Sheridan & Adams Township officials confident of reorganization plan

Editor’s note: This guest column was authored by Silas DeVaney, III, Council President; Eric Gifford, Council Vice-President; Daniel Bragg, Council Member; David Kinkead, Council Member; Michelle Junkins, Township Trustee; Floyd Barker, Board Member; and Ron Stone, Advisory Board Member. It was submitted to The Reporter by Kroger Gardis & Regas, LLP.

As elected officials for the Town of Sheridan and Adams Township, we want to respond to the column submitted by two of the Hamilton County Commissioners regarding the planned consolidation of Adams Township into the Town of Sheridan.

We and other elected officials have been working for more than a year to be certain that the Plan of Reorganization, which will be submitted to the voters by referendum on Nov. 5, 2024, is successful and protects the taxpayers and residents of Sheridan and Adams Township.

We have been asking the County for detailed road maintenance cost estimates for more than eight months. Ironically, the Township and Town had a scheduled meeting with the Commissioners the same day the Commissioners’ column appeared in The Reporter.

While the County insisted that the roads currently in the unincorporated area of Adams could continue to be maintained by the County through an interlocal agreement, it came with a $1,963,700 price tag. All or nothing, take it or leave it. When asked if Town and Township taxpayers would see a reduction in their Hamilton County tax rate for this additional $1.9 million payment, the answer was an emphatic “no.”

If the reorganization is approved by voters, approximately one-fifth of the County’s road inventory will be within the boundaries of the “new” Town of Sheridan, and the County intends to wash its hands of any responsibility for the roads they have maintained essentially since the founding of the County.

Why would the residents of the reorganized Town continue to pay a full tax bill to the County, and then add more than $1.9 million to the County’s coffers for what they are already providing today? The Commissioners are even planning on sending federal dollars for planned projects in the Township back to Washington, D.C. That is just vindictive and irresponsible.

Many other Counties are working cooperatively with reorganized local governments to assure all taxpayers are protected, not fleeced.

The County Sheriff also intends to wash his hands of any patrol responsibilities in the reorganized Town. While the Plan of Reorganization provides immediate plans to hire additional police officers to fill that gap, it doesn’t make much sense for the reorganized Town’s taxpayers to pay for existing Sheriff services through their County tax rate and receive nothing in exchange.

Where is the County’s sense of public service?

Additionally, while the County continues its criticism that the levels of funding provided for in the Plan of Reorganization are less than necessary, those summary figures were received from the County when asked many months ago to provide the County’s internal costs for our budget planning. The original County figures received were reduced to reflect the lack of significant overhead and personnel costs currently incurred by the County for their all-County operations, which the reorganized Town intends to avoid.

The Commissioners also continue to claim that taxpayers in the unincorporated area of Adams Township will be slapped with a significant tax bill at the whim of the reorganized Town Council. That claim could not be further from the truth. The Plan of Reorganization clearly sets a “town district” and a “rural district” with significantly differing tax rates commensurate with the taxes collected today by the Town and Township in their jurisdictions.

The Commissioners even state that taxpayers have no ability to remonstrate against future district reclassification “other than to ask town councilors to vote against it.” Whether we’re talking about town, township or county officials, isn’t that the only remedy that all taxpayers have? At least until the next election.

The Commissioners’ claims are designed to raise doubt and steer voters away from supporting a well thought out and successful plan to maintain true local control over growth in our community.

The County’s extraordinary plans for extensive “affordable housing” to be located in Adams Township has been one of many factors that have caused such significant support for the Plan of Reorganization. We want the Town of Sheridan, Adams Township, and most importantly, the Sheridan Community Schools to remain in the responsible and caring hands of local officials, who put Adams Township, the Town of Sheridan, and our school corporation first.

We hope you will join us in supporting the Plan of Reorganization on Nov. 5, 2024.