5)   Local Government and Public Services

People Work to Keep What is Special About Granville

(Candi Moore)

People in this town really care about this town.  People will work very hard to keep it a special place.  And I think that’s the most encouraging thing.  We won’t always agree on how to go about it and won’t always agree on the solutions, but I think most of the motivation and the desire on everybody’s part is essentially the same.  We think Granville’s special.  We like it as a small town.  We like the strong downtown.  We like the fact that you can walk a lot of places.  We like our good schools.  So people want to keep all those things.  And it’s our challenge as elected officials to try to figure out ways to keep all of that.

Social Outings at the Granville Post Office

(Marilyn Willis)

It’s fun working in downtown Granville at the post office.  A lot of people that could have home delivery, the elderly people, had boxes before there was delivery in town.   And they don’t want to give up their boxes. 

I’m not sure when home delivery of mail started, but it used to be that everybody had boxes or you didn’t get your mail.  So they’ve had them for years, and they would miss coming in.  Of course, the business people come in everyday to get their mail.  And everybody knows you by name, and you know them by name.  You read The Sentinel and The Booster so you can ask them things about their families.  That’s public relations to read those papers.

They all come in and tell you how they’re doing and ask how are you’re doing and what the weatherman said is going to happen.  It’s a social outing for them.  It’s a chance for them to keep in touch and make that contact with everybody.

Infrastructure and Income Tax

(Doug Plunkett)

Throughout the 1980s we were focused on infrastructure rebuilding and replacement.  And then we had to have an income tax increase because we were running out of money to do things like roads.  We could do all the underground stuff because they were utility driven and therefore self supporting by rates.  But we didn’t have much money for road repairs.  And this village has always taken great pride in providing services to its residents like brush pick up and clean up fix up week and that sort of thing.  And we just couldn’t do it all on the money we had.

Sid Millard was the chairman of the financial study committee that looked at the finances of the village and they decided that the best way to handle the revenue shortfall for the services that people wanted was to increase the income tax rather than go out for property tax increase.

So we did two things.  We asked the voters to change the income tax from to 1 to 1 ½ percent and we asked them to reduce the credit given for taxes paid elsewhere by ½ to ¾ of a percent because people who live here, their property is protected twenty-four hours a day.  And the roads are maintained twenty four hours a day, and the services are provided around the clock.  And so that income tax increased passed and by about a 64% margin, which is pretty good in this day and age.

Problems of Parking and Public Restrooms

(Ronald Mack)

Parking of course is still a problem downtown today.  If there’s anything I think Granville needs to do, I think they need to quit building fancy curbs and sidewalks and consider some public restrooms for people if they want Granville to be attractive for people to come visit and visit their shops.  They need more parking places and they need public restrooms.

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        Last modified: 02/07/08