Jack Cameron, who will start work Sept. 22, is a former University of Dayton football player.
A former University of Dayton punter is being handed the ball by this northern Warren County bedroom community.
Jack Cameron, a former punter and tight end for UD, has been hired as the new administrator for Clearcreek Twp. His mission will be to guide the township into a new era expected to include commercial and residential development.
“It’s going to be a new day,” Township Trustee Jason Gabbard said earlier this week.
Over the past decade, Clearcreek Twp. has grown by about 50 percent, from just over 20,000 to more than 31,000 residents, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The township is home to State Sen. Shannon Jones, a senior Republican legislator, developer Randy Gunlock, and some of the county’s most valuable residential properties. But the commercial base is so far limited.
Cameron has spent his career in the Cincinnati area. While working in Northern Cincinnati, Cameron guided Evendale’s efforts to retain GE Aviation’s global headquarters with a tax abatement and Norwood’s development of Rookwood Commons, an outdoor town center development. Xavier University also built its basketball arena and event center in Norwood, while Cameron was its safety-service director.
Cameron, a civil engineer with an MBA, is a certified economic developer. He brings to Clearcreek Twp. contacts with business leaders, real estate developers and economic development organizations from Dayton to Cincinnati.
“They are in growth mode,” Cameron said. “They are interested in seeing what they can accomplish there.”
Road improvements have set the stage for development around Red Lion, a small town in the township, between Lebanon and Springboro. Some of the tracts there are zoned for commercial and industrial development.
Partnerships managed by RG Properties, the company Gunlock ran before his recent retirement, hold some of the commercial land around Red Lion. RG is also marketing commercial tracts along Ohio 48 in the township, north of the Villages of Winding Creek, the largest in a series of housing developments along Ohio 48, leading from Centerville-Washington Twp., Montgomery County, into Clearcreek Twp., Warren County.
Residential developments also dot Ohio 73 leading through the township, from Springboro to Waynesville. But a row of homeowners on Ohio 741 are seeking rezoning in anticipation of commercial development sprawling south from the Dayton Mall and Austin Landing.
Cameron, 45, starts Sept. 22, replacing Dennis Pickett, the township’s first professional administrator. Pickett managed the township almost 29 years, overseeing a full-time police department and a fire district that also provides ambulance service to the city of Springboro. Pickett will stay on into November.
“He is the first and only administrator,” Cameron said. “As I told them in the interviews, it’s comforting to know they are not in constant turmoil, they are not second-guessing what an administrator is doing.”’
Cameron will be paid $97,500, about $12,000 more than he said he is paid as the assistant to the mayor in Evendale.
While growing up, earning his advanced degree and working in the Cincinnati area, Cameron played tight end and punted for the University of Dayton while earning a civil engineering degree from 1987-1991. He is married to his college sweetheart, the former Eileen Stein.
Cameron said he looked forward to helping to regain the trust of residents following a ruling in a public meetings lawsuit costing the the township more than $200,000.
“I’m very transparent,” he said. “My passion lies in local government.”
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