Wednesday, March 1, 2000
Union or West Chester: Name the township
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP — Butler County residents here will choose between history and clarity when they vote on whether to change their township's name.
Voters will decide March 7 whether they are going to keep the traditional Union Township name or adopt West Chester Township, the community's unofficial moniker for years.
Union Township officials, and many residents, have complained about being confused with other area Union Townships, including one each in Warren and Clermont counties. In all, there are 28 Union Townships in Ohio, and officials of this community often receive phone calls, lawsuits and inquiries meant for other communities with the same name.
“We want to unite our community under one name. This is all about the future, (and) the future of this community is spelled W-e-s-t C-h-e-s-t-e-r,” Union Township Administrator David Gully says.
There is only one other West Chester in Ohio — a tiny community near Ashtabula and Lake Erie, Mr. Gully says.
Opposition to the proposed name change appears small in this community of 60,000, Union Township Trustee David Tacosik says.
“Some of the older folks are against it, but I doubt it will have much opposition,” Mr. Tacosik says.
Union Township resident Pat Hoelscher, whose family has farmed here since 1863, opposes the name change but predicts it will pass easily.
“Too many people are impressed with the name of West Chester,” she says. “The new people moving in can't leave anything alone.”
According to local Union Township history, the community was known as both Hogtown and Mechanicsburgh — as well as Chester and West Chester — in the early 1800s.
Local business owners support the change. So does former Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, who approved the West Chester name for three exit signs along Interstate 75.
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