Mayor Stage shares take on how Grove City's been doing the past few years
For Grove City Mayor Richard "Ike" Stage, knowledge about the inner-workings of city government is institutional.
He knows housing development is on the rise, for example. As are jobs ‒ both by a significant amount.
And for many years, he was able to share those facts with the city's residents through an annual address.
Then COVID hit the pause button.
It's been more than three years since Stage has been able to present a traditional state-of-the-city address.
"We usually have a breakfast meeting event to give the state of the city, but over the last three years, we haven't been able to do that due to the pandemic," Stage said.
So the city came up with a workaround.
The 2019-2021 Community Report document Stage issued earlier this month provides an overview of what the city has been able to accomplish since his last formal state-of-the-city address in May 2019.
Photos:Fambro sworn in as Grove City's first Black police chief
Despite the pandemic's challenges, the Grove City community has proved resilient, Stage said.
"It's important to work collaboratively with our school district, the library, the township fire department and as a city to create the strongest possible community," he said. "We want a successful school system, a strong library and a strong fire department to make our community whole."
Here are some of the top takeaways from the 2019-2021 Community Report:
Grove City welcome mat out for booming residential development
The number of single-family building permits issued by the city in 2021 totaled 312, nearly double the 163 permits approved the previous year.
The total value represented by the permits issued in 2021 was $102,650,732.
The level of single-family building permits is running well ahead even of the pre-pandemic numbers. The city issued 128 permits with a total value of $29,921,536 in 2017.
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"A key to our residential development is the diversity of the housing opportunities we're able to offer in Grove City," Stage said. "It's not just single-family homes. We also are providing homes for seniors and plenty of apartment living opportunities."
The recent residential development includes Courtyards at Beulah Park, Residences at Brown's Farm, Farmstead and Trail View Run.
Grove City's central location is another factor driving the residential development as are the two full-service hospitals that have opened over the last few years in town, he said.
"We're running ahead of other similar suburban communities in central Ohio when it comes to the number of single-family new starts," Stage said.
Grove City's 312 new starts compares with 124 reported in Hilliard, 105 in New Albany and 86 single-family new starts in Dublin, he said. Those figures are based on the data provided by the individual communities.
Job growth in Grove City rises above 50%
The estimated number of jobs in Grove City in 2021 totaled 28,930.
Although that figure is only an estimate, based on the amount of withholding tax the city has collected, it represents a 50.32% increase in the number of jobs since 2012, Stage said.
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Official data from the. U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of jobs totaled 25,830 in 2019, the last year in which the figures are not estimates.
As with housing stock, the city's top employers are a diverse group, including FedEx Ground Package Systems Inc., Walmart Distribution Center, Mount Carmel Health System, South-Western City School District, The Kroger Co., Tigerpoly Manufacturing Inc., Halcore Group Inc., Tosoh America, OhioHealth and Nationwide Mutual Insurance.
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"We aren't putting all of our eggs in one basket and relying on one particular industry to carry us," Stage said.
The fact that the city is maintaining a 2% income tax also is a factor helping spur the job market locally, he said.
Revenues and expenditures at a glance
"We've continued to take a careful and conservative approach to our finances, and that's helped us weather some of the difficulties from the pandemic over the last few years," Stage said.
The city's goal is to maintain reserves equal to at least three months of annual operating expenses, he said. At the end of 2021, the city's general-fund balance was slightly more than $20 million, covering about eight months of operating expenses.
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"Maintaining that level of reserves provides us with a safety net in case something unexpected happens," Stage said.
Grove City collected about $34.74 million in income-tax receipts in 2021, an increase of $7.8 million, or about 29%, over the past three years, he said.
CARES Act dividends
It's difficult to estimate what it would have meant if Grove City had not received and appropriated $3.05 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds," Stage said.
What is clear is that the entire community ‒ not the city alone ‒ benefited, he said.
"We wanted to find ways to funnel some of that money to benefit the schools, local organizations, the chamber (Grove City Area Chamber of Commerce) and our local businesses, the library, Little Theater Off Broadway, the township, as many agencies as we could," Stage said.
The $620,725 earmarked to purchase Chromebooks and miscellaneous technology for South-Western schools was a big boost for students during the pandemic and beyond, he said.
The city created the Small Business Working Capital Grant Program, using $150,000 in CARES Act funds, as a way to help businesses cope with operational costs they had incurred during the pandemic.
The CARES Act was a $2.2. trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law in March 2020.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Mayor Richard 'Ike' Stage shares take on state of Grove City
