The Toledo Blade
Article published Thursday, September 30, 2004
Leaders from Toledo-area suburbs met yesterday at the Maumee Indoor Theater and agreed to continue discussions on establishing a group to help redevelop their older areas and lobby for common interests.
About 15 people representing Maumee, Ottawa Hills, Oregon, Sylvania, and Whitehouse attended the meeting. Officials from 15 villages and cities were invited.
Local leaders heard members of the Central Ohio First Suburbs Consortium discuss how five suburbs in the Columbus area work together to educate residents and legislators about the challenges facing suburbs. They urged Toledo-area officials to cooperate on suburban problems.
"You've struck a chord with me today," Sylvania Mayor Craig Stough said. "I'm interested in pursuing this."
Suburban coalitions in Michigan, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati focus on problems like aging infrastructure, declining population, and loss of businesses. In some groups, member suburbs pay several thousand dollars to fund lobbying efforts.
"I don't want to see suburbs in Toledo left out of the statewide loop," said Donna Hardy Johnston, a research associate at the University of Toledo's Urban Affairs Center and chairman of the Metro Toledo Smart Growth Partnership, a coalition of housing, religious, and neighborhood groups. Ms. Johnston organized the meeting with Oregon Mayor Marge Brown.
Virginia Barney, city manager of Upper Arlington near Columbus, told local leaders their suburbs have some common interests, such as getting state legislators to allocate more money for fixing older homes, roads, and sewer systems. "It's all about working together on the issues that make some sense to us and standing alone on the issues that don't," she said.
Some questioned whether a Toledo suburban group would be replicating the work of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. Barbara Sears, president of Sylvania City Council and first vice chairman of the council of governments, said she was not sure whether a suburban coalition would work best as part of the council of governments or as a separate entity.
Marc Thompson, village manager of Ottawa Hills, said he wants to continue discussions and offered to host the next meeting. The officials agreed to meet again Oct. 27.