Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to the residents of Shadyside.

If we do not already know one another, in a town the size of Shadyside, I am sure that we have at least heard each other’s names, or can make an association through friends or relatives fairly quickly. If we still haven’t made a connection, please allow me to introduce myself. If we don’t know each other directly, please introduce yourself to me if you see me on the street.

I am a lifelong resident of Shadyside, member of the class of 2015, and contractor with several side ventures. You gave me the honor and privilege of being elected as a village councilman while I was a college student at West Liberty. I served in that capacity from 2018-2023. My peers elected me as council president pro-tem in 2022 and 2023.

When I was on council, I became intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the village. I learned first-hand what goes on, what does not go on, and what the strengths and weaknesses are. I invested myself in learning about the laws that govern municipal operations. I made great friends who I never would have met otherwise.

In my first term on council, I began to realize that there were numerous inefficiencies in the operations of the village. Shortly after I began my second term in 2022, with a few new councilmen on board, it became clear that in order to correct these inefficiencies, a serious “restructuring,” as I call it, was going to need to take place.

I spent most of the second half of 2022 devising a plan in which we converted the village from a mayor-council-board of public affairs system to a mayor-council-village administrator system. The basic structure of each of these systems is laid out in the Ohio Revised Code. The particulars vary in each statutory (non-charter) village throughout the state. In Shadyside, the particulars were largely developed by me, with great support from the mayor and the members of council and the board of public affairs at the time. With several personnel leaving the water department toward the end of 2022, the time became right to implement this new plan.

In February 2023, we appointed our current village administrator, and the board of public affairs was dissolved. I spent a great amount of time between then and December 2023 seeing through the implementation of this plan. As we got toward the end of 2023, I might not yet have admitted it to myself, but deep down, I knew that my plan was not working. Being stubborn, I continued to work tirelessly trying to make it be successful.

In December 2023, after numerous disagreements with the village administrator, and under pressure from some of my colleagues on council, I resigned. At that time, nearly a year into the “restructuring” plan that I devised, things were getting worse within the village, not better. It seemed only logical to me that my colleagues were right — I was the problem.

However, over the past 22 months, I have watched as the village’s operations have become less and less efficient. Personal vendettas have grown. Drama has gotten out of control. Resources are wasted. Accountability is non-existent. The administration has found itself trapped in a rabbit hole of dedicating its time and resources to insanity, at the citizens’ expense. People who all care greatly for this town have gone from being friends and neighbors, even if they had differences of opinion, to hating one another.

Having watched how things have went since I left the administration, it has become clear to me that the “restructuring” plan I devised has been a miserable failure.

For some reason, which I do not understand and cannot explain, the mayor and council will not fix the problem that we created. And that problem continues to get exponentially bigger. No progress is going to be made in this village until this overarching problem is corrected.

I have worked in construction since I was in junior high. I learned early on that there is often not a textbook correct or incorrect way to do something. You have to use logic, intuition, and trial-and-error. If your plan does not work, you have to readjust and come up with a new plan. You have to learn from the situation when things don’t go the way you thought they would go. That is where the village is at right now. That is why I am running for mayor.

About a month ago, I was talking with one of our councilmen about some things going on at the village, and he made the comment to me, something to the effect of, “Well if you get mayor, we’ll do that however you want.” My response to that was, “No!” If I am mayor, we will not do “whatever I want.” We will not do what any individual alone wants. That’s how we got into this mess. If I am mayor, that mistake will not be made again. Next time, it will be a group collaboration. Next time, we will get it right. And if we don’t, we will readjust from there until we do.

I am not afraid to speak for myself, everyone on the ballot for council, and even my opponent, when I say that if nothing else, we all share one thing in common: we love and care about this town. Going forward, whether I am elected or not, my motto is that we will treat each other with dignity and respect. The days of screaming at each other over differences of opinion (and there will be differences of opinion) snubbing each other on the street, and smearing each other’s names are over. We will help each other grow, not tear each other down. I can only hope that everyone will join me in that sentiment. And if I get off track, please pull me back on.

There’s a lot that needs to be done at the village. We have to make up for lost time when things were getting worse, not better. And we don’t have a lot of funds to do it with. The path forward is not going to be easy, and it’s not going to happen overnight. I am not going to make a bunch of promises that I will never be able to deliver on. But I know that working together with a common love for Shadyside, we can improve.

I am kindly asking that on November 4, you will cast your vote for me for mayor and give me the opportunity to serve you, my friends and neighbors, again, and we can help each other get our beloved town back on the right track.

Nick Ferrelli

Shadyside