Thursday, October 28, 1999
2insurgents seek to oust Cleves mayor
BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CLEVES — As much as they may have disagreed last year over whether this small village should be dissolved, the leader of the campaign to save the village and a leader of the campaign to dissolve it do agree on one thing — that a change is needed.
That is why both Ron Bowling and Joe Whitton are running for mayor in this village of 2,300; beyond running against each other, they are running against the current mayor, Harold Duncan. Both think Mr. Duncan represents much that is stagnant in this river town on the far western edge of the county.
Mr. Duncan could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Bowling organized a campaign more than a year ago, called SAVE (Save Our Village Environment), to fight the move to dissolve the village.
Mr. Whitton was one of the organizers of the movement to dissolve the village; the campaign argued that taxes were too high and services could be better provided by Miami Township, which would have absorbed the village.
But the issue was defeated last November, 58 percent to 42 percent, in a race that saw the highest voter turnout in the village in recent memory — more than 90 percent of registered voters.
The high turnout and the number who voted to dissolve, though the effort was unsuccessful, convinced both proponents and opponents of dissolution that a political change was needed.
“One of the issues is rebuilding trust in the government,” said Mr. Bowling. “There seems to be a lack of that. I want to rebuild that as much as I can.”
Mr. Whitton said not much has changed in the village in the past 10 or 15 years, and last year's dissolution election did not change the approach government has taken toward revitalizing the village.
“First thing I'm going to do is take a look at a significant tax decrease for property owners,” said Mr. Whitton. “My platform is to try and revitalize the village, bring some new efforts, new energy to local government. People are longing for some improvements and some change.”
Said Mr. Bowling: “We've had a year to get things going and they haven't decided to do anything. So we're at a standstill down here. The way we're presently going, I think if it were to stay the same we could be up for dissolution (again) because we're not progressing.”
Both Mr. Bowling and Mr. Whitton agree that taxes are still too high in the village.
Mr. Bowling thinks the village could look at more creative ways of gaining funds for township services and repairs, such as federal and state grants. Mr. Whitton thinks the influx of people into new subdivisions in the village adds significantly to tax revenues and should translate into a tax break.
The mayor's term is for four years..
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