Strongsville Women's League hosts council, school board candidates
Council divisiveness hot topic at Sept. 25 event
The Strongsville Women’s League hosted a candidate’s night for council-at-large and school board candidates appearing on the November ballot at the Ehrnfelt Event Center on Sept. 25. Photo by TERRY BRLAS
STRONGSVILLE – Six Strongsville City Council at-large candidates running for three open positions and two school board candidates running unopposed in November answered questions at a forum hosted by the Strongsville Women’s League the evening of Sept. 25 at the Ehrnfelt Event Center.
Council candidates are current at-large members Joe DeMio, Ken Dooner and Duke Southworth, Ward 2 Councilman Matt Schonhut, Ward 3 Councilman Jim Carbone and newcomer Kelly Kosek. School board members are Duke Evans and George Grozan.
Attendees and those watching on closed circuit TV got answers to many questions including the future of SouthPark Mall, walkability, infrastructure and more.
Candidates opened with two-minute presentations on their candidacy before moderator Mary Osburn asked questions. It was what took place midway through the question and answer session that raised a few eyebrows.
Council divisiveness
A question regarding a divided council being brought together began a series of comments leveled at those who currently sit on the body.
Dooner was the first to answer. He referenced the fact that two ward councilmen are running for at-large seats this November.
“I thought our council was united. We have here councilmen-at-large and have two ward councilmen running against us. This creates a lot of issues,” he said. “The ward councilmen can take care of the city from where they’re at. Their goal is to knock myself out or Duke Southworth out and then they can appoint someone to take their place and council votes on it.”
When asked to respond Carbone stated the reasons for running for a council-at-large seat are the same as when he ran for the Ward 3 seat.
“I love the community, I’m passionate about the community and I’m one of the hardest working councilmen here,” he said. “The representation all the people of Strongsville would get would be different if I were councilman-at-large. I’ve been able to stand up and make hard decisions and have been a good voice for the residents of Ward 3.”
Schonhut scoffed at the idea that he and Carbone are running for at-large seats for ulterior motives and stated he never planned to run for an at-large seat.
“The narrative that there is some sort of political gain here is comical,” he said. “I never planned to run for at-large. Without naming names, I was stabbed in the back quite a few times to be quite blunt. You can only take that so much but you can stand up for yourself and make sure residents are represented. That’s why I’m running for council-at-large.”
Southworth responded by mentioning a rezoning vote of land on Royalton Road just west of Prospect Road that would have opened the way for a Tractor Supply Company.
“He (Schonhut) went up to the person developing Tractor Supply Company and told him he was going to vote yes. He then votes no,” Southworth said. “He talked about saving the industrial land. I have an email to the economic development director advocating that his friend put basketball courts on that same industrial land. I’ll work with whoever. I don’t care if we exchange Christmas cards. We need to all have the best interests of the city of Strongsville and not our political careers.”
Schonhut replied by saying, “Tractor Supply is the most made up story ever and I have no friend who wanted to build a basketball facility. I simply advocate the best place for recreational facilities to be located is within our industrial parks. I by no means had any conversation with anyone from Tractor Supply.”
DeMio has an optimistic viewpoint when it comes to council pulling together.
“Some way something good is going to happen here,” he said.
Kosek is looking to make positive change should win one of the three open seats.
“I believe that whatever struggles that are happening on council right now will be resolved for the better once the election is over,” she said.
Future of the mall, retail
Kosek led off by pointing out the mall and the potential for more retail on the site of the former Medical Mutual building on Royalton Road.
“That’s a lot of retail space for a city of our size, particularly with Amazon and other online businesses,” she said. “We have to be aggressive in getting the right kind of tenants in the spaces we have and make certain we’re not adding retail space that will draw from the current retail businesses that we have.”
Schonhut feels the city already has more retail that what can be sustained in the future.
“The amount of retail we have is scary. We’re going to have to get creative in how we’re going to repurpose some of that,” he said.
“The amount of retail we have here is scary. We’re going to have to get creative with how we’re going to repurpose some of that,” Schonhut said.
A subcommittee of the Economic Development Committee has been formed to address concerns regarding the mall.
“If the mall fails the schools will take a major hit,” said Southworth, who sits on the subcommittee.
Carbone went one step further.
“Retail’s done,” he said. “It comes down to planning. We have to look at some of these big strip malls on Pearl Road. We’re going to have to do something or we’re going to see major vacancies in the future. One thing we can’t do is continue to add more retail.”
DeMio disagreed with Carbone’s assessment and thinks the future of regional malls will not be focused on retail, per se.
“Retail is not 100 percent done,” he said. “There will be more of a common area with condos where Sears is and where the J.C. Penney is. They’re going to create more of a living environment.”
Dooner agreed with DeMio.
“We need to reestablish a lot of things in the mall. The mall is going to eventually disappear or look different than it does today,” he said.
Five-year vision
What do council candidates see as a vision for the next city in the next five years?
“I’m a young guy and a lot of my friends say they don’t want to go back to Strongsville. How do we bring these young families back here? The demographic is aging and we’re losing students in our schools by the day,” Schonhut said.
Kosek stated her five-year vision would be to make families a priority.
“What do our families need and what do they want? What family friendly amenities are we going to add to our city so we can compete with the Westlakes of the world,” she said.
The Arts
Will there ever be a dedicated facility for the community theatre or other like-minded arts organizations?
Carbone stated there will be public meetings in regard to the city’s master plan. Residents will be able to give their vision of what they would like to see, which could include a community theatre building.
“We could look at some of the existing building or maybe something new. Ultimately, we’d love to here ideas from the community and especially those in the arts,” he said.
“The arts are wonderful and we should be doing everything we can to make it important here in Strongsville,” Kosek said.
Southworth thought the mall would be a proper location for a dedicated community theatre.
School board
Evans and Grozan were asked a handful of questions, once of which was what can be done to stem the tide of students leaving the district for online and charter schools.
“What we found is with our online services is that we’re providing more opportunities for more children with more opportunities in our district with a better education,” Grozan said. “If a parent keeps a child home educating them using the Internet they can still come in and be involved with our football team, our music, our arts.”
Evans brought up the Strongsville Academy, an alternative program that allows the district to keep a student from going to a charter school.
“The best thing you can do is make a school so attractive with so many opportunities they want to be there for all the enrichment opportunities we offer,” he said.
State report cards were recently made public. The Strongsville City School District basically had the same letter grade results as last year.
“The state raised the criteria and our grades stayed the same. We are striving for excellence in everything we do,” Evans said.
“We’ve identified certain areas in the school district and have created a plan, holding people accountable, working with our students and maximizing our opportunities to educate our students. I think next year we’ll see a great jump,” Grozan said.
Council candidates are current at-large members Joe DeMio, Ken Dooner and Duke Southworth, Ward 2 Councilman Matt Schonhut, Ward 3 Councilman Jim Carbone and newcomer Kelly Kosek. School board members are Duke Evans and George Grozan.
Attendees and those watching on closed circuit TV got answers to many questions including the future of SouthPark Mall, walkability, infrastructure and more.
Candidates opened with two-minute presentations on their candidacy before moderator Mary Osburn asked questions. It was what took place midway through the question and answer session that raised a few eyebrows.
Council divisiveness
A question regarding a divided council being brought together began a series of comments leveled at those who currently sit on the body.
Dooner was the first to answer. He referenced the fact that two ward councilmen are running for at-large seats this November.
“I thought our council was united. We have here councilmen-at-large and have two ward councilmen running against us. This creates a lot of issues,” he said. “The ward councilmen can take care of the city from where they’re at. Their goal is to knock myself out or Duke Southworth out and then they can appoint someone to take their place and council votes on it.”
When asked to respond Carbone stated the reasons for running for a council-at-large seat are the same as when he ran for the Ward 3 seat.
“I love the community, I’m passionate about the community and I’m one of the hardest working councilmen here,” he said. “The representation all the people of Strongsville would get would be different if I were councilman-at-large. I’ve been able to stand up and make hard decisions and have been a good voice for the residents of Ward 3.”
Schonhut scoffed at the idea that he and Carbone are running for at-large seats for ulterior motives and stated he never planned to run for an at-large seat.
“The narrative that there is some sort of political gain here is comical,” he said. “I never planned to run for at-large. Without naming names, I was stabbed in the back quite a few times to be quite blunt. You can only take that so much but you can stand up for yourself and make sure residents are represented. That’s why I’m running for council-at-large.”
Southworth responded by mentioning a rezoning vote of land on Royalton Road just west of Prospect Road that would have opened the way for a Tractor Supply Company.
“He (Schonhut) went up to the person developing Tractor Supply Company and told him he was going to vote yes. He then votes no,” Southworth said. “He talked about saving the industrial land. I have an email to the economic development director advocating that his friend put basketball courts on that same industrial land. I’ll work with whoever. I don’t care if we exchange Christmas cards. We need to all have the best interests of the city of Strongsville and not our political careers.”
Schonhut replied by saying, “Tractor Supply is the most made up story ever and I have no friend who wanted to build a basketball facility. I simply advocate the best place for recreational facilities to be located is within our industrial parks. I by no means had any conversation with anyone from Tractor Supply.”
DeMio has an optimistic viewpoint when it comes to council pulling together.
“Some way something good is going to happen here,” he said.
Kosek is looking to make positive change should win one of the three open seats.
“I believe that whatever struggles that are happening on council right now will be resolved for the better once the election is over,” she said.
Future of the mall, retail
Kosek led off by pointing out the mall and the potential for more retail on the site of the former Medical Mutual building on Royalton Road.
“That’s a lot of retail space for a city of our size, particularly with Amazon and other online businesses,” she said. “We have to be aggressive in getting the right kind of tenants in the spaces we have and make certain we’re not adding retail space that will draw from the current retail businesses that we have.”
Schonhut feels the city already has more retail that what can be sustained in the future.
“The amount of retail we have is scary. We’re going to have to get creative in how we’re going to repurpose some of that,” he said.
“The amount of retail we have here is scary. We’re going to have to get creative with how we’re going to repurpose some of that,” Schonhut said.
A subcommittee of the Economic Development Committee has been formed to address concerns regarding the mall.
“If the mall fails the schools will take a major hit,” said Southworth, who sits on the subcommittee.
Carbone went one step further.
“Retail’s done,” he said. “It comes down to planning. We have to look at some of these big strip malls on Pearl Road. We’re going to have to do something or we’re going to see major vacancies in the future. One thing we can’t do is continue to add more retail.”
DeMio disagreed with Carbone’s assessment and thinks the future of regional malls will not be focused on retail, per se.
“Retail is not 100 percent done,” he said. “There will be more of a common area with condos where Sears is and where the J.C. Penney is. They’re going to create more of a living environment.”
Dooner agreed with DeMio.
“We need to reestablish a lot of things in the mall. The mall is going to eventually disappear or look different than it does today,” he said.
Five-year vision
What do council candidates see as a vision for the next city in the next five years?
“I’m a young guy and a lot of my friends say they don’t want to go back to Strongsville. How do we bring these young families back here? The demographic is aging and we’re losing students in our schools by the day,” Schonhut said.
Kosek stated her five-year vision would be to make families a priority.
“What do our families need and what do they want? What family friendly amenities are we going to add to our city so we can compete with the Westlakes of the world,” she said.
The Arts
Will there ever be a dedicated facility for the community theatre or other like-minded arts organizations?
Carbone stated there will be public meetings in regard to the city’s master plan. Residents will be able to give their vision of what they would like to see, which could include a community theatre building.
“We could look at some of the existing building or maybe something new. Ultimately, we’d love to here ideas from the community and especially those in the arts,” he said.
“The arts are wonderful and we should be doing everything we can to make it important here in Strongsville,” Kosek said.
Southworth thought the mall would be a proper location for a dedicated community theatre.
School board
Evans and Grozan were asked a handful of questions, once of which was what can be done to stem the tide of students leaving the district for online and charter schools.
“What we found is with our online services is that we’re providing more opportunities for more children with more opportunities in our district with a better education,” Grozan said. “If a parent keeps a child home educating them using the Internet they can still come in and be involved with our football team, our music, our arts.”
Evans brought up the Strongsville Academy, an alternative program that allows the district to keep a student from going to a charter school.
“The best thing you can do is make a school so attractive with so many opportunities they want to be there for all the enrichment opportunities we offer,” he said.
State report cards were recently made public. The Strongsville City School District basically had the same letter grade results as last year.
“The state raised the criteria and our grades stayed the same. We are striving for excellence in everything we do,” Evans said.
“We’ve identified certain areas in the school district and have created a plan, holding people accountable, working with our students and maximizing our opportunities to educate our students. I think next year we’ll see a great jump,” Grozan said.