Bainbridge Hires Endres as Zoning Inspector
After almost 12 years as Newbury Township Zoning Inspector, Karen Endres will be leaving this week to become the Zoning Inspector for Bainbridge Township.
After almost 12 years as Newbury Township Zoning Inspector, Karen Endres will be leaving this week to become the Zoning Inspector for Bainbridge Township.
Bainbridge trustees voted unanimously Monday to hire Endres at an annual salary of $52,000. She replaces Shane Wrench, who resigned abruptly in August after serving for two years.
Wrench replaced Mike Joyce, who was fired by trustees in January of 2010.
Seven people applied for the position, according to Trustee Jeff Markley, who said that two applicants, including Endres, had been considered.
“We made an offer to a candidate today,” Markley said Monday. “I move to hire Karen Endres at salary of $52,000 a year.”
Several people in the audience applauded when Markley made the motion. Some residents had speculated that trustees would be bringing back a zoning inspector who left several years ago, but that had never been confirmed. Trustees did not say who the other finalist had been.
Endres will begin October 26 on a part time basis so she can be trained by interim Zoning Inspector Joe Orlowski, Trustee Lorrie Sass Benza said. She will begin her fulltime position November 7.
In early September, Newbury trustees had cut Endres’s hours from fulltime to 20 hours a week, without benefits, as a cost cutting measure. At that time, trustees acknowledged that Endres was likely to leave for a fulltime position elsewhere.
Newbury Trustee Jan Blair said it was a difficult decision to cut Endres’s hours, and called her a “gem.”
“It all came down to money,” Endres said Tuesday. “Newbury cut my hours and my pay, which I understood they had to do. But I have to do what is best for my family.”
“But I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Newbury,” she said. Endres and her husband, Richard, have lived in the township for more than 20 years and raised their three children there.
Endres said she had accepted Bainbridge’s offer Monday evening during an executive session with trustees, but had not stayed for the meeting and the vote because she wanted to go home and tell her husband the news firsthand.
Sass Benza said Orlowski will help familiarize Endres about current issues, such as administering the township’s Moving Ohio Forward grant to demolish derelict properties in the county.
“She has some big projects to step into immediately,” Sass Benza said later.
Sass Benza said Endres will be able to keep any sick time, but not vacation time that she had accumulated while at Newbury. She said details of Endres’s vacation benefit will be worked out later.
“I’m thrilled to have her,” Markley said after the meeting. “She comes with a lot of credentials and a lot of good recommendations, with glowing reports from all of them. We’re pleased to have her join us.”
“We’re looking forward to her knowledge, expertise and strength,” Sass Benza said. “Newbury’s loss is our gain.”
Endres said Tuesday that she was looking forward to the new challenges she will be facing.
“It’s going to be interesting, implementing the Moving Ohio Forward grant, and working with the Zoning Commission, the BZA and the trustees on re-writing the zoning resolution,” Endres said.
She added that she is also looking forward to enforcing the zoning code and working with residents with everyday issues, much as she had during her years at Newbury.
“There will be different nuances, of course, but I’m up for the challenge,” Endres said, adding that both townships face similar challenges in many respects.
“I look forward to getting to know Bainbridge from a Zoning Inspector’s perspective, rather than a consumer’s perspective,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Bainbridge shopping and appreciating all it has to offer. Now I will be seeing the community from a different perspective.”
