NORTON: The city is moving in the right direction, says its new mayor, Mike Zita, and he’s glad the community and he are on the same page.
“I felt that we were getting support from the community to allow us to do some of the things to get economic growth in the city,” said Zita, a former city councilman of eight years. “We are trying to bring businesses into the city to relieve some of the tax burden off of the backs of the homeowers.”
Zita, 50, said businesses make up only 30 percent of the city’s tax base — a figure he said was not high enough.
His administration and council members are meeting with a 3-year-old development task force, made up of business owners, to help determine what is needed to get new business in the city.
“We are always open for an opportunity to entertain a business to come into the community,” Zita said. “We have a good mix. There are various businesses here, mostly retail and a little bit of manufacturing.”
He said would like to see restaurants and health care in the area, while conceding the city lacks some needed infrastructure to attract business.
“We need water and utilities. There is a lot of green space in Norton, but not ‘business space’ to fit businesses. We need to service some business areas,” Zita said. “We already have a good location, with two main highways that go through [the city] and five intersections where you can get on and off those highways in the city of Norton.”
The city has easy access to Interstate 76, state Routes 21, 261 and 585, and U.S. Route 224.
Zita said that since the city’s income tax was raised a half percent to 2 percent with the extra half percent going for sewer and water projects, $435,000 has been collected. The first phase of the project will exhaust those funds, however.
His priorities this year include road projects. Zita said it’s a major issue trying to come up with funding.
Finance Director John Moss said there are many roads throughout the city that need major work.
“We try to take the dollars that we have [to keep] some roads from falling apart as well as to put back together some of the worst ones,” Moss said. “The problem is after we get done putting back together the worst ones, the people who [use] nearly the worst say, ‘What about my road? It’s horrible.’ And indeed it is, it just wasn’t the worst. It’s always a problem to manage that. We just don’t have the dollars to make everybody happy.”
Zita is a part-time mayor, earning $11,450 a year. He works full time as a beverage manager for Acme. Moss and City Administrator Rick Ryland run Norton’s day-to-day operations.
Safety forces
Norton employs 48 people full time, along with five part-time police officers and 20 part-time firefighters.
Zita is working to help pass the city’s combined fire and emergency medical service levy March 6. The 4.6-mill, four-year levy would generate about $1.13 million annually and would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $140.88 a year. The last attempt to pass separate fire and EMS replacement levies failed Nov. 8.
The new proposal shortens the length of the levy from five years to four.
Zita, a volunteer firefighter from 1980 to 1992, said the law department is working on paperwork that would negate four older levies on the books if the new levy passes. The mayor said he and council will sign it to confirm their position.
“We are looking to get the support of the community. There were layoffs. Right now there are two full-time firefighters, including the fire chief. The fire station is being manned at night between midnight and 6 a.m. on a volunteer basis. They are just volunteering, sitting up there all night waiting for calls to come in,” Zita said. “They only get paid per hour if a call comes in that they actually go out on. Since Jan. 1 to Jan. 26, there have been 20 significant calls where somebody could have suffered if paramedics had not gotten there in time.”
There have been a total of 90 calls since the first of the year.
“I personally feel that speaks very highly of the integrity level of the firefighters because most of them don’t live here in Norton, but they are here to make sure the residents of Norton are cared for,” the mayor said.
Zoning issues
Another major project this year is revising and updating the city’s zoning codes, which contain a lot of mixed zoning in areas. Zita hopes to get that done in the next few months.
Most recently the mayor has been fighting the U.S. Postal Service in an effort to keep the city’s only post office open. He has been urging residents to write to area legislators to join the fight.
Zita said Norton residents are very involved with politics, and although the city has its naysayers with recall attempts, levy defeats and efforts to reduce the number of council members in the past, he doesn’t take it personally.
“Norton residents are passionate about the community they live in; just like me,” he said. “I have a passion for what goes on here in the city. I grew up here. I’ve been living here since the ’70s. I’ve moved several times, but they have all been moves in the city. My parents still live here, too.”
Zita said he, too, was active in the community, attending council meetings before he decided to go into politics. He called politics “a way to get things done.”
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.