Mochas and Mayors: Nan Whaley meets with Southeast Ohio Mayors

On Tuesday, former mayor of Dayton Nan Whaley, held a gathering of southeast Ohio mayors on her campaign to be Ohio’s next governor at Brenen’s Coffee on Court Street to discuss her Appalachian plan for Ohio.

Whaley met with Athens Mayor Steve Patterson, Belpre Mayor Michael Lorentz, Glouster Mayor Sam Sikorski, Chauncey Mayor Amy Renner-Hudson and Nelsonville City Auditor Taylor Sappington to discuss funding, addiction, infrastructure and more.

A key point of Whaley’s campaign is to see all Ohioans thrive regardless of zip code, by coming to Athens her goal was to hear out the mayors of southeast Ohio. 

Whaley briefly discussed the key pieces to her Appalachian plan, “we want to quickly make sure that we have quality broadband accessible to everyone that is affordable by 2028, raising the quality of life and having a successful economy rather than focusing on whether a corporation makes money.” 

If elected, Whaley plans to invest more in “mental health and addiction services for opioid addiction” around Appalachia. 

The roundtable discussion began with the trials and tribulations of each mayor’s respective area. 

Renner-Hudson started with Chauncey’s inflated property tax rates. Chauncey has the highest property tax rate in the county. Chauncey’s total tax rate is at 102.15, according to documents on Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson’s website. However, their municipal tax rate is 16.2 according to the same document.

Renner-Hudson believes that there is a very low amount of tax revenue that is put towards the municipality, despite Chauncey residents paying the highest tax rate in Athens County.

Chauncey has also experienced serious infrastructure issues. Whaley asked the mayors what they are excited about, but Renner-Hudson expressed some difficulties she is having instead. 

“How are we going to process new developments’ sewage?,” said Renner-Hudson. “How are we going to provide clean water or run a street that’s not filled with potholes? How can we attract businesses until we improve the infrastructure?”

Glouster is not the only local municipality struggling to find funds. Patterson described the areas where Athens is struggling in funding. 

“There was such a misuse of the state ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. I still struggle a little bit with how the NEUs (Non-entitlement Units of local government) were treated,” Patterson said. “When you look at Southeast Ohio the majority of our population is NEUs and villages and more funding from ARPA could help aid infrastructure in our areas.”

Sikorski and Renner-Hudson are newer mayors. Both were elected into office in 2020, leaving little time to plan projects where grant money would be needed. 

Sikorski touched on the competition for grant money. “The only reason I’m getting roads paved right now is because I applied for a grant in 2020,” Sikorski said. “I have five roads getting paved and that’s not all of them that need it, these five are my worst. It’s hard because we all are competing for the same money.”

An issue for some smaller cities and villages in Southeast Ohio is how the scoring system works for grant money. When you compare an area with 500,000 people to an area with 1,000 people the grant money is going to go to the 500,000 area first because that is seen as a bigger impact, according to Renner-Hudson. However, this makes it difficult for someone like Mayor Renner-Hudson to get things fixed and safe for her people who are like those in the 500,000 person area. 

Whaley added to the discussion by describing the grant scoring system of Ohio in-depth.

“The Columbus metro takes around 80% of grant money, leaving the remaining 20% for the rest of the state to fight over. There needs to be consideration in the scoring which can be made a priority in the governor’s office,” Whaley said. “The whole attitude of the Statehouse and the (current) governor has been ‘``if Columbus grows then everyone does well’, but that is not true and has been proven not to be true.”

Education inequality is another big topic concerning southeast Ohioans, as they once again must compete for resources. Sikorski expressed the need for more equitable school funding:,.

“Trimble (Local Schools) actually does boxing for books every year which is a fundraiser where boxers come in and box each other, we sell tickets and that money goes to buy books for the school,” said Sikorski.“We don’t get money from the state to buy books we raise our own money and have for over 15 years. We aren’t very big but we should have access to all the same things.”

Gun safety was another topic that Mayor Patterson brought up with Whaley. Notably, Whaley was mayor of Dayton during a mass shooting in August 2019.

Patterson said “one of the things that has been frustrating for years is gun safety and what happened in Dayton. At the time the (current) governor seemed to be leaning in on the issue but then to turn around and have the concealed carry permits go away, now the duty is on my police officers. Now the first word out of their mouth is always ‘are you carrying a sidearm?’ makes it hard to find qualified people that want to take on the profession.”

Each mayor is in dire need of some sort of funding in their respective areas. While there are some things to be positive about, like academic development in Belpre or a more open and inclusive community in Athens, there appears to be more surviving than thriving happening in Southeast Ohio. 

The 2022 Ohio gubernatorial election will take place on November 8.