ThisWeek CW 08/06/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/03/new-police-contract-officers-detectives-receive-3-percent-pay-raises-in-deal.html

Groveport City Council unanimously approved a new three-year contract with Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge 9 on July 27, giving 15 city police officers and detectives a 3-percent pay raise in each of the three years.

Police Chief Ralph Portier said a separate agreement covering police sergeants has yet to be negotiated.

The new pact was retroactive to July 2.

In addition to pay increases, the contract increases the amount of compensatory time allowed to be banked by an officer, up from 40 hours to 56 hours. Officers will also be given an additional personal day each calendar year, up from one day to two.

In addition, the new contract includes language clarifying that all new hires will start at Step 1 of the pay rate table. Shift differential pay for all shifts between 2 p.m. and 6 a.m. will now receive an additional $1.05 per hour increase as well.

Officers also will receive a $100 increase in their annual uniform and equipment allowance, up from $800 to $900 per year.

“I’d like to publicly thank the negotiating teams and the police department for such a quick and positive outcome on this contract,” Groveport Mayor Lance Westcamp said.

The new contract agreement runs through July 2018, and includes very few changes from the previous contract, according to Portier.

“I’m very pleased the both the administration and our collective bargaining team came together and worked this out so quickly,” he said. “This is now the second time we’ve managed to do a contract in only three or four bargaining sessions.”

He thanked city Finance Director Jeff Green and Administrator Marsha Hall “for working with us to get this done.”

ThisWeek CW 07/30/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/27/blues–ribfest-cool-music-hot-food-draw-ever-larger-crowds.html

For the sixth year, Destination Canal Winchester will once again transform the city’s downtown into Ohio’s capital of rockin’ roots music and smokin’ hot barbecue with the Blues & Ribfest.

On Aug. 7 and 8, the air around historic Canal Winchester will fill with barbecue smoke and the sounds of some of the nation’s best blues acts. The free festival will take place from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and noon to 11 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of High and Waterloo streets. Both roads will be closed to vehicle traffic in the historic downtown area.

Parking will be available in the areas adjacent to festival grounds with additional handicapped-accessible parking in designated areas on West Waterloo and North High streets.

Last year, more than 33,000 people turned out for the weekend and event organizers believe this year’s lineup of food and music is bound to bring larger crowds.

Destination Canal Winchester Executive Director Bruce Jarvis said the growth has been surprising but that the event resonated with audiences.

“Nobody was more shocked than we were when our goal of drawing 5,000 visitors was exceeded with an estimated total of more than 20,000 visitors the very first year; that’s when we realized that we had struck a chord with the public,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis said he believes the continued growth is due to everyone involved — not just the musicians and food vendors, but the volunteers and sponsors as well.

“This year marks the strongest blues lineup we’ve ever assembled. On the barbecue side, we’re honored to welcome several rib masters from the national barbeque circuit back to Canal Winchester. They will be competing fiercely against each other for trophies and bragging rights,” Jarvis said.

“And if ribs aren’t your thing, there is a solid roster of over 20 other specialty food vendors, including the famous Schmidt’s Sausage Truck, to satisfy almost any taste or budget. Maybe the best part of all this is that there is no charge for getting in to experience some of the finest live blues and barbecue to be found anywhere at any price,” he said.

At this year’s event, there will be continuous live blues music from 20 acts performing on two stages, in addition to children’s activities, fan-cooled dining tents and the popular beer and wine garden. Jarvis said the $1 pony rides are back this year, too.

“Friday’s stage headliner is the Ori Naftaly Band, hailing from Memphis, while closing Saturday night will be master guitarist Chris Duarte, who will be laying down some crowd-pleasing electric blues,” Jarvis said.

“On the solo-duo stage, Rip Lee Pryor, son of blues harp master Snooky Pryor, and the Inner Vision Band, an amazing group of talented blind musicians, will perform,” he said.

“I don’t think you can beat the combination of classic live American blues, barbecue wood smoke and the beautiful backdrop of downtown Canal Winchester. It is clean, fun and offers something for everyone in the family.”

For more information and a full entertainment schedule, go to bluesandribfest.com.

ThisWeek CW 07/30/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/27/safety-network-3-communities-connect-with-county-alert-program.html

Canal Winchester, Groveport and Madison Township officials have announced membership in the new Franklin County Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security ALERT emergency notification system, now available to all area residents.

ALERT Franklin County is customizable and allows residents to choose the kind of community notifications they want to receive and how they would like to receive them, via text messaging, automated phone call or email.

Residents can elect to receive emergency notifications about severe weather and disasters, as well as location-specific information regarding crime alerts, road closures, transportation incidents, utility outages, government closings and other news.

“We have a commitment to ensure public safety, community awareness and rapid response. When important information and community announcements are necessary, we need to reach our residents as quickly and reliably as possible,” Canal Winchester Mayor Michael Ebert wrote in an email statement.

“The ALERT Franklin County mass notification system will allow the city of Canal Winchester to distribute this information across all types of devices, ensuring residents have access to real-time public information when they need it the most.”

Michael R. Pannell, director of Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said the opt-in system will alert residents of significant warnings.

“The ALERT system will warn the citizens of Franklin County of severe weather, dam failures, terrorism, major hazardous material incidents, major aircraft accidents, significant civil disturbance, major utility disruptions, damage-producing earthquakes and other significant warnings,” said Pannell.

Groveport city Administrator Marsha Hall and Madison Township Administrator Susan Brobst both said they are excited to roll the ALERT program out to residents. In addition to the county system, Groveport and Madison Township also have local systems for more community-specific notifications.

“We began working on our system before the county system was initiated. We plan to use our community system for more local announcements and the countywide system, in conjunction with ours, for larger emergencies,” Hall said.

Residents will be able to opt in and specify which notifications they prefer to receive. Choices will include nonemergency alerts, boil alerts, local traffic alerts, community celebrations, cancellations and closure notices.

For residents of Groveport and Madison Township, community specific notification signup can be completed by visiting nixle.com. The city of Canal Winchester has been operating its own community specific notifications but will discontinue those and migrate all notifications to the county ALERT system by year’s end.

Canal Winchester residents currently receiving notifications via the city’s website link, “Notify Me,” will be asked to opt in to the new system.

The ALERT system will be available at alertfranklincounty.org, fcemhs.org or through the city of Canal Winchester website, canalwinchesterohio.gov.

ThisWeek CW 07/30/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/27/cuts-in-state-dollars-have-townships-attention.html

Madison Township officials are in the process of developing their plan to deal with state budget cuts to the tangible personal property taxes used to help fund street repairs and safety services.

At the July 15 meeting of township trustees, Fire Chief Robert Bates and Fiscal Officer Barb Adams explained that although they are not certain of the exact impact of the tax cuts in dollars and cents, the initial impact will be the complete loss of state funds going to support street projects and administrative programs along with a 2-percent cut to funding to both the police and fire departments.

“Originally, we’d gotten it written into the budget to protect the township money used for safety services, based on a township’s reliance on state funds, but the governor line-item vetoed that protection,” Bates said. “What we think we know is that the roads and administrative funding will be completely gutted by state fiscal year 2017 while the police and fire are both about 10 percent funded, so I think those will get cut by 2 percent each year.”

Currently, Madison Township receives about $1.2 million in state money that, if the new two-year state budget provisions remain in place in future budgets, eventually would be reduced to nothing.

The breakdown of state funds to the township is about $40,000 for streets and administrative programs, $350,000 to the police department and $820,000 to the fire department annually.

Bates said given the two-year budget cycle, this would amount to the township being at as little as 6 percent funding for police and fire by June 30, 2017.

“Losing all of the funding is, over the entire time, to phase out. For police and fire, it will take several years if they stay on this schedule, but this is only a two-year budget, so in 2017 they could come back and change it again,” Bates said.

Township Administrator Susan Brobst wanted to make it clear to residents that these funding cuts will not mean the closure of the fire department.

In a follow-up email, Brobst wrote, “Many of you have seen or heard news reports that Madison Township in Licking County has decided to close their fire department. Madison Township, Franklin (County) is open and will remain open.

“We appreciate the concern of our residents; however, the board of trustees wants to assure you we have no intention of closing our fire department.”

Trustee Victor Paini also pointed out that while cuts are being made, the fire department continues to experience growth in its annual emergency response statistics.

“We forecasted out 6,400 runs in 2014 and hit that, and now we’re forecasting 6,600 runs for 2015 and we just keep seeing this increase,” Paini said.

Voters approved a new operational levy last spring for the fire department to build and operate a third station in Blacklick Estates, which Bates said will still happen, but it may require an adjustment to the project schedule.

“We don’t have plans or anything from the architect yet, so we will take a close look at the budget and see what needs adjusting to make this work and keep on top of our run increases,” Bates said.

ThisWeek CW 07/30/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/27/groveport-madison-school-district-faces-task-of-replacing-guiher.html

Just one year after joining the staff of the Groveport Madison Local School District, public relations officer Mary Guiher has resigned, with her last day set Friday, July 31.

School board President Nathan Slonaker said Guiher’s decision to leave was motivated by personal and family reasons.

In an email, Guiher expressed appreciation for the time she spent in the district said she is looking forward to having needed time with her family.

“Mary did a tremendous job for us in her one year of service,” Slonaker said. “She was able to achieve significant gains in terms of our online presence and overall communications work. She was a professional in every sense of the word. She will be missed.”

Under Guiher, the district effectively used online tools to gather public input on what residents would like to see in the new high school facility project. The response was more than double the number of people who turned out to vote during the original levy campaign to fund the project.

Guiher joined the district after leaving a position with the Granville Exempted Village School District, where she had served in a similar role for several years. She replaced Dee Copas, whose position of director of communications was eliminated at that time.

Copas assumed a new role as a federal programs director with expanded responsibilities for early-learning program development.

Slonaker said the district is eager to fill the public relations officer position as soon as possible and expects a new job posting to be made immediately.

At the time Guiher was hired, Slonaker said, “This was a needed void to fill in our administration.”

The base salary for the position is $66,000, with additional compensation in benefits.