Meet the 2010 Slate of Candidates for Summit SWCD Supervisor
Meet the 2010 Slate of Candidates for Summit SWCD Supervisor
Dennis C. Stoiber, ASLA
Mr. Stoiber is a principal with the architectural and engineering consulting firm GPD Group located in Akron, Ohio. He has been with the firm for twenty years, serving first as a staff landscape architect, then as a project manager and, finally, as a principal and practice leader for the site development and parks and recreation design teams.
Prior to his time with GPD, Mr. Stoiber practiced for seventeen years in the areas of chemical engineering and landscape architecture. He possesses a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Dayton and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from the Ohio State University. He is a registered landscape architect in the State of Ohio (1985) as well as in eight other states, and he gained Council of Landscape Architecture Review Boards certification in 2005.
Mr. Stoiber is a 22-year resident of the Village of Silver Lake in Summit County and presently
serves on the Summit County Planning Commission and the Village of Silver Lake Planning
Commission. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Ohio
Parks and Recreation Association, the Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition and the Rails to Trails
Conservancy.
Robert W. Bobel
Robert W. Bobel is the Park Engineer at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a position he has
held since 1987. He was responsible for much of the engineering design in the development
of the national park including the restoration of numerous historic structures within the
park, such as the Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway. He was
instrumental in the development of the park’s riverbank stabilization program which uses
innovative bioengineering techniques to protect the park’s cultural resources while enhancing
and improving aquatic habitat and water quality. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Federal
Service Award from the Federal Executive Board of Cleveland.
Mr. Bobel serves on the board of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, a not-for-profit group
promoting the Ohio & Erie National Heritage Canalway and has served as a Supervisor for
Summit County Soil and Water District since 2004. He was co-founder of the Cuyahoga Valley
Trails Council, an organization working to build and improve trails in the Cuyahoga Valley.
He and his wife Peg have authored or edited a number of books on trails in Northeast Ohio
including the Towpath Companion-A Traveler’s Guide to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath
Trail, and Beyond Cleveland on Foot - Second Edition. The latest publication is Trail Guide to
Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Third Edition.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve
University. Mr. Bobel is a registered professional engineer.
Jeffrey Kerr
Jeffrey Kerr, ASLA is Director of Sustainable Practices with Floyd Browne Group, a landscape architecture and engineering firm located in Akron. As a licensed landscape architect, he has over twenty years of professional experience working with a variety of public and private clients throughout Northeast Ohio. Prior to joining Floyd Browne Group, Jeff was the founding principal of Kerr+Boron Associates, Inc., a landscape architecture and land planning firm in Brecksville, Ohio. Throughout his career, Jeff has worked with communities in developing planning initiatives such as regional watershed studies, comprehensive land use plans, green infrastructure & conservation plans, parks & trail design, and urban redevelopment strategies. Jeff has extensive experience in the practice of sustainability has worked on numerous LEED (green) or sustainable development projects. He was the lead consultant on the Copley Township Comprehensive Land Use Plan and the Tinkers Creek Watershed Land Conservation Priority Plan.
Mr. Kerr has studied at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University
and Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University where received a
Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture. He is a frequent speaker on sustainable
development initiatives. Kerr has been involved with a variety of organizations including
the Northeast Ohio Watershed Council, past chair of the Friends of Yellow Creek
Watershed, Ohio Stormwater Association, American Society of Landscape Architects,
among others. Jeff is also spearheading a group of regional stakeholders looking to
establish Cuyahoga River as a state designated water trail.
He is a long term resident of Summit County, a graduate of Revere High School and
currently lives in Bath Township with his wife and son.
Wayne Wiethe
Wayne Wiethe has been the Director of Planning for the City of Green since September
of 1993. He is responsible for the review of all site and subdivision plans submitted
to the city. He has been instrumental in the development and administration of the
Comprehensive Land Use Plan for the City of Green. Other job duties include the review
of all zoning amendments as well as any ordinances relative to the use of lands. His
office is responsible for the acquisition and development of all the city’s parkland.
Wayne also writes grants for the various infrastructure projects.
Prior to his work in Green, Wayne was the Director of Planning and Development for
the City of Alliance and worked as the Community Development Administrator with the
Stark County Regional Planning Commission and as a planner with the Shelby County
Regional Planning Commission.
Wayne holds a B.A. Degree in Geography (Planning) and an A.A. B. in Business
Management and an A.A.B. in Real Estate Technology from the University of Akron. He
is licensed as a Real Estate Sales Associate in the State of Ohio and is a member of the
American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).
Summit SWCD Supervisor Election Procedures
Summit County residents attending our annual breakfast meeting this year will be able to participate in the annual supervisor election. Upon arrival at the breakfast meeting on November 17, 2010, (see Annual Meeting article for full details on the meeting) attendees will immediately be directed to the election registration table where election officials will find your name in the election registry. Voters will sign next to their name to verify their eligibility, obtain a ballot and proceed to a nearby voting booth, where they will mark their ballot and deposit it in the ballot box. This year’s meeting will commence at 8:45 a.m. with a light breakfast. Registration and voting will begin at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 9:30 a.m.
This year we have four very qualified candidates running to fill two positions on the Board of Supervisors. Running as the incumbents are Rob Bobel, a Civil Engineer with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Wayne Wiethe, Director of Planning for the City of Green.
Other candidates include Denny Stoiber, a Landscape Architect and Principal with the architectural and engineering consulting firm GPD Group located in Akron, and Jeff Kerr, ASLA is Director of Sustainable Practices with Floyd Browne Group, a landscape architecture and engineering firm located in Akron. Please check out their biographies for more information. County residents and landowners who cannot attend the Annual Meeting have two other options for voting for SWCD board members.
They may call or stop by the district office to request an absentee ballot or they can cast their vote at the office, during regular business hours and between the dates of October 27th and November 16th.
Absentee voting ends on November 16th at 12:00 noon.
If you would like more information regarding these proceedings, please contact our office at (330) 929-2871.
SWCD Fall Fish Sale Information
Offered again are largemouth bass, channel catfish, bluegill, and white amur and fathead minnows. The pre-ordered fish will be available for pick up on Tuesday, October 26, 2010, at 10:30 a.m. at the Tallmadge Soccer Fields parking lot located adjacent to the Summit County Fairgrounds. Please use the Route 91 entrance. Orders must be picked up during the specified time. Bring approximately 5-10 gallons of water from your pond for each 100 small fish ordered. The White Amur require two gallons of water for each fish ordered. A container with a cover (a clean garbage can for example) will keep the fish contained until you get home. Please line your container with a clean, plastic bag. Do not bring city or well water.
The largemouth bass, channel catfish and bluegill are the recommended species for stocking northeast Ohio lakes and ponds. All three provide excellent fishing and fine eating. Largemouth bass feed almost exclusively on other fish. A forage species such as the bluegill or fathead minnows should be stocked as a food source. Stock only the recommended species in the proper ratio (100 bass, 500 bluegills, and 100 catfish per surface acre of water). The fathead minnows are stocked at a rate of 1,000 per acre and will only be sold in lots of 100 fish. Do not add fish from other ponds or streams. Undesirable fish such as carp, crappies and yellow perch can upset the balance in a pond, competing with more desirable fish for food and space. Once these undesirable fish become established, they are difficult to remove.
When you pick up your fish, deliver them to your pond immediately. Be sure the water
temperature in the container and pond are the same. This can be accomplished by placing
the hauling container in the pond or by gradually adding pond water to the container until the
temperature is the same.
To order your fish, please include payment with your order and make your check payable and mail to the Summit SWCD, 2795 Front Street, Suite D, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44221.
The deadline for ordering is October 22, 2010.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FISH FORM
The City Stream and the Country Stream
If you read Aesop’s Fable about the Country Mouse and the City Mouse, you will probably remember that the country mouse was very glad to get home after his visit to the city with all of its hazards. If they could speak, streams in the city would tell us that they, too, are glad when they get back out into the open countryside.
To coin a phrase from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “It’s a hard (surface) life” for streams in the city. Just pretend for a moment, that you are an urban stream. You often look out at your banks and see, not sycamores’ and willows’ limbs hanging over the banks, cooling your water, but straight-sided concrete walls devoid of any plant life, or worse yet, the insides of rusty corrugated metal pipes running underground. There are no children sailing toy boats from the banks, (the water is of such poor quality that parents won’t let children go near it,) no fishermen, (the fish stay away from these polluted waters,) and no plant or insect life. If you are lucky, there will be a few grocery carts and tires here and there, to break up the monotony. Only a few aquatic creatures, such as leaches can live in polluted waters.
You would like to stretch out and meander, with a riffle here, a run there, and pools with banks beside them where you can deposit sediment to enrich the soil as you slow down. Alongside your banks, you would like to have some tree stumps and piles of submerged branches, where fish and aquatic reptiles such as turtles and water snakes could hide and nest. But alas, many years ago, a group of city planners following the customary practices of the time, decided to straighten your channel, so you are stuck tight and can only move forward.
You are not even able to use your floodplain for relief when there is a heavy rainstorm. Because you can’t reach your floodplain, you are unable to spread out and slow down and instead, go faster and faster, often down cutting your bottom or streambed making your situation worse. As you speed along, your swift waters become more powerful, and you pick up and carry more and heavier materials, breaking down and eroding earth and stone from your bed and banks as. Because of the surrounding developed areas, your channel often cannot widen, so you continue to cut and become entrenched, (or deeper.) If the rain is really heavy, you may breach your banks where the channel flattens out and flood the surrounding urban areas causing much damage.
During dry times, you become very thirsty. Groundwater recharges streams during dry times, because after rain or snow melt, it travels slowly underground and empties into stream channels, days and months after soaking into the soil. But all of your rainwater has been carried away in pipes, because the concrete and other impervious surfaces wouldn’t allow it to soak into the ground, so you have no groundwater to supply you with a drink.
You feel very heavy and sluggish because you have a great deal more sediment in your streambed than do your country counterparts. All of the grit and materials that run off the city streets and sidewalks, along with the eroded material from your bed and banks, is transported by stormwater runoff into your channel.
So it is no wonder that you can’t wait to get back into the natural countryside where you can stretch out, cool down, slow down, and provide rich habitat for the plants and animals that share the landscape with us. Here you can access your wide flood plains and deposit sediment. Pollutants are removed by the well-vegetated riparian areas alongside your banks.
Now that we have glimpsed the perils of life as an urban stream, we can see clearly that we must all get together and make life easier for our “city” streams. We can do just that by participating in stream clean-ups, volunteering for stream monitoring, establishing riparian setbacks, restoring flood plains, washing our cars on the grass, picking up after our pets, limiting fertilizer use, and using many other small and large environmentally healthy practices that will improve water quality and make our city stream much happier. Several stream restoration projects including the Haley’s Run stream remediation have taken place in Akron and Summit County. These projects demonstrate that all is not lost. Stream in an urban area can be restored to function as nature intended.
For information on what you can do to improve the quality of life for your urban stream, call Summit Soil and Water Conservation District at 330-929-2871, or go to summitswcd.org.