Northwood council candidates take part in forum

The Eastern Maumee Bay Chamber of Commerce sponsored a forum for Northwood’s city council candidates on Oct. 2 inside Northwood High School’s AAA auditorium.

“Forums give residents direct access to those seeking office, allowing them to hear candidates’ positions, priorities, and personalities firsthand,” Jen Kurtovic, the chamber’s executive director, said. “This helps voters make informed choices that shape the future of their city and local economy. As a nonpartisan organization, the Chamber provides a neutral, respectful environment where all voices can be heard.”

The forum was hosted by Richard Johnson, the president of the chamber’s board of directors. The candidates, seated left to right to the left of Johnson at the podium, were: Andrew Dickey, Louis Fahrbach, Patrick Huntermark, Terry Kretz, Patrick McGaharan, and Mark Stoner.

Each candidate had up to three minutes to introduce themselves at the beginning, and they had two minutes at the end for any closing remarks. In between, they answered questions with a three-minute max for responses. Questions were submitted online by residents prior to the forum.

In addition to the official forum on Oct. 2, the candidates will also have a meet and greet on Monday, Oct. 27 at the Northwood Community Center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Below are the questions and answers.

OPENING STATEMENT

Dickey: I'm a 15-year resident of Northwood. I've lived in this area my entire life. I come from a small hometown right outside of Bowling Green called Weston, which is very, very similar to this wonderful community that I'm a part of. I've been married to my wonderful wife, who's here in the audience, for 21 years. I have two great children, Carson and Avery. I've been a teacher here at Northwood for 21 years as well. It's a huge part of my life, as most people don't ever refer to me as Andrew Dickey; it's Mr. Dickey. It's something that I take great pride in because the school is such a centerpiece of the community. So being a part of that for so long has been great. I have a master's degree and a bachelor's degree, both that come from Bowling Green State University. I've been an active member of the community ever since I've been here, not just as a resident, even before from things just as general as coaching. I run free clinics for the community center when it comes to sports. I'm involved in a couple of other local community groups. I truly do love this place and this community, and I'm happy and grateful that someday I'll be able to serve all of you.

Fahrbach: Good evening and thank you to the Eastern Maumee Bay Chamber of Commerce for hosting this event. I think of the late, great Charlie Kirk, who often had open dialogue with people who disagreed with him. And what I respected from Charlie was he never shied away from his convictions, and he still engaged it with civility. That balance of conviction and dialogue is important to me as well. And for me, conviction begins with my faith. I'm a Christian, and my faith reminds me that faith without words is death. And serving the public on city council is one of the ways that I live that out. I've been blessed to be married to my wife, Robin for over ten years and together we're raising two wonderful children here in the city of Northwood. I've lived here my entire life, proud 2010 graduate, and for the past 12 years I've been on the council. I've worked to help grow the city stronger. We've built up a rainy-day fund. We've taken down a crumbling Woodville Mall and replaced it with infrastructure, housing, a community center, and soon new businesses. We've expanded police and fire, staffing, and we continue to maintain some of the best streets in Northwest Ohio. Looking ahead, the vision is simple: continued strong fiscal discipline, complete the Enclave project, improve our parks and rec areas, and keep Northwood financially strong, family-friendly, and future-focused. I'm proud that we're at and even more excited about what we're doing.

Huntermark: Good evening everyone. I've had the privilege to serve two terms on city council. A little about myself: I've been married to my beautiful wife Darlene for 28 years this month. We have a blended family of six kids and three grandkids. We've lived in Northwood for 16 years. I'm the youngest of six kids raised on the east side, attended St. Thomas, Cardinal Stritch, transferred to Waite, took the masonry skill center, joined the Navy. I'm a Gulf War veteran. After the Navy, I started my career in masonry, did seven years residential, the last 26 years of local 886 cement mason. I'm a site superintendent for Hoover Wells right now, and I plan on retiring in 20 months. I'm looking forward to acting as your voice on council. I'm eager to get more business and homes along with connectivity with all of you in our community.

Kretz: Hi everyone, I have been a Northwood resident with my beautiful wife. I've been married to her for 37 years. We've been in Northwood since 1997. Grew up in Genoa, so I've been in this area a long time. All of our children are Northwood graduates, and we currently have two grandchildren both attending Northwood. I've been on the Planning Commission for Northwood, volunteered for four years as one of the founding members of the CIC, which I'm very happy to volunteer and serve on as a trustee. I'm a Northwood long-time resident, just like you. I feel like we need to have a resident in here to listen to and a voice to speak on their behalf. I would be that person. I think we need, as a previous business owner in Northwood, to bring people and businesses into Northwood to help absorb some of our taxes and create some money for the city to make the city beautiful and a place everyone wants to live. There are areas we need to clean up. There are areas the current council and the city have done a great job with it. We have a ways to go, and I hope you vote for me.

McGaharan: Good evening. I'm proud to be a lifelong resident of Northwood. I graduated from Northwood High School in 1981 and raised my family here. My wife, Sharon, and I continue to call Northwood our home. This city isn't just where I live; it's who I am. Over the years, I've been fortunate to serve in many ways. I've been Athletic Booster President, organized the NHS Baseball Alumni Game, and helped establish the Athletic Hall of Fame. I've coached both youth and high school baseball and even worked on projects in our pantry here in this building. I'm a founding member of Northwood Community Cares, an organization dedicated to supporting families and neighbors right here in our city. Through that work, I've helped organize the Northwood Fall Festiva, serving as chairman for the previous nine years. It's been an honor to help grow this into a tradition that brings our community together year after year. In 2017, I was hired part-time as Director of Parks and Recreation. In February 2024, I became full-time. When I started the department, it existed with just baseball and softball programs. Since then, we've grown into full programs that now include youth soccer. Before the Northwood Community Center was built, I established an adult recreation program for three days right here in this same building. As director, I created the Community Service Award to recognize residents making a difference and organized summer music nights to help bring our community together. Over the years, we've invested in our parks and facilities. At Brentwood Park, I helped develop pickleball courts, basketball courts, disc golf course, and a walking trail. I worked with the health department to secure food safety for the new concession stand. At Central Park, we repaved the tennis court, added new pickleball courts, and built a new playground that has quickly become a favorite for families. At Stoner Pond, I worked on securing an aeration system, a fishing dock, and organized kids' fishing derbies. At the new community center, I was involved in every detail, from hiring staff to developing programs, finding sponsors for the equipment. The Center now hosts pickleball and volleyball leagues, fitness classes, tournaments, youth clinics, and many other gatherings. In just the first year, the Northwood Community Center has hosted everything from community celebrations to over 80 private rentals, all with zero complaints, a sign of how important this facility has become to our city, and something I'm very proud to be a part of. That's exactly why I'm running for City Council. I spent decades proving commitment to this city, not just with ideas, but with actions. I know how to listen, how to collaborate, and how to turn plans into results. I know how important it is to plan wisely and manage your budget carefully, but I also know that the residents deserve meaningful investments in their community, ensuring Northwood continues to grow responsibly and providing the quality of life that families expect. and deserve. I believe these are the same qualities that will make me an effective member of City Council, committed to listening to residents, building on our progress, and making sure Northwood remains a place we're all proud to call home. Together we can keep Northwood moving forward.

Stoner: Hello. Thank you for attending tonight's candidate forum. I'm a lifelong resident, I'm a Northwood graduate. As a matter of fact, I walked across this very stage to receive my diploma. After graduation, I attended the University of Toledo, where I earned a B. A. in biology and a B. S. in medical technology. I worked at Jeep for more than 30 years. I served on the local 12 retirement board. I've been a councilman for 14 and two-thirds years, mayor for 16 years. I'm married to a lovely wife, Ellen. Between us we have five children, 13 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. To me, the greatest success for the city is when the feds pulled their money from funding our two railroad overpasses. I was mayor then, and I was able to work with our state legislators to secure the funding shortfall to build the two railroad overpasses. The greatest success for me personally was being able as mayor again to cast a deciding vote to create Ranger Park. I was later honored by the mayor and council to have the park named after me. Numerous fishing derbies have taken place at Stoner Pond, including when the Ohio Department of Natural Resources donated a beautiful sign and stocked it with approximately 700 rainbow trout. We are now on our annual trout release program, and you can also obtain catfish and bluegills. A fellow councilman told me he saw two boys walking home from Stoner Pond with their fishing poles and a stringer of trout. That's just fantastic. Thanks, Mike. It reminds me of the Andy Griffith Show. Numerous positive events have come to mind: fire station on the west side, The Enclave, NCC, roads being paved, economic development. We have Wallick coming in, 84 Lumber, Jeep Country Federal Credit Union, excellent police, fire, street, and parks department. Too much equipment to mention. We started with two full-time paramedics. Now we have six full-time firefighters. We also accomplished all this with a 1.5 income tax, which is the lowest in the area, one of the lowest. There are so many accomplishments and still so much to do. We have to find a solution for the Great Eastern Shopping Center, research and examine the potential for a third railroad overpass, and find a solution for the blue lights at the train crossing. More streets need to be repaved, including increased, well-planned economic development that adheres to our soon-to-be-implemented master plan. I look forward to working with Dave Gallagher of Community Investment Corporation, which Mr. Gallagher chairs. Most importantly, I look forward to serving you.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO SERVE ON CITY COUNCIL?

Dickey: I love that question because that's been the one question most people have asked me since I've been on the campaign trail that I have, and very simply, it all goes back to my father. My father in Weston was a member of the city council, president of the council, and later became mayor, and he always instilled in myself and my brothers this idea that you have to serve your community. There are lots of different ways you can do that, but you need to find that and you need to do that. It's important; you can't just live in a place and not expect that place to need your help. So, I've always wanted to get into public service. That's why I'm a teacher. I love helping the community, and I think it's very important, especially as the government teacher for Northwood, that I have to be able to walk the walk and talk the talk. So, you know, we always preach to our kids how you're ever going to use government in real life? Well, right now. Serve your community, see what you can do, be a voice for the people who don't have a voice, and be strong and show conviction, and all that stuff. But the main reason why I want to do this is this is what we need.

Fahrbach: So, when I think of why I originally ran for city council and why we're running again this year, it's relatively the same reason — it's service. When I first started getting involved in city politics, I was one of the few that was in the crowd. I was, I think, 17 years old was when I first started going to city council meetings. And you know, many of the councilmen, why are you even here? There's nothing on the agenda, you know, what — you know what drives you? I think every citizen, to some degree, needs to have an involvement and needs to be informed of what's going on. And I thought it was time to get involved myself, and I continue to look to serve in a public manner. As I said before, I have a deep conviction that faith without words is death, and this is one of the ways that I continue to work in that manner.

Huntermark: All right, I guess the main reason I first got on … first off, I'm not a huge public speaker, but if you know me, you know I'm a talker. Anyway, the first time I got on council was honestly because behind me, The Enclave, the Woodville Mall, I was there on Skagway, and I thought man I want to have some say in what's going on here. And since I made it and got on and progressed and we’ve seen so much growth, and then I met Pat at Community Cares and got active with them, and it's just great being part of the community, and I want to see it keep growing. So yeah, I just love what I'm doing.

Kretz: So that's a great question. Why do we want to get on city council? As I said, I've been on planning commission for four and a half years. I've been the founder of the CIC. I kind of see what they've done with the city and where it could go. And I just feel that my inner drive of what I've seen, what I've done, the next step would be going to city council. I've heard voices, I've heard people talking about what they need. I could do that here. Can't change things overnight, but I can definitely listen and help make a change for the city.

McGaharan: So I've been asked that question many times as well by a lot of people: why do you want to do this? And I've been in this community my whole life, like I just mentioned in my opening statement. I've done a lot for this community and spent a lot of hours at the parks and with no pay, just doing it for the love of what I do. And I feel like the city has a long way it can go and get better. I'd like to bring new ideas and new leadership to help Northwood strive even better than what it is now to this day. And I feel like we can do a lot better for our residents and our citizens with the right people in there.

Stoner: I believe it all boils down to service. You can see from what I read earlier, I volunteer for the credit union board, I volunteer for the local 12 board, and I work here. I've been here for 30 years; it's actually a great part of my life. I enjoy, not all the questions, but most of the questions that come from residents. Sometimes they hold my feet to the wall, I guess. And they really put me under a lot of pressure, but I do enjoy it. I enjoy the ability to make a difference, to help people. If somebody asks me a question, I'm able to go and find out the answer and get back to them. So again, it's all about service, and that's why I enjoy it.

IF ELECTED OR REELECTED, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR TOP PRIORITY?

Fahrbach: So in regards to priorities, I sort of nailed it in the finishing points, but again, to continue our strong fiscal discipline, expansion of The Enclave, and to continue bringing more jobs to the city. When I first started in 2012, or the data from 2012, the city of Northwood had 2,100 jobs. Today we've grown that to 3,600. We've increased our income tax base from 4.5 million to 6.5 million. And that wasn't due to having tax increases, that was due to bringing in more jobs and more businesses. And though we still have room for improvement, I'm not lying; we can see what's going on at Great Eastern. There needs to be revitalization in certain areas. I'm very happy with the progress that we are making, and there's future expansion that both our planning committee and others on council that have talked about in regards to the west side and different expansion projects that we have there. So that's really what I'm looking forward to is getting The Enclave more going, completed if possible in the next four years. That might be a tall task, but we're moving forward in the direction and then continued expansion on the west side for business.

Huntermark: Like I said, The Enclave right now is the big push. We've got to clean up the Woodville corridor. I'd like to see some more businesses on Woodville Road. I'd like to see, everyone wants to see, restaurants. But honestly, since I've been on, it takes rooftops. You've got to have rooftops before businesses will even take a look at it. So we've got to push this Enclave, get some good homes in here, and hopefully we'll get some nice businesses up front. So that's my goal.

Kretz: I echo what Pat said on The Enclave. I think they've done a really good job with The Enclave so far. We do need more homes in that area. We need to invest. We need to take our rainy day fund, and we need to invest in the city and the infrastructure. More jobs. Put pressure on Great Eastern owners. That's gone on way too long. And create some unity between the citizens and council.

McGaharan: If I'm elected to city council, my number one priority would be economic development in the city of Northwood, to continue what we're doing and also to work with the small businesses that we have in town.

Stoner: My top priority would have to be, of course, economic development. You get jobs coming in, you get money. It allows you to do other things that we couldn't do without that. But also, police, fire, streets, and parks are vital, and people rely on those if they need them. Great Eastern Shopping Center has gone on a long time. We have to go through the legal battles, and we have to be patient for it to run its course. So that's what I would do.

Dickey: This is a great question, it's - for a gentleman not in office - it's kind of hard to answer what my top priority is. It might be different from what the community wants or needs. I would tell you, as a community member, I look at the biggest thing Northwood needs is we need our identity. We need to know who we are and what we want for each other. I love some of the stuff that's going on. The lumber business has just expanded, The Enclave. There are things going on in the city since I've been here that are just wonderful. And they need to keep growing, and we need as a community to keep asking for more. But we still haven't found, I think, the niche that we need. I hear a lot of people always asking, as one of the gentlemen mentioned earlier, hey, we need restaurants. We're not getting the businesses that Oregon is getting and things like that. Well, that might not be what our community wants. And it might not be sustainable either. Business is great. It's great to bring in economics, and it's good to talk numbers. But if it's not sustainable business, what's the value in it? Because if it's going to be gone in three months, or if it's just another something, that shouldn't be the priority. So finding our identity might be something like if we're going to be a family-centered community where we have one of the best schools in Wood County, and we want to bring families in here to grow families, and then families will lead to expansion in business, that's what we need to attack. But we have to find our identity before we make that our priority.

DO YOU FEEL THE CITY’S ZONING DEPARTMENT IS AN ASSET TO THE COMMUNITY, AND IF SO, DO YOU FEEL THE PAY OF THE DEPARTMENT’S EMPLOYEES REFLECTS THAT AND THE WORK THEY DO?

Huntermark: We're getting personal there. Yeah, I think the zoning department's great. We're doing a great job. Yeah, no, we're doing a great job. I think zoning's come a long way. With Amy there, we’re doing a great job. As far as pay, I don’t know. We’ve just discussed this a little bit recently, and we're going to look into it further. That's all I’ve got.

Kretz: So for someone who hasn't been on council, I don't really. deal with the zoning department much. What I see Amy doing through the planning commission and the CIC, which is the community improvement corporation that I'm on, I think she does an amazing job with what she does. I personally feel she needs some more resources to do what she does, but again I'm not an expert in this area yet. I hope to soon be.

McGaharan: So my thoughts on zoning is that Amy's got a very hard job to do. She's almost just a one-person department, and I feel like that's happened quite a bit there where somebody leaves, nobody gets replaced, running a skeleton crew. So the work she has to do day in and day out, I don't even know what she makes pay wise, but I'm sure she deserves a bigger pay raise to do that job, day in and day out.

Stoner: As far as zoning, yes, Amy's got a thankless job, especially when she goes out to enforce zoning ordinance violations. As far as she's also in economic development, so her job is kind of split. And, as Pat alluded to, we're looking at maybe getting somebody else on board for economic development that will take some of the stress and pressure off of her.

Dickey: Well, this is kind of a near dear question to me because my sister-in-law actually works in the zoning department. So, pay them a lot, I guess I should be saying that. She's in here. But I mean in all seriousness with any job, you want to make sure that your employees feel like they matter. And sometimes that's through pay. Sometimes that's through acknowledgment of what they do. It could be adding resources for them to have, just like having an extra zoning person to help with enforcement. It could be changing zoning rules so that either their job is a little simpler or perhaps they have more power to enforce what the community wants it to be enforced. Simply put, if you want the best, you have to have competitive pay. You have to encourage people to want to come to Northwood and work for Northwood. And that might mean that we do have to look at our hiring practices and what we are doing to encourage the best of the best to come here. And that's just not with the zoning department; I think that's with all departments. We have to look at what are we doing to keep the top firemen, top policemen, whoever it might be, if we want the best, we got to compete with the best.

Fahrbach: As I've been going out and seeing residents, I can understand the frustration with zoning. There's different blight around, or long weeds, or it doesn't seem like there's that taking care for the property that maybe we were used to. And I will give Amy tons of credit. When we look at the reports that we had two three years ago compared to the numbers that we're having now, she's done a phenomenal job. I'm always one, when looking at a position and a hiring of a position, or what the proper salary is, to see what the field is looking like. Is it a comparable wage? And then the other thing that we have to, and Mr. Dickey sort of alluded to it earlier, we gotta be realistic with where we're at as a city as well. We're 5,400 residents. We do have limited resources. So on any type of position in the city, it's not as if we're going to be a top-tier percentage of paying out. But what we can offer are some of those other pieces that you mentioned - that community, that encouragement, making sure that our top administration is doing a good job with its police.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR PLAN FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS TO KEEP OUR TAXES LOW AND SAFETY FIRST IN OUR CITY?

Kretz: Well, bringing in some businesses to help absorb those taxes, having those people will also create revenue, which is taxable, which would create some money for the city to keep investing. We definitely have to invest in more jobs, infrastructure, and honestly, I think trying to get our 911 back in the city.

McGaharan: So, to answer that question, I'd like to see more businesses come in to bring in tax dollars for the city to be able to pay for these services. We have top-notch fire and police, and we don't want to lose that, so maybe seek out grant funding to help offset the cost.

Stoner: Okay, there's only two ways to change the revenue streams. You've either got to cut costs, or you're going to have to bring in jobs. I would prefer bringing in jobs. I think our residents like the amenities we give them. They get their trash picked up, they get brush picked up, snow removal, excellent snow removal, by the way. Leaf pickup, all of this comes at 1.5 percent tax. It’s the best deal going around. It really is. So I would prefer to try to bring in some good paying jobs.

Dickey: Well, when you look at the next five years for Northwood, the simple answer? Yeah, you always want to keep taxes low because that's the third grade. You come on stage, you say raise taxes, you better be walking out the door because no one wants that. From the research I've done, the tax rate in Northwood, at least income tax wise, and anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, is pretty low. But on the flip side of that, we also have an income tax revenue decline, meaning people aren't always paying their income taxes. So the city's not getting the money that it needs to be successful to put back into its infrastructure. So one thing we have to do is we have to solve that problem. If we're going to be asking our city to develop, to put money into it, where are you going to get that money if the citizens aren't giving that money up or what they're required to? Because we can talk about, yeah let's bring business in. That's an easy answer. Bring business in. Well. how are you going to bring business in. That's a better question to ask. What is it going to take to bring those businesses in Well we have to have a city that functions. We have to have a city that has a great infrastructure, which we do. When you look compared to me, and Mr. Farbach already told that, we have great streets. We manage things well. It's one of the benefits of having the mile-long city is we have a lot of workers who do a great job of maintaining what we have. But we do have to invest in it, and sometimes that might require some type of either we have to look at what our taxes are going towards, or we have to look at how we are getting that tax. Because you cannot just guarantee that business is going to solve the problem.

Fahrbach: All right, so a little bit of context. When we talk about  The Enclave expansion and trying to bring in business to The Enclave, the reason why that is so important for us is because our TIF agreements that we have in place. So when Wallick comes in, and we have an estimated property tax of going to be $250,000 to $300,000, that directly goes into our budget. So the way that we have those TIF agreements, and that's why that Enclave area is such a big area for us to see improvement in. The other area is – again I mentioned it in the open dialogue – is our west side expansion. We have different areas over there where we can develop. And to Mr. Dickey's point, what does that actually look like? Give an example of that or how would that happen? Okay, it goes back to infrastructure. You have to have these pieces in place in order to incentivize businesses to come in. Well, what's the example of that? A road. Okay. Having water lines hooked up, having gas available. Those are the types of things that if we get those to those areas, and I agree with someone who mentioned the rainy day fund, and we're having that conversation now. If we can invest – here's an example: if we can invest a million dollars into this type of – or into a project on the west side for expansion, similar to McNerney Park, but we see that that's going to come back two, three, four hundred thousand dollars a year, whether that be through income tax or whether that be partly through property tax. That's great. It's a 20 to 40 percent rate of return. We'll take that all day long. So that's the area that I'm looking at along with joint economic districts and having conversations both with Perrysburg Township for the west side area and then also with Oregon for the area on Woodville Road. Those are areas where we can do some joint work together with other communities, and then we have land areas that are available.

Huntermark: Well, I mean it is, it's economic development. I mean that's all. I mean, and to point back to the rooftops and even more businesses, it's all gonna come. That's the only way. That or raise taxes, like you're saying, and then you'll be out. So, safety, we have allocated some money to pay for when we lose our grant. We've got three firemen that are on a grant, and we've allocated some money for that, and we just gotta keep planning. We're already looking forward to down the road, you know, a possible new fire station and stuff. This has all gotta be in the plan. These are long-term projects that are gonna cost a lot of money.

How do you plan to address the Woodville Road business district? Many vacant buildings are becoming an eyesore, especially Great Eastern and the empty BP station at Lemoyne and Woodville. How could someone consider buying a home in The Enclave when they pass all the Woodville Road blight? They are going to keep driving.

McGaharan: I agree with your last words as far as passing all those ugly buildings and going down to that beautiful facility, they're just going to keep driving by unless the city does something there. So, I don't know if there's funding out there that we can reach out and try to get to grants or to try to improve the way they look from the outside or maybe go talk to businesses, see if we can get some kind of improvement. Economic development, maybe get on our guys to do that. Let’s spruce up Woodville Road. It is an eyesore. It needs to be fixed.

Stoner: I think the first thing that we need to address, and I've stated it before, is the Great Eastern Shopping Center. That is the greatest eyesore on Woodville Road. I remember as a kid that was a great area. We need to make it great again, even if we've got to do the route of the mall and tear it down and start all over. And we need to look for grants or any kind of incentives we can get to help the business owners improve their businesses. We're seeing some of it out on Woodville Road. Biggby Coffee, the old Smokes for Less is going to be a—oh, what's that going to be? Oh, it's going to be a Dunkin' Donuts. So we're seeing a little bit of improvement down this way, but we just need to do whatever we can in the city to encourage that and make it expand.

Dickey: You know, again, with any type of improvement that you're looking to make, it all comes down to dollars and cents. And so we do have to look at again, what do we want out of Woodville Road? I would totally agree, as everyone would say, the Great Eastern has seen its better days. So how does the city want to handle it? Obviously, the legal route is something that we've attempted to do. I honestly can't say what's going on because I'm not on council, so I don't know the behind the story stuff. Will it take something like we did with the Woodville Mall, where we're just going to have to buy it out and hopefully not tear it down, because there are some very good businesses that are there that I would hate to see go, but what do we want? Well, what does the state of Ohio want? So let's look at, you know, what's, you know, instead of putting the burden just on the citizens of Northwood, what kind of grants do we have? You know the research that I have, there's all kinds of job opportunity growth grants in ranges from $750,000 to $50,000. These are things to just help businesses grow or maybe crawl out of whatever damage they might be. So again, we have to look at number one, what do we want to see go in Woodville? What's the identity that we want Northwood to have? Then what's it going to take to get there? Is it going to cost money? 100 percent. We know it's going to. Well, where's that cost going to go to? Because again, Northwood, just like any government entity, we're not a business. You can only generate money through a finite amount of ways, and if we don't want our taxpayers to have to pay for that then we have to go find someone else who's going to help us. And I've got pages and pages of stuff that will show you that the state of Ohio wants Northwood to be a bright shiny dime. And we've got the community that wants it, too. So let's go after it.

Fahrbach: So Great Eastern, obviously, big problem with the the city. The city has not been passive with Great Eastern. We have over 70 different violations right now, some of them outstanding, some of them have been settled. The area has been condemned by the county, or some of the area has been condemned by the county fire marshal. So the city is moving forward with that. But I think we also have to be careful from a city perspective as well. It's not city-owned property, so there are certain legal matters that we have to go through before either there would be foreclosure, and also giving the current owner opportunity to fix it up. But I think the bigger question with Great Eastern is what can the place actually become? There are buyers in our area that are interested in. We've talked with two different buyers that will look at that property and do want that property. The issue that is continuing to be is the current owner thinks it's worth significantly more than what it actually is. So the city is being active on it. There has been a slowdown in regards to the courts and the Wood County court system. But again, trying to get a private buyer for that area to fix it up. And then one other point about the Woodville Road corridor in general, I do give our current mayor props for instituting a program where we have a facade grant. That's a business that can apply to fix up the outside of their building. Can apply for that grant. And I don't believe the city has ever turned one down to try to get, again, Woodville Road looking in a better manner.

Huntermark: Yeah, it all boils down to Great Eastern and yeah, the façade grant's a great thing. I mean you can get up to I think $40000 in the front of your building, and the city will kick back half if I'm right. But Great Eastern, I mean if we just took care of The Enclave. We got that going. We paid $3 million just to get rid of the asbestos out of Anderson's. I'm not so sure I want to jump right into this. I know we've had it in court. What they do is they sell it. You end up back in court again. So it's a revolving door that we've been fighting with, and we're going to continue to fight, but I think we need to get more things going in The Enclave, get some more money going in before we tackle another giant project.

Kretz: So as a former business owner on Woodville Road, I can tell you there is a facade grant. The problem is we don't advertise it. I wouldn't have found out that it was even available if someone from the city finally got a hold of me, which was Amy, and said, hey, are you aware of this? I didn't know, so I think we need to make that more well known. As being on the CIC committee, we're working hard to bring business owners in to buy property, make it marketable, where people want to come in and buy that piece of property and move their businesses in. I applaud the current council for the pressure that they put on the current owner of Great Eastern. On planning commission, we've seen that. They've moved from going from Perrysburg court to Bowling Green court because Perrysburg was not doing anything to the current owner. And now the current council has made the move to Bowling Green, put a lot more pressure on that, and things probably will start happening when the fines are stuck to it. So that's what I think we need to do on Woodville Road.

WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION TO CORRECTING THE HUGE REDUCTION IN TAX REVENUE? IT CAN'T BE BUSINESS AS USUAL. INCOME TAX INCREASE? LEVY FOR FIRST RESPONDER SERVICES? INCREASE NCC MEMBERSHIP? DECREASE SPLASH PAD SERVICE?

Stoner: Nobody wants to raise taxes. That might ultimately have to happen if we cannot bring economic development in to do that. We are definitely wanting to increase membership at NCC and the splash pad. Pat told me that they're doing very well up there. We still need more memberships. We promoted that. We're trying to do the best we can. So I'm not sure I got all your answers, but I guess that's it.

Dickey: Solution to tax revenue, I don't know if I have a great answer for that just because again I'm not 100 percent sure of what the city is able to do in order to make those changes. When I get elected, hopefully I'll be able to dive into that. You know, you can always ask for more money, but again in a community that, I believe my numbers here at you know we're around 54 percent that are at or slightly above the poverty rate. We have a large senior communities group, so asking for more money from them is probably not going to be wise. So again we're going to have to look into seeing what other options there are, what they offer. I can tell you right now saying that the community center is going to solve financial problems is the worst thing ever because it's not meant to do that. It's like a park. You know you go there for the experience. You go there because your community is providing it. We want you to be healthy. We want you to be active. So we're going to give you this great facility. And I tell you what, that's the greatest thing that Northwood’s done since I've been there. They've given us a place where we can go as a community and do what we need to do. You don't want to, if anything … expand the community center, expand the splash pad, give people more. Because again, when we talk about identity, if you bring in families, you bring in moms that say, man, I would love to get my kids to be able to go play there or go to school there. With families comes revenue. But I hope the solution that no one's going to suggest that asking a community center to foot the bill for this that's not an easy way. Or asking for levies and whatnot, that's always hard in communities that are very blue collar like we are. And we're very proud of that. But we also have people that are day to day. And asking them for more money is not the way to solve tax problems. You don't solve tax problems with more taxes.

Fahrbach: I think being fiscally responsible. So we get presented many different projects. Right around this time, we'll be reviewing our budget over the next couple of months, so being careful of what we actually approve. I think for the most part, council, at least during my time being on it, has been relatively conservative. That's just objectively true in regards to its spending. We have increased that rainy day fund. And as I mentioned, it's not just there to sit in the city coffers. Eventually, those dollars do need to be put to work for the citizens. So the answer to the question goes back to before - more businesses equals more taxpayers equals more revenue for the city. So do we need an income tax increase? I don't believe so. Is there a levy for tax revenue? No, I don't think so. Increase costs at Northwood Community Center? Just wanna say this. We have a top-of-the-line community center. We put a lot of money into that place. Is it going to solve our financial issues by raising the cost of it 10 to 20 percent? No.  All right, but I do think we need to look at being adequate. Because it is a top-of-the-line place. I think we need to look at having memberships be adequately priced based on other communities and other facilities. And the level of things that we get at the community center, I think deserves a higher price in regards to its membership than what it is right now. Splash pad costs. What are we gonna do? Charge a dollar to a person that comes in and get $2,500 for the year? That's not gonna solve the issue. And the other thing in context, you are correct. Our revenues over the last couple of years have been down, but that's from a trend perspective. Particularly, a lot of our eggs are in the basket of the automotive industry. As we see that start to come back and rebound from a macroeconomic standpoint, we're also starting to see that our jobs numbers will increase as well. So again, from a big picture perspective, back in 2012, we had some 2,100 jobs. Today, we have 3,600 jobs. Our income has increased, and I think it will continue.

Huntermark: Yeah, we're back to the solution for the tax revenue - roughly 700, 000 downfall for the last two years. Yeah, I mean, we've had some big businesses that took some hits. And like Lou was saying. Hey, things are going to rebound. We've got money coming in. Wallick signed, that's a huge deal. We need to keep pushing more business. I'm glad you brought up expanding the community center because at council, we tend to downsize it a little bit because of the cost of it. That costs us a lot on our rentals as far as wedding venues. It would be great if we could do something on the back of that, make it large enough for people to want to rent it for wedding venues. I mean, it's just not large enough right now. So, that would really bring some good money to it. But that's my thoughts.

Kretz: So, I think the first question was reduction in tax. Maybe we offer that to businesses to come into the city, a tax reduction for X amount of years as an incentive so we can support them. Income tax, I think that would be a worst-case scenario. Levy for the emergency system, I think if that's what we need to do to keep the best here, that's what we need to do. And then the membership, I think we need to spread out a little bit. People that live in Northwood that don't pay taxes in Northwood or actually live in the city limits that have Northwood addresses, offer them an incentive instead of the full price. It doesn't have to be what the citizens get, but it could be other people that are out there that want to join. But you know it's going to cost $700 for two people. So I think those are some options.

McGaharan: As far as the tax revenues go, it's been two years that they've been down, two years in a row. I think we should just closely monitor that and see what we can do with that. Hopefully, bring it back. It's been two years. Like a few of the councilmen said, the economy has driven some of that. So I feel like it's only been two years and we're on the uptick. As far as getting levies for police and fire, I wouldn't totally be against that if that's what we need, like you said, to keep the best in town. I mean, it's very important to have both in this town. As far as the rec center … so I run the rec center if you guys don't know. And I see every day the results of people coming in that facility, coming in can't hardly breathe, can't hardly walk. They've been coming for a year and now they're climbing steps. So I don't think increasing that price … it's projected right now, we've got in the books the five percent raise next year. I don't see we should raise it anymore. The community center was never built to make a profit. So it was never once mentioned in any meetings building that facility that we were going to make money on that community center. Have we taken a loss? Yeah, we're losing money, but we've never been given money yet from the city to say okay we're going to run this on $250,000. We're going to run it on $300,000. We haven't yet been given it because we're waiting for a full year of figures to come in. Once those come in next year, then we can reevaluate and go from there. The splash pad, if you haven't been over there, watch the kids, how much enjoyment they're having. I think we spent, it was close to $30,000 the first year. We did some things, not to the system, to save money this year. So we maybe saved like $7,000. It's still a lot of money, but you're giving back to the community. There's a lot of families in this town that don't have anything, that cannot afford to go places, so they come to the splash pad for a day of free entertainment, and I think the city should give that to the community. And as the councilman mentioned earlier too about this money sitting there, it's been sitting there. It hasn't been used. You, as Northwood residents, deserve better. We all deserve better. We shouldn't have weeds growing out of our streets. My street's been on the list for so many years. It's getting done this year. We're grateful that it got done. We should never have weeds growing through the cracks and wait 27 years to get repaid. So the city needs to do a better job of giving back to our citizens.

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN FOR ENTICING NEW BUSINESSES AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING TO NORTHWOOD?

Dickey: Enticing business, affordable housing. Well, tax breaks are always nice for everybody, but then you kind of fall onto the avenue like, again, if you're going to offer tax abatements for people, who is footing the other half of that bill? It really just comes down to infrastructure. The best way you attract businesses is you have the best possible facilities possible. I'll use this beautiful school that we are sitting adjacent to. I was at a volleyball game on Saturday. We had Genoa coming in, and I'll tell you how many of them are like, wow, thi is the nicest building I've seen. We've been to a bunch of schools that are Otsego and Eastwood. They've got schools, nothing like ours, that attracts people. People love to see a shiny view, things that look good, that are appealing. So when we talk about what are we going to entice people with, well, we've got to make sure that we can get from one side of town to the other, free and easy. So maybe we need to put some money into infrastructure to build that third overpass. What are we doing to improve the look of Woodville Road itself? How are we going to? I understand that last year the roundabout issue fell through because the community was not apt to wanting the roundabout where it was - I being one of those people. I can tell you I did love the fact that the state was going to offer to pay about 80 percent of the cost to redo all of Woodville Road. And that's the kind of stuff that we need to look into is how are we going to better prepare our infrastructure to make businesses want to come here, to make families want to come here because if you build it, they'll come.

Fahrbach: So again, with enticing businesses, one of the projects that was addressed in our comprehensive community plan was really dealing with the west side expansion. What does that look like? So one of the things that we are looking at is the Wales Road overpass, and not only the Wales Road overpass, but the straightening of Wales Road. So right now, when you go down Wales Road, you have that lovely left-hand turn on East Broadway, and then back on right on Wales. If we can get that straight, we then have a direct path from 280 to 75. And what that allows us to do is really attract that lighter industrial or potentially industrial businesses to that particular area. So, making commerce easy for businesses. And that's sort of the point I wanted to mention in regards to the benefit of the rainy day fund that we have had. One of the things that that has done has allowed us to be able to invest properly in regards to different projects. And then it also gave us a very good, the best you can get bond rating when we went to get money for The Enclave project. So the rainy day fund has allowed us, as a community, to really leverage that, and we're looking to see more of what the expansion is going to be n the future.

Huntermark: Enticing businesses. Again, rooftops. Rooftops bring in business, and again, they're asking for affordable housing. I wish someone would jump in and get some tax abatements in the back of The Enclave. I can't believe a builder or developer hasn't jumped in and wanted to take that on. I think two-bedroom condos, you can't find them anymore. Everyone's buying them up. I mean, it would be a great community to put the rooftops in there, but that's where we're at.

Kretz: So to entice businesses. I feel we need to search grants. We need to search low-income loans for people. With the CIC, we're already working on that to entice businesses to come in. It won't cost the city anything because they're out there. We just got to find them. Affordable housing, what is that anymore? What is affordable housing? We have to bring in people, as Pat said. People come in, they support businesses, right? We got to do that. Other cities are doing it. We got to tailor and piggyback off what they've done. I think we need to look at what some of those people have. The infrastructure of the second bypass on Wales Road, I think we need to do a lot of research on that. I know it's been brought up, but there are possible contaminants and things like that in some of the sites. And taking people's front areas of waste management, places like that, I think a lot of research needs to be done on that. Would it be good? Yeah. What's the cost going to be?

McGaharan: So that's a tough question, entice these businesses to come over to us. So over by The Enclave, there's a road that has nine new houses that were built. And they all sold, and I'm not sure who the developer is, but I think we should maybe reach out to that person and see if he's interested in building some houses back in The Enclave and the property. I mean, they were pretty successful selling them pretty fast. Like other people had mentioned, we need rooftops to make this happen. I also agree with the statement that was made earlier - Wales Road making that go straight through instead of jogging down East Broadway - that would help a lot. And there's got to be a better way to get over those tracks. And even if we don't get an overpass, that blue light doesn't always work, and sometimes it's not blinking; there's still a train there. So we can invest the money and make that better. I feel that would help go a long way.

Stoner: We do need to get some economic development going. That will solve a lot of our problems. We have some prime real estate here in the city of Northwood. We have a lot of land over by 75 yet. We also have some right across in the municipal building. That could be used for industrial, light industrial. It could be used for homes. So, right across the street from the Woodville Mall, The Enclave, there's 100 acres there. And it's just waiting to be developed. Just to clear up a couple of other things, if we wanted to get some more money, we could do away with reciprocity. That is something that we could do. We do go after grants, and we do offer tax incentives just like we talked about the Woodville Road facelift grants. So we do offer this stuff. The biggest thing we have going for us, I think, is location, location, location. We've got some prime real estate.

DO YOU THINK COUNCILMEN SHOULD GET PAID WHEN THEY MISS COUNCIL MEETINGS?

Fahrbach: I think it's three minutes on that, right? I promise I won't bore you for three minutes on that. I do want to first apologize for not answering the affordable housing part of the question. I do not do debates for a living, and it did slip my mind, so I wanted to get that in before I answer the question on city council and its pay. So with our housing, we do have plans for, I would say, upscale apartment housing in The Enclave area. I have been told that those rents will be upwards of 1,000, so it's not a lower level. That will really bring and help that that population that councilman Huntermark was mentioning earlier. So, expansion of housing, particularly in The Enclave area, I think is a great idea. And I think that's where a majority of our expansion is going to be at there. There are some other neighborhoods that can be either finished or expanded that are a little bit more on the east side of Northwood as well. In regards to city council and its pay, particularly for meetings. This is something that I've addressed with Block Watch and other citizens. And my thought on that has been I am not just a councilman from 7 to, let's just say, 8 o'clock on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. The hours can be drastically different, where some weeks you get 45 minutes of dialogue with either neighbors or people that are out there. Sometimes you get 12 to 15 hours. And a prime example of this, this past month, I’ve been meeting and talking with people, having dialogue. It's been phenomenal. I’m not going to be able to be at our upcoming city council meeting on October 23rd for personal reasons. And again, so does that mean my pay or the things that we did throughout this month, you shouldn’t get that? I don't think so. I think our city council approves what the wage is. And if you don't like that as a voter, you are able to either vote those people out that did decide that wage. Then from there, that's what they're compensated for on an annual basis divided by about 12 months.

Huntermark: All right, I'm going to say Lou's right. I mean, you put in a lot of time. It's not just the two meetings a month. You put in a lot of time as a councilman. So I mean, if it's going to change, then voting people out will change it, but there is a lot of time to put in on it.

Kretz: So yeah I'm not a councilman. I think they do a lot of work, but I see several in the audience and up here. They put a lot of time, personal time, as well as the meeting time, a lot of research at home looking into things, gathering facts. Should there be a cap on it if it's being abused, that should be discussed, but I don't think they should be docked pay if they miss one meeting here or two meetings. They do a lot of work for our city.

McGaharan: I can speak for a few of the councilmen. I get visited a lot at the rec center and have a lot of good conversations with several of them. So I understand the hours they put in just because it's not Tuesday or Thursday, but I do feel like if they excessively miss too many days, then maybe they shouldn't be paid. But that would have to be a lot of days I feel like. One or two a year is not a reason not to pay them because they do put up tons of hours that none of us see.

Stoner: I guess I'm going to echo what's already been said. There are state and local rules that govern this and how much time we can miss. If we go over that, the council has the ability to take that person off the council. Also, what do you do? And I know there's a councilman out there sitting there that we changed the council meetings because of the holidays? He had plans to go on vacation. What do you do? He had this planned before we changed meetings. It's not fair to hold that against him. So no, I would say that there are rules there. I think we all put in a lot of time. My wife will tell you, we were one time going to go out on the dance floor, and a guy grabbed a hold of my arm and wanted to talk to me. So those are the things that we do, and our councilmen are there.

Dickey: So I guess I have a, even though I'm not on council, I do have kind of a unique perspective to this because I never take the Mr. Dickey hat off. You know, if I'm walking through my room and I see parents, I have a parent-teacher conference right there, sitting at games, stuff like that. We're public servants. We serve the public. So we're always on the clock. Will people miss meetings? Yeah, that happens. I imagine there are people who do want to take vacations, want to be with their families because, you know, as like a former coach, I used to tell my players, we got games tomorrow, stuff like that. But your family comes first. If mom tells you you gotta go here, well, mom trumps me. And I'll tell you what, if my wife, who I love dearly, sitting in the audience, she's like, you're going to this instead of council meeting, well, that's my fault. So I gotta listen to that. But again, we're public servants. We're here to serve you, whether we are out in public, emails, phone calls. So the hat never comes off. If you miss meetings, I'm assuming there's protocol in the city charter that says if you miss X amount, something's going to happen to you. Does that need to be enforced? Maybe it does. So, who's in charge of enforcing that? Let's talk to them about that.

WHEN WILL THE BRIDGES NEIGHBORHOOD GET STREET LIGHTS?

Huntermark: Oh my God. Edison, have you ever dealt with them? Who knows? Could be next year, I really don't know, but we can look into it. And I'll put that on an unofficial Northwood page tomorrow. I don't know.

Kretz: I can let you know that on planning commission, it came through to us. Everything was approved, and it's in Wood County's hands right now, waiting on approval. But that should see some movement. But again, who knows how long that's going to be? It could be months.

McGaharan: I really don't. have an answer for that because it's the first I'm hearing of that. And so I have no comment on that.

Stoner: When you're dealing with Edison, you’re guess is as good as mine. We waited for a long time to get lights out there at The Enclave, and there are other neighborhoods that don't have them yet. Edison is an entity unto itself.

Dickey: I guess the person who asked the question would probably love to say the day after I get elected. Obviously, can't promise that. This is just, I imagine it's going to be one of the wonderful governmental bureaucracy red tape kerfuffles, which is what's causing this. I would hope that the citizens that are upset with this keep voicing their concerns. I had a gentleman reach out to me on Facebook wondering why the street paving in his street hadn't been done yet, and he seemed very concerned about this. And I told him, I wish I could help you; I wish I could give you this. I did give him the name of some councilmen just to reach out to, not to complain or say it's their fault, but they are the people who can help you the best. You can call the administration building and ask for people. And you've just got to be that person. It's no different than a parent. Again, being a teacher; you're the advocates. I always tell my students and my parents, you're the advocates for your children. You must advocate for them, regardless if they want it or not. So you just got to keep being that bee in someone's bonnet until the job gets done, or until you put people in office that will get the job done.

Fahrbach: For the Miss Congeniality fans out there, the answer to this question is April 25th. Because it's not too hot and it's not too cold. All you need is a light jacket … I don't know when the date's gonna be. I know this. We are seeing it. It's been a few days. Obviously, we have challenging times with our election campaigns.

AT THE LAST COUNCIL MEETING, THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR REQUESTED THAT MONEY BE ADDED TO NEXT YEAR'S BUDGET: $500,000 FOR A CLOCKTOWER AT THE ENCLAVE. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS EXPENSE CAN BE JUSTIFIED WHEN POLICE DISPATCH HAD TO BE MOVED TO WOOD COUNTY BECAUSE OF THE CITY'S FINANCES?

Kretz: You would have to start with me on that one, wouldn't you? Again, for the citizens, I would say no, I don't justify it. I think we just lost an important part of our fire and EMS. I feel that that money could be invested elsewhere. Again, that is our hope. That's where we're going to be. I'm saying this for the citizens, and not my personal decision. My personal decision, I'll never make a decision on council personally. I think you guys vote people in, right? It should be your voice.

McGaharan: So I agree kind of with what Terry said. Would the clock tower look nice at The Enclave? Yes. Was it in the original drawings for The Enclave? Yeah. Will it entice maybe to bring some people out there and give it a good look? But if we can't afford to keep a service, how are we looking if we spend all this money on something that can just cut the service for the citizens of Northwood?

Stoner: I'm not in favor right now of putting $500,000 into a clock.

Dickey: I am not sure how The Enclave budget was initially put together and what not. I would certainly hope that this wasn't something that was newly added. This fiscal year was like, hey, let's put this clock tower in, knowing that we were going to have to make some serious budget cuts when it came to our dispatch. I would really hope that our people on the council, the mayor, would have foreseen that. So I can imagine that the clock tower was like it was part of the original build. And now it's time to build it, so we have to put the money into it. Now, does that mean that they have to do it? Again, I'm not sure who we've contracted to do that. The thing you don't want to do is go back on contracts, because when businesses start to talk like, 'Hey, we were going to give you $500,000 worth of construction and now we're pulling out, they will talk to others, and then when it comes to us wanting to go to other places and say, 'Hey, come build here. We're a great place,' well, maybe they'll talk and say, 'No, we're not going to do that.' So, like I said, I'm hoping that council had this budgeted in, and it was already part of the initial budget, and that's the way the budget works. That money's there. We were going to spend it. Now we're starting to build it. Now, if it's possible to cancel build and not anger people and put that money back into dispatch, that also that would be wonderful, because as I imagine anyone here agrees, that is a community like they were a part of this, and having to let that go, that hurt the community. No one wants to see people lose their jobs, especially over financial costs, and if you could put money back into it, maybe to save a job or two, I don't think anyone in here would say don't do that. But like I said, I really hope this wasn't a January 1st; let's build a clocktower and spend $500,000 knowing that in March we're going to tell the community that hey we can't afford dispatch.

Fahrbach: Okay, so the great news is that was not budgeted for 2025. Okay, that it will probably be put into the 2026 budget as a potential project at that point. So in general, what we try to do on both the finance committee and council is in, let's just say, August to November, and then we grind it out during the snow in December, is look at what our priorities are for the upcoming year. And that's one of the conversations that we're gonna be having is the clocktower. The idea behind that is that we are gonna be having Wallick breaking ground probably sooner than later, okay. We’re having a ceremony October 16th, but actually getting groundbreaking equipment hopefully out there in November and get going, and potentially have a building up, you know, by the end of next year. If we complete and have another project that's going on, there are things that are going on at The Enclave, you can create good perception to hopefully investors or other commercial real estate to try to get more business out there, all right? And frankly, it does look, the plans look very nice. Now, I say all that, it does need to be able to fit in the budget, it does need to be fiscally responsible. Let's talk about dispatch. I know that's a fun one in the room. It was not strictly just a budgetary item and decision. I can go over the budget numbers. Six years ago, I was fully against switching to the county dispatch, and that was particularly because there were complaints with some other townships and communities that frankly I just wasn't comfortable with the risk level. And I saw it as a downgrade of services. About a year and a half ago, or a year ago, I guess, we started to investigate this again. And by no means was it a downgrade in Northwood's dispatchers. They have done a phenomenal job, okay? And when I went and talked with Wood County, I talked with and spent four hours down there, when I went and talked with Rossford, their mayor, their council, when I talked with Perrysburg Township, many of them had great feedback. So it is not a downgrade. We look at it as a lateral move with dispatch. Over the next three years, dispatch, with the improvements and the mandatory doubling of dispatch force, is going to be $1.7 million over the next three years of difference. And I think these candidates should be answering how will they come up with that $1.7 million.

Huntermark: I believe that was the original drawing. When we first started looking at this, we had clocktower in these drawings, and that's all. It's proposed, like Lou said, it's that time of year. We're bringing it up. And like you said earlier, that shiny new penny, when you come into that school, and everybody loves it. And this is the same thing we're trying to really bring economic development. And I'm not saying that it's a goal for me right now, but I'm saying it's part of the puzzle. And it's always been a piece of the puzzle.

WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE FACING NORTHWOOD RIGHT NOW? AND HOW WOULD YOU ADDRESS IT?

McGaharan: The most pressing issue in Northwood right now, I feel, is how are we gonna keep police and fire funded? I mean, there's a lot of talk in town, especially after losing dispatch. We couldn't afford to keep them. How are we gonna pay for the firefighters in three years when the grant's up? I know there's some money put away for that. So there's been discussion - will there be levies? Will there not be levies? Which way? How's the city gonna find a way to pay for our police and fire and keep our residents safe in town?

Stoner: I believe it still all comes back to economic development We have to bring in the jobs that help pay for what we want. Could there be a tax levy in the future? It's a possibility, but if we bring in jobs, we need to do that. So we need to just keep our nose to the grindstone. I know the administration's doing everything they can to try to bring economic development in. Wallick is gonna help. 84 Lumber is helping. That's the big thing. We need to get jobs in here so we can afford to do what we're used to.

Dickey: From the conversations I've had with community members, the number one thing by a mile to me that they wanna see is the revamp of the Great Eastern Shopping Center. A very close second would be rezoning, possibly over on the Lark side of Northwood as well. Just so, again, we can attract more houses. Again, we can bring people into the community. It's always going to be about the immediate needs of the community. And I personally know because I do attend council meetings as regularly as I can. I do pay attention. I do know that fire and police right now is a concern because of the cost of that. And the fact that you gotta have fire and police. I mean, above all else, we gotta make sure that when it hits the fan, the right people are coming to my house to do what they need to do. And the last thing anyone wants to do is give up that. But again, like I said earlier, from the conversations I've had with people, they really want an investment into Northwood's business. And regardless of where it is, that's what they want.

Fahrbach: So when talking with residents, I'd say right now about 60 of it is exactly what Mr. Dickey had mentioned prior is Great Eastern. That is the number one pressing issue to most of the residents that I speak with. I think the answer to that is, again, I think potentially the economic district, but also seeing if we can continue on the violations that the city has already had, the progress that we're taking in the court system, and then trying to work with buyers. Like I said, there are two prospective buyers that are out there that are very interested in the property to see if they are willing to take care of it. The economic development, again, I think that's been echoed probably a pretty good amount here today. In regards to safety services and just services in general, again you gotta try to look at the context of the city of Northwood. We're 5,300 people; we're a relatively small area. We have to look at ways and council in the past has been able to adopt different joint firefighter agreements with other surrounding cities, potentially looking at trying to find ways to share big equipment. So, a good example of that is Rossford, Perrysburg Township, Northwood, Lake Township. All these fire departments have separate equipment that if we can look to really come up with a game plan again, I'm well aware that's easier said than done, but to have talks and conversations, particularly with communities that are open to that, to try to share this so that each community is not purchasing a million-dollar engine. So that's where I think there is opportunity that we can attempt to work together across the community lines and bring more joint districts into place.

Huntermark: I believe my answer to that question is the most pressing thing is economic development, right? To keep the taxes low, to stay where we're at with everything on the money side. We need more business, that's it. I mean, like Lou said, doing the joint fire district and all that, that's all fine and dandy. But the question itself is what's most pressing here in Northwood to me is the economic development.

Kretz: Alright, I think we owe it to the 5,300 residents of Northwood to have a long-term vision, a long-term plan that has the action step in it. And we need to do that with clear communication with the residents.

WHAT'S YOUR APPROACH TO HANDLING DISAGREEMENT OR CONFLICT?

Stoner: Compromise is what we have to do. I'm not an aggressive type of person. Whoever's on council, I'm going to work with to the best of my ability. I think I've proven it over the years. We need to sit down and communicate. Pat and I might have different ideas, but we can sit down and talk about it. And then at the end walk away and have a better solution for everybody.

Dickey: If you're looking for the answer, I would tell my wife it would be whatever you want, dear. It's the best way to settle disagreement and conflict. This is the best way to settle disagreement and conflict. You have to talk to people. You have to be able to listen to people. And you have to be able to understand that we could sit here, and we could have a conversation for five hours. You're going to make your points, and I'm going to make my points. You should never expect your elected officials, you never should expect the people that you are debating with to say you're right, you've changed my mind, I 100 percent agree with you. That's not good discourse. You want to be heard. So you want to make sure that people are listening to you, they feel heard, they feel that you understand. But you have to understand, in the end, they might not agree with you. And they might not. I might not do what you ask me to do. That is one hard lesson for citizens to understand when it comes to public service. The men and women who serve you, they are here to do what's in the best interest of the community, not you. That's a hard thing sometimes for people to understand — it's a hard thing for my students and parents to understand. But this is what you do: you have conversations, and you talk, and you listen. And then at the end of the day, you walk away. And as long as you feel heard, that's the most important thing.

Fahrbach: Yeah, and that was one of the pieces that I, you know, why I mentioned Charlie Kirk at the very beginning, because even people in this room. who may have disagreed with some of his thoughts, you can't really disagree that he wanted to go out there and have public dialogue with people. And I've had a blast tonight. I love talking about Northwood; I love talking politics. You know, I think all of us on stage have that desire to see Northwood be a better community. Now, how it actually gets there, I think can vary a little bit and what ideas are going to be of that. But this has been a blast. I think you know learning to disagree without having to be disagreeable. You know, I think of councilman Stoner. Him and I ideologically we disagree on some things, but we have been able to work across the aisle on a couple different projects and be able to hear and listen to one another, and who benefits from that? Not councilman Stoner, not councilman Fahrbach. The citizens of Northwood do. And you know, you just try to see it. You know, there are different things on council and different people that you may be allies on on certain issues, and you may firmly disagree with them. Disagreement is a good thing. You know, I think it helps sharpen and helps challenge one another. I think it's, again, how do you do it after? What's the response after? Is there backbiting going on and talking about people, or is it truly a, you know, I just don't think your idea is good and we can still be friends.

Huntermark: It isn’t so much compromise. You just have to respect each other’s decisions and where they stand, and I know I voted yes on plenty of things that we didn’t see eye to eye on. But it is what it is. Like Lou said, it’s for the citizens. We just have to try to come together and get four votes to get anything passed. Whether you agree or disagree, we’re all working for you.

Kretz: I think the steps are listen intentionally, brainstorm with others, be open-minded, and don't make decisions based on your personal preference.

McGaharan: So yeah, we're always not going to get along and we're going to disagree on different things, but at the end of the day, as long as you listen to that person and respect that person, you can go home as friends that night.

CLOSING REMARKS

Stoner: First of all, I'd like to thank you all for attending tonight's meeting, and I'd like to thank you for putting on this forum. I need to thank all my colleagues up here on the table. I appreciate your answers and your insights. We've all learned something, hopefully, tonight. It's been a long-standing rule — not a rule necessarily, but an agreement on council — that even if you don't get your way, if you're not on the winning side, once the vote is over, the vote's over, you go on to the next project and you try to solve the problem. That being said, I think that my experience, my education, my dedication to the city, along with all my opening remarks, shows how beneficial I could be and will be to the city.

McGaharan: I would like to thank everybody for coming as well tonight. Why vote for Patrick McGaharan? I'd say proven leadership as the director of recreation. I brought several projects to the city. As you can see, like seven years ago, our parks didn't really have anything. In seven years' time, we've got quite a bit in our parks and there's some huge things that may be happening over at Brentwood Park, which would be the biggest playground we've ever had in town. So there's bright sides to some of the stuff going on in recreation. Community involvement. I've been involved in quite a bit of stuff. Fall Festival, even back before Fall Festival, I was involved in many stuff over here at the school when my kids were here. Athletic Booster President. The Hall of Fame was a huge thing. If you've ever been in a school and you've seen it, it goes all the way back to the 1960s. I bring fresh perspective, bring new ideas, leadership to help Northwood thrive. I'm a voice for the residents, committed to representing the people of Northwood, promising transparency and making smart decisions.

Kretz: Why vote for Terry Kretz? Well, I gave you a lot of my answers. I'm a citizen, just like you, 37 years. I'm on the Planning Commission, the Community Improvement Corporation. I've invested a lot of my personal time, volunteered it for the city. I'll be there for the citizens. As someone said down here, I don't have to agree with them; they don't have to agree with me. But we've got to do what's best for the city, to grow the city into what we know it can be. And that's why you should vote for me.

Huntermark: You got to be from the people to be for the people. That's how I always say it. And you know, I'm just a blue-collar boy out here working and trying to see what we can do with this city. I enjoy all the community involvement that I have, and I'll continue to do it regardless if I'm on council or not, but we got something going good here, especially The Enclave. I'm telling you, it's going to be a good thing, and I'd like to see it out. I started this and I'd like to see it out.

Fahrbach: It's been a blast to be here tonight. Loved the dialogue and conversation that we had. Rewinding back when I took office in 2012, we had 2,100 jobs. Today we're at 3,600. Our income tax collections at that point, just from income taxes, $4.5 million. Today it's $6.5 million. We've increased our rainy day fund. We've kept property taxes level. We've kept income taxes level. The Woodville Mall was crumbling. It was out, you know, completely. demolished We now have a brand-new infrastructure, there, housing, community center, upcoming businesses. Parks and recs were outdated. We now have a new rec center. Brentwood's been renovated. Ranger Park playground. We didn't have a school resource officer. We're in school. Now we do have a school resource officer. We helped split that. Six full-time firefighters. So we're going to continue our legal action against Great Eastern. We're looking to expand The Enclave and west side opportunities. What I particularly bring that is a little bit different, I am a small business owner. I have three different LLCs. We have employees. I'm a finance chair, wealth advisor by day, and faith and family leadership is where I try to bring my core values from. And I am the youngest candidate up here. Maybe the worst hairline, but the youngest candidate raising a family here in Northwood and focused on the city's future

Dickey: First off, this is great. I love this civil discourse. This is just making me happy. The government teacher in me just all giddy about this because we live in such a wonderful country where we get to put the people in charge that we believe are going to identify with us. They're going to do what I want for the community. That's such a great power to have. You guys have no idea the great power you have in that you get to pick the people who are going to do what's best for everyone. And just to have the honor because these are very great men, the men who serve our community right now, the men who want to serve. To want that, that's remarkable. And you're going to give us that. You're going to hopefully give that to me as well. Because my boss is in the back of the room, he will tell you I'm the first person here in the building. I am 100 percent a teacher. That is my job. That's what I do. I will give 100 percent of me to Northwood. Now, that's going to cost sacrifice for me because I'm going to have to sacrifice time with my family, watching my son play basketball, watching my daughter play basketball, hanging out with my good neighbor Jim, Dave. But I'm willing to do that; I want to do that because I have a vision of Northwood that I hope that you guys will also want to see. Because I love this community. I absolutely love it. When I got a job here, I said, this is where I want to be. And I want that for you guys, too. I want people to come here to see what I see in Northwood, and I see something special. So let's make that special.