Mayor outlines ideas for 2018

FOCUS VERMILION Visit some of the small businesses that call Vermilion home in our special Focus Vermilion section Coming Jan. 28

Vermilion residents will see new faces with hopes of attracting new businesses to the city starting in 2018.

As the new year ages into January, Vermilion Mayor Jim Forthofer shared his vision for the city this year.

In 2017, Vermilion voters tapped Forthofer to

succeed Mayor Eileen Bulan, a two-term, eight-year mayor who retired.

“It’s an institutional change for us,” Forthofer said. Vermilion must face challenging issues coming up, Forthofer said, but he acknowledged he inherited “a stable platform.”

“Mayor Bulan left the city better than she found it, in my opinion,” the new mayor said.

Bulan administered a time when city financials were stabilized and a better culture grew between Council and the administration, Forthofer said.

She was a friendly face who got the downtown merchants going and was excellent at networking with regional and state representative of other governments, he said.

“So she really set us on a good course,” Forthofer said. “Where I want to pick up where she left and take us to the next step is continuing the development now that we’ve got a stable platform.

“No. 1, do no harm, keep us stable, keep us financially in the right shape, keep City Hall operating as it should,” he said.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is long overdue and neglected, not due to Bulan or Council, but because of the difficulty of raising levy and tax money for years, Forthofer said.

“During that period, things eroded,” he said. Water mains are the main goal, roads a close second for city leaders, Forthofer said.

In the city, 89 percent of taxes already are paid by residents. Based on the amount of work needed, tax and rate increases would be “crushing,” Forthofer said.

“They’re tax-tired already,” he said of residents.

“We need new business to expand that base so that’s the next stage and that’s what I hope to accomplish, is to move us in that direction.”

The city has a 25-year water main plan in place starting with Adams Street, which will be paid for in part with a $2.5 million loan.

City leaders do not want to borrow money if they do not have to, so borrowing is not a long-term solution, Forthofer said.

“There’s no illusion that the majority of the plan is unfunded so far,” the mayor said. “So all roads lead back to more tax revenue and tax revenue leads back to more business.”

How to pay

In some ways, the future of Vermilion will come from outside the city.

“There’s not one problem we have that wouldn’t be solved with more business revenue,” Forthofer said. He added he will sound like a broken record, but will return to that message that started on the campaign trail in 2017.

Most land that is developable in the city is on the Lorain County side, Forthofer said.

Finding new ways to use it or new occupants for it will be difficult if the city tries to work by itself, he said. For small, post-industrial cities, the era of cigarchomping mayors saying “stay out of my town” is long gone, Forthofer said.

“You’ve got to really be able to network, because what you’re going to get done is going to be with the help of a lot of other people and many of them not in town,” Forthofer said.“We need the help of people all the way down in the state, in the county and everywhere in between.”

Fire station

Vermilion officials “happily” will plan for a new fire station.

“I say happily because it’s already funded,” Forthofer said. Residents have been contributing fire levy money for years and now there is enough to build a station, he said.

The new station will replace the fire garage at 5467 Ohio St. across from Victory Park. The city likely will keep that facility for training, but a new location is needed to house the fire apparatus.

The exact budget and location have not been determined yet. The station likely will be built in 2019.

“I can’t tell you how much I admire the fire department,” Forthofer said. The firefighters are volunteers but spend a large amount of time on training and keeping up with fire codes and techniques needed to respond to emergencies, he said.

New staff

In the city administration, Forthofer reappointed Service Director Tony Valerius “because he’s doing a good job.”

Law Director Kenneth Stumphauzer, a Lorain native, also will return.

“I like him because he doesn’t tell me what I want to hear, he tells me the truth,” Forthofer said about the law director. “He doesn’t care whether I like it or not. That’s the kind of guy I want.”

Chris Howard, a vice president and partner of Bramhall Engineering, has been approved by Vermilion Council to serve as city engineer. He has worked for Vermilion before and will replace City Engineer Lynn Miggins, who served the city well.

“She’s a model of professionalism, seriously, and high integrity,” Forthofer said. “Sometimes you just need fresh eyes on the city’s projects and that’s what we did. Nothing wrong, just change.”

Finance Director Brian Keller has been replaced by Amy Hendricks, a former Vermilion school treasurer who will retire as treasurer of Fairview Park schools to become city finance director.

Lots of help

Main Street Vermilion in 2016 launched its “Bridge2Bridge” program. The city should be grateful the organization has expanded its vision to include the area east of downtown from the river bridge to the railroad bridge, he said.

“It needs some freshening up and that’s what they’re trying to do,” Forthofer said. “Main Street Vermilion does so much for the city. If Main Street Vermilion didn’t do what it does, we couldn’t afford to do it.”

The city also benefits from Vermilion in Bloom, the city Chamber of Commerce, the Vermilion on the Lake Historic Community Center Charitable Trust and other organizations and committees that work on various projects in the city, Forthofer said.

Maritime Museum property

In December 2017, the Vermilion Parks and Recreation Board voted for demolition as the preferred option for the former Inland Seas Maritime Museum, made up of the Wakefield House and a 1960s addition.

The city has formed a committee to plan redevelopment of the site.

“The happy part is, we’re moving toward the next best thing,” Forthofer said. He conceded it was a difficult decision for people who love old buildings, himself included.

“The more I think people start to see that come into focus, what it is, what it could be and have some commentary on what it should be, I think we’ll understand that that was the right decision to take down that museum,” Forthofer said. “Losing that obligation for maintenance on the old building frees us up to all kinds of new ideas.”