Medina Dissolution Committee meets Thursday

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 11 June 2014 at 12:00 am

MEDINA – The committee looking at a possible dissolution of the village of Medina government will meet at 8 a.m. Thursday at City Hall. It will be the committee’s first meeting since a May 6 public meeting, when most speakers were strongly against dissolution.

The committee will weigh public comments as it works to craft a final document that will be presented to the Village Board. Don Colquhoun, the committee chairman, said he expects the committee will be able to complete its work with another meeting after Thursday.

The Medina Dissolution Committee accepted a draft of the plan in April. It faced its first public scrutiny on May 6 when about 300 people attended a forum at the middle school. Many of the speakers at the May 6 meeting lived outside the village in the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby. They don’t want to see their taxes go up as part of the dissolution.

Outside-village residents in Ridgeway would see a 46 percent increase in their town taxes while Shelby residents outside the village would see a 10 percent increase in town taxes, according to the plan.

Dissolution would reduce the current rate for village residents in Ridgeway from $19.49 per $1,000 of assessed property to $14.30. That $5.20 reduction would save a homeowner with a $70,000 house $363 a year in taxes.

In Shelby, village residents currently pay a $19.80 rate for village and town taxes. That would drop by $6.70 or 34 percent if the dissolution plan takes effect.

Medina Mayor Andrew Meier sees dissolution as the first step of a two-step process for a leaner government. The tax increase outside the village could be reduced if the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby merge into the town of Medina, Meier has said.

Meier and others in the community are pushing “One Medina” as the ultimate goal for town/village government in the community.

If the village dissolution goes to a public referendum, only village residents will be eligible to vote.