In May, several hundred people participated in the 18th annual Care Walk to fight breast cancer. The event raised over $16,500 this year and over $250,000 since its inception.
That Day in May community event continued its tradition of the pancake breakfast, 5k and 10k runs, parade, car show, dog costume contest, displays, games, rides and food.
In August, the 20th annual Giving Strings concert, with 120 musicians of various ages, raised over $3,500 for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
In October, more than 2,000 walkers participated in the 6th annual Out of the Darkness Walk to Stop Suicide. Suicide is at an 18 year high in Ohio among youth aged 8 to 19. In December, Oakwood Public Safety Captain Mike Jones and Detective Kasey Ballinger received a report of a student three hours away who was contemplating suicide. Their extraordinary above and beyond efforts resulted in the saving of a young life. I refer you to the Oakwood Register January 8, 2020 issue for a complete report of this event. Thank you Captain Jones and Detective Ballinger.
City Staff and Volunteers
We will issue our 2019 Annual Report to every household in the near future. This report provides an abundance of information about our city and the services we provide to our citizens. Accordingly, I will not repeat tonight the good news found in the report. Please read this interesting report at your leisure.
We have an outstanding city staff led by City Manager Norbert Klopsch. He begins his 18th year as our City Manager and is recognized throughout the region for his leadership skills.
Under the leadership of Chief Alan Hill, our Public Safety Director, we added experienced Public Safety Officers Chris Slone and Kyle Sewert, and promoted Damien Baggett to Lieutenant.
Lt. Chuck Balaj was recognized for his work on the Dayton/Cincinnati Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) where he played a critical role in arresting and convicting Laith Alebbini for attempting to conspire and provide material support and resources to ISIS. This was the first ever conviction on an international terrorism case in the Southern District of Ohio.
Detective Jeff Yount, Jr. received the Tactical Crime Suppression Unit (TCSU) Agent of the Year award. This recognition was for his cumulative body of work over the course of the year.
We offered our second Citizen Police Academy in 2019. This 10 week program is designed to educate citizens about the functions of our Public Safety Department and the challenges of modern day policing matters.
We also implemented a new program entitled Assisting and Contributing to Oakwood Resident Needs (ACORN).
We continually receive notes and comments from citizens complementing our Public Works Department for their courteous and outstanding service. Our employees assisted the City of Dayton with debris cleanup after the May tornadoes. We welcomed Doug Spitler, P.E. in January 2020 as our Director of Engineering and Public Works.
Carol Collins, our leisure services director, and her staff are directly responsible for our beautiful city parks, our designation as a Tree City USA for the 37th year, the 45th anniversary of Smith Gardens and for operating our Oakwood Community Center and all the excellent recreation programs available to our citizens of all ages.
Our finance director, Cindy Stafford, CPA, received another Auditor of State Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting. Less than 10% of the jurisdictions in the state of Ohio receive this award. She and her staff continue our tradition of transparency in all financial respects.
Rob Jacques continues to serve as our law director consistently providing sound and timely legal counsel and advice to the city manager, staff and City Council.
Jennifer Wilder, our director of personnel and properties, has continued our strong enforcement of our property maintenance standards and managed the favorable extension of all our collective bargaining agreements with city employees.