By TERRY BRLAS
Strongsville Post editor
Ward 3 Councilman Jim Carbone, who took the oath of office on Jan. 2, is
the newest member to Strongsville City Council along with Ward 2
Councilman Matt Schonhut.
Carbone replaces 24-year councilman Mark Roth, who elected not to run
again. Even though the new councilman realizes he has big shoes to fill
he his is own person and excited to jump into the fray with mind and
body.
"Matt and I talk about this a lot. We need to take what they did and
build on it with different ideas, with a different vision," Carbone
said. "The sky's the limit. I have big expectations and a lot of people
supported me for the vision of what I want to do."
Strongsville school colors are green and white. Carbone's vision
includes a green city in another fashion. His plan consists of a
consistent look with trees lining Pearl Road.
"People are tired of this hodge-podge," he said. "Let's introduce
legislation. We can do it. The naysayers think it's too late. I say
absolutely not. It's never too late. Do we continue to do it wrong? We
have great opportunity in our north and south end. This is the time to
start creating that consistency.
"Jennifer Milbrandt (city arborist) is phenomenal. We can have buildings
where their exterior is consistent, their landscaping is consistent and
in the next five years we can rehab buildings by taking those elements
to existing buildings. We will have transformed that area. Hopefully we
can make it happen."
Carbone has similar thoughts regarding Prospect Road. In his words it
all comes down to making an area desirable. Making a shopping district
more attractive takes time, however.
"It has to have controlled growth. We don't want to rush things. It has to fit into the plans," he said.
Carbone wants to do everything in his power to make Strongsville a place
where residents remain and live their lives to the fullest. He wants
people to love the city as much as he does.
"I genuinely care. I have nieces and nephews that grew up here and want
to remain here," he said. "There's a lot of weight on my shoulders. I
need to keep Strongsville a strong community, along with the rest of
Strongsville, so they can remain here."
In addition to his nieces and nephews, Carbone wants a strong future for
his son, 2-year-old Michael Anthony, to be able to enjoy Strongsville
and raise a family.
"We have a lot of development going on, but I want to gear it towards 10
to 20 years from now like a Rocky River or a Bay Village. Every so many
years the community is reborn," Carbone said.
Carbone is an 18-year veteran of the North Olmsted Police Department. He
serves as the school resource officer there. Safety and schools are his
top two priorities when it comes to Strongsville and its citizenry.
Without both being as strong as they can be development will not be what
it can be.
"If you look at Cleveland's outer ring suburbs what made them
deteriorate? It was because the schools declined and crime came in," he
said. "Let's focus on those things. It's easy to say and maybe it
changes when politics come into play. Let's focus on keeping the streets
safe and let's focus on our schools."
He added, "The services are great here. It's not a case of improving
services. It's a case of maintaining them. We can talk about
beautification, that's all well and dandy. We need to bring economic
development to the city so we can pay for these services."
Carbone stated that the first item on resident's minds at each meeting
or interaction he has had since becoming elected is the state of the
schools in Strongsville.
"We have to listen to residents. What are they telling us?" Carbone
said. "The people I'm talking to are not dissatisfied with the education
their children are getting or the education their children received.
"However, Strongsville schools are still using projectors in 2011. There
is a portion of the school system that has to be run as a business.
This community needs new buildings. We need a spark. Whatever we need to
do to provide our kids with the best technology and best facilities,
that's what we need to do."
Carbone defeated Larry Frawley by a 57-43 percent margin of victory, the largest of the three contested council races.
"I knew he (Frawley) had a lot of support from people in the community
and a lot of support from Republicans. I knew if I just stayed the
course, kept working, held to the values I was brought up on and ran a
clean campaign that the people were going to back me."
Carbone's backing cut across all demographics. His support came from the
young, senior citizens, men and women. In the end it was that type of
broad based support that made the difference.
"I had so many people working for me that just moved to the community
and people that have lived here for 40 years. If I'm going to toot my
horn at all it's the fact that I've been here forever and people respect
my family and me. They knew what they were getting."
Carbone makes a point to say that he is working for all the residents of Ward 3, not just the ones that voted for him.
"I'm excited to work for the people that didn't vote for me," he said.
"Hopefully they are excited about their new councilman and I can earn
their respect. At the end of the day we are all neighbors and I am a
representative of them with the city."
