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Careful planning helps bedroom community avoid financial woes
SHERRY KARABIN
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 29, 2012
A quick visit to Sagamore Hills Township and it might be hard to believe that the small bedroom community was once a thriving farming area.
“I grew up on my grandfather’s farm,” said lifelong resident and longtime trustee Rose Mary Snell. “The area began to change in the ‘50s and ‘60s when some of the big plants like Chrysler and Ford moved into the area, and it has been growing ever since.”
Today, the mostly white-collar community has about 11,000 residents, and Snell said the 700-acre farm that was once owned by Cyrus Eaton is now called Eaton Estates and encompasses many homes and condominiums.
“Sagamore Hills broke away from the original Northfield Township and became a township in 1947,” said Snell. “Curt Polcen was one of our first trustees.
“Aside from Eaton Estates and Greenwood Village, another large single-family and condominium development, the rest of the township is based on one acre, one house.”
Outsiders may know Sagamore Hills for its many parks and its extensive green space. “We maintain 191 acres of vacant land that we have preserved to remain as green space,” said Snell.
“Sagamore Hills Park is very large and has five baseball fields, two picnic pavilions, a gazebo and recently with the help of a grant, we have paved a trail that connects to Summit County Metro Parks Bike & Hike trail at the southern end of the park.
“We also have access to the towpath trail, giving us the best of both worlds so to speak,” said Snell.
The township is located near Brandywine Falls and portions of Cuyahoga Valley National Park run through it. Sagamore Hills is also part of the Cuyahoga Valley Regional Council of Governments, allowing it to weigh in on park issues that impact the region.
While most of the residents work outside the township, the commercial space that is available is almost completely occupied, and the government has been able to hold its own despite the poor economy and cuts in state aid.
“Sagamore Hills elected officials projected long-term decreases in revenues, and we worked to adjust expenditures to offset future losses in state revenues and decreased collection of interest,” said fiscal officer Scott Gale.
“During the downturn we cut back on our spending and we are not currently spending any money,” said Snell. “Much of the work that has been done has been paid for by grants. I’ve written many grants over the years and I’ve become pretty good at it.”
Still despite the tight budget, township employees were not laid off and services were not cut.
“Since I’ve been in office and long before, we’ve always been on target with our budget,” said trustee Richard Barrett, who has lived in Sagamore Hills for 40 years. “We always have a surplus at the end of the year, which we have used to create a ‘rainy day fund,’ but we are relying on it more and more.”
Like other townships, residents do not pay local income tax, and the government relies on property and estate taxes, aid from the state, permits and fees.
The trouble is, said Barrett, state aid has shrunk and so have the estate taxes, leaving the township with a lot less revenue to accomplish the same tasks.
“At my urging, our township has appropriated $1,774,090 less during the past two years. This is a 23 percent reduction in appropriated expenditures,” said Gale.
“Aside from a 0 percent interest loan over 20 years for a road project, the township is debt free and has the financial resources to pay bills as they move through the system,” Gale said.
“We control our expenditures carefully,” said Barrett. “For example, we repair our roads based on our budget.”
Snell said about a year ago the township reached an agreement in the form of a fire district with Northfield Center Township, which now has a joint jurisdiction providing its fire and emergency response services, which has helped to save money.
“When we get a bill, we are responsible for about 67 percent and Northfield Center pays the rest based on the property tax values of both communities,” said Barrett.
“In a cooperative effort during 2011, Sagamore Hills Township officials and police joined together to save a difference of nearly $200,000 in health care costs,” Gale said.
But Sagamore Hills has not made any changes to its police department.
“We have one of the lowest crime rates in northeast Ohio,” said Chief David Hayes. “We have an excellent response time of under two minutes, and we continue a program we began in the ‘90s where we leave cards in residents’ mailboxes to let them know that our officers are out patrolling their neighborhoods.”
The department currently has 10 full-time and six part-time police officers as well as four full-time and six part-time dispatchers.
“We also run a highly successful police explorer’s program for people between 14 and 21, so that anyone interested in learning about becoming a police officer can get some early training and see what it is like to do the job,” said Hayes.
The largest employer in Sagamore Hills is Nordonia Hills City School District, which includes Northfield Village, Northfield Center Township, Macedonia and portions of Boston Heights.
“The school system works very well, all of my children have gone through it, and one of my three children bought a house here,” said Barrett. “Most of the people who grow up here stay here. We’re a well-established community and we control our development, which are some of the things I like about Sagamore Hills.”
The majority of the commercial corridor is located on Route 82 and includes Sagamore Square Shopping Center on West Aurora Road.
“The largest store there is Marc’s. There is also a Subway, a pizza shop, a Mexican restaurant, a jewelry store, a party center and a bank,” said Barrett.
“We’re pretty much built to capacity, there is not much room for too much more,” said Barrett.
In fact, few new businesses have opened up but there are two new restaurants that did. In June, The Basement at Sagamore Hills on West Aurora Road began serving customers and in mid-July Lana’s Family Restaurant also began operating on West Aurora Road.
The community did have a few foreclosures and is receiving some Moving Ohio Forward grant money to demolish three properties.
“Overall we have a nice mixture of new and older homes,” said Barrett.
A large segment of the population is over 50 and there are facilities designed to accommodate the needs of an aging population, including the assisted living facility Elmcroft of Sagamore Hills and Brentwood HealthCare Center.
“We are not planning to put up any housing but we are working on setting up a meeting site for seniors,” said Barrett.
Although there are no plans for any new projects in the immediate future, trustees said they would continue to improve the parks while focusing on keeping their budget balanced without cutting services.
“In this day and age, we have to be very prudent in what projects we spend our money on, but we are still in a much better position than any of the other surrounding communities,” Barrett said.