Fallsnewspress.com - Finances, development focus for Robart

by Steve Wiandt

Reporter

Cuyahoga Falls -- Mayor Don L. Robart will continue to focus on reduced spending and community development when he begins his next term in office Jan. 1.

Robart was unopposed in his bid for four more years in the Nov. 3 election. He has been mayor since 1986.

The Fall News-Press caught up with the mayor by telephone during a time when his administration is working to reduce costs in the city's general fund in light of the current recession.

"It was nice this year not having to campaign quite as hard because of all the items on the agenda in terms of the budget that have been taking up a pretty good chunk of our time," Robart said. Although he wants to reduce expenses next year, Robart does not want to discontinue efforts in economic development.

"In the next four years, it's a balancing act," the mayor said. "While on the one hand, we're going to be very diligent about controlling spending, [and] reducing costs wherever possible, we can't abandon at all the economic development plans we've been putting in place for some time."

Robart said that he hopes within the next couple of weeks the city's six unions will cooperate with the administration and agree to make concessions to reduce costs to the general fund.

As he campaigned, Robart said that many people asked him what was going on with State Road Shopping Center and what new stores are going to be built there. The mayor said he cannot give specific information until the city and the developer, Stark Enterprises, have a development agreement, and it's OK'd by City Council. "I think we'll have that concluded by the middle of the month," he said.

Robart said he's been "really encouraged ... Stark's getting pretty favorable responses from the people he's contacted." Robart said Stark is "well-connected" and that is why he was chosen to develop the site of State Road Shopping Center, property that the city purchased last year.

"His true passion is our downtown," Robart said, "We can't get started on that until we get a strong foothold in the State Road Shopping Center/ Portage Crossing area. But once we've got that tied down, I'd be very surprised if you don't see Stark moving very aggressively into our downtown with the thought in mind of turning it into something akin to Crocker Park."

Despite current financial problems -- Robart noted that the city's deficit is not projected to hit until 2011 -- the mayor and his administration are "still very anxious to move forward on the development front," he said.

"Jobs creation is the biggest thing in Ohio. We all saw that with the passage of the casinos [issue] ... people are so forlorn with the state of the economy and the loss of jobs, they were ready to pass anything. That's just the mood ... we've got to react to that as well."