The unofficial voting results, with eight precincts counted, showed that Flanagan won the election with 46 percent of the vote, while Orange received 36 percent.
Orange hired Flanagan as the township’s administrator. Flanagan retired from the position in 2010 after 10 years. Flanagan was Harrison Twp.’s development director prior to being hired by Butler Twp.
Orange called the election a hard-fought battle.
“I congratulate Mr. Flanagan on his win and wish him the best of luck with the trustee board going forward,” Orange said. He added that he was glad that he played a role in the township’s infrastructure being in good shape for the next 25 to 50 years.
Flanagan said he and Orange joked around a little while doing some last minute campaigning near the voting polls on Tuesday.
“We kind of poked fun at each other, just a little bit,” Flanagan said. “I think Doug has served the township well…We all - not only Doug - we all tend to get stale in our positions when we have been in one place for a long period of time.”
Orange has been on the trustee board for 20 years.
The fact that he was able to unseat a longtime incumbent tells him that residents thought it was time for a change.
Flanagan said once he is in office his top priorities will be focusing on improving service delivery and the township’s budget.
“I know there has been a number of cuts to the township in various areas. If you look at the budget, it has some real problems,” Flanagan said.
The township has a $12 million carryover in total funds, according to Kim Lapensee, the township’s administrator. She added that the township has lost over $1 million in revenue since 2010 due to state budget cuts.
Besides voting on a trustee, township residents voted against the township’s proposal for a limited home rule government. The unofficial final vote was 57 percent against and 32 percent for the proposal.
The Ohio Revised Code said limited home rule government gives a township the authority to “exercise all powers of local self-government within the unincorporated area of the township, other than powers that are in conflict with general laws.”
If the proposal had been approved, the township would have had to hire a law director.
“It was going to cost additional money. There was no way you implement additional regulation without there being a cost,” Flanagan said. “Even the idea that the township had to have its own law director, was going to be a large cost. This is at a time when the budget, at least from what I’ve looked at, is in dire straights.”
“We are running a deficit in some of our funds, but have enough carryover to get us by for now,” Lapensee said. ” I do believe that the trustees will have to address some short falls in the coming years.”
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