Let me make this perfectly clear.


Waynesville is a Charter Village, and what that means is. We have a Weak Mayor form of government, and a Strong Manager form of government. Basically the Mayor is no more than a Councilmember with a title and vote.

Tuesday, November 10th Mr. Paul Marshall, chaired the Recovery Commission meeting where the commission rejected the 2010 appropriations do to the failure of the proposed Village Income Tax. Stating that the Village needed to make significant cuts and come up with a new detailed recovery plan that will work before the December 29th meeting.

I know that Mr. Paul Marshall of the State did not say Waynesville was going to be abolished. I believe Mr. Marshall was saying the Village Government needs to make some deep cuts which to me is what was meant when he said significant cuts. We should not be going around on television or in the news papers scaring citizens by saying Waynesville is going to disappear. People do not like scare tactics.

On November 3, 2009 Waynesville’s proposed Income Tax levy failed by 69% which equals more than two to one. That means that for every three citizens you meet on the street, two of them are telling the Village Government to go pound sand. As the Mayor I am elected by the people and I am not about to go against the wishes of the people that just said NO to more TAXES.

Concerned Citizens have told me they do not trust the Village with their money.

Stating the village raised the water and sewer rates in order to repair the 100 year old infrastructure on Main Street, and spent that money buying property.

Other citizens say when they voted to pass the Police Levy they felt the Village Finances would be whole, but that was not the case.

At the last emergency meeting I spoke about the School’s 10 mill levy coming on in January 2010. Mr. Ron Kronenberger, president of the Chamber of Commerce stated the school levy taxes that passed last year would not go up do to the off sets of properties values being lowered, and it was going to be a wash.

November 18th I went to the County Auditors office and ask if the property tax would be going up and if so, how much? They showed me that not only the citizens of Waynesville where going to see an increase in Property TAX, but everyone in the Township was going to receive a 16% TAX INCREASE, starting in January 2010, and the county commissioners are also going to put on 2 ½% more in 2010.




Mr. Kronenberger pressed me for a plan. I responded by saying it was not my job to come up with a plan and it was the Village Managers, Bruce Snell’s job to come up with a plan. That is why we the Council hired the Manager and the Finance Director, but if they want me too, I will.

This Village has been in existence for over two hundred years with out a village manager and can do it again. This is a place where the Waynesville Merchants and Chamber of Commerce have done a great job of keeping visitors wanting to come and enjoy our unique town. Now some of the leadership of the Chamber of Commerce is in question. Some members are using the Chamber for their own gain.

Before we had a Village Manager we had a Government Center that was perfect for this town and it was paid for. Every since we have had a Village Manager Waynesville has gone backwards. Every Village Manager we have had has done nothing but talk the council members into growing a government that we the citizens can not afford, and use this town as a stepping stone to advance their career, and leave the citizens holding the bag.

Here are some extreme ideals; I am sure you do not want to hear. Let the Village go to Wayne Township or maybe even going to Corwin. Maybe that would be something to think about! Corwin does have an income tax or even get rid of the Charter form of government and go back to a Strong Mayor form of government. The village would save the monies and benefits we pay the village manager. There is a cut in the budget.

We can also make some cuts in the police department, instead of paying the part time officers 50 dollars a shift we could cut them back to where they use to be 10 dollars a shift and eliminate one of the full time officers which would save an addition 50 to 60 thousand dollars per year. Total saving from these changes could amount to over 250,000.00 in savings per year. This would be a five year saving of more than 1.25 million.

Now in my mind that would be what I call, Significant Cuts we could make before we would let the State abolish this village.

People as your Mayor, I would like to say this. Waynesville has around 2,700 residents and are not into competing with huge cities like Centerville services and departments.

All they want are the basic services: Police, Water, Sewer, Safe Streets, and Snow Removal. They do not care about the leaves being picked up.

When you look at the total cash balance we have gone from 1.5 million to over 2.0 million dollars. The General Fund is healthy and in the black $266,645.95 and Water is in the black $1,118,000.00. Water is our cash cow, this account has increased.




The Village has $2,039,610.88 what are we going to do with this money?

I ask; can we use any of this money to pay down the debt on the building?

Looks to me like we could all pull to gather as a community and be out of Fiscal Emergency by next year if we keep doing the thing we are doing.


Waynesville Mayor
Earl J. Isaacs