Twinsburg Township residents might have felt like they were watching a tennis match last week as the town hall drama played out.
In the matter of seven days, the township and the landlord of its Darrow Road headquarters, the Summit County Port Authority, went from seemingly bridging their financial divide over a lease agreement, to the township getting ready to pack up its things and head back to its former home about 2 miles north on Ravenna Road.
The decision to move came after the Port Authority sent an eviction notice demanding that Trustees pay the rent by month's end or move out. The township had stopped paying the lease in January after some Trustees said the building was too big and costly for the township's needs.
The eviction notice -- the second one this year -- came about 10 days after Trustees had agreed to pay back the February and March lease bills and ante up about half the April lease payment, under a plan the Port Authority has proposed. But Trustees only agreed to do this on a month-by-month basis, and the county agency said it wanted a commitment to the payments through the end of the year.
Trustee Carol Gasper, who has spearheaded the drive to move township operations into what she sees as more reasonably sized and priced digs, was surprised at the notice, saying she felt the township had done what the Port Authority asked.
I was surprised, too.
On this page a few weeks ago, we applauded Trustees for resuming the lease payments, thinking that with that barrier out of the way, the two sides would now have the time to sit down and come up with a proper exit strategy for the township.
But it seems more certain now than at any point of this back-and-forth lease affair that the township will be back where it was three or four years ago -- in a cramped facility looking for more space.
Gasper, who claims the planning for the Darrow Road facility lacked public input and involved too many back-room discussions, seems determined to "do it right" this time. She and Jim Balogh, last year's newcomer to the Board and a supporter of the town hall move, have commissioned a study to find out precisely what the 2,300-person community needs in terms of a new government office.
And it appears Trustee Tom Schmidt, who OK'd the lease back in 2005 and has maintained that the township would eventually grow into the spacious Darrow Road building, also wants to keep residents more in the loop this time.
He called on the approximately 20 citizens who attended the April 16 Trustees meeting to choose where future township meetings should be conducted. The audience overwhelmingly chose to have the gatherings at the old town hall instead of accepting Reminderville's generous offer to open its village hall for meetings.
That choice represents a good start to this more "resident-friendly" approach, but there is an arduous road ahead.
Some have likened the township to a "deadbeat" tenant for breaking its lease.
Between the wholesale renovations, down payment and lease payments over the brief, two-and-a-half year stay at the Darrow Road building, one could argue the township has already eaten quite a loss, and that a new headquarters will provide little net savings in the end.
And the longer it takes to find a new facility, the more impatience Trustees should expect from residents who may feel their government has downgraded from a lofty colonial to its bungalow starter home.
E-mail: rrecker@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3168