2/11/2010 - West Side Leader
     

Editor’s note: In honor of the West Side Leader’s 25th anniversary, we asked the Copley Township Board of Trustees to submit a guest column about how Copley has changed in 25 years. Trustees Helen Humphrys, Dale Panovich and Scott Dressler responded with the column below.

Twenty-five years ago, Copley Township was on the cusp of one of the largest housing boons in the region. Called the “golden triangle” because of its location along state Route 21 and Interstate 77 between Canton and Cleveland, the township saw commercial and residential development take off.  

Three trustees governed the township and the township clerk-treasurer oversaw the finances and was the custodian of township records. In 1985, the township’s budget was $1.9 million and it employed 10 full-time police officers, one juvenile officer, eight reserve officers, a fire chief, an assistant fire chief, a full-time fire captain, one full-time paramedic, one part-time fire captain and one part-time fire lieutenant. The road supervisor had three full-time workers, and two full-time and five part-time dispatchers dispatched all. Helping out in the office was one full-time police/ zoning secretary and a part-time clerical assistant. A juvenile caseworker was shared between the townships of Bath and Copley and the city of Fairlawn. 

Technology discussion centered on a higher VHF frequency versus the UHF frequency fire and police were using. The first computer was an IBM purchased by the fire department for $9,000. The clerk was still typing minutes and all correspondence on an IBM Wheelwriter 3 typewriter (which we still have), as computerization did not come to the clerk-treasurer’s office until 1990, when the township became a pilot project for the new state auditor’s software program, the Uniform Accounting Network, which is still used today in the fiscal officer’s office [former clerk-treasurer’s office].

In 1985, the telephone company was General Telephone and a consortium was formed to bring cable television to the area from a company called Complexicable.   

The Copley Fire Department achieved an ISO rating of five, the first township in Ohio without centralized water service and hydrants to obtain that status.

A completely outfitted dump truck cost $47,577 complete with the salt spreader box, and salt was $16.82 per ton. 

Due to tight finances, police cars were leased.

Longtime teacher and Copley’s oldest resident, LuLu Smith, passed away one month before her 100th birthday.

Township land area shrunk in size from its original 25 square miles to 21 square miles in 1985 due to annexations through the years, but made up for it in population growth. The 1990 Census placed Copley at 11,130 residents and the 2000 census was 13,146. A guesstimate on the current population is at 14,000-plus based on county building permit information. 

The township’s only park was Copley Circle and was getting an update by the Copley Circle Improvement Committee. [For more on Copley Circle, see “Copley Circle is heart of community” in the Feb. 4, 2010, West Side Leader, or visit our archives at www.akron .com.]

The Planned Development District area on “the hill” was seeing its first residential construction in the form of condominiums in Heritage Woods. Montrose West Avenue was not a reality yet, but in the planning stages by another developer. The only motel was the Red Roof Inn on Rothrock Road by Bob Evans near state Route 18. Plans were in the zoning office for the first mini plaza, Montrose Centre, and plans were approved for the construction of a second fire station on Cleveland-Massillon Road next to the Montrose Cemetery on land owned by Bath and Copley.

Along Jacoby Road, Loch Raven Estates’ single-family homes were almost built out, and the developer pulled permits for the first six townhouse buildings fronting Jacoby Road. A water tower and a package plant owned by the Copley Square Water Company was the “centralized” sewer and water for Loch Raven.

And, the mayor of Montrose was never in.

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