By Kimberly Gasuras
CCN Reporter
A comment by a Bucyrus resident sparked a debate about whether the comment was racist or not with Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser during the Bucyrus City Council Joint Regular Committee meeting Thursday evening at Bucyrus City Hall.
Kurt Fankhauser spoke to the committees about the former Ohio Department of Transportation property on West Irving Street that city officials want to purchase.
“I have an idea about the Irving Street property,” Fankhauser said. “I know the city is thinking about moving in there and building a building, that’s maybe $500,000, and keeping some of the other buildings. My concern with that is ongoing maintenance on the buildings that are not in good shape. There are always unexpected expenses.”
Fankhauser said his idea is for the city to demolish all the buildings and completely start over by constructing a new facility for all city services.
“If we did a $2.5 to $3 million building, maybe it could be funded by a $4 per month charge on people’s water bills,” Fankhauser said.
He acknowledged that there would probably be some opposition to his proposal.
“In the long run, if you build new and do not have maintenance for 20 years, are you better off,” Fankhauser said.
Fankhauser said he talked to city auditor Joyce Schifer about selling off the old buildings to help fund the city parks and that city residents may be behind a project to improve the parks.
“It’s worth talking about before dumping more money into a project that needs maintenance work,” Fankhauser said.
Fankhauser said the city’s parks need improvement.
“There is a lot that needs done in our parks,” Fankhauser said. “I drove by the tennis courts today and it reminded me of East Cleveland it’s so bad.”
Mayor Jeff Reser said he wanted to address Fankhauser’s comment regarding East Cleveland.
“My son-in-law is from East Cleveland, and I think that was a racist comment that you just said there,” Reser said.
Fankhauser said he was referring to facilities in East Cleveland and was not meaning to be racist.
“East Cleveland is primarily an African-American area and I don’t understand the relationship between tennis courts that might be in disarray and African American people,” Reser said.
Reser asked Fankhauser if he stands by his comment and asked if he thinks African-American people do not take care of their things.
“I think you are trying to turn something into something it’s not here, because maybe you have a vendetta against me,” Fankhauser said.
At that point, Bucyrus Council President Sis Love intervened and shut down the debate while continuing with the meeting.
Toward the end of the nearly two-hour long meeting, Fankhauser went to the podium to speak to council again.
“I have a couple of questions for Kevin. When we ran into each other today, what office were we in,” Fankhauser said to council member Kevin Myers.
During the public participation portion towards the end of the meeting, Fankhauser attempted to speak about the issue again, but was stopped by Love.
“If this is about the discussion between you and the mayor, it is not going to continue now,” Love said. “It will not continue now.”
Fankhauser said that Love did not have the chair.
“You better believe I do. Officer, would you please remove him,” Love said.
After the meeting was over, both men gave written statements to clarify their remarks.
Reser said, “This week, we solemnly commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of our great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Let us redouble our efforts to speak out against all forms of racism in our community. I pledge to confront racism whenever and wherever it appears. We cannot tolerate a lack of respect of any person, regardless of color.”
In Fankhauser’s statement, he called for the mayor to resign.
Fankhauser’s statement said, “In reference to Mayor Jeff Reser accusing me of being racist for comparing Aumiller Park’s dilapidated tennis courts to infrastructure of the city of East Cleveland, the mayor was not even in the room the first half of my speech regarding finding funding for fixing up the city’s parks as he walked in a few seconds right before I made the comment. I feel that his accusation was politically motivated and in response to me making a comment earlier that afternoon in the lobby of his office, where I told another council member in the presence of the mayor’s administrative assistant, that I think I should run for mayor of something. I think he saw an opportunity to take a cheap shot at a potential opponent by accusing them of being racist right out of the gate. Never thought I would see that in Bucyrus. I have many friends that are of different races and I spend a lot of money in Bucyrus at local businesses that are minority owned. These are the same slanderous tactics that were used to oust Bucyrus’s fire chief a year ago. I think the mayor should resign for what he did tonight; it was completely unprofessional of a city official to throw out the race card like that.”
The original issue of if the city should enter a purchase agreement for $1 for the Irving Street facility with ODOT was tabled until a special meeting of the public lands and building committee after it was decided that committee members Bruce Truka and Mark Makeever need time to tour the facilities before deciding.
That meeting is scheduled for April 17 at 6:30 p.m., immediately before the next council meeting at 7 p.m., so the issue can be voted upon by the entire council.
In other council business, the finance committee passed legislation to go before council at the next meeting that includes various appropriations, amendment of a resolution regarding the Southern Avenue sanitary sewer trunk line, employee manpower for seasonal workers, the billet for the solid waste department and an amendment of the city income tax code to comply with a new state law.
The platting committee approved May 10 as the date for a public hearing to be held regarding changes to the R-3 multi-housing district for conditional use.
The health and safety committee approved legislation for traffic map changes and an email address to be placed on the city’s website for residents to contact Gannett to stop ad circulars from being thrown in their yards, driveways or porches.