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“The community is only as good as you help make it,” said the former city councilman and current planning commission member. “I live here, I’m going to stay involved with it, and just keep going that way. That’s the way I’m made. That’s what my father always told me, ‘A marriage is only as good as you help make it. And where you live, the community is only as good as you help make it.’ ”
Hassler began working for the Civil Defense in 1960, assisting with law enforcement. That changed to the Auxiliary Police Department in 1965, and a year later he became the auxiliary’s captain. He remained on the auxiliary for 32 years.
Then he served on Fairfield City Council from December 1981 to December 1989, and then from December 1991 to December 1999. After 16 years on City Council, he served on the city parks board from April 2003 to December 2011. He’s served on the city’s planning commission since January 2012, and is on the board for four more years. Throughout most of his service in Fairfield, he’s also served on the Butler County Transportation Improvement District for the past 21 years, and has two more years on his current term.
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“Don is a driven, hard-working man who is always doing something to make his community better,” said Fairfield City Manager Mark Wendling. “He is reflective of the Fairfield Community. Don is every man.”
The past 50-plus years, Hassler said, “has been great.”
“If you don’t stay involved, you don’t have a gripe,” he said.
In addition to still being on the county TID and serving on the planning commission, Hassler was treasurer and chair of the fire levy campaign in 2016, which voters overwhelmingly supported.
He was also the Master of the Grange, a farming organization that disbanded in the city years ago, but its membership voted to give the 19-acre land to the city.
“I wanted us to be remembered for something,” Hassler said. “So with what little members we had, we voted to give it to the city as long as they named it Grange Park.”
And what was Hassler’s greatest accomplishment in 50-plus years?
“They’re all good,” he said.
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