Crabby Fat Guy

In his State of the State address governor Strickland laid out his “plan” to revamp education in Ohio.  He laid out improvements to be made, but did not lay out how he would pay for the improvements.

If we plan a vacation we determine where we are going, what we will see, hotels, and how we will get there.  We also have a plan as to where we are going to get the money for the vacation.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction – this goes for government as well as science.  Every improvement will be paid for some form of taxes.

Frankly I found it quite puzzling how the gov laid out a plan that would cost the state a huge amount of money while the state is in disparate shape financially.  Is he relying on an Obama  “bailout”?

I wholeheartedly agree that we need to increase the number of days of schools, but you are going to have to pay teacher more as well as the janitor and lunch ladies.  The extended days will stretch into the hot days of Summer.  Are you going to pay for air conditioning?  More days means more power, water, and so one – big bucks!

Governor Stickland, it is not nice to ask everyone if they want to go to Disney World without telling them that they have to pay their own way!  We need to see the plan – the whole plan!

Posted at the Post Office.  The PO closes early on FRIDAY and SATURDAY because Monday is a Holiday?  Gotta love the note about alternative locations!  Miss your drop off for your important mail – drive it to Columbus.

The next big thing is going to be electric bikes. In the last year sales of the bikes has jumped 6,000%. Sales in Europe are skyrocketing.

Electric bikes typically have a range of about 20-25 miles between charges and can run on level ground about 20 MPH. A charge costs about $.08. We are talking about the equivalent of 400 miles per gallon of gas!

Ohio remains behind the curve, however. According to ORC an electric bike falls under the classification of a moped:

(L) “Motorized bicycle” means any vehicle that either has two tandem wheels or one wheel in the front and two wheels in the rear, that is capable of being pedaled, and that is equipped with a helper motor of not more than fifty cubic centimeters piston displacement that produces no more than one brake horsepower and is capable of propelling the vehicle at a speed of no greater than twenty miles per hour on a level surface.

The problem is that in order to be registered as a moped the bike must be on a list of “approved” mopeds. There are NO electric bikes on the list!

These bikes are a very inexpensive and eco-friendly way to run errands around town. Most states allow them to be use without license plates and insurance just as a bicycle can be.

Come on Ohio – get with the program. How about adopting the federal definition of a low-powered electric bike under Ohio’s bicycle classification.

UPDATE:

From a Columbus dealer…

Electric bikes do not require licenses under Federal LawHR 727,
The Federal Electric Bicycle Law. It qualifies them legally as bicycles,
and supercedes state laws. It is still a good idea to check with your
local BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) and police to check on any
local laws. Again it is a good idea to check with our local BMV and
police for conformation of the law.HR 727, The Federal Electric Bicycle

Law details can be found here:
http://site.thegostore.com/public/FEDregulationHR727.pdf

Click here.

Received by email regarding the CSEA drive through hours.

My name is Corey Clark. I am the Director of the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA). This is the Department that operates the drive thru that is referenced on your website, “Convenient Hours for County Offices (Convenient For Them Anyway)”.

I appreciate the feedback that you and your contributors have offered and wanted to take a moment to respond to some of the questions raised.

The primary purpose of the drive thru is to accept child support payments from our customers who choose to make them in person. Prior to October, 2000, child support payments were made at the county level. Therefore, there were several staff members assigned to the drive-thru who processed all of the payments. In October, 2000, the state of Ohio assumed responsibility for processing all the payments at a centralized location in Columbus. This caused a dramatic decrease in the volume of customers utilizing the drive thru. We believed at the time, and continue to believe, that it offers a nice convenience for our customers who still prefer to pay in person. Please note that there is no requirement for counties to accept payments at the local level and many counties choose not to accept them at all. We continue to offer the drive thru option as we believe it is still a viable way to collect payments that might not be made otherwise.

The volume of customers utilizing the drive thru (average of 12-15 per day) does not warrant additional staff being assigned. The CSEA currently has one, full-time staff member assigned to the drive thru. She has responsibilities in the main office that account for the hours that she is not in the drive thru. Your suggestion to keep the drive thru open during lunch is well taken. Beginning 9/2/08, we will assign coverage from 12:00pm – 1:00pm so that the drive thru will remain open from 9:00am – 4:00pm

The drive thru also accepts property taxes twice a year as a partnership with the County Treasurer’s Office. This does lead to an influx of customers but only for a temporary period of time.

Please pass this response on to your readers. We very much appreciate their thoughts and feedback. If there are any further questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me directly at 740-687-6788 or by e-mail at clarkc03@odjfs.state.oh.us .

I recently received this email:

Also I was told by a neighbor that the office that takes the property tax payment is closed for lunch. When he went back after lunch 4 people were working. Why don”t they stagger the lunch time and remain open. Many people use that office on their lunch hours.

The sign at that office.

Quite correct!  That office is closed at lunch.  The hours at that office are convenient for anyone that does not work AND for the county workers themselves.

The emailer is correct…why exactly could the workers not stagger their hours to allow the office to be open during people’s lunch hour.  Beyond that how about some hours beyond 5:00 PM!  How about becoming more business like and opening this office when working people can use them.  Do you see retail businesses closing at lunch time or closing when people get off work?  It’s quite apparent that government offices have forgotten who they work for (us).

I have heard time and time again – “we don’t need all this retail – we need factories!” Crabby called out his investigative team and found the document below on file at the State of Ohio Department Where You Order Businesses.

Please note that it does appear that the only items selected on the 2007 Ohio Municipality Order Form were retail and restaurants and chose to ignore the higher paying industrial jobs.

The 2008 order forms are due into the State of Ohio on May 1. What will Mayor Smith order this year? A third Walgreens, a second Walmart, more check cashing stores? Stay tuned.

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Disclaimer: For those who do not understand sarcasm please understand that this article is a joke. It’s aim is to poke fun at those that seem to think that the mayor or other city officials have chosen to bring retail to Lancaster at the expense of industry. As a result of personal knowledge (not just unfounded criticism) I find that the administration of this city and especially the economic development department is working hard to build an infrastructure and tax incentives that will attract higher paying jobs to Lancaster.

The fact is that fewer than 10% of American workers now work in factories. EVERY municipality in EVERY state is competing with Lancaster for the few factories that are being built. Not making it easy for Lancaster is the state of Ohio. Ohio is now rated the fifth worst state for corporate tax burden (click here) and second worst for business climate (click here).

Don’t you think we should put the blame where it really belongs?

Update:  All poll workers have been paid except for people that work for the county be it full-time, part-time, or intermittent.  This would include all L&A Board of Elections workers.  Those workers will be paid on April 25th (51 days after the election).

On March 4th six hundred poll workers staffed the polls around the county. For working from 5:30 AM to 8:00 PM poll works get paid $100-$130 plus $30 for training that poll workers took in February.

One full month later the Fairfield County Auditor’s office has not delivered checks to the workers! For many seniors this little bit of extra pay is special and much needed.

No wonder the Board of Elections has to spend weeks on end recruiting poll workers every election! How long does it take?