrete Accessories and Four Seasons Industries, to move the companies into the former Amweld headquarters on Industrial Drive.
The two companies manufacture plastic products for the construction industry, and the mayor said they had outgrown their current location across the street.
“We began negotiating the move in the fall of 2011,” said Mayernick, chief executive officer at Hermitage Capital Partners. “We maintain a good relationship with our employers and realtors and we offered incentives for the companies to remain in Garrettsville.”
The businesses moved into the Amweld building in 2012, but the mayor said they are still using their old location.
“We are hoping to find a tenant that will take over the space once those companies leave,” said Mayernick. “We are meeting with business owners that are interested in setting up in the village. The results are not instantaneous, but we are awaiting word from one company in the Ohio region that has spoken with us on ten different occasions.”
Mayernick said he has also worked with the Garrettsville Economic Development Council to reestablish the community reinvestment area tax incentives program.
“We did install a local job creation tax credit for employers creating new jobs and investment in the village,” said Mayernick. “We have also worked with several local companies to potentially bring new equity to provide for expansions as well as traditional private and public lending programs.”
Garrettsville was formed on land purchased by John Garrett III in the early 1800s and officially became a village in September 1864.
The village has a rich history, which is documented by the James A. Garfield Historical Society. It was the site of a famous train robbery that took place in November 1935 when Ma Barker gang member Alvin Karpis and accomplices stole about $30,000 from a locomotive in Garrettsville.
“J. Edgar Hoover was responsible for tracking him down,” said Kit Semplak, president of the historical society.
The society was organized in 1979. Its first home in 1983 was in the building that once housed the famous little Bogrand Millinery Shop. Today it holds its meetings in the historic Mott Drug Store building, which was constructed around 1840 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
“We own the Mott building as well as the former hat shop on High Street,” said Semplak. “The Mott building is also our museum, and the hat shop is a research library that contains microfilm of the Garrettsville Journal, which was published for a period of 108 years starting around 1874.”
Semplak said the historical society gives a small scholarship to a James A. Garfield High School senior each year.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Garrettsville was the largest center in the world for the processing of maple syrup.
“Arthur Crane was one of the big producers of maple syrup during the late 1800s at his cannery on Windham Street. His son, Clarence Crane was from Garrettsville and he invented Life Savers. His grandson, Harold Hart Crane, later became a famous poet,” said Semplak.
The mayor said today the village has about 2,300 residents after experiencing a major growth spurt in the ‘70s.
“We added five housing developments since I moved here 39 years ago, three went up in the last 10 years,” said Patrick.
“We had to expand our wastewater treatment plant to keep up. The expansion is now complete so we have plenty of water and sewer to cover our bases.”
Patrick said the industrial park on Industrial Drive has also grown and is about 80 percent full.
Twenty years ago, Garrettsville’s business community welcomed the Main Street boardwalk, which the mayor said is one of the main reasons the area remains so vibrant.
The wooden, 500-foot elevated walkway stretches along Silver Creek and the rear of the downtown’s south side commercial block. Patrick said its creation ushered in the revitalization of the downtown and increased tourism.
The project was the vision of former businessman Sal Mascio, who opened Mario Angelo Pizza on Main Street (now Italian Garden).
“The store had rear windows that overlooked the creek but the view was unpleasant,” said Patrick. “Mascio formed a group that looked at building the boardwalk, which has been good for the whole town.
“We are celebrating the 20-year anniversary,” Patrick said. “The historical bridge that goes across the water was replaced about three years ago. The state wanted to put in a regular bridge that did not have an arch, but because it is in our historic district we were able to preserve the look it had when it was built in the ‘30s.”
In 2011, the mayor said a crisis erupted over the condition of the Buckeye Block building on Main Street, with officials fearing they might have to tear it down and lose four businesses that were operating in it because it was a public danger.
At the heart of the problem was the former Irwin Hardware store on the first floor that had been vacant for a long time. Instead, he said officials made a deal with developer Mike Maschek to take over the building and renovate it for a nominal fee.
“In just a short time he was able to turn back the clock and restore it to the way it looked years ago,” said Patrick.
“The space where the hardware store was is now One Real Peach, an eclectic variety retail store.”
In January The Pasta House restaurant opened on Main Street.
Patrick said the Weekly Villager newspaper also purchased the former Cornerstone Building on Main Street and is expected to move in no later than April 2014.
Despite a number of newcomers the James A. Garfield Local School District remains the largest employer, followed by Therm-O-Link, Energizer Battery and Durajoint.
The mayor said officials are discussing the future of an economic development district with Hiram and Freedom townships in an effort to generate more income tax revenue for the village.
Garrettsville does have its own police, fire and emergency medical services and the mayor said the village is working on a contract, whereby it would provide police dispatch services to Windham Village.
“The additional revenue will provide job security for our dispatch personnel,” Patrick said.
The village maintains three parks (the South Street Village Park, Park Avenue Village Park, and Brosius Road Village Park), which contain different offerings.
The eight-mile Headwaters Trail is located on the former Cleveland-Mahoning Railroad line between Mantua and Garrettsville and is used by many residents for walking, biking and even horseback riding. There is also a scenic boardwalk across Eagle Creek, which the mayor said many people use.
“Plans are in the works to connect the new bike trail from Hiram, Hiram College and the Hiram Biological Station to the Headwaters trail,” said Patrick.
In addition, the village has a movie theater (Garrettsville Cinema), a bowling alley (SkyLane) and a skating rink (Roller Hutt Skate and Fun Center) along with a number of annual festivals including the Garrettsville Summerfest.
“This event started in the ‘60s because the waterway and creek had canoe races,” said Patrick. “It has changed names and has grown every year. It still includes the canoe races but now we have to close off Main Street because there are three entertainment stages, rides and fireworks.
“Our Garrettsville Car Cruise Night is also very popular,” said Patrick. He said it takes place five times during the summer and features food and entertainment, giving people a chance to show off their antique classic cars.
The mayor, who is running for reelection so that he can complete the remaining portion of Moser’s term, said he wants to continue the former mayor’s vision.
“I want to attract more business but grow slowly so that we can maintain the historic charm of the village,” said Patrick.