Trustees Corner – Paul Schweikert

This June, I had an exasperated resident call asking me if Sagamore Hills Township was going to hit him up for more taxes. I laughed and told him no. The catalyst for his question came from Trustee Dave DePasquale’s Sagamore Voice article. Dave had listed Sagamore’s cemetery assessment as $52,000. The resident was concerned because Trustee John Zaccardelli, Fiscal Officer Laura Steimle, Dave and I have listed previous expenditures: Summit County Health Department, $105,000; 5-ton truck, $152,000; ditch mower, $108,000; police car, $50,000, etc. The gentleman had a list and he wanted to know where this was going.

Let me take this opportunity to share/repeat fiscal information with taxpayers. To operate Sagamore Hills takes a total of 12.33 mills for police, fire and roads. The last police levy was in 2012. We said if approved, we would make the revenue last a decade. We are trying to stretch this to November of 2025 or 2026. The levy will be 13-14 years old and we will need a new levy. There is no levy of any kind for 2024. We list expenditures to let taxpayers know where their tax dollars are spent.

Police

In early May, Det. Victoria Miavitz was involved in one of the most convoluted phone scams Police Chief David Hayes has ever seen. The scammers are from the Chicago area. They froze up a senior victim’s computer and tried to get her to wire transfer money from her bank. Luckily, the bank did not allow the transactions because there were too many “red flags.” The scammers then told the victim to send gold from Money Metals exchange. The owner of Money Metals, Clint, advised the victim to contact her local police department.

The victim contacted Miavitz who got Clint, the FBI, Hayes, Sgt. Ken Wolf, Patrol Officers Robert Patterson, Terrance Wilson, Ryan Shelby and Dan DeCrane involved in this nearly month-long case. This super scam was to have gold sent to the victim’s house and then a courier would pick up the gold and leave. Spoiler alert: Miavitz saved our senior lady from losing $110,000. Hayes said catching the scammer took a lot of planning to save the money and nab the crook. The courier was a 19-year-old who is studying computer science. Miavitz charged him with felony telecommunications, fraud and felony theft by deception. He got a free ride to Summit County jail.

Roads

The bid for Village Parkway was opened on June 20. The low bid was $937,000. The Summit County Engineer will make sure the bid is in compliance with the road specs. The work should begin sometime in late September and finished by Nov. 10. This project is going to be a major inconvenience as the main entrance and exit will be undergoing total reclamation to Village Club Road. The remaining part will be mill and fill to Oak Knolls. Half of the money will come from the Ohio Public Works Grant and the other half from the Sagamore road fund.

Call if you have any questions at 330-467-4970.

Go Guardians! ∞