take great pride in welcoming you to the 2010-2011 edition of the Brecksville Image Book. It is a fitting tribute to the wonderful city I have been given the opportunity to serve for the past 22 years. We are thrilled to once again work with Image Builders Marketing to provide you with a detailed guide to what’s happening in Brecksville. Throughout these years, we have worked together as a community to build one of the finest cities in Cuyahoga County. Brecksville has become an outstanding location to live, work and play. With its proximity to I-77, I-480, I-271 and the Ohio Turnpike, Brecksville is ideally located between Cleveland and Akron. Our nearly 13,500 residents enjoy more than 180 acres of green space. One of our greatest assets is, without question, the availability of surrounding parkland including the Metroparks and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Our goal has never been to be the biggest community, nor the smallest, and we’ve kept our growth controlled in response to the wishes of those who live in this community. We carefully guard the relationships we have with our businesses and focus our efforts on supporting our cozy downtown by continuing to reject big box retail. As the closing of the Veterans Administration Hospital in the southern part of town draws closer, we welcome the challenge to re-define this area as a place for local business growth. Brecksville residents enjoy a host of amenities provided by our Community Center, home to the Recreation Department, and our Human Services Center, which opened in 2006, home primarily to senior programs. The Brecksville Community Center offers so much more than just the opportunity for recreation. Our goal is to provide the greatest number of activities available for our residents. For example, our Kids Quarters, just in front of the Community Center, helps to bring every child’s playtime fantasy to life. This completely reconstructed playground brings countless hours of enjoyment to our younger residents.  The Community Center and Human Services Center are two of the most magnificent buildings in the area. They feature a stage, jogging track, basketball and volleyball court, a fitness area, outdoor walking track, saunas, whirlpools, full-service kitchen, community rooms, child care, indoor and outdoor pools and so much more. I am continually grateful to our many volunteers who give thousands of hours of their time each year toward our free programs for senior residents, like the award-winning transportation program, Meals on Wheels, Brecksville Pantry which provides food monthly for those in temporary need, and so many more.  Our police department is in the expert hands of Chief Dennis Kancler. We continue to receive grant money for our DARE and other community outreach programs that include classes on stranger safety and drug abuse. Our police cruisers are equipped with auto external defibrillators (AEDs) to help address an emergency during a call that much quicker.  Most residents may not realize that as a result of the careful dedication of our fire department, the likelihood of a fire erupting is dramatically reduced. Chief Ed Egut provides routine fire inspections as a service to our local businesses, which means that minor problems can be addressed before they become major ones. Our fire department also works closely with departments from surrounding communities to ensure that back up emergency support is always available. Our fire department is also a part of 19 communities to provide mutual aid to our citizens for specialized rescue operations such as water rescues and the rescue of someone who has fallen through the ice.  I am so proud of the joint efforts by our police and fire departments that work hand-in-hand to ensure that every officer on the police force has CPR training and has learned additional life-saving techniques. We have a safe community because our residents have partnered with our officers to be each other’s keepers. They continue to help reduce the potential for crime to happen in our city. When a disaster strikes, our service, fire and police departments work closely to speed emergency and repair vehicles to areas of need. Their commitment to partnering is a credit to their unwavering professionalism and dedication to this community. Our service department, under the direction of Service Director Ron Weidig, is without parallel. Our snow removal is timely and thorough. Our rubbish removal is consistently efficient. Our award winning recycling department enables residents to recycle nearly 50% of what they dispose of. Our horticulture department, along with the City’s Beautification Committee, makes the City stunningly beautiful with a rainbow of floral plantings everywhere within sight and a glance anywhere makes it evident why the City has received the Tree City USA designation for 15 consecutive years. The Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District has once again – for the tenth consecutive year – earned the highest rating on the Ohio Department of Education’s Local Report Card. The District also earned for the second time possible the newest and now highest rating of “Excellent with Distinction.” The Class of 2009 achieved the highest composite score on the ACT Test in the history of the school.  Brecksville’s City Administration and City Council have always been committed to a philosophy of fiscal responsibility. Mayor Jerry Hruby has said, “We have always lived within our means and will continue to do so.” A hallmark of the success of the City’s philosophy is the recent news that the City’s bond rating has been modified from Aa1 to Aaa, the highest rating granted by Moody’s Investors Service, one of three firms widely recognized within the municipal bond industry as a source for credit ratings. This is good news for all residents because the higher the bond rating, the lower the interest cost on money that the City borrows. 2011 is a landmark year for the City of Brecksville as we celebrate our community’s Bicentennial. A committee of more than 100 people has been working diligently to plan a host of activities. We’ll learn more about our history beginning with Brecksville’s first settlement at Boston and Broadview Roads in 1811. Today that location is in Broadview Heights. What is now Broadview Heights was a part of Brecksville until Broadview Heights was established in 1927. Because of that Broadview Heights has joined us to truly make this an all-inclusive celebration. We invite you to go to the City website at www.brecksville.oh.us and click on the Bicentennial page to learn more about everything that is happening in 2011. When I look around this magnificent community that we have built together, I know we share in a sense of pride that is richly deserved... Enjoy! Sincerely, Jerry N. Hruby Mayor