The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Mayor says virus won’t stifle ideas
Energy for projects in city remains strong, Light says
Land for business, new amenities in city parks and a fresh outlook on downtown are on the to-do list in Norwalk.
Land for business, new amenities in city parks and a fresh outlook on downtown are on the to-do list in Norwalk, even during a pandemic year, said Mayor Dave Light.
The projects are on the drawing board for the firstterm mayor, who readily shares credit for ideas about improving the community.
Like many cities, novel coronavirus caused Norwalk’s city leaders to intensify their efforts toward public health and safety.
Norwalk remains a safe community between Toledo and Cleveland, with room to grow and good schools. The tourist attractions around the Sandusky area sit to the north and Summit Motorsports Park can draw 30,000 people to its weekend events.
Now residents and business owners are suggesting new projects that will become reality, the mayor said.
“We’ve got a lot of positive things here so now’s the time to push,” Light said. “Coronavirus threw a fly in the ointment, but I’ve still got to think we’ll come out of this. The people who are brave enough to invest now, invest in the community, I think are going to pay off big dividends down the road.”
Meet the mayor
Light is new to the mayor’s office, but not to the Maple City.
“I really love Norwalk and I care about the future of the community,” he said.
A Norwalk native, Light got his first job as a high school senior at Norwalk Furniture, where his father worked for 36 years. He would work there 10 years, and he and a friend also opened a gym that operated six years downtown.
After completing the police academy, in 1984 Light began full-time work for the Norwalk Police Department. He remained there about 34 years, rising through the ranks to become chief and leading the force for more than eight years.
“When I retired I thought it was great for about two weeks,” Light said. “Then I was antsy. I had to do something.”
He returned to work as a probation officer for Judge James Conway at Huron County Common Pleas Court.
The court began an intensive supervision program to help drug offenders get into treatment while awaiting trial. First-time defendants without accompanying offenses could get charges dismissed if they stayed clean for a year, Light said.
A new look at the effects of the opioid epidemic inspired his run for mayor and in November 2019, voters tapped him to lead the city. Running as a Democrat, Light topped incumbent Republican two-term Mayor Rob Duncan.
North side of town
Light’s campaign platform included a new push for economic development in Norwalk.
On the north side of town, Emerald Parkway dead-ended at a three-acre parcel that years ago was to become a new hotel.
The Great Recession stymied that plan, the mayor said.
But three other businesses are adjacent — the Bob Evans restaurant, Fisher-Titus Medical Center Convenient Care and Premiere Theatre 8 on Theatre Drive to the east.
Fisher-Titus Medical Center is building its new Surgery Center of North Central on Emerald Parkway. The hospital and neighbor Dan Shupe donated land and the city built the road to connect Emerald Parkway to Theatre Drive.
Light is marketing the site for a new hotel and sitdown restaurant, with the existing restaurant, movie theater and healthcare out the front door and many more stores and restaurants nearby on U.S. Route 250.
“It would be a huge positive development out on the north side of town,” Light said, adding “I wouldn’t mind seeing some higher tech businesses come to town.”
City officials cut the ribbon to open the Emerald Drive extension at the end of July. The city paid for the road with capital improvement money saved when other street repairs came in under bid.
Brainstorming
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Light put out the call for a new group of advisers.
They have a number of playful working titles, including the Creative Minds Committee, and gather online or around the mayor’s conference table.
Light said Norwalk supporters have emerged to float possible answers to three questions:
• What can we do to draw people to Norwalk?
• What can we do to make businesses want to relocate to Norwalk?
• What can we do to influence local high school graduates to return to the city?
Light noted his own son earned his master’s degree and moved to Cincinnati for a job.
Places like Cincinnati, downtown Sandusky and the Lorain Port Authority’s Black River Landing have begun creating amenities that attract people, he said.
The committee’s job is to brainstorm about fun ways to improve Norwalk.
“I guess all it takes is getting these people together, and man, they are pumped,” Light said. “The ideas are all getting done. It’s not just lip service and then they go away.”
Ideas hit the streets
The first result is legislation to allow residents to drive golf carts around the city.
The carts must be licensed and inspected.
They can cross Route 250 but are barred from driving on that road, which gets busy with visitor traffic, especially on the north side of town.
“It’s just kind of a fun thing that you see people out driving around in golf carts, going out to eat,” Light said.
He intends to get a cart and noted they are much cheaper than Harley-Davidson motorcycles, another of his favorite forms of transportation.
“The people who are brave enough to invest now, invest in the community, I think are going to pay off big dividends down the road.”
— Mayor Dave Light
The administration and downtown businesses are examining a designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA. In that district, shoppers can walk around outside with beer, wine or drinks in special cups.
“Other communities have found it’s a real success; it actually attracts businesses that want to be in that DORA area,” Light said. Council consideration was planned in August.
Tooling around on golf carts or enjoying a drink, people don’t have to be shoulder to shoulder in a bar, Light said.
The mayor and the Creative Minds Committee also have begun scouting locations for a new food truck court, which would serve as a park and community gathering space.
When the committee suggested upgrading the city’s Christmas season Santa House, the “master elves” of JDB Home Improvements responded by building an actual tiny house. It is portable with working doors, windows,