Jeremiah Johnson: Candidate for mayor of Sugarcreek
By Kyle Valentini
October 23, 2011
777
Jeremiah Johnson
Office sought: Mayor Village of Sugarcreek
Age: 28
Family: Mark and Brenda, parents; and Justin, brother
Education: 2001 Garaway graduate; attended The Ohio State University, 2001-2006
Hometown: Sugarcreek
Occupation: Owner/operator Pizza Parlor V
Political party affiliation: Democrat, but this is a non-partisan election
Previous elected offices: Sugarcreek Village Council 2007, Sugarcreek mayor 2008-present
Applicable experience: Prior to elected office, I worked at the Ohio Senate in various positions, serving our local State Senator Jason Wilson.
What is the primary reason you are running for this office?
I would like to keep Sugarcreek moving forward! We have come a long way in a short period of time, but we still have a long way to go, I really enjoy serving my community.
Why should someone vote for you?
I am a proud business owner of the Pizza Parlor V in the village of Sugarcreek, where I employ 20 young adults that are still working on their educations either in high school or college, and that is a great blessing to be able to work with them. I am the president of the Swiss Valley Ambulance District, co-vice president of the Ohio Swiss Festival, member of the First United Church of Christ in Sugarcreek, member of the Sugarcreek Business Association, member of the Garaway Athletic Boosters, and also sit on the advisory board of the Landscaping Department at Buckeye Joint Vocational School. I am very proud to be given the chance to serve this great community as their mayor for the last four years. I feel my experience gained while in college working at the Ohio Senate for our local Senators has been vital in our success and I hope to be able to continue to serve.
What is the biggest problem(s) facing your community? How do you propose to solve it (them)?
I believe our biggest problem is keeping up with the maintenance of what we have. For so many years, the water and sewer rates were so low, the village was using money out of the general fund to fund these departments, and the replacement schedule and upkeep schedules were thrown out the window. Now that the rates have been adjusted, we have completed many projects, most of them were upgrades to our village infrastructure. Examples would be replacing over 2,050 feet of 12-inch water line, setting the village up for future expansion, we have rebuilt a well that was not in operation, rebuilt a filter at our water plant, started a meter replacement program which has replaced 250-plus meters, in return cutting the time down to read meters from five days to two, giving our employees more time to be working at the plant. In these same departments, we have upgraded our operation system at the water and sewer plants SCADA System, giving us remote access to our plant for monitoring and operation. In return, this is cutting down on a lot of overtime we used to pay for someone to stop in on weekends and check on the plant. Even after fixing these problems, there are still many more that need to be taken care of.
Limited only to the office you are seeking, where specifically would you cut budgets if needed?
Fortunately at this time, I see the village continuing to come out of this recession. There have been more jobs added than lost in the village in the last three and a half years and I hope to continue that trend. Our village income tax has slightly increased two of the last three years, and I see that as progress in the current economic state of our country. But if there were cuts that had to be made, I would meet with the finance committee to propose a solution that all can live with, by making a few personnel changes over the last three and a half years. We have saved the village tens of thousands of dollars. We have also rebid our insurance, which had not been done in years, and over the last two years, have saved the village $24,000 and increased our coverage an additional $3 million.
Why are you running for public office? Why do you think you can make a difference in your community?
I worked closely with Fire Chief Jim Harrison to secure just over $175,000 in grant funds for replacement of equipment for the fire department. I worked closely with Police Chief Kevin Kaser to secure funds from the state of Ohio for a school resource officer for the past three years, totaling just under $30,000. I was able to submit a grant that would pay for 50 percent of tornado warning sirens to Sugarcreek and Sugarcreek Township. The money received there is just over $51,000. The last thing I want to talk about is very important. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I traveled to Columbus, with our village solicitor, and about six other residents to sit in on the Ohio Mine Subsidence Review Commission meeting, and after watching the commission exclude the residents from the board room, State Senator Jason Wilson and myself carried chairs into the room and invited the people to join us. At the conclusion, the board accepted our recommendation to increase the coverage of our insurance on your homes from $100,000 to $300,000, with the added cost to the home owner of only $1 a year. This was a big step forward not only for Sugarcreek because of our location, but for our state also. I love working hard for our community.
How can local cities and towns work together to improve the entire area, rather than just do whats best for them?
We have built many great relationships between the village and local business, with the Garaway Local School System, and other villages, townships, and cities around us, and I feel that is a key to success. During the tornado season last year, we really built a great relationship working with the city of New Philadelphia. Mayor Taylor was the first one to call me and offer their assistance and when they were hit, I called him first thing in the morning to tell him our crews are at this disposal. This is something that I feel I have been able to implement with the help of Mayor Taylor. Our fire departments have always helped each other. We also work very closely with Sugarcreek Township, on all kinds of projects, and another group we were able to broaden our relationships with has been New Philadelphia Schools. They have been great to the village of Sugarcreek by loaning us their portable bleachers for the Ohio Swiss Festival.
