Opponents to Avon eminent domain plan mobilize
Benjamin Nagy
AVON — An army of volunteers spread throughout the city Friday afternoon, planting signs saying that they support the public schools but can’t condone stealing land to build them.
A group calling itself Avon Citizens for Change wants the local school board to back off its plans to seize Mary Jane Wolfe’s 25-acre property on Center Road.
But members of the Avon school board say that land is the best place to build a new junior high school, and they’ll use the courts to force Wolfe to sell to them.
| SEIZURE OPPONENTS MEET The Avon Citizens for Change will meet at 7 p.m. April 7 at the Avon United Methodist Church barn, 37711 Detroit Road, Avon. Donations can be made at the Avon Fifth Third branch or c/o Avon Citizens for Change, P.O. Box 401, Avon, OH 44011. |
Tim Bresnahan, spokesman for the Citizens for Change, said about 50 people helped put 150 signs in yards Friday.
Donations have been pouring into a Fifth Third account for the past week to help the group’s fight, he said. The donations haven’t been totaled, but they are in addition to the $1,000 that has been mailed to the organization’s post office box.
Sean Flaherty was one volunteer helping distribute signs that read, “Progress Yes, Eminent Domain No!!”
“My fear is that the school board is trying to pull a fast one here and get this thing pushed through without an uproar,” he said. “Well, they’re not going to get away with it. We’re going to give them a fight.”
Bresnahan and company also put up an online petition Thursday for disgruntled residents to sign. By late Friday, 26 people had placed their names on the document at www.avoncitizensforchange.com.
Eventually, the petition will be circulated on paper so people without Internet access can sign too, he said.
Legally, the petition cannot force the school board to change. But its circulators are hoping it still holds sway.
“Enough people are being vocal about this that it’s time they can put their signatures down,” Bresnahan said. “Then we can show the board just how much opposition they have. This board is losing face in the public eye, but they’re still bent on doing this.”
The petition says the Citizens for Change thinks there are other places the Board of Education can build a new school, and it asks the board to back out of its 3-2 vote to use eminent domain to take Wolfe’s property.
School board President Dale Smitek said Friday that neither the signs nor petition are likely to change officials’ minds.
He said Wolfe’s land is the best place to build the new junior high and that the 25 acres — along with about
5 acres from other owners — are needed to comply with state construction guidelines.
“We’re not going to build a school for 800 students. We have to look further ahead than that,” Smitek said.
While the housing market is bad now, he said Avon is perched on the edge of a huge housing boom in the next decade that will flood the district with new students, and there’s not enough room in the current schools to handle them.
Smitek also said he doesn’t expect the board to talk about Wolfe’s land again any time soon, especially if the matter goes before a judge.
Bresnahan said he understands his group’s petition and signs probably won’t make a difference, but he still wants to show the board just how many people are opposing them — and how many will remember this issue come election time.
Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.
|
| ||
 |
Filed by Benjamin Nagy March 29th, 2008 in Top Stories.
|
 Print this story
Read comments and discuss this story
Report an innappropriate comment
|
In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement
and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered,
click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.
I am glad that the Chronicle Telegram has chosen to do a story on this outrageous use of eminent domain in Avon. I feel that both parties were well-represented. I am appalled that the Avon School District would take Ms. Wolfe’s property to build a school.
(Report comment)
I will be glad when I see every citizen that finds themselves as appalled as I am place a sign on their front lawn and a signature on the petition… http://www.petitiononline.com/avonstop/petition.html You do not have to live in Avon to sign this.
(Report comment)
col_matt,
thought you may like to know about the special board meeting the school has announced for 04/08/08…
Avon Local Board of Education : Notice is hereby given that the Avon Local Board of Education will be holding a Special Meeting on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, in the Media Center of Heritage North Elementary School at 6:30 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to accept bids and to enter into Executive Session to discuss eminent domain proceedings, personnel, and salaries of non-unionized staff for the 2008-2009 school year. Possible action to follow executive session.
Kent R. Zeman, Treasurer
(Report comment)