With a Special Council meeting and three committee meetings scheduled for Tuesday night, the City Administration and City Council addressed and made progress on a variety of issues.
The longest and most informative was the Strategic Planning Committee meeting.
Chairman Sheri Theis welcomed Lexi Heidish, Assistant Director of the Pickaway Progress Partnership (P3) to present an update to the City’s strategic plan. The City Administration, especially Mayor Michelle Blanton, Service Director Jim Stanley and Planner Hannah Wynne, have been working with P3 and acting on the plan’s recommendations, or “tactics” as they are referred to in the plan. P3 is a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation that is supported by the city, the county and private donations.
Tactic #1 – Implement a City of Circleville Industrial Site Development Marketing Strategy and develop an incentives policy to attract new investment to key sites.
P3 and the City are focusing on bringing new manufacturing and distribution businesses to the “greenfield sites” (open ground) along US 23 and the former GE and Thompson sites.
P3 recently arranged a tour of the various industrial sites for interested parties and reported that there is a prospect for the old GE site. Heidish recommended the City develop an “incentive policy” for new businesses interested in coming to Circleville. This policy would offer two types of programs for new businesses, a job creation incentive and a tax credit incentive.
Councilman Tom Duvall asked what incentives were being offered by the cities of Ashville and South Bloomfield. He noted that they had done a better job of attracting new residential and commercial development compared to Circleville, whose population has been stagnant for the past 5-10 years. Duvall wanted to know what those two cities were doing right so that Circleville might learn and then offer a more competitive package.
Heidish noted the geographical advantages of those two cities, saying that being closer to Columbus was an advantage.
Tactic #2 – Implement a City of Circleville Residential Site Development Strategy for building new residential housing at various price points.
Heidish stated that there was a need for “tiered housing,” noting that typical new home costs were in the “high 200’s to low 300’s” of thousands of dollars and that most young individuals or couples could not afford those prices. She stated that there was a need for new condominium projects in the $150,000 to $200,000 range.
Reviewing the long list of tactics listed in this Strategic Economic Development Plan, Chairman Theis began a dialog with Mayor Blanton, asking “Who is to be in charge of implementing is?”
Blanton replied, “Once we identify what our goals are, it will be the Administration that will come to Council to say ‘in order to achieve these goals that we have for this plan, then these are the things that we may have to look into doing, such as having someone specifically dedicated to communications for the city.’”
Theis: “So, that would potentially be a new person?”
Blanton: “Yes.”
Theis: “Is there anyone on staff who could potentially handle this?”
Blanton: “We have four or five different people that know enough to be dangerous.”
Theis: “Running the website, …”
Blanton, “Yes, but if we really want to utilize how people are getting their news today, then we need to up the city’s strategy on how to use those resources.”
Theis, “I would hope that it might be able to be incorporated into a current employee’s job description rather than another new addition because we’ve added a lot of positions here recently. And that will be a problem if we don’t get our levy passed.”
Blanton: “Please know that is something that would not come until after we know what the budget is going to look like.”
Theis; “Very good.”
Theis asked for an update on all of the developments in and around Circleville. Service Director Stanley gave an update on an impressive list of new developments in various stages of completion, including North Meadows (on Jewel Road), Heritage Ponds (on Walnut Creek Pike), Courtyards at Northridge, River Ridge (the DR Horton project on North Court Street), Lakeside Reserve (just north of heritage Pond), and Jodiro (the new development across the street from Ohio Christian University).
The discussion shifted to Wayne Township, just west of the city, noting that the City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant is located there which means that it is outside the city limits. Blanton noted that in the recent fire at the plant, it was the Circleville Fire Department that was able to respond the quickest. Blanton is following up with Wayne Township trustees to implement a plan to allow Circleville safety services to handle calls to this plant.
Council took note of the fact that the city does not collect city income taxes from city employees working at this site.
Tactic #3 – Support downtown redevelopment strategies that aim to attract new businesses and visitors to Circleville.
Mayor Blanton gave an encouraging summary of the meetings she has been having with Uptown Circleville and downtown property owners on ideas to fill the empty storefronts downtown.
Tactic #4 – Continue to enhance the City’s park system, trails, events and shows.
In the discussion about the work on existing and new ideas for parks and bike trials, there was constant mention of various grants that could be awarded to Circleville to fund these ideas. The City has hired a consultant, Tom Davis, to develop plans and find grant money.
There is a plan in place for a multi-use path to connect the city to Barthelmas Park, running across Ohio Street and extending east onto Kingston Pike and eventually reaching Barthelmas. A grant for $950,000 has been applied for to fund this project, but the grant will not be awarded until the 2027 fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2026.
Service Director Stanley presented a plan for bike paths throughout the city, using Pickaway Street and Washington Street as the main north-south routes and Union and Ohio Streets as some of the possible east-west routes. The cost of the lane markings for these paths is $1.75 per linear foot for painted lines and $3.50 per linear foot for thermoplastic lane markings.
The thermoplastic lane markings cost twice the amount as painted lines but will last four times longer. When fully implemented, there could be bike paths all across Circleville and the surrounding areas, allowing residents to ride bikes to all the parks, including Hargus Lake.
Stanley noted that this project would be gradually implemented over many years so that there would not be a significant cost in any one fiscal year, saying, “We won’t start with doing the whole city as a project.”
Blanton and Stanley have been in discussions with the Pickaway County Park District who are willing to help develop the plans discussed.
The idea of acquiring Atwater Elementary School as a park was also acknowledged, as conversations have begun with the property’s owner.
Stanley provided a brief explanation of the strategies for winning grants for these projects. The grantors like “shovel ready” projects because these projects have already had their engineering/design work completed and thus, when funded, will proceed quickly to completion. The grantors do not like a long gap between the award and the completion of the project.
However, this means that the City will need to pay for and complete the engineering/design work before applying for the grant. Therefore, when a project to upgrade the shelter house at Ted Lewis Park carries a $40,000 engineering cost, it jumps ahead of other projects with higher upfront costs.
Stanley estimated that plans to expand Barthelmas Park would cost somewhere between $2 to $3 Million. Although grants can be applied for to pay this cost, the upfront engineering/design cost of $400,000 on this project pushes it to the back burner, much to the consternation of the softball fans at the meeting. A creative way to cover these upfront costs through the use of donations and volunteers was suggested and will be explored.
After the P3 presentation was completed, Chairman Theis’ Strategic Planning Committee addressed several other matters of new business. Service Director Stanley reported that progress is being made on the “Railroad Grade Separation Project,” aka the Overpass.
City Hall is working with ODOT to obtain a grant to pay for 90% - 95% of the cost of the project. Stanley said the initial estimate for the project was in the $10-$15 Million range, but by the time the project is completed in 4-8 years, the costs could increase to the $20-$25 Million range.
Mayor Blanton informed the Council that the city has applied to be part of the “America 250” celebrations. On July 4, 2026, America will be celebrating its 250th birthday and, as a result, the federal and state governments are offering grants to those cities that apply to be an official America-250 city. Pickaway Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elizabeht Furniss informed the council that the County Commissioners have already started plans to promote this celebration, looking for ways to attract visitors to Pickaway County.
The final matter before the Strategic Planning Committee was discussion of the Volunteer Appreciation Ice Cream Social that was held last year for the first time. The City gains great benefit from the efforts of the unpaid volunteers who serve on boards, commissions and committees. All of the council members liked the idea of making this an annual event on the last weekend in July.
At the Finance Committee meeting, Chairman Katie Logan Hedges introduced a resolution that was approved by the committee, and thus sent on to the full council for final approval, that will instruct the Pickaway County Board of Elections to place a measure regarding the special safety forces levy on the November 5, 2024 ballot. The ballot measure, if approved by the voters, would replace the supplemental 0.5% income tax passed 5 years ago with an income tax of 0.4% for a 5-year period beginning January 1, 2025 and expiring on December 31, 2029. The result would be that those working in the City of Circleville would see a 0.1% reduction in their tax rate.
The Finance Committee passed onto the full council an ordinance to authorize and implement a labor agreement between the police department’s non-uniformed employees’ organization and the City of Circleville that was recently negotiated. The agreement will be in effect through May 12, 2027, and will include an increase in pay for these non-uniformed employees.
At the Special City Council meeting, the City Council voted to approve the 2025 Budget which has had several readings before at regular council meetings.
The budget numbers look like this:
TOTAL BUDGET $28,467,368.55
Government Fund $16,964,597.68
Enterprise Fund $11,378,400.00
“Fiduciary Funds” $124,370.87
The Government Fund covers the costs of the City Administration and its services, except utilities. The Enterprise Fund represents the cost of operating the water treatment plants, and these costs are paid for by the residents of Circleville through their water bills. The “Fiduciary Funds” are funds that pass through the budget as the funds are provided by one entity and passed through to another. This does not increase the tax burden of the citizens but must be included in the accounting.
At this special council meeting, Pickaway County Visitors Bureau Director Furniss gave an overview of the programs that have been developed. The list of programs can be found at their “pickaway.com” website or on the “Discover Pickaway” app. All residents are encouraged to download the app onto their smartphone as it contains every event that is taking place in the county and all the festivals.
President Pro Tem Theis, serving in place of President Barry Keller, said, “It’s really handy for someone looking for something to do in the evening. There are all kinds of things listed there, including bingo, live music, and festivals.”
Pickaway residents can also call 740-474-3636 or stop by the Visitors Center at 325 West Main Street which is next to the AutoZone store.
At the Safety Committee meeting, an ordinance was approved and passed onto the full Council that would waive the requirement that the Chief of Police must become a resident of the City of Circleville within 90 days of appointment and repealing the original ordinance requiring this.
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