Mayor Dickey and her reduced staff are really not to blame for what has developed and I’m going to speak about her as a long ago city planner which she never had. She never received a ‘City of Peace’ but was given a ‘City of Pieces’ that started back in 1980 or before but gained speed around 1992 and thereon. ….with scattered areas of it as a result of mindset thinking.

No longer is there an Industrial Park to the South and the one to the North went dry after wrong use of the tax abatement program.

Pennsylvania Avenue still remains as her top industry and that is sad, with Ventra, Fresh Mark, and the hospital being her top three “industries”.

Commercialism was lost when SAIDC sought ‘bypasses’ for their home truck companies obtaining passage routes away from downtown….. all but dried the traffic patterns to bring people traffic to Salem. The Central Business District became reduced in 1992 as the downtown went back to its ‘quaint” appearance and sidewalks were of bricks, the old street light poles returned, and the street surface returned to asphalt.

City Hall was wiped clean when a much needed municipal (civil) engineer (Surveyor) position was dissolved from advising the Mayor, Service Director, Planning Commission, Utilities, Municipal Constructions, etc. and now everything is scattered from city hall. SOD is real estate agency operated by a woman in Poland, Ohio. How many leaders are not citizens of Salem? These things can happen to a community as I explained in my KSU lectures but they could have been avoided if not for the legacies sought throughout administration/legislation changes having mindsets. Annexation is not going to be the answer to anything except more police and fire costs, higher water and sewer costs, more street repair costs. Mayor! Stop while you’re ahead because it will get worse. You are creating a Bedroom/Park community and that is costly….and like a home owners association in Florida. People have already left and more will follow. You need two things in an attempt to change things. A Charter/Mayor form of government to manage things and an Ohio Registered Professional Engineer (Civil) who also is a Registered Surveyor…who works for the city and not himself….otherwise, you are a mere client.

Do you really know what legacy really is and how its its achieved? It’s not by recognition or money but by love of work. I’m 91 and my legacy is this: I was keeper of the law library in our engineer’s office and every update I would review things to see if they applied to us. One caught my eye that was a new law. I studied it, prepared it and the City Map and contacted the Rules/Ordinances committee-head, Phil Greeneisen, for a meeting and presented this interesting new device that would help clean/eliminate building blight and also cause new construction in Salem. They accepted it and I agreed to be the city agent to develop it and it went to city council for passage. That’s how I then became an additional title of Housing/Planning/Zoning Officer in the City Engineer’s Office. Once the forms I prepared were finalized I took a package to the County Auditor Kenneth Bell to advise him of our existence. He took exception to it and took the City of Salem to Court which became the first case law for that Tax Abatement program in the State of Ohio. Naturally I had to defend it and we won. Salem was the very first Tax Abatement city and the State of Ohio leaned on me for my document forms so other cities could use them. 47 years later…its still functioning.

I have another legacy and that’s my street upgrading design paving 32 miles of Salem’s total 56 miles with some 10 per cent funds during the 4 year time I was Director of Service using my 15 year life design.

“Strive for your best results and work with curiosity, determination, and persistence. Focus your direction and work toward excellence. Never be content with today’s glory, for tomorrow’s glory is better. Be sincere in who you are, for sincerity belies your integrity.”

Stephen Navoyosky

Salem