WEST CHESTER TWP. — Road improvements and economic development, park expansion, a community center and a new township building are key elements in a four-year vision for this Butler County township.

        Three candidates vie for two open trustee seats Nov. 6. The winners are assured busy four-year terms as growth and high property taxes continue to dominate conversation.

        Eight-year veteran Trustee Catherine Stoker, a Democrat, and Republican incumbent Jose Alvarez, president of the trustees board, share the ballot with Republican Scott Owens, 29, vice president of Town & Country Capital Corp., who successfully led a committee to change the township's name from Union to West Chester.

        “We need a community center ... convenient to Lakota West High School” to serve all of the community from children to seniors, said Mrs. Stoker, 57. Creating the senior center along with development of Voice of America and Beckett parks should be accomplished in partnership with developers, through fund drives, and with existing revenue rather than by asking voters to increase taxes, Mrs. Stoker said. Curbing property taxes through business development is paramount, she said.

        Mr. Owens said improvements and widening of U.S. 42 and Ohio 747 are critical to improving traffic flow through the township and necessary as the leadership continues its focus on economic development and, through such initiatives, provide property tax relief.

        “Recruiting new business will reduce the tax burden on the homeowners ... Every time it's an election year, some type of levy is on the ballot. We need to put together a long-term plan that would provide for another way — finding alternative funding sources — rather then taking these issues to the people” so often, Mr. Owens said.

        While Mr. Alvarez said great strides have been made in attracting new enterprise to the township, much more is needed.

        “We have kept to the (development) plan and got it going. While the economy is soft, if we think economic development is done, that is a foolhardy approach,” he said.

        Mr. Alvarez, 50, an engineer at General Electric Aircraft Engines in Evendale, said he is committed to a goal set by a citizens' committee to take the majority of the tax burden away from the citizens through aggressive development of commercial and other business which would shoulder a higher percentage of the tax burden.

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