It's getting closer to Election Day, when responsible adults go to the polls and vote for who they think will lead their communities in the years ahead.
This election is more local. Yes, the presidential election of almost a year ago was important. America has changed over the past year as a result of that election. The focus has shifted.
But local politics can have an even more direct and immediate impact. It may decide when or if your road will be paved, when and how your trashed is picked up, how business friendly your community is, whether your community values substance and progress or is hung up on individual personalities and ego.
I happen to live in Conneaut and a few weeks ago there was a meet the candidates' night at the Conneaut Human Resource Center. I didn't make the meeting but fortunately not only was it broadcast live on WWOW, but the station recorded the event and made it available on its Web site (1360wwow.com) for people to download and listen at their leisure. That's what I did.
The process wasn't perfect. The candidates and the questioner did a poor job of identifying each candidate each time he or she spoke so if you couldn't memorize voices, you had a tough time knowing who said what. Also, for some reason the various audio files making up the candidates' night didn't download in order so I heard them out of sequence.
But I did come away with a definite opinion that candidates, whether in Conneaut or Ashtabula or Geneva or Jefferson or wherever, clearly need a vision and at least some idea on how to carry it out. Without vision, we will be stuck with more infighting and candidate postulating and no real substance.
In the Conneaut event, I heard more about asphalt shavings and who is using it and who blew the whistle on who and who turned out to be right. It was petty and it's the type of thing that has driven city managers by the droves from Conneaut.
I participated last spring in an evening at the same Conneaut Human Resources Center, called by City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr. and others to formulate ideas and visions for the future. One excellent idea (not from me) was to build a hotel where the Conneaut Shores Golf Course sits in decay near Lake Erie.
A candidate with a vision would leave the asphalt shavings alone and think how such a huge task could be accomplished. Perhaps the city could research what hotel chains more often locate near beaches or in smaller communities and then begin to contact them. Maybe a city contingent would meet with the hotel officials. Is there room for say, cross-country skiing to make the site viable during winter?
Conneaut is the first city in Ohio, coming from the east. Both New York and Pennsylvania have higher gasoline taxes, but Conneaut still doesn't even have a service station or truck stop to accommodate motorists with thirsty cars. Pulling off into Conneaut after sundown can be a foreboding experience for those not familiar with the area.
One thing I learned from the candidate forum came from longtime Councilman-at-Large Jacob Chicatelli. He said Love's Travel Center will bid work on a complex in Conneaut sometime in December. That's good news. So how could a visionary capitalize on this?
How about more signage saying the Conneaut exit is within four miles of public beaches and boating on Lake Erie? Make it an even more desirable place to disembark from the interstate.
Certainly those unfamiliar with the area may think there are no real beaches between Erie and Cleveland without proper signs. They would miss out on Township Park in Conneaut, Lake Shore Park in Ashtabula Township and Walnut Beach in Ashtabula.
Using the Love's Travel Center as a springboard to attract other commercial enterprises, including restaurants and my favorite, the return of a supermarket to the area, would certainly help the local economy.
If the I-90 corridor and Conneaut's lakefront saw renewed life, maybe it would breathe life into the rest of the community, including the downtown area.
This is so true for Ashtabula as well. One stretch of West 13th Street in Ashtabula has two of the best things about our county, the Ashtabula Arts Center and Kent State-Ashtabula with its new health and sciences building. That isn't far from the lake, marinas and Bridge Street shopping.
Could some visionaries on a new Ashtabula City Council work with the administration and development department to use these major positives and turn them into a marketing plan that will breathe new life into the community?
Wouldn't it be nice to have people in office who use their brain cells for something besides figuring out a new derogatory term for a fellow public official?
Using the names of former county commissioners Robert Boggs and Deborah Newcomb in a positive manner isn't too popular these days, but they had a vision when they created the lodge at Geneva State Park. No, it didn't turn out as well as we had hoped, but it will bring a steady stream of people to the county who will spend money locally for years to come.
It is why Geneva appears more on the upswing than the county's other two cities.
If people had visions in Ashtabula, Conneaut and other areas of the county (Andover would be a prime spot) maybe these communities too would have improved attractions to get people into their communities.
Not only that, the communities need to dispense with the asphalt shavings long enough to help market what we already do have.
So when you talk to a candidate who knocks on your door, regardless of where you live, pay attention. Does he or she give a litany of what is wrong in town and who did it and how he or she is exposing the wrongdoing, or does the candidate talk about what he or she wants to see in the future and just as importantly, a snippet on how that will be accomplished.
Anyway, that's my litmus test on how I decide who I will vote for come Nov. 3. Maybe yours is different.
Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com. Read past columns at bobleb.blogspot.com.
