Tom Zeigler, candidate for Butler Twp. trustee board
Age: 51
Family: Girlfriend Angela Adams and an adult son.
Occupation: Inside Sales Engineer at the Apex Aluminum Die Casting Company
Education: Graduated from Troy High School. Was taking some Mechanical Engineering courses at Sinclair and Edison Community Colleges.
Community activity: Has been active in the community group that has been opposing Montgomery County Transportation Improvement District's rail extension project and active in efforts trying to prevent loss of property rights due to annexation by City of Union.
Political affiliation: Independent
Butler Twp. Trustee Board President Doug Orange
Age: 61
Family: Married to wife Shelley Jean Orange and has four adult children
Occupation: Business teacher at Brookville High School
Number of years on trustee board: 20 years
Monthly stipend: $1,332
Education: Graduated from Butler High School. Went to Wright State University for two years before taking a management position for a car rental company. Graduated from Capital University with a B.A. in Business.
Memberships include: Montgomery County Twp. Association, Ohio Twp. Association and Montgomery County Community Block Grant Advisory Board
Politcal affiliation:Democrat
Joe Flanagan, candidate Butler Twp. Trustee board
Age: 64
Family: Widow. Was married to wife Patricia Flanagan for 35 years and has two adult children.
Occupation: Retired Butler Twp. administrator. He was the township's first administrator and worked for the township during the years of 1999 through 2010.
Education: Graduated from Chaminade and Wright State University with a bachelor's degree in Urban Studies/City Planning and has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Central Michigan University.
Memberships: Flanagan chose to leave this category blank.
Political affiliation: Democrat
The Vandalia-Butler Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Meet the Candidates forum
When: 6 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15
Where: Christian Life Center's West Wing auditorium, 3489 Little York Road
Who: Candidates for Butler Township trustee board, Vandalia city council and Vandalia-Butler School Board
Info: Call the chamber office at (937) 898-5351.
Butler Twp. Trustee Board President Doug Orange
Age: 61
Family: Married to wife Shelley Jean Orange and has four adult children
Occupation: Business teacher at Brookville High School
Number of years on trustee board: 20 years
Monthly stipend: $1,332
Education: Graduated from Butler High School. Went to Wright State University for two years before taking a management position for a car rental company. Graduated from Capital University with a B.A. in Business.
Memberships include: Montgomery County Twp. Association, Ohio Twp. Association and Montgomery County Community Block Grant Advisory Board
Politcal affiliation:Democrat
Joe Flanagan, candidate Butler Twp. Trustee board
Age: 64
Family: Widow. Was married to wife Patricia Flanagan for 35 years and has two adult children.
Occupation: Retired Butler Twp. administrator. He was the township's first administrator and worked for the township during the years of 1999 through 2010.
Education: Graduated from Chaminade and Wright State University with a bachelor's degree in Urban Studies/City Planning and has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Central Michigan University.
Memberships: Flanagan chose to leave this category blank.
Political affiliation: Democrat
The Vandalia-Butler Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Meet the Candidates forum
When: 6 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15
Where: Christian Life Center's West Wing auditorium, 3489 Little York Road
Who: Candidates for Butler Township trustee board, Vandalia city council and Vandalia-Butler School Board
Info: Call the chamber office at (937) 898-5351.
Two people are challenging Butler Twp. Trustee Doug Orange for the seat the he has held for 20 years
His challengers in the Nov. 3 election are Joe Flanagan, a retired Butler Twp. administrator who was hired into that position by Orange, and Tom Zeigler, an inside sales engineer at Apex Aluminum Die Casting Company. This is Flanagan’s second attempt to get on the trustee board.
Orange, a Brookville High School business teacher, said his years on the board, his accounting background and business management skills are some of the things that the township’s 6,272, registered voters should consider when making their selection at the polls.
He said experience will be needed in what he calls a critical time for township government.
“There is a lot of things occurring both in the local community, the county, as well as the state. The next three to nine years are going to be extremely critical to the survival of township government in the state of Ohio,” Orange said.
Flanagan said he disagrees with how the current administration is running the township. He added that he feels township leaders want to create a perception that they are doing things to help the community.
“The township is really in a very tight budget crunch. They did the JEDD (Joint Economic Development District) a couple of years ago. All of the voters were told that that was going to bring in an average of a $1 million, well it’s bringing in less than half of that amount,” Flanagan said. “Because of that, they really can’t adequately fund the police department.” He added that the township has also cut service workers as a result of the revenue generated by the JEDD.
Zeigler said he is not pleased with the township’s response to what he calls significant issues that affect residents, including the annexation of township land into Union and a proposal by the Montgomery County Transportation Improvement District to connect freight rail and truck-transported goods in an underdeveloped industrial area in the northern part of the county.
Zeigler said the township leadership is reactive when it should be proactive and believes they do the bare minimum when it comes to addressing these types of issues.
“Butler Twp. is a great area, but we need to improve on it before it gets destroyed by annexation, zoning and bad practices,” Zeigler said.
Limited Home Rule on the ballot
Besides the trustee vote, township residents also will vote on a proposal to adopt a limited home rule government.
“There is a multitude of things that we can not do as a statutory township that we will be able to do if our residents (vote for) limited home rule,” Orange said. “Limited home rule status is a tool to help townships have better control over the things that are important to the residents.”
Orange added with limited home rule, the township would be able to change the speed limits on roads within the township and have the authority to keep truck traffic off of local roads.
If the township were able to switch to limited home rule, then the township would have to hire a law director, according to Orange. “The amount of money that we spend on legal fees, it makes more sense to have a law director on staff than simply to have retainers out to this law firm and that law firm,” Orange said.
Zeigler said he is in favor of limited home rule and believes township leadership should have put the issue on the ballot years ago.
Flanagan said he’s not 100 percent against the idea of limited home rule, but feels this type of government will have additional costs to operating the township.
“This is not the time for the township to be adding additional costs to their operations,” Flanagan said. “Going to a limited home rule township, your debt limit increases from five percent to 10 percent on your property tax valuations. That means they can borrow more money.”
Township’s annexation struggle
One of the biggest issues in the township is the annexation of land to nearby cities.
“We have fought the city of Union for the last 15 to 17 years as they (annexed land) across the Stillwater River and began picking up small and medium-sized farms with the intent of trying to develop a commercial business base in northwest Butler Twp.,” Orange said. “We’ve spent hundreds of thousands dollars in legal fees. The bottom line is, we cannot stop annexation and I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future.”
Townships do not have the authority to stop annexations under Ohio law.
“If a person owns land in the township that’s contiguous to another city and the property owner wants to annex that, there is nothing the townships in Ohio can do. Which is wrong,” Orange said.
Zeigler said township leadership should have met with the farmers. “They could have met with them and found out why they would decide to go to the city of Union instead of keeping their land into Butler Twp.,” Zeigler said. “As far as I know no one has ever met with them.”
Zeigler said he doesn’t like the current annexation laws because they do not allow for checks and balances.
Both Zeigler and Flanagan said one way to try and stop annexation is for townships to create a joint economic development zone with nearby cities. Zeigler said the township should have formed one with the city of Union.
“A JEDD benefits both jurisdictions. The JEDD allows the property to stay in the township. That way the township gets to control how the property develops,” Flanagan said. “What the city gets out of it is the sharing of the income tax.”
“(The township leaders) need to work with Union, Vandalia and Clayton because sometime in the future, these cities might want to annex more (township) land,” Zeigler said.
Attracting economic development
Orange said it’s important to have shovel-ready lots available for development. “We want to focus on the Dixie Drive, Miller Lane area for our retail and commercial and Lightner Boulevard area for manufacturing,” Orange said.
Flanagan said private developers are attracting businesses to the township and not township leaders, who he said need to focus their attention on economic development.
Flanagan said some drastic changes need to be made to Miller Lane and Little York Road to make the area attractive for new businesses and ultimately increasing the township’s tax base.
“The township needs to focus on economic development and not non-productive endeavors like branding the township which produces absolutely no return on investment,” Flanagan said. He said one example of branding would be putting up new street signs with the township logo.
Flanagan said township leadership needs to focus on developing and redeveloping the area north of Maxton Drive, which runs off of Miller Lane. “There is a large area north of Maxton Road that is either vacant or underutilized,” Flanagan said. “I believe the township needs to improve Little York Road, between North Dixie Drive and Interstate 75, reconstructing that stretch of road to three lanes, adding curbs, sidewalks and street lighting.”
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