ThisWeek CW 1/7/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2016/01/04/groveport-schools-district-officials-eye-partnerships-improvements-in-2016.html

Improvements, support and service are three words that figure prominently in plans for 2016, according to Groveport Madison school district officials.

“Our greatest challenges of 2016 will be focused around improving partnerships for learning and building understanding in our community of the benefits a strong education can bring to our students,” Superintendent Bruce Hoover said.

Hoover sees three “core components” that go into achieving educational excellence: student engagement, parent support and rigorous instruction.

“We are using the investment the community has made through the passage of our 2014 operating levy to expand programs and opportunities which engage our students in high-quality learning opportunities,” he said. “We are committed to raising achievement and preparing our students for life’s challenges.

“To complete this effort, we will need to increase the roles that parents play in developing successful learning and build better relationships between our schools, businesses and parents to maximize our instructional progress.”

Board members Libby Gray, Mary Tedrow and Bryan Shoemaker all have keeping an eye on the $30.4 million project to build a new high school high on their lists of priorities for the new year.

“We must remain vigilant in monitoring the construction progress of the new high school,” Shoemaker said. “We need to ensure that all of the many moving parts are working as they should and that we are on budget and on time.”

To go along with that, Gray said Groveport Madison officials need to “continue to be good stewards of the resources that have been provided by our taxpayers, and to be transparent in all of our financial dealings.”

Gray, who served as the board’s vice president in 2015, said it will be important to “strengthen the level of support provided to all students at all grade levels” and to “closely monitor data from our intervention programs to ensure we are meeting students’ needs, wherever they are, and taking them to the next level of achievement.”

Tedrow sees renovations now underway at 4400 Marketing Place as a way to transform the building into “a true ‘District Service Center’ where we will improve the level of service provided to our schools and community through the consolidation of all of our district support functions into one location.”

Nathan Slonaker, who was board president in 2015, did not seek re-election. Before he left the board in December, he said it would be important for the district to keep the high school construction work on time and on budget, to strengthen the Career Pathways and College Credit Plus programs and to develop “strong partnerships with the various constituencies within our community.”

ThisWeek CW 12/31/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/12/28/year-in-review-development-led-by-brewdog-was-2015-top-story.html

In a city where development is booming, BrewDog easily earned top-dog status as the most important story of 2015 in Canal Winchester.

The $30.4 million BrewDog project will include a 100,000-square-foot building at 96 Gender Road that will house the Scottish craft-beer company’s U.S. headquarters, a brewery, a restaurant and a taproom.

“This was a project the entire country was seeking and is major to the entire region,” Mayor Michael Ebert said.

“Just the idea of BrewDog coming to Canal Winchester has spurred other businesses to now look our direction for expansion or new startup.”

Canal Winchester City Council members Joe Abbott and Steve Donahue agreed with Ebert that overall development in 2015 — not just the arrival of BrewDog — was significant for the city.

“I think the amount of development and positive growth that has happened over the last year is the biggest accomplishment,” Abbott said.

Ebert’s list of projects included construction of Primrose School, slated to open early in 2016; the July opening of the Inn at Winchester Trail assisted-living facility that he said “has the look and feel of a five-star hotel,” and the spring groundbreaking by Buckeye Power Supply for its first standalone residential and commercial generator sales and service center in central Ohio.

“The city’s new public works facility is under construction and will be ready for use in the spring of 2016,” Ebert said.

“A few dozen or so new homes were constructed within the city in 2015, filling in some of the empty lots in our subdivisions which were leftovers as a result of the recession from a few years ago,” he said.

“Additionally, Manifold Phalor has begun a 30,000-square-foot expansion of their five-year old facility on Busey Road,” Ebert added.

“This expansion will more than double the size of their current footprint and will result in additional job opportunities for our area.”

Groveport officials identified a development-related project as that city’s biggest accomplishment in 2015.

The Groveport Rickenbacker Employee Access Transit system is a joint venture of the cities of Obetz and Groveport.

It’s designed to provide transportation from the closest area Central Ohio Transit Authority bus stop and Groveport-area businesses in the Rickenbacker industrial area.

“The GREAT has to be our biggest accomplishment because the program, which provides a long-needed connection between Groveport businesses and COTA, affects not only the riders, but also continues to strengthen our businesses, which in turn provides revenue for the many services offered to our residents,” said Marsha Hall, Groveport city administrator.

It didn’t take long for the GREAT system to have an ancillary effect in Groveport: Shortly after the service became available, City Finance Director Jeff Green said he met with representatives of a company considering a move to the area.

“They said the difference between the two communities they’re considering is that I said we can guarantee we have advanced transportation options to bring workers to their doors,” Green said.

“They were very intrigued by that.”