The city of Huber Heights has a new city manager.
This comes after a turbulent three plus years of plugging in selectees and interim managers. The latest was former city manager Rick Dzik, who left following a plea of guilty to operating a vehicle while impaired.
Now, the city council has chosen John Russell, a native of the area, to lead the community. He spoke with WYSO’s Kathryn Mobley and explained some of his top priorities.
This story has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
John Russell: Internally, I think I'd like to streamline some of our processes. I think we could do a better job on some of our purchasing workflows. Bringing things up to the current digital age, we're trying to refocus some of our policy manuals. We're trying to get policies in place and get them in place digitally so employees have easier access to them. We're trying to provide some better access to our employees for how to find out what their benefits are, and how to get check information. So I think internally, focusing on what we can do to make the employees life easier and better here is one of our focuses.
And then externally, as we look at things, I work at the discretion of the council, and align with their thought process. And it is to provide decent, affordable housing to people that are coming to the region and then also to provide some type of tax base. So trying to bring some other businesses to the city that would actually help with some of the tax base expansion that we're looking for.
MOBLEY: Speaking of expansion, council recently approved to move forward with the new housing development. Is that correct?
RUSSELL: Yes, we've got a few actually in the works that they've recently been looking at and approving. And then we've got a couple others that are coming.
MOBLEY: Talk to me about some of those housing developments. Where would they be?
RUSSELL: The north end of the city is obviously our bigger area where we have room for expansion. We've got a couple areas up there where they're looking to put, around the new Carriage Trails subdivisions. They're looking to put in some more apartments. I think we approved 168 new units up there at Carriage Trails and Brent Pike in the middle of the city.
We've got an apartment complex coming around the new library there, which I think is amazing. I think a lot of people also, as they're moving, are looking to be closer to walking distance to certain amenities. As many people that are buying houses, I think there's also a portion of the newer generation that's looking to not get locked into a house. I think this concept of these rental apartment areas are a bigger push now, because I think a lot of people want to have some flexibility to be able to move about and do the things they want to do. And a lot of people just don't want to have the upkeep that comes from owning a house.
And then obviously, we've got the entertainment district around Rose Music Center along executive there, where I think they would really like to have some walkable housing where people could walk to restaurants and the entertainment things and then, be really close to home.
MOBLEY: What about the city's infrastructure? Will it support these types of developments?
RUSSELL: Yeah. I mean I think we've done a really good job. I think the council's done a great job over the years. We've known we were prime for expansion. So they've done a good job of addressing some of the aging infrastructure down south. They've started this waterline replacement project, which has been going on for a few years now. And we still continue to do that to upgrade some of our aging systems in the south.
I know the biggest gripe when I took this job was traffic, traffic, traffic. But we're trying to expand traffic on Troy Pike. I know it's been a little longer than most people would have liked. We're trying to expand and then we're going to have to probably look at the same thing on Brant Pike eventually. And I think as people come, that really drives what we need. We've upgraded the water systems, we're adding some volume, we've got new wells going online. We've got some newer water towers online. So the biggest push for us next is to kind of look at what city services need to do as far as expansion goes.
I think we're not far from looking at maybe adding more city services. I know we've got some expansion out to the east as well. So we're trying to take care of some sanitary sewer and water lines that way as well.
MOBLEY: Huber Heights doesn't have any tax levies on this coming November's ballot, but you may have something for 2025. What might it mean?
RUSSELL: So that would be the 0.25% renewal for police and fire is what we would add to the ballot in 2025.
MOBLEY: And how much money does that roughly generate for those two departments?
RUSSELL: $1.2 million would go to fire, $1.2 million would go to police, and then about $570,000 would go to the general fund.
