“This is a talk. It is about bringing the community together, and together coming up with solutions to stop this stuff,” Lolli said. He vowed to have quarterly meetings.

Four months later, Lolli is gone, retiring after 33 years of service at the city of Middletown Division of Fire for 33 years, the last seven as fire chief and two years as city manager. And the most recent quarterly meeting was cancelled.

But the city police and administrators said they are still striving to clean up this Butler County city.

Earl Nelson, a 19-year-veteran of the force, was sworn in as police chief in July and Nathan Cahall, an assistant city manager, was named acting city manager and remains in that position.

Violent crime is down

Both Nelson and Cahall said after the arrest of a group or a “click” of wrongdoers, much of the gun violence stopped.

A 23-year-old man with six previous felony cases listed on common pleas court records and one in juvenile court was sentenced to prison on July 25 for drug charges. Nelson said he is a suspect in several of the city’s unsolved shootings and a murder.

“This summer we allocated the resources we have to problem areas. But we knew it would slow down when we got certain people charged, through the court system and locked up. But it takes time,” Nelson said.

The man sent to prison was a suspect at age 17, along with others including one who was also a victim of homicide, of fatal shooting.

“He has put fear into a lot of people in the city,” Nelson said. “We are looking to move forward with some of the other charges now that he is locked up.”

Investigators believe the suspect was either committing the crimes himself or paying others to do it.

Nelson said the department is always open to hearing from citizens and it doesn’t have to be during a Town Hall meeting.

“The police department is always willing to talk to anyone who wants to schedule a meeting and discuss ways we can make things better. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a large venue like city council chambers. But there is always a need for us to hear what the community wants to say,” Nelson said.

Kimberly Silas, whose nephew Benny Barefield was gunned down outside his Middletown home in 2018, spoke at the May Town Hall meeting pointing to the need to arrest and keep repeat offenders behind bars. Barefield’s homicide remains unsolved, but arrests were made then charges dropped after a grand jury did not return indictments.

“You have some of the same individuals involved in these robberies, that are involved in these home invasions, involved in these murders, and they may be incarcerated for a short period of time ... but some of these same individuals are wreaking havoc not just in Middletown, but throughout Cincinnati, throughout Hamilton … some of these same individuals are still on the street,” Silas said at the meeting. “They need to be taken off the street permanently.”

She told the Journal-News this week there has been progress in curbing the violence.

“The arrest and conviction of certain individuals have helped address the problems that have persisted for 10 years or more,” Silas said. “I know there are other families like mine still hoping and praying for justice for their loved ones who were murdered not long ago.”

Silas said she would like to see more Town Hall meetings and she thinks they are useful in bringing people together.

“While I am disappointed about the town hall cancellation, it’s important to focus on the bigger picture,” she said. “Let’s hope for another town hall soon. it was great to see citizens unite for a common cause,” she said.

Cleaning up the city

Not only was stopping violence a focus this summer, but also cleaning up the city through code enforcement.

Councilman Steve West II said in June, “the city looks like...,” calling out vacant, dilapidated and properties filled with trash that were “blatant” violations.

In response, city officials announced a code enforcement sweep lasting through September in which code enforcement specialists focused of different neighborhood districts every two weeks beginning July 8.

In tandem, two Trash Bash community clean up days were planned and were very popular with citizens who got rid of tons of tires and unwanted large items.

Did it make a difference?

“Personally, I see a marked improvement around town and that is the feedback I have gotten talking to residents,” West said. “I see a huge improvement all over the city.”

But as a city, “we can always do more,” West said. He noting updates to Sherman Park that has spurred pride in the neighborhood.

“There are a lot of positive changes I have seen aesthetically recently,” West said.

Cahall said the sweep enforcement is ending and, “We are going back to a more balanced spread of our staff across the community.

But he added, “Our enforcement efforts are not waning at all, I think the neighborhood by neighborhood approach has run its course and now we are going to go back to normal operations but with an added concentration on bringing things into compliance more rapidly than the past.”

There are between 30 and 50 code violation cases that may end up in court because of lack of compliance. They are under review by the law department.

“We went in to this with the goal was compliance, not convictions. At the end of the day the goal was to get things fixed. I give credit to our residents and our staff, we have been successful in working things out for the most part. If folks work with us, we will work with them, ”Cahall said.

He to said the effort was successful.

“I think we have made some progress in couple neighborhoods. A lot of the enforcement focus was on things that make a difference at least visually or aesthetically, Cahall said.