A letter from the Publisher...
Stand-alone Senior Center a timely idea for Oakwood
Oakwood offers a treasure of assets – more than any small suburb could hope for. We are safe, friendly, cared for by excellent city services. Our kids have great schools to attend. And look at our extras. We have Oakwood Community Center, with limited parking, but offering space and programs that would be difficult to live without. The City has purchased soccer fields for our soccer-interested parents and players and property to provide extra parking space for shopping in Oakwood. It has parks and traditional celebrations and scarecrow contests and an outstanding library. Oakwood is pretty much an idyllic place in which to live.
But something is missing. Oakwood does not have an active, well-planned senior center that has become an important part of many communities. We have an idea.
Why not have the City purchase the Routsong Funeral Home, renovate or tear it down and build or re-build a senior center that offers some of the same programs you find in Washington Township’s Hithergreen Senior Center or Kettering’s Lathrem Senior Center, where classes, bridge and card games, lectures, health programs, art classes are offered on a daily basis?
The Routsong location has several advantages for such a project. Ample parking is already available; such a facility would maintain the same kind of ambiance to the area, and could even be designed to include an attractive entrance to our city. With Sugar Camp’s Pointe Oakwood being built nearby on Far Hills Avenue, the potential 150 empty-nester families may find a senior facility added reason for settling there. With UD nearby, it might become an added venue for its Lifelong Learning Center classes.
Funding could be a project of both City and private donations. Whatever the decision, keep in mind that the need for a senior center gets stronger each day as the active “boomer” generation turns “golden.”
Let us know what you think? Email doe@oakwoodregister.com.
Very funny
This morning I received an e-mail from a friend asking if I knew an Obama sign was in my front yard. My first thought was it was a joking question, as, most of my friends know I stick to the right side of things. However, it wasn’t a question in jest. I’ve been out of town for eight days and apparently someone has placed an Obama sign in my yard.
So, to the person who placed the Obama sign in my front yard on Irving Avenue, thank you. Thank you for telling me how I should think. Thank you for confirming my thoughts that the Democrat party thinks it knows what is better for me than I do, by placing a sign in my front yard. And, thank you for the sign itself, I need something to put under my car in the garage so the oil drips don’t get the floor dirty.
Mike Green
Oakwood
There used to be Now there are four Hey Mayor Cook Can I have
Burma
- Contributed by |
Vore endorses Plummer
Sheriff Phil Plummer is a twenty year veteran of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. During his career he has worked and supervised in every division within the office. Prior to my retirement Sheriff Plummer served in my Command Staff as the Operations Commander, the Personnel Director, and as my Chief Deputy. Sheriff Plummer has a B.S. Degree and successfully completed the 212th session of the National F.B.I. Academy. He also served as my emergency incident scene commander. He has extensive law enforcement and management experience. He is actively involved in sports programs that help disadvantaged kids.
Sheriff Plummer has the experience managing a jail that has had overcrowding issues. He has managed a $46 million dollar budget during difficult economic times. He is strongly involved in the gun violence reduction program in Montgomery County.
I strongly urge the citizens of Montgomery County to vote for Sheriff Phil Plummer and carry on the proud tradition of the Sheriff’s Office.
Sincerely,
Dave Vore
Montgomery County Sheriff (Retired)
What is socialism?
I would like to thank Paul Schweitzer for his recent insightful letter to the Oakwood Register. He has sounded the wake up call for Americans to be on the alert against socialism. From his characterization, and drawing on Barack Obama’s books, we now seem to have a valuable definition of “socialism”: a government is socialist if and only if it generates revenue through an effective tax rate of over 0 percent.
This is a dangerous weapon threatening the body politic. Worse, we discover that electing Obama will lead not just to the people of the United States extracting their own teeth, but will really be doing something fearfully similar to the Germans who put Adolf Hitler, a socialist, into power. Worse still, we discover that the Soviet Union—also socialists—were thoroughly confused when fighting much of World War II against the Third Reich. And how confused was the United States, fighting on the side of one group of socialists against another group of socialists? It is clear that the Founding Fathers saw some forms of taxation as intolerable; yet they kicked out the British socialists just to impose another version of, yes, socialism. The plague continues, with socialists such as Henry Paulson not just seeing taxation as a legitimate government tool, but seizing vast private assets. Indeed, this cancer has been long with us; can one who advises “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” qualify as anything but . . . a socialist?
Kurt Mosser
Oakwood Resident
County tax reappraisals don’t jibe
I recently found out I do not pay enough in property taxes. I thought this was odd, but that’s what the Montgomery County auditor told me. I read that 50 percent of the residential parcels in our county dropped in value for tax appraisal purposes. Unfortunately, I am not in that half. It turns out, most of my neighbors aren’t in that half either. After invading the privacy of 40 of my neighbors, I was shocked to discover that 85 percent of them will see their property taxes go up. A lot. Apparently, our auditor believes we live in a little pocket of the county that is unscathed by the economic nightmare all around us.
Anyway, back to me…. So after receiving my property tax (hike) reappraisal notice in the mail from the auditor and gathering a little information, I decided I would call the number on the mailing to schedule an informal hearing so I could “be heard.” The nicest guy at Tyler/CLT (reappraisal company contracted by the county) told me they were “out of appointments” but would take my name and number and call me back to schedule my hearing. OK... Well, my phone never rang. So I called back to check where I was on “the list.” (I felt like I was at Cracker Barrel on the weekend.) I was told “no other appointments are being made.” What?? But I’m on “the list”! “Ma’am, there are no more appointments. Let me give you the auditor’s number. You’ll have to call them.” I called the auditor’s office and was told that Tyler/CLT had “stopped scheduling informal hearings over 1 week ago” and that now I’d have to go through the formal review process (Board of Revision) in January. Now, you know by now that this is a long story. Suffice it to say that I have made multiple calls to the auditor’s office and have spoken to multiple people there. I am currently waiting for them to call me back (gullible isn’t in my dictionary) as I have been promised an informal hearing via telephone.
During this whole ordeal, I have discovered a few interesting things besides the fact that my neighborhood is recession-proof. For example, my parcel’s “new value” figure printed on the reappraisal notice I received in the mail did not match my parcel’s “new value” figure in the auditor’s computer. I know...I thought this was weird, too, so I asked about it. I was told by the auditor’s office that this “mistake”
was “rare” but they had come across a few instances like mine. Well, this “rare mistake” happened in three out of four contiguous parcels on my street. How rare is that? About as rare as the deer in my yard, I’d say.
Moving on…the Butler County auditor said they decided to drop all 2005 home sales from Butler County’s reappraisal process as they would skew the reappraisal values higher even though home values are still going down. I know…this sounded intelligent to me, too, so I asked about it. I was told by our auditor’s office that what the Butler County auditor did was “illegal” and the “State of Ohio will not accept those new values” if 2005 sales were excluded from their reappraisal method. Now, think about that for a minute. The Butler County auditor (who is still scheduling informal hearings, by the way) is either brilliant or inept. Now, that’s my kind of elected official. No gray.
My last thought which is really the big picture: during an ongoing economic crisis, particularly in a housing market that has yet to hit bottom, why raise anyone’s taxes?
Julie Gallatin
Ridgeway Road
Émigré for McCain
It is time for America to WAKE UP and to think not only about the present, but also of the future. Instead of thinking what America can do for us, why don’t we think what we can do for America! My fellow Citizens, my fellow Americans why don’t you ask yourselves why everyone from Europe, India, Africa & elsewhere wants to immigrate to America leaving their motherland and families behind? Because this is the only country where we can be and become whoever we want to become - from doctors to janitors - everyone is equal here in this land of opportunity. This is the only place where no one can’t just sexually harass women and get away with it. This is the only place where the laws are same for everyone. This is the place where stability, security and safety for its people matters more than anything else!
Please ask yourselves how we are going to grow economically when your security is jeopardized, when your safety is in danger, when you are afraid that your country is constantly under the Orange Code –Terrorist Watch! Reflect on the time(s) when we the people from Ohio and Texas didn’t have electricity for 7 days creating such a panic that people thought its the end of the world and yet we learnt to appreciate
every single cube of ice and candle that was hiding somewhere in the kitchen cabinets. Well, coming from eastern Europe this was nothing new to me; my daughter Michelle Nadalina even got the firewood rolling in the backyard making spaghetti and Macedonian salsa (Ajvar ) right there in nature ,under the moon, washing dishes with hands, walking to the store and frankly, we were quit happy! But are you going to be happy if you had to go back to the socialistic – Communistic era that I grew up where ratio of positive work culture opportunities was like 1: 10, meaning that even though only one is working with the mouth shut, feeding 10 people, but at the same time constantly barking so to say.
My fellow immigrants, I believe that you came here for the same reason that I did, to progress and move forward, not backwards, isn’t that right? My fellow immigrants I believe that you didn’t come here to teach your children to not work for a living and depend on ‘contacts’ and references and your social status; I believe that you didn’t come here to borrow the money from the government to become couch potatoes, but to rather work hard and be compensated and rewarded based on your education and the efforts you put into your work isn’t ? Otherwise you could have stayed back in your homes, with your own people. My fellow people from India, you probably know best what terror is since you suffered more than any other. You witnessed the horror and bombs on the streets and temple and you understand and know the importance of safety. That is probably one of the reasons you immigrated to this country, so you can provide safety for your family! My fellow naturalized Americans - Yugoslavians (Bosnians , Serbians, Croatians, Macedonians) you experienced war on your shoulder and you lived all happily together as Christians, Catholics and Muslims for almost 50 years until “Jihad” & Islamic fundamentalism invaded the country with a motto “Divide and rule”. You experienced terror, rape and humiliation and you pledged to protect this country as your own because you know how precious the Freedom is because you already fought for it!
My fellow Americans (born here) - I hope you learnt the lesson from 9/11 and I hope you can do whatever it takes to protect your country from such evil - the biggest threat of human kind -Terrorism!
I hope all of us can be more aware for our surrounding and more vigilant and “simple know how” and protect this beautiful country of ours – the United States of America.
Being a first generation immigrant and naturalized American by choice, being an Indian by marriage makes me a citizen of the world who want a terror- free environment and Spirituality as a form of Education. And that is why my fellow Citizens I urge you to re-examine your thoughts and think what is yours and your children’s priority in Life?
Is it how big the croissants you are going to eat for breakfast or what designer dress or make- up you are going to wear today or how big of a house you are going to live tomorrow or you are going to focus how to make this America a better place for all of us by learning to protect the most basic human right –freedom from terror.
In my case I decides to fight for the Freedom at all cost, without any compromise and vote for the party that promote so –John McCain/Sarah Palin 2008!
Sincerely,
Dr.Valentina Som (Former Cavdarska-Shampton)
Oakwood –Dayton Resident since 1999 and US Citizen since 2000
Who deserves the arts support vote?
In the October 14, 2008 edition of the Oakwood Register, an article by Dr. James Uphoff appears to support Senator Barack Obama in the upcoming race for president for what Dr. Uphoff believes is the Senator’s proactive position on the arts and arts education. An accompanying chart purports to show that on the whole, Senator Obama appears to have a more “pro-arts” position than Senator John McCain. While stopping short of an outright endorsement, the article makes it clear that, at least from an arts education perspective, Senator Obama is the more worthy candidate.
While support of the arts and arts education may be a laudable goal at the local and state level, this beguiling article necessitates a troubling logical leap by extending a legitimate local policy to an illegitimate exercise of federal power. In fact, the chart presents a small but telling reason why Senator Obama is not deserving of our vote. Specifically, it shows the Senator’s unwillingness (or inability) to appreciate that there are certain things that the federal government is just not permitted to do. As clearly provided in the Constitution, the powers delegated to the federal government are expressly limited, and nowhere does such power extend to taxpayer support of the arts (as much as some of us may wish it were so). In fact, the only part that even uses the term “art” is found in Article I, Section 8, which deals with providing a limited monopoly to inventors and writers, while the general welfare mentioned in the same section is limited to protecting the peace and safety of the citizens through that section’s specifically enumerated powers.
In the unlikely event that the people were in danger of misconstruing the limited power bestowed upon their elected national leaders, the framers included a provision stating unequivocally that those powers not provided by the Constitution are beyond the scope of federal government power.
I suspect that Dr. Uphoff professes a deep respect for our institutions and the laws giving rise to such institutions, a paramount example of which is the Bill of Rights. If so, he must acknowledge that federal government support of the arts and arts education is irreconcilable with these laws and institutions. Moreover, the chart clearly shows (perhaps unwittingly) that of the two candidates for president, Senator McCain’s position better comports with the demands of the rule of law, and while there may well be numerous examples of where Senator McCain has forgotten the proper role of the federal government within a Constitutional framework, at least as it relates to the arts, his position is far less problematic than his opponent’s.
Many of us want a vibrant arts presence in our community, believing that it enriches us and contributes to our overall quality of life. The beauty is that at a local and state level (especially in places like Oakwood), we can and will do something to advance such a presence. What we can’t do while still remaining true to the principles of our most revered of laws is flout such laws in the pursuit of an insular policy objective as Senator Obama and the article would appear to have us do. Thus, if adherence to how the candidates will treat federal involvement in arts education funding is any indication of their willingness to abide by the rule of law rather than pursue a politically popular (albeit legally dubious) agenda, then Senator McCain’s position is clearly the one worthy of our vote in November, Dr. Uphoff’s unpaid suggestion to the contrary notwithstanding.
John Reed
Ridgewood Avenue
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October 28, 2008
Volume 17, No. 44
front page
arts
schools
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'round town
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