This week, that includes the good, the bad and the congested around Dayton airport development, Montgomery County leaning (including threatening liens) on nonprofits to pay property bills on hundreds of properties, and how one area city is responding to a crippling cyber attack.
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Airport development brings jobs, taxes, traffic headaches
• Background: The recent announcement by Joby Aviation of a $500 million investment bringing up to 2,000 jobs to the area around the Dayton International Airport got us thinking: What’s with all the development going on around the airport. Reporter Lynn Hulsey looked into it.
• What she found: The Joby jobs would be in addition to the 5,472 job commitments made since 2014 by companies locating on and around the airport. Companies there include Procter & Gamble Co., Amazon, Chewy, Inc., Crocs, Energizer, Sierra Nevada Corp., PSA Airlines and Air Wisconsin. TJX Digital Inc., which owns T.J. Maxx, will open a logistics complex next year.
• How it happened: The airport happens to be at the “Crossroads of America” – the intersection of Interstate 70 and I-75. This gives the area around it a huge advantage for shipping and logistics companies.
• Seizing opportunity: Local officials say location is key, but they capitalized on that location by aggressively marketing the area, building infrastructure to accommodate development and offering incentives.
• The benefits: Thousands of jobs. Millions in taxes.
• A note on taxes: Part of the deal to lure companies include tax incentives that deprive schools, libraries, and governments of some new tax revenue for a period of time.
• Ugh, traffic: Truck traffic is the biggest challenge created by the development, said Vandalia City Manager Dan Wendt, who gets an earful from citizens about trucks driving through the center of Vandalia on U.S. 40.
- “One of the Vandalia’s largest issues and the things that we hear from our residents is them wanting to embrace responsible economic development choices while mitigating the negative effects of commercial truck traffic,” Wendt said.
- To alleviate this, the county and Vandalia are moving forward with the $21.2 million Dayton International Airport Northeast Logistics Access Project, which Montgomery County Engineer Paul Gruner said is projected to be completed by 2027 if funding can be obtained.
County leans on nonprofits to pay property bills
• What we found: More than 400 parcels in Montgomery County owned by churches and other nonprofits are delinquent in payments to the county, according to an analysis of the county tax roll by the Dayton Daily News.
- This includes 10 that owe more than $10,000.
- A church in Trotwood owes more than $100,000.
• How this happened: For years, Montgomery County often looked the other way as churches and other nonprofits didn’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the county in delinquent taxes and assessments.
• What’s being done: For the first time in recent history, the Montgomery County Treasurer’s Office says notices on these properties will be among letters being sent flagging property owners to delinquent payments and the possibility of being put in the county’s annual tax lien sale.
- “Our local cities and others are owed this money by those who have utilized basic services that benefit their own properties,” McManus said. “Not paying for these services is not only unfair to other organizations that pay, but it jeopardizes one’s future ownership of the property.”
• Immediate impact: Two of the churches that owe more than $30,000 entered into a payment plan with the county after being contacted by reporter Sydney Dawes.
Huber Heights cyber attack
• What happened: Last Sunday, the city of Huber Heights learned it fell victim to a ransomware cyber attack that left city employees unable to access systems critical to daily government function. It’s unclear if resident data was compromised.
• State of emergency: City council declared a state of emergency and gave city manager Rick Dzik the ability to spend up to $350,000 without council authorization to hire an IT firm to help restore systems.
- Not his first rodeo: This isn’t the first ransomware attack Dzik has dealt with in his career. Less than a year ago, while employed as the safety services director for the city of Mount Vernon, a cyber attack left that city in a similar situation.
- No IT director: The city’s IT resigned from his position nine days before the attack, leaving the city without an IT director.
• The latest: City functions that still need to be restored include new building plan review, which is conducted by the fire department, and the police department is still unable to release property. Geographic information system mapping functions utilized by the engineering department also remains down as of Friday.