Fines, fees finance Stow Municipal Court, judge tells trustees

by Kathleen Steele Gaivin

Jan. 14 trustees meeting

Sagamore Hills trustees listened to an update of the 10-year-old Stow Municipal Court, presented by Municipal Judge Kim R. Hoover.

“When we opened 10 years ago, we did it in a different way than any other court had done it at the time. We have paid for the court with user fees,” the judge said.

Fines paid to Stow Municipal Court over the past decade have gone directly to defraying the cost of building the court, he said. The original cost of the building was $11 million. The debt is now down to about $4.7 million, he said.

“Not a dime has come from taxpayer money, county or state. The other thing we’ve managed to do is for nine straight years, we’ve managed to cover the complete operating costs of the court,” Hoover said. “I think there are six courts in Ohio that can claim that. There are none that can say they have paid the cost of operation and the cost of their courthouse.

“We’re unique and we’ve very grateful. Part of that is because we are such a large court, and we have citizenry that actually care about things like having a valid license. They pay their fines and costs and things of that nature.”

According to the judge, the large courthouse allows space for hosting public classes on topics such as theft, substance abuse and domestic violence.

Another unique feature of the Stow Municipal Court is it has a garden. During the winter, vegetables are grown from seeds planted in the spring “using grow lights we’ve confiscated from drug dealers,” Hoover said. He said that last year, offenders grew 2,200 pounds of vegetables that were donated to the food bank.

“Not only is that a good thing, but you use youthful offenders, generally, to do the work because they can’t pay fines and costs. They work it off,” he said. “We take people who have done wrong and turn it into a positive and feed the hungry. It’s been a great joy. It’s worked very, very well.”

Employee of the Year

Police Chief David Hayes presented Patrolman Dan DeCrane as this year’s police department Employee of the Year. Supervisors in the police department select an outstanding employee each January. The chief noted that this was DeCrane’s second time receiving the honor.

“He is our community-oriented police officer. We all are, but he specializes in it more, helps out with some of the programs like Safety Town, visiting the school [Rushwood Elementary] all year long, keeping the students safe – and other schools in the area, too. He does the Shop with a Cop program,” Hayes said. “So, he does a lot for our community.”

DeCrane also supervises the police department’s Explorers program. The program is open to youth ages 14 to 21 who are interested in law enforcement. The young people assist the police department with its various programs.

After receiving his personal honor, DeCrane swore in Explorers Alex Peters and Carson Carrell and new Explorer Sgt. Adam Hegedus.