The city of Springboro has a rich history in southwest Ohio. In the 2020, the city had a population of just over 19,000.
As part of WYSO's City Mayor Series, we spoke with John Agenbroad who says the city is trying to balance its ‘quaint’ beginnings and the necessity to move forward.
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Mayor John Agenbroad: Springboro has always been notorious for history and nostalgia. When the Underground Railroad started here in Springboro and so that's many moons ago and it was just a little sleepy town, but it was always a charming village - wasn't really a town it was a village. And so as we continue to grow and everybody wanted to come to Springboro, we got larger, but we've always tried to maintain that charm. We always try to work with developers to do the best we can and still not forget about the people who were here long before anybody else was. It seems like everybody wants to close the door when they get here. But, that's progress, you can't do that.
You got to take your heads out the sand and still keep your charm, but then also work to grow. It factors in all your economic development and all the other amenities that you provide for your city, you know, your infrastructure, your police and fire, all those things are very important. And if you don't have an economic locomotive driving that with money and you can't do that, and you'll still be a sleepy town like we used to be.
Jerry Kenney: Are you hearing people concerned about overdevelopment or anything along those lines?
Agenbroad: Not as much as we did about three years ago when the Easton Farm was going to be bought by a developer and doing some things that we didn't like. But unfortunately, we went to court, and they ended up winning the lawsuit per se through a consent decree. But it hasn't slowed things down from trying to still work things out. And since it hasn't been built out because of inflation, because of building material costs, because of interest rates, nothing's going on at the Easton Farm until recently.
Tonight, we'll be passing a resolution to buy six lots. And if we purchase those six lots, that will enable us to have 60 acres of the thing we had went to court for. Not all of it, but the lion's share. And we'll be able to control that, and our game plan is to have 40 acres for parks and recreation and the other 20 acres do a land swap with the schools.
Kenney: How are folks reacting to that?
Agenbroad: Well, obviously, we've partnered with the schools. And if all this happens the way we have it, nobody's got a crystal ball, but if it all happens, we've got it planned this will take care of some of the things that people had issues with, like traffic.
In the morning, I live right on 741 before the schools and I could not turn on my driveway from ten minutes til seven in the morning until 7:25 a.m. And then in the afternoon, I can't turn out of my driveway to get out on to Ohio 741 between 2:15 and about 3:00. So this will help alleviate some of that because our game plan is to have schools up there. And then the schools that they have now, we don't know exactly what we're going to do with that. It's still up for grabs. One of the parcels we'll probably be thinking about, Apache Park, as a parking lot because we have, you know, a holiday festival here every year and it's 50,000 to 75,000 people coming in for our Springboro Festival. And so that will help alleviate some of that by having more parking.
And then the other school, we're going to tear it down and we just don't know exactly what we're going to do with that yet but we if we make this move, and then we also would take over the Wade Field where the peewee football program is. And so we got, you know, got a lot of irons in the fire, but in the long run, it will be a betterment for Springboro. And we'll also keep our charm and people. We take a real pride in all the organizations and nonprofits. I mean, they do so much for the community, volunteer so much time and we want to have that open line of communications with the township, with the schools, Chamber of Commerce, and the city for partners, working together to make Springboro special and I think that we're never a good job of it.
I guess if you're looking for a closing line, I take pride in being the mayor. I've been the mayor for a long time. I've always had my ideas open to criticism, constructive advice. We build consensus by our committees, by the residents, by city council, working together as a team. Yeah, there's going to be sometimes when people don't agree. You've got to make tough decisions sometimes.
But our motive is never to hurt Springboro, always to help Springboro be a special place, keep your property values up, keep your infrastructure up, have great schools, partnership, [the] chamber as I said the township and all working together.
And we do that. We get together. We're a phone call away an email away, a text message away at all times and nobody is not approachable. We're all approachable. And I think the people like that too, because they know that government is working for them that way.
