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We love history, and we learned many of you do, too.  Check out this photo from The Enquirer’s archives, dated March 11, 1978.

PICKETS VOW LONG SIEGE  Mrs. Sandy Nimersheim, 4123 Calumet Cir., Mason, right, led by a dozen homeowners picketing in front of Mason City Hall Friday.  The group was protesting actions by the city administration.  Mrs. Nimersheim said she was upset over an “unnecessary delay” in issuing a building permit to renovate her basement into a family room.  She was joined on the picket line by her three children, Tammy, five; Lela, nine, and Jerry, seven.  Also on the line were other Mason residents who said they were “sick and tired” of treatment they have received from the city manager.  They vowed to picket all day Monday and attend council’s regular meeting Monday night.  Saturday, March 11, 1978.

Posted in: Archives, Photos |

Tags: Tags: city council, from the archives, mason, photo, pickets, retro

Paul McKibben reports:

Warren County’s landmark train will stay in town after the Lebanon City Council on Wednesday evening approved a new two-year contract.

The train is one of the attractions in historic downtown Lebanon that features The Golden Lamb restaurant and hotel, the Village Ice Parlor & Restaurant and other small shops. Downtown Lebanon businesses wanted the railroad to stay, arguing that it helps draw visitors to town.

“We felt this is not a good time, in this economy, to lose the train and this part of our town,” Vice Mayor Charleen Flick said.

The city owns five miles of track on which the Lebanon Mason & Monroe Railroad operates. Council voted 4-1 to pass the agreement. Under the new contract:

• The city is responsible for bridge inspections and maintenance.

• The train will pay the city $3,000 per year to lease the track and train station restrooms. That’s a drop of $5,250 annually.

• The train will pay the city 50 cents for each passenger ticket sold, excluding its Day Out with Thomas event that features characters from the Thomas & Friends children’s television program.

The money will go toward long-term repairs to the track.

The train has operated under its current name since 2006.

It travels along the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railroad right-of-way, a freight and passenger line that opened in 1881.

Starting in downtown Lebanon, the train offers rides through Southwestern Ohio and also runs special seasonal programs such as its North Pole Express during the Christmas season.

The train’s previous contract expired Monday, and for months its future in Lebanon was uncertain.

Cincinnati Railway Co. is the train’s parent company.

CEO Brian Collins had said the train could move to nearby Mason or Canal Winchester near Columbus if no accord was reached with Lebanon’s City Council members.

Collins said the other locations were not as attractive as Lebanon because of the city’s “Norman Rockwell” characteristics.

“It’s picture postcard, and we’ve got this nice little setup down there with the little train station, parking, our offices and everything else,” he said.

Posted in: News, Warren County |

Tags: Tags: brian collins, cincinnati railway co, city council, lebanon, lebanon mason monroe railroad, mason, train

The regularly scheduled Mason City Council meeting for Monday has been cancelled.

City council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 26 in council chambers at the Mason Municipal Center, 6000 Mason-Montgomery Road.

Regular council meetings are set for the second and fourth Mondays of the month and are open to the public.  For more information, call the city at 513-229-8500.

Posted in: City Council, News |

Tags: Tags: cancelled, city council, city of mason, mason, rescheduled

Voters in Mason will have the chance to thwart an “extreme deficit situation,” according to one council member, in the city’s safety, fire and EMS services budget this fall.

Mason City Council approved a charter amendment Monday that will go before voters on the Nov. 6 ballot.

• View the proposed charter amendment (PDF link)

The proposed ballot measure would add a 0.12 percent income tax on top of its existing 1 percent income tax, though only for nonresidents.

Anyone who works in Mason pays the current income tax, although Mason residents who work in another community with a 1 percent income tax don’t pay Mason’s income tax.

An estimated 21,000 people work in the city, which is home to more than 1,100 businesses. Sixty percent of people who pay Mason income taxes live outside the city, according to Councilman Tom Grossmann.

The fire income tax and the existing income tax would cost someone working 40 hours a week at $10 an hour $4.48 a week. That’s 48 cents a week more than what he or she pays now.

The proposed charter amendment also includes a property tax levy for fire/EMS not to exceed 5 mills.

The city has a 5-mill property tax levy for fore and EMS scheduled to expire at the end of 2013.

The 5-mill levy, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2014, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about an extra $18 a year if council decided to take the full 5 mills.

The levy under the proposed charter amendment would cost a homeowner more than the existing levy because the new levy is adjusted for inflation.

It also gives City Council the flexibility to set the rate of the proposed levy and the fire income tax.

The proposed ballot measure took nearly a year to draft and included many “heated moments,” said Mason Mayor David Nichols.

Some of those exchanges spilled into Monday’s meeting.

Mason resident Tom Muennich, a former city councilman, admonished council members for the tax hike.

“It is unheard of for anyone to put taxes on just because of our inability to raise revenue,” he said. “We, the voters, have one recourse and that’s not to vote you back in.”

Several residents expressed disapproval of raising income taxes on people who work in Mason, but don’t live there.

“How is that fair and just for that increase to be handed off onto other people, who, quite frankly, don’t have a vote?,” asked Joey Dezenzo.

Council members also sparred over the income tax hike for fire/EMS services.

Councilman Victor Kidd said an income tax increase would create an “unnecessary controversy as an unfair, reoccurring tax policy in the city of Mason.”

“Increasing the earnings tax could be perceived as a slick political strategy having not passed the last tax levy,” he warned. “Increasing the earnings tax to fund fire services opens the door to other incremental increases, which leads us down a slippery slope.”

He also said that the city’s 1 percent income tax served as a recruiting point for new businesses.

Councilman Don Prince disagreed, arguing that Mason’s income tax rates are among the lowest in the region.

“I don’t think it will affect our ability to attract businesses,” he said. “Nobody gets to vote where they work unless they work where they live. Most communities do it that way.”

Councilman Rich Cox said the income tax hike on nonresidents would create a “clerical nightmare” for business owners by taxing resident and nonresident employees at two different rates.

He recommended eliminating the property tax and enacting a flat 0.25 percent income tax increase.

Grossman, however, said such a plan would create an unfair burden on working people, the majority of whom don’t live in Mason, he said.

The city responds to about twice as many fire calls at homes and apartments than at businesses, city statistics show.

“Shouldn’t people who own homes and use services pay for them?” he asked.

Despite cost-cutting measures, the current fire levy does not produce enough money to pay for the 33-member fire department, forcing the city to dip into a fire reserve fund, City Manager Eric Hansen said.

The fire department’s budget runs between $5 million and $6 million.

Exacerbating the department’s funding woes is the elimination of state personal property tax and reimbursement that decreased funding for the fire and EMS operations by more than 12 percent or $700,000 a year, said Hansen.

If voters reject the charter amendment this fall, Hansen said, “We reduce our services or we stabilize our revenues. And council would have to determine whether they want to go back and just change the services. … Or they go back and look at other revenue alternatives.”

Paul McKibben contributed

Posted in: City Council, Election, News |

Tags: Tags: 5-mill levy, ballot, charter amendment, city council, city manager, city of mason, david nichols, don prince, election, eric hansen, fire/ems, income tax, joey dezenzo, mason, nonresidents, property tax, revenues, safety services, tax increase, tom grossmann, tom munnich, tony cox, victor kidd

Paul McKibben reports:

Residents – and people who just work here – could end up paying higher taxes for fire and emergency services.

Mason City Council is expected to vote today on a proposed charter amendment that would go before voters this fall.

The goal is to raise more money for the city’s 33-member fire department.

The income tax hike would affect employees at some of Greater Cincinnati’s key employers that have facilities in Mason, such as Procter & Gamble and Cintas. An estimated 21,000 people work in the city, which is home to more than 1,100 businesses.

The city already has a 1 percent income tax. It also has a 5-mill property tax levy for fire and EMS scheduled to expire at the end of 2013.

The proposed ballot measure would add a 0.12 percent income tax for fire/EMS on top of that 1 percent income tax, though only for nonresidents.

The fire income tax and the existing income tax would cost someone working 40 hours a week at $10 an hour $4.48 a week.

That’s 48 cents a week more than what he or she pays now.

Councilwoman Char Pelfrey said at a June 11 meeting she was initially concerned about “messing with” the earnings tax because the city has held it at 1 percent. She called it a minuscule increase.

“I don’t even feel bad about the fact that a nonresident would be contributing to our fire service … and EMS because once they enter into the city of Mason we are providing for them the quality service that every Mason resident has,” she said.

The city responds to about twice as many fire calls at homes and apartments than at businesses, city statistics show.

Covington resident Wayne Best works in Mason and doesn’t like the proposed fire income tax.

He called it “a tax without any kind of representation. We have no say in it. They’ve got to live within their means and provide service to what they need to,” he said.

The proposed charter amendment also includes a property tax levy for fire/EMS not to exceed 5 mills.

That would take effect Jan. 1, 2014.

It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about an extra $18 a year if council decided to take the full 5 mills.

The 5-mill levy under the proposed charter amendment would cost a homeowner more than the existing levy because the new levy is adjusted for inflation.

The proposed charter amendment also gives City Council the flexibility to set the rate of the proposed levy and the fire income tax.

“The charter amendment seeks to come up with a long-term solution to secure funding for fire services and to do that in a way that does not increase the real estate tax rate and does not increase tax rates for Mason residents,” City Manager Eric Hansen said.

The current fire levy does not produce enough money to pay for the fire department, forcing the city to dip into a fire reserve fund, Hansen said.

By the end of this year, the reserve fund will have $3.2 million, down from $4 million at the end of last year.

The fire department’s budget runs between $5 million and $6 million.

Factors contributing to the fire department’s funding woes as outlined by Hansen in a May 11 memo to council are:

• The amount collected from residents from the fire/EMS levy hasn’t increased or been adjusted for inflation for the past nine years.

• The state eliminated the personal property tax and state reimbursement that decreased funding for the fire and EMS operations by more than 12 percent or $700,000 per year.

Hansen said the city’s fire department has reduced spending by joining the Northeast Fire Collaborative (Blue Ash, Loveland, Sharonville, Sycamore Township and Symmes Township), delaying capital purchases and using part-time employees to maintain minimum staffing levels.

Also, Hansen said the department has continued to work with Deerfield Township and other surrounding communities to improve coverage and reduce redundancies.

He said current agreements provide for mutual aid for all fire and EMS runs by dispatching the closest department regardless of jurisdiction.

Anyone who works in Mason pays the current income tax. Mason residents who work in another community with a 1 percent income tax don’t pay Mason’s income tax, according to Hansen.

If voters reject the charter amendment this fall, Hansen said, “We reduce our services or we stabilize our revenues. And council would have to determine whether they want to go back and just change the services. … Or they go back and look at other revenue alternatives.”

Posted in: City Council, News |

Tags: Tags: ballot measure, city council, city of mason, employment, ems, fire department, income tax, increase, mason, taxes

Crowd members enjoy watching fireworks during the Mason Festival “Red, Rhythm & BOOM!” at Corwin M. Nixon Park Saturday July 3, 2010 in Mason. The Enquirer/ Joseph Fuqua II

The city’s popular Red, Rhythm & Boom fireworks show, which has drawn crowds as large as 60,000, has again fallen victim to budget cuts.

For the second year, Mason City Council suspended the popular summer festivities due to financial constraints.

“It’ll be quiet in Mason on July 4,” confirmed Jennifer Trepal, Mason’s public information officer.

When announcing last year’s cancellation, city officials said they predicted a 4 percent drop in general fund revenues this year and a general fund budget down by 5.5 percent from 2010.

Residents have long considered Mason’s fireworks display a local treasure, but the nod to patriotic nostalgia — and the police, entertainment, tents, stage and all the rest of the accouterments — doesn’t come cheap.

In past years, the city paid bands like Huey Lewis and the News, Grand Funk Railroad, Kansas and Styx upwards of $140,000 to headline Mason’s event.

Mason spent $400,000 on Red, Rhythm & Boom in 2009, according to city officials. Faced with dwindling income tax receipts, the city scaled down its festivities in 2010 to about half the cost.

When budget concerns fizzled last year’s Independence Day celebration, community members stepped up.

Employees of Prestige Fireworks rallied local businesses and residents to raise the $20,000 needed to put on a show. The Mason-based pyrotechnic business has about 20 employees, many of whom live in Mason and several who live on same block.

The scaled-down version didn’t include big-name entertainers, but did offer snack vendors and a shorter fireworks show with less explosions.

But the company says fundraising stalled and that it incurred losses preventing it from sponsoring a display again this year.

“Last year we did not come close to raising enough money to put together a show that met our high standards, so we took a large financial loss,” said Prestige representative Ken Shaner.

“Our goal was to help the city where most of us live put together a family-oriented patriotic celebration. I believe that we accomplished that goal, but as a small business we cannot financially afford to take the loss in 2012.”

News of the festival’s cancellation sparked disappointment among many residents, who say that Red, Rhythm & Boom allowed the community to come together and build up town pride — even if only for a few hours.

“[Red, Rhythm & Boom] has always been such a fun tradition with our friends and an event that really brought the whole community together for a fun celebration,” said Kelly Lippincott King. “It also brought people into Mason from the outside and allowed us to showcase what a great place Mason is to live.”

“It’s sad for our city,” echoed Sandra Spring. ” We need to keep attracting new residents and new business to our area–and we just lost a giant trophy we used to have.”

Other residents say fireworks are a luxury the city can no longer afford.

“It is a very smart financial decision,” said Brian Timson via Facebook. “Didn’t we just get rid of some teachers? Ask them if they would like a fireworks show or to have a job for another year.”

Some say they plan to watch shows at Blue Ash’s Red, White & Blue Ash, Lebanon’s Independence Day Festival or Kings Island.

Kings Island says its fireworks display will be “10 times” the score of its traditional nightly fireworks display. The Mason amusement park will stay open to midnight on July 4.

• Four parties for the 4th

City council has not yet discussed whether next year’s budget will allow for Red, Rhythm & Boom, said City Manager Eric Hansen. Those conversations will likely be held in November or December as next year’s budget is determined, he said.

However, a string of high-profile development deals in Mason, including Seapine Software’s new $7 million technical center on Western Row Road, and headquarters expansions by AssureRx Health Inc., Rhinestahl Corp., Intelligrated and Top Gun, have helped ease the city’s budget crunch, said Hansen.

“We’re seeing positive signs of revenues stabilizing,” he said.  “That doesn’t mean we haven’t taken several declines over several years.”

Shaner said his company is also still looking for corporate sponsors to fund an event next year.

“We hope that we can provide a patriotic fireworks display for the citizens of Mason in the future,” he said.

Posted in: City Council, Community, News |

Tags: Tags: budget, cancellation, cancelled, city council, city of mason, fireworks, independence day, jennifer trepal, july 4, ken shaner, kings island, mason, prestige fireworks, red, red rhythm & boom, red white & blue ash, rhythm & boom

The schedule for Mason City Council meetings has been altered for the summer.

The second meetings in May, June, July and August have been cancelled. Regular Council meetings will take place only on the second Monday of the month from May through August.

Meetings are held at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at Mason Municipal Center, 6000 Mason-Montgomery Road. The public is welcome.

Posted in: City Council, News |

Tags: Tags: city council, mason city council, mason municipal center, schedule, summer

Paul McKibben reports:

As Mason mayor in 2011, Don Prince gives a proclamation at a Light the Night Walk. Enquirer file/Amanda Davidson

Though he lost his father at a young age, Mason City Councilman Don Prince, who recently completed a term as mayor, has lived a life sprinkled with men who helped mold him.

There was his high school basketball coach Jerry Wood and his high school football coach Tom Griswold.

Then there is the Illinois landlord who helped Prince discover his Christian faith.

Prince grew up in Mariemont and Deer Park, the second of four children (three boys and one girl).

His father was police chief in Mariemont and then served as a lieutenant in Amberley Village’s police department.

When Prince was a sophomore at Deer Park High School, his father died. He had suffered from diabetes.

“It was hard,” Prince said about coping with his father’s death.

But it was sports that helped him. He was a high-jumper on the track team and played basketball and football.

His freshman year, his basketball team didn’t lose a game. Wood coached that team and moved up to the varsity team two years later when Prince was a junior.

Four of the five starters on the team his senior year didn’t have fathers at home.

A brash young man named Bill Cunningham was the only junior that started. The rest were seniors. All five starters averaged double figures in points.

Cunningham went on to fame as a talk show host at WLW-AM.

Prince remembers running into Wood’s wife. She told him her husband tried to be a father to the boys.

“He didn’t go out being like a big brother to us. … He did check up on us and he was a positive male influence in my life,” Prince said.

Prince said today he would be viewed as a child at risk, with no male influence in his life and his older brother away at college.

“These coaches put that discipline in my life that helped me,” Prince said.

(more…)

Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: city council, city of mason, councilmember, don prince, mason, mayor

Paul McKibben reports:

In December, Mason City Council selected Councilman David F. Nichols to be the city’s new mayor, replacing Don Prince, who remains on council. Nichols was first appointed to council in 2008 and was elected to his own term in 2009. Originally from Lexington, Ky., he’s lived in Mason since 1999.

At one time Nichols was president of Interlott Technologies, which made instant lottery machines. In 2002, Fortune magazine named the business one of the top small companies in the United States. The company was later sold. He’s now retired from business.

Nichols has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Kentucky. His work experience includes time in Kentucky state government. A cancer survivor, Nichols and his wife Christa have a teenage daughter named Cari.

Nichols talked to The Enquirer recently about his goals as mayor, economic development in Mason and other issues.

What are your goals during the next two years as mayor?

For the very same reasons I came on council and what they have been for the last three years, given my business experience and that I served in state government – economic development and finance. Mason changed drastically even in the years that I’ve been up here. You had a great period of growth. Then the economy faltered. Where Mason is so fortunate compared to other places is that there have been a lot of smart decisions made prior to me. But the revenues are not what they used to be. It’s easy to build things and do things when the revenue and money is coming in. It’s different when that doesn’t happen and you’ve got long-term costs and so forth. You will find a direct correlation between the standard of living in a community and how healthy that business community is.

What challenges are facing Mason and how will the city address them?

Stabilize our revenues. It’s job retention and job growth. Economic development is the key for us. The vast majority of the city government’s revenues come from the earnings tax. One percent. We’re still one of the lowest in the state. A lot of people get confused that we get the majority of the property tax. That’s not the case. That goes elsewhere to different places and ours comes from earnings. We’re still one of the lowest and we’ve done it to be pro-business as much as possible.

Mason is the second largest city/township in Warren County with a population of 30,712 people according to the 2010 Census. It grew by 39.5 percent. Is the city growing too fast?

No. I think you went through a period in the late ’90s and 2000s that Mason was faced with challenges because of all of the growth. Mason had to make a lot of hard decisions early on and a lot of political battles were fought. And this is not unique to Mason. The population growth I think has stabilized but the goal will be to grow the business population. We’ve got a lot of available land. You can’t be bringing in hundreds of jobs and not experience some growth.

Why do you think people have chosen to live in Mason?

We love that small-town feel and at the same time a city government long before I was involved that really put an emphasis on family. The park system’s second to none. They were spending their money fairly wisely at the time given the revenues coming in. They were planning. The way they laid the city out in the comprehensive plan. It’s a good conservative region. I felt there was a lot of opportunity. They were doing it right and it was a new enough community with all of this growth so much that took place in the ’90s, they had a chance to do it right. A lot of times you go into a place and that window of opportunity was 50 years ago or 60 years ago. You get to learn from other communities’ mistakes when you’re starting that late. We got one of the best school systems in the country. Tax structure. Location. The proximity. We’ve got the arts and the life of a wonderful city to our south, Cincinnati and you got Dayton to the north.

If you could pick one company in the world to relocate to Mason, which would it be and why?

I would go probably with an Apple-type company. One thing I love about the late Steve Jobs is he challenged everybody to think out of the box. Constantly.

Posted in: City Council, News |

Tags: Tags: city council, city of mason, david f. nichols, david nichols, don prince, election, interview, mason, mayor

Singers from the Voices of Warren County choir performed for the Lebanon Rotary Club on Dec. 22, 2011, at the Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio. The choir is made up of individuals with developmental disabilities. Share/Dawn McKenna

The City of Mason will issue a proclamation Monday evening at its city council meeting designating march as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

The proclamation is accompanied by a performance from the Voices of Warren County Choir, one of 70 local choirs set to participate in the 2012 World Choir Games in July.  The choir is comprised of developmentally-challenged adults who seek to raise awareness of and inclusion of people with disabilities.

The proclamation and performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Mason Municipal building,  6000 Mason-Montgomery Road.

Mason Mayor David Nichols will also honor organizations that participated in the Mason Community Center’s “TryIt! Sports!” event held in January.

The one-day program sought to help families with special needs members feel more comfortable trying a new activity without the pressure of having to join a team or class.

More than 90 people participated in the event, and its success led the community center to develop a volunteer therapeutic recreation advisory panel to further assist families with special needs members.

“The most effective way to increase this awareness and inclusion of all adults is through everyone’s active participation in community events like our ‘Try It! Sports’ program to help the public learn and acknowledge each individual’s contributions,” said Nichols.  “Our community is better – together.”

Posted in: City Council, Community, Events, News |

Tags: Tags: city council, david nichols, developmental disabilities awareness month, mason, mason community center, special needs, tryit! sports, voices of warren county, world choir games