{"id":2383,"date":"2026-06-12T20:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/?page_id=2383"},"modified":"2026-06-12T20:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:29:11","slug":"susan-miller-new-straitsville","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/susan-miller-new-straitsville\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Miller | New Straitsville"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Straitsville Fiscal Officer Leverages Strategic Partnership to Strengthen Local Initiatives<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Building<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

February 19, 2026
\nBy Emily Stokes\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Packed with history, New Straitsville reflects a long history of coal mining, moonshine production, and charm. Incorporated back in 1872, the village began as a coal mining town with rich and large veins of available coal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Home to Robinsons cave and the origin of the United Mine Workers, the area has had a thriving community with a survival mindset since its establishment and the mine fire which caused the village to become the moonshine capital of the world.<\/p>\n

A Legacy of Service<\/strong>
\nNew Straitsville Fiscal Officer Susan Miller serves the community in more ways than one, and says she loves to help the community, whether it\u2019s the Masons or the fire department.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in the village, Miller is the third generation to live in the area. She has worked for the village since 2016, when the clerk position opened. With a strong background in bookkeeping and handling numbers, Miller said she likes a variety.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a small-town clerk, you handle a whole lot more than just the water and sewer bills,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Keeping track of the quarterly and monthly payroll reports, closing books at the end of the year, helping council create ordinances, reporting financial status to lenders, police department training requirements, personnel files and official records keeper are all jobs Miller juggles.<\/p>\n

She also handles mayors court, preparing cases after officers hand out tickets and preparing cases for when the magistrate comes to town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a wide variety of jobs that I do under the title of fiscal officer, and I tell people – I have worked here every day and no two days have ever been alike,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

For the common cause of serving the people of New Straitsville, Miller said she is there to help, aiming to serve people in the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in our village, I\u2019ve known most of my life, so they\u2019re like family. So you want to do things to help the family out,\u201d Miller said. \u201cBy building a stronger community, you build a better economic situation for your village too, you try to help encourage businesses to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, the local history group\u2019s president, Miller said she has lived through some of the history and now shares the history with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like volunteering. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself because there\u2019s always a lot of volunteer jobs and not enough volunteers. But I figure whatever I can do to help,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

A Strategic Collaboration Taking Vision to Progress<\/strong>
\nReflecting on recent projects between the Mayors\u2019 Partnership for Progress and the Village of New Straitsville, Miller said everyone has been good to help and guide the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve helped us be aware when grants are available, and as a small town, and being a one-stop-shop, technically the clerk ends up trying to do it all, and sometimes a clerk doesn\u2019t have the access to resources,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

More specifically, the Delyn Center, an old walk-in theater was previously used as the official regulation basketball court in town, for the Lions club, festivals and other gatherings, is now getting a makeover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the building that was for the community. We are trying to right now to get the thing back in to use so that the community can use it again,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

With the help of Mayors\u2019 Partnership staff Tracy Galway, Miller said the village was connected to engineers who drew up plans, later allowing the village to submit for the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization, AMLER program.<\/p>\n

Miller said there are also talks to get a new manufacturing business in town, which she hopes will boost the community economically also.<\/p>\n

New Straitsville has also used the Mayors\u2019 Partnership\u2019s Technical Assistance program to survey an old jail and municipal building. With water damage potentially impacting the space, the village used the funding to have a complete assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have done it without the Mayor\u2019s Partnership and that grant money, because we just don\u2019t have the money to hire those kind of people to come in and write those reports,\u201d Miller said.
\nMiller said although she tries to learn as much as possible to serve the community, she enjoys the partnership for its support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you got to call upon the people that are best suited for it, and I love working with the Mayors\u2019 Partnership for that,\u201d Miller.<\/p>\n

Packed with history, New Straitsville reflects a long history of coal mining, moonshine production, and charm. Incorporated back in 1872, the village began as a coal mining town with rich and large veins of available coal.<\/p>\n

Home to Robinsons cave and the origin of the United Mine Workers, the area has had a thriving community with a survival mindset since its establishment and the mine fire which caused the village to become the moonshine capital of the world.<\/p>\n

A Legacy of Service<\/strong>
\nNew Straitsville Fiscal Officer Susan Miller serves the community in more ways than one, and says she loves to help the community, whether it\u2019s the Masons or the fire department.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in the village, Miller is the third generation to live in the area. She has worked for the village since 2016, when the clerk position opened. With a strong background in bookkeeping and handling numbers, Miller said she likes a variety.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a small-town clerk, you handle a whole lot more than just the water and sewer bills,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Keeping track of the quarterly and monthly payroll reports, closing books at the end of the year, helping council create ordinances, reporting financial status to lenders, police department training requirements, personnel files and official records keeper are all jobs Miller juggles.<\/p>\n

She also handles mayors court, preparing cases after officers hand out tickets and preparing cases for when the magistrate comes to town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a wide variety of jobs that I do under the title of fiscal officer, and I tell people – I have worked here every day and no two days have ever been alike,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

For the common cause of serving the people of New Straitsville, Miller said she is there to help, aiming to serve people in the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in our village, I\u2019ve known most of my life, so they\u2019re like family. So you want to do things to help the family out,\u201d Miller said. \u201cBy building a stronger community, you build a better economic situation for your village too, you try to help encourage businesses to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, the local history group\u2019s president, Miller said she has lived through some of the history and now shares the history with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like volunteering. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself because there\u2019s always a lot of volunteer jobs and not enough volunteers. But I figure whatever I can do to help,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

A Strategic Collaboration Taking Vision to Progress<\/strong>
\nReflecting on recent projects between the Mayors\u2019 Partnership for Progress and the Village of New Straitsville, Miller said everyone has been good to help and guide the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve helped us be aware when grants are available, and as a small town, and being a one-stop-shop, technically the clerk ends up trying to do it all, and sometimes a clerk doesn\u2019t have the access to resources,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

More specifically, the Delyn Center, an old walk-in theater was previously used as the official regulation basketball court in town, for the Lions club, festivals and other gatherings, is now getting a makeover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the building that was for the community. We are trying to right now to get the thing back in to use so that the community can use it again,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

With the help of Mayors\u2019 Partnership staff Tracy Galway, Miller said the village was connected to engineers who drew up plans, later allowing the village to submit for the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization, AMLER program.<\/p>\n

Miller said there are also talks to get a new manufacturing business in town, which she hopes will boost the community economically also.<\/p>\n

New Straitsville has also used the Mayors\u2019 Partnership\u2019s Technical Assistance program to survey an old jail and municipal building. With water damage potentially impacting the space, the village used the funding to have a complete assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have done it without the Mayor\u2019s Partnership and that grant money, because we just don\u2019t have the money to hire those kind of people to come in and write those reports,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Miller said although she tries to learn as much as possible to serve the community, she enjoys the partnership for its support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you got to call upon the people that are best suited for it, and I love working with the Mayors\u2019 Partnership for that,\u201d Miller.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2383","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2399,"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2383\/revisions\/2399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voinovichacademy.ohio.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}