As a member of the Legislature, I was actively involved in several pieces of energy legislation and experienced firsthand the complexities surrounding energy generation, transmission and distribution. Whatever ones background is, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education or just plain living, electricity is vital to our modern society that we all count on every day. That is why legislative action regarding energy and electricity is so complex and important. We need to make sure that there is a reliable source of electricity that we can count on whenever we need it. Much conversation has been taking place recently about if we have enough generation to meet the growing needs for electricity. This question requires several actions including new generation. The Sloopy Solar project is an important piece of the generation puzzle that will serve all Ohioans well while providing a carbon neutral source of energy.
More specifically in my occupation as a manufacturer in Clark County energy is a top priority. Serving on the Board of the Ohio Manufacturers Association I am engaged in regular conversations about both the price and availability of energy for Ohio companies. This is a significant driver of economic development, and our ability as a state to attract new 21st century job opportunities for our children. Manufacturing provided 16.5% of GDP in the state of Ohio and employed over 680,000 Ohioans. Manufacturing in Ohio is the future of private employment opportunities for generations to come, and will rely on innovative and clean energy generation like the Sloopy Solar project.
As a member of a family that has owned farmland in both Harmony and Pleasant townships for over 100 years, and a long-time supporter of the Tecumseh Land Trust, I value the thoughtful preservation of agricultural land, but not at the exclusive expense of projects that will benefit our greater community. In my opinion the Sloopy Solar project has been well thought out and has safeguards in place to protect and support its neighbors during the effective life of the project and to be returned to productive farmland when decommissioned.
The Sloopy Solar project is an important part of our local and state energy infrastructure and should proceed as planned.
Ross McGregor
Springfield
Marching for Meals on Wheels
Sante Matteo
Meals on Wheels program needs your support
On March 13, braving strong winds, a sundry assortment of striders, young and old, trekked two miles alongside Four-Mile Creek, near Oxford, in a March for Meals, in support of the Meals on Wheels program in the area.
Pledges to sponsor my participation in the march came from new and old friends, from near and far: kind neighbors here in Oxford, old school and college friends, and colleagues from different universities; from Columbus, Cleveland, and beyond Ohio, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Utah.
It’s gratifying to have served as a link in a network of fellowship that connects friends I’ve known for a long time, some since childhood, with some of my current neighbors in need, who, to many of the donors, are remote strangers, unknown beneficiaries of their selfless beneficence. Particularly in a time of political polarization and ideological divisions that often lead to mutual mistrust and sometimes to violent confrontations, it’s both important and heartening to perceive that, at a deep, more basic level, we remain connected by a network of fellowship and a willingness to care for each other.
Some friendships last a lifetime. Some are brief and fleeting, such as those I’ve established with the seniors to whom I’ve delivered meals; some, for several years; some, for a few months or only weeks.
The generous support from donors, added to the friendly and welcoming greetings and the warm smiles of gratitude I receive and treasure from the seniors I serve, have combined to spawn this little poem—monorhyme, to suggest that we, too, all “rhyme” with one another--with reflections on the beauty, passing and fragile, and yet recurring and reliable, of autumn leaves, shortly before they fall, of sunsets, before darkness sets in, and of old age, the autumn and sunset of our lives, when love glows warmly and spreads widely.
If you’d like to donate, there’s always a need, and there’s always time to do so: https://www.oxfordsenior.org/.
Sante Matteo
Oxford
Ready for property taxes to end
This is a response to Rob Scott’s claim about eliminating property taxes. As it stands today our government allows huge tax breaks to corporations under the auspices of it being necessary to bring in new business or encourage existing companies to add to their workforce in Ohio. They say that the increase in income taxes will offset this freebie. So, if we had no property taxes in Ohio, wouldn’t that encourage many more businesses to come here or increase their headcount thereby offsetting the cost for everyone not just the privileged few.
Mr. Scott contends that other forms of taxation fluctuate whereas property taxes are stable. They are only stable as a minimum for the recipients of those funds, but they are not stable for the ones paying.
Lastly, when we vote on different levees, it is for certain actual entities. However, when a local school district puts up a levy and is successful, how is it that some of that money now can go to an entity that was not a requestor. It appears that our legislators don’t care what constituents or the judicial system want and feel that they can just do with that money as they please. I for one hope this issue makes the ballot and passes. I’ve been paying property taxes since 1968 and I’m ready for it to end.
John Medley
Middletown