MASON — Mason and Deerfield officials hope to declare a truce in a 7-year-old suburban Cold War marked by land grabs, court battles and the breakup of their fire department.

        Mason City Council and Deerfield Township trustees will meet Monday for the first time since the trustees voted to withdraw from the fire district in 1997.

CHRONOLOGY

August 1995: Warren County commissioners approve Paramount's Kings Island's request to be annexed into Mason from Deerfield. Deerfield sues to overturn the annexation.     October 1995: Mason's annexation of Procter & Gamble's $300 million health-care research facility is approved.     February 1997: The city of Mason withdraws from Deerfield Township, costing Deerfield about $300,000 a year in property tax revenue.     October 1997: Mason's annexation of Kings Island — upheld by several courts — becomes official.     December 1997: Deerfield trustees vote to withdraw from the Mason-Deerfield Joint Fire District.     May 1998: The commissioners threaten to dissolve Deerfield in an unsuccessful effort to get trustees to work with Mason to keep the fire district intact.     October 1998: Mason and Deerfield begin operating separate fire departments.     December 1999: Deerfield residents object to Mason's plans to build a water tower in the township. Trustees try to block the tower, but the courts — including the Ohio Supreme Court — subsequently side with Mason.

        The split capped several years of heightening tensions over Mason's annexations, including Paramount's Kings Island and a Procter & Gamble facility. In the 1990s, Mason annexed nearly 5,600 acres, or 8 square miles — most of it from Deerfield.

        “I think there's a new spirit of cooperation and a practical realization that for the good of the future, we have to put some of those differences aside,” says Victor Kidd, one of two Mason councilmen elected last fall.

        Mr. Kidd blames personality conflicts for the breakup of the fire district, and said he'd like to see the city and township consider reuniting the two departments.

        Fellow freshman Councilman Tom Grossmann agrees: “(Fire departments) tend toward regionalism because it provides better coverage with less cost to the taxpayer. It's something that should be revisited.”

        Not only does Mason have new council members, but the township also has two new trustees and a new manager, Greg Horwedel. Mr. Horwedel has met with several Mason officials, as have Trustees Barbara Wilkens Reed and Randy Kuvin.

        However, the trustees are more cautious in their optimism.

        “A lot would have to occur in the areas of cooperation and trust before I could see us revisiting (the fire district) issue,” Mr. Kuvin says.

        The first issues will probably be the countywide strategic plan and joint development of ballfields and other park land.

        “When it comes to serving the kids of the community, I think there's soft spots in the hearts of both groups,” Mr. Kidd says.

        The groups need to focus on relatively noncontroversial issues in the early stages, Mrs. Reed says.

        “It's kind of like detente,” she says. “You have to get the conversation going first.”

        In the past, the conversation wasn't always friendly.

        “It's not in our best interest to be in a long-term economic venture with someone we don't trust,” Trustee Bill Morand said of Mason in 1998.

        Meanwhile, then-Mayor Betty Davis called the township's withdrawal from the joint fire district irresponsible, saying: “I'm tired of circuses.”

        A slowing in major annexations also makes this a good time to work on the relationship, Mason Mayor John McCurley says.

        “We have too much in common to let some issues we disagree on keep us from talking and from doing things that benefit both communities,” Mr. McCurley says.
       
       

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