The recent council meeting I found interesting from the standpoint of turnout and
community support, depending on what side of the current debate concerning the
future of the senior center you are on. Obviously the common feeling about this
issue is pretty one sided.
Although this has become somewhat of a hot issue, and a lot of interested parties
are working on a solution, I noticed nobody at the meeting brought up the suggestion
I made through this forum a few weeks ago to use the sale of some of the property
left to the town by the Longaberger company to fund the center, until we can devise
a long term plan to have the center become self sustaining. I still see no good reason
why this would have a lot of opposition. If it does I would consider carefully where the
opposition came from. Longaberger gave the village of Dresden both the center and the
property in question. This seems logical.
My battles with the village over the wisdom of having police officers working
for us with a history of improper to threatening and violent behavior has been
well documented. Recently we have heard of new developments concerning the
police department which also I find to be personally disturbing. It has been related
to me that Tri-Valley school system is now having Sheriffs deputies work at sports
events. This is bad from several standpoints. It is a bad reflection on the community
when the school here no longer will utilize our own department. It is harsh on the
younger officers, for what little money they get paid, losing the ability to moonlight
at the games to people who can probably more afford not to has to hurt.
Particularly under the circumstances as I understand them, because the fault appears
to lie entirely with Chief Garver. And coming from someone who has been working
with and around local, county, state and federal police in a professional and personally
capacity, this is a very bad situation. In a small village you want all of your officers
getting face to face time with the public, on their feet. You do not achieve that
driving around in a squad car. Taking away this mechanism for these officers to know
and gain acceptance is wrong, doubly so when they were not at fault. As a small part of
my platform I would like to correct this situation. The manner in which the issues
pertaining to the police department have not been corrected is hard to believe, is
unfair to and embarrassing to officers who conduct themselves correctly, and reflecting
poorly on the village.
I believe we have a huge acceptance in this country for term limits. While I admit you
occasionally will lose a valuable and honest member of any elected body, on the whole
your goal is to prevent a private club from amassing power and then abusing it. This
can be just as true here as in Washington. At present I feel two terms for any elected
position is enough.
Dresden is a bedroom community with a lot of older people on fixed incomes. We have
a drugstore, we have ( ? ) a senior center, I think a grocery store is in order. It would
provide jobs and keep some of the money going to Kroger in the local economy. I
would think we could facilitate that.
This will not be a popular topic but we have issues with drugs in our area. This will not
a popular statement but as a libertarian I typically do not pay much attention to what my
neighbors do, I assume I am doing well to run my own life and try not to run someone
else's. My own grandfather, as many of you older here know, was an alcoholic. He was
also high functioning and got to work. Because of this I do not believe he was looked
down on to any great degree in that previous society. The drug of choice now is meth
and it is a horrible drug, which is very hard physically on someone addicted. Because it
is made from really nasty chemicals it presents some issues other drug use does not. It is
a hazard just being near it being made. Also I have little sympathy for someone dealing
or encouraging its use with minors.
Beyond that I have to say incarcerating people over these issues does not accomplish
much. If there is an economic incentive, you can shut down 7 meth labs one year and
next year there will be 8 more. Although I had a recent conversation with someone who
pointed out some of these people do not want to work, that is not true of all of them. And
all studies and reference material I have been exposed to indicates a rising economic tide
raises all ships. When you live in an economically depressed area you can expect more
trouble as a result.
The most helpful thing you can do in this situation is encourage local industry. The
relatively recent addition of Fanatics as a local employer has been a real help here for
a lot of people. The administration of the village should bend over backwards to
encourage this as much as possible. In the 30's under National Socialist Germany, it
was thought that unemployment reached 30 per cent or more, leading to what came later.
Crime of course was epidemic. I had a Russian by birth in a class once who enlightened
me about the mother country during the cold war. It was much the same picture. People
who have a job and a purpose fall into far less cracks. Dresden is a physically beautiful
place to live, it would prosper a great deal if there were more jobs, more local economy,
more tax base.
We will explore these issues and others as suggested at more length. When it is online,
R. K. Ripple / Dresden Ohio
community support, depending on what side of the current debate concerning the
future of the senior center you are on. Obviously the common feeling about this
issue is pretty one sided.
Although this has become somewhat of a hot issue, and a lot of interested parties
are working on a solution, I noticed nobody at the meeting brought up the suggestion
I made through this forum a few weeks ago to use the sale of some of the property
left to the town by the Longaberger company to fund the center, until we can devise
a long term plan to have the center become self sustaining. I still see no good reason
why this would have a lot of opposition. If it does I would consider carefully where the
opposition came from. Longaberger gave the village of Dresden both the center and the
property in question. This seems logical.
My battles with the village over the wisdom of having police officers working
for us with a history of improper to threatening and violent behavior has been
well documented. Recently we have heard of new developments concerning the
police department which also I find to be personally disturbing. It has been related
to me that Tri-Valley school system is now having Sheriffs deputies work at sports
events. This is bad from several standpoints. It is a bad reflection on the community
when the school here no longer will utilize our own department. It is harsh on the
younger officers, for what little money they get paid, losing the ability to moonlight
at the games to people who can probably more afford not to has to hurt.
Particularly under the circumstances as I understand them, because the fault appears
to lie entirely with Chief Garver. And coming from someone who has been working
with and around local, county, state and federal police in a professional and personally
capacity, this is a very bad situation. In a small village you want all of your officers
getting face to face time with the public, on their feet. You do not achieve that
driving around in a squad car. Taking away this mechanism for these officers to know
and gain acceptance is wrong, doubly so when they were not at fault. As a small part of
my platform I would like to correct this situation. The manner in which the issues
pertaining to the police department have not been corrected is hard to believe, is
unfair to and embarrassing to officers who conduct themselves correctly, and reflecting
poorly on the village.
I believe we have a huge acceptance in this country for term limits. While I admit you
occasionally will lose a valuable and honest member of any elected body, on the whole
your goal is to prevent a private club from amassing power and then abusing it. This
can be just as true here as in Washington. At present I feel two terms for any elected
position is enough.
Dresden is a bedroom community with a lot of older people on fixed incomes. We have
a drugstore, we have ( ? ) a senior center, I think a grocery store is in order. It would
provide jobs and keep some of the money going to Kroger in the local economy. I
would think we could facilitate that.
This will not be a popular topic but we have issues with drugs in our area. This will not
a popular statement but as a libertarian I typically do not pay much attention to what my
neighbors do, I assume I am doing well to run my own life and try not to run someone
else's. My own grandfather, as many of you older here know, was an alcoholic. He was
also high functioning and got to work. Because of this I do not believe he was looked
down on to any great degree in that previous society. The drug of choice now is meth
and it is a horrible drug, which is very hard physically on someone addicted. Because it
is made from really nasty chemicals it presents some issues other drug use does not. It is
a hazard just being near it being made. Also I have little sympathy for someone dealing
or encouraging its use with minors.
Beyond that I have to say incarcerating people over these issues does not accomplish
much. If there is an economic incentive, you can shut down 7 meth labs one year and
next year there will be 8 more. Although I had a recent conversation with someone who
pointed out some of these people do not want to work, that is not true of all of them. And
all studies and reference material I have been exposed to indicates a rising economic tide
raises all ships. When you live in an economically depressed area you can expect more
trouble as a result.
The most helpful thing you can do in this situation is encourage local industry. The
relatively recent addition of Fanatics as a local employer has been a real help here for
a lot of people. The administration of the village should bend over backwards to
encourage this as much as possible. In the 30's under National Socialist Germany, it
was thought that unemployment reached 30 per cent or more, leading to what came later.
Crime of course was epidemic. I had a Russian by birth in a class once who enlightened
me about the mother country during the cold war. It was much the same picture. People
who have a job and a purpose fall into far less cracks. Dresden is a physically beautiful
place to live, it would prosper a great deal if there were more jobs, more local economy,
more tax base.
We will explore these issues and others as suggested at more length. When it is online,
R. K. Ripple / Dresden Ohio
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