Tag Archives: ThisWeek

City setting up for 95th Labor Day Festival

ThisWeek CW 9-3-2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/31/activities-planned-sept–5-7-city-setting-up-for-95th-labor-day-festival.html

Canal Winchester will celebrate its 95th Labor Day Festival this year with the help of longtime educator Beverly Downing, who will be the grand marshal of this year’s Labor Day parade.

Downing is retired from the Canal Winchester school district where she worked as a teacher and then as principal at Canal Winchester Elementary School.

“Each year, the Labor Day Committee nominates and votes for deserving candidates to be the parade grand marshal,” Mayor Michael Ebert said. “This year’s final choice was Beverly Downing, an educator influential in the lives of Canal Winchester children for many years. The Canal Winchester Labor Day committee recognizes her for her remarkable contributions to the community.”

Hours for the Canal Winchester Labor Day Festival will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, and 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 7.

Rides and midway games will operate from noon to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday. Jeff Wyler Chevrolet will sponsor free rides from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Saturday’s activities will start with the Peggy Wood Scholarship Pageant at 11 a.m. in the Oley Speaks Auditorium.

A children-only parade will step off from the district Education Center, 100 Washington St., at 11:30 a.m., leading participants downtown for the official opening of the festival at noon on the main Diley Ridge Medical Center Stage, which will be set up on South High Street in front of Huntington Bank.

Saturday afternoon entertainment at the Stradley Park stage will feature music by the Winchester Steel Co. and Second Chance. Evening entertainment on the Diley Ridge main stage will include performances by Braden Stover at 5 p.m. and Bon Journey at 8 p.m.

Registration for the annual car show begins at 9 a.m. Sunday and costs $12 per vehicle. A trophy presentation will take place on the main stage at 4 p.m.

Sunday’s main stage entertainment includes 3-Cat Day at 5 p.m., followed by Hotel California at 8 p.m.

Monday’s activities will feature Canal Winchester’s 95th annual Labor Day parade at 1 p.m., sponsored by Waste Management.

Main stage entertainment will begin at 11 a.m. with the Cornerstone Gospel Quartet, followed by performances from All 4 Him at noon, and Willie Phoenix & The Soul Underground at 4 p.m.

In addition to children’s activities, midway rides and street vendors, a quilt show will be available for viewing each day at the Frances Steube Community Center, 22 S. Trine St.

The Kingy’s hospitality tent near Stradley Park will be open to visitors age 21 and older.

“The Canal Winchester Labor Day Festival is a family event,” Ebert said. “I always look forward to the entertainment we are able to attract to our Labor Day Festival — seems we never have a problem filling any vacancies.

“Also I’d like to remind people if they plan to attend Friday or Saturday evening concerts, they might want to bring along a lawn chair. Seating will be available but we are expecting huge crowds both nights if the weather holds out.”

Destination Canal Winchester Executive Director Bruce Jarvis said that after a very successful Ribs and Blues Festival, the Labor Day Festival will be a spotlight event for the city.

“I can say that the Labor Day Festival brings out families seeking affordable fun and entertainment from all over the area,” Jarvis said. “This event has been making fond memories for generations and is a hallmark of growing up here. My kids are grown now with kids of their own — and so it all starts over again for the next wave. That’s tradition.”

 

New intervention programs focus on reading skills

ThisWeek CW 9-3-2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/31/groveport-madison-schools-new-intervention-programs-focus-on-reading-skills.html

The Groveport Madison school district has started to implement a new program approved last year aimed at strengthening student achievement in all core curriculum work through improved reading skills.

For the past two years, more than half the district’s third-graders failed to meet reading proficiency benchmarks during the state’s fall testing period, spurring Superintendent Bruce Hoover to ask the school board for more early intervention tools.

The school board approved the Response to Intervention program last spring as a districtwide elementary school initiative that, according to district documents, will focus efforts “on reviewing students’ academic needs based on test results and resource gaps.”

The RTI program is a multiyear school improvement initiative with a total budget of $1.4 million.

Director of School Improvement Monique Hamilton said it will establish a three-tier system of baselining and intervention, phased in over this school year and next school year at all six elementary buildings.

“The new reading resource that we have begun to implement this school year focuses on strengthening our core curriculum,” Hamilton said. “The resource will serve as an extra tool for staff members to utilize when teaching students the phonetics of reading. That will give students a strong foundation so that by third grade, their reading comprehension will be at a level that allows them to read to learn.”

Besides the state of Ohio MAP testing that assesses students three times a year, the district also will use the Reading Horizons and Read 180 programs, which will provide more frequent assessments, according to Hamilton.

“The RTI Tier 1 addresses classroom instruction and will be offered to all students (using the Reading Horizons program),” she said. “Tier 2 is geared to students who need more intensive intervention. Students participating in this program will be part of the Read 180 program.

“Both programs will allow teachers to more frequently check for student understanding,” Hamilton said. “Armed with that information, our teachers will be able to modify and personalize lessons so that students are receiving the individualized attention they need to become strong readers.”

Tier 3 will be implemented during the 2016-17 school year using a resource called Lexia. According to district information, Lexia is a more intensive intervention program beyond the Reading Horizons and Read 180 programs and is designed to focus on comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, phonetics and phonemic awareness.

“I’m excited about this initiative because it allows us to provide personalized educational services to our kids,” Hoover said. “It’s an opportunity for all children to make growth gains.”

Asbury Elementary School first-grade teacher Marie Scearce said she is excited about how the program will expand on her current efforts.

“This program fits 100-percent with what I do with my first-graders,” she said. “I’m excited to use this program and expand my students’ reading, writing, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension knowledge.”

Groveport tweaking applications for OPWC grants

ThisWeek CW 9-3-2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/31/west-bixby-hendron-roads-groveport-tweaking-applications-for-opwc-grants.html

Groveport officials are hoping to make a strong case for securing Ohio Public Works Commission grants for two major road projects.

Groveport City Council voted unanimously Aug. 24 to approve legislation authorizing the city staff to submit grant applications to the OPWC; members also waived the usual three readings so the city could meet the Sept. 15 deadline.

A special public meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 8, in council chambers, 655 Blacklick St., to detail specifics, including budgets and timeframes, for the two applications prior to officially submitting them.

City Engineer Steve Farst said the applications are for work on Hendron and West Bixby roads. Both projects were submitted last year for funding but did not score high enough for OPWC approval, he said.

“The Hendron Road project is similar to what we submitted in last year’s application, but the idea is to take a hard look at what the committee will score and optimize our project for a higher score,” Farst said.

“Part of that is collaborating with other agencies and in this case, Franklin County has some authority here so we’re partnering with them on this. With the OPWC grants, there is a requirement for matching with local dollars, so partnering with other agencies, along with the grant itself, lowers the burden on our local taxpayers.”

If the Hendron Road project is approved for funding, Farst said the work is likely to include new water lines, a complete road reconstruction, curbs and gutters, new sidewalks and shared-use paths, and new street lighting.

Also last year, the city unsuccessfully sought OPWC funding for the middle section of the three-phase West Bixby Road project, which in total stretches from Old Groveport Road to state Route 317. This year, the city intends to submit an application for the western portion of the project, which will essentially just be for new pavement.

“The pavement on that end of West Bixby Road is in really terrible shape, lots of potholes and other issues,” Farst said. “So our intent is to take advantage of these OPWC funds if we can. This is the 30th year of the grant program and it keeps getting more popular and competitive.”

Groveport officials won’t find out until December whether one or both projects have been awarded grant funding, but Farst said he is hopeful that staff has come up with the right combination of project factors for approval this year.

Officials hope better water will flow from system upgrades

ThisWeek CW 9/3/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/31/canal-winchester-officials-hope-better-water-will-flow-from-system-upgrades.html

With upgrades to the city’s water treatment facility nearly finished, Canal Winchester officials are looking ahead to system tweaks that will improve water quality and to ramping up construction of a new Public Works facility.

City construction manager Bill Sims told city council members at the Aug. 17 services and safety committee meeting that the major structural improvements at the water treatment facility were complete, with only electronic system management work left.

“The water plant work is continuing but is mostly complete, the salt barn has been done for a while now and the sludge building is just being finished,” Sims said. “We just need to get the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system completed and a few other things on the punch list.

“The Public Works facility demolition is just about to happen and I think everybody is pretty excited about the new building getting underway.”

Water reclamation manager Steve Smith said he and technology coordinator Rick Brown have been working to set up and test the SCADA system that “will control the plant.”

City water manager Joe Taylor said that in addition to the SCADA system, a newly installed pressure switch, which was required as part of the system upgrade, will act as an extra backup against system failures in the future that would affect city water services.

“We installed a pressure switch to monitor system distribution, which will act as extra backup against issues in the future,” Taylor said.

“We’ve also installed a new phosphate system, which is now up and going, and we think we should see some improvements to water during the fall flushing and then see a lot more improvement by the spring flushing.”

Several residents have complained about discoloration and odors in their water that city officials believe is related to phosphates. Councilwoman Bobbie Mershon has also experienced water issues and asked why it took eight years to install this system.

“When we looked at the system, they put in a coupon rack. It’s a little metal tab that they put in an iron, plastic and copper pipe and they monitor the amount of the iron that comes off of that,” Taylor said. “They’ll track that data and see how it is coating the pipe, so this test will let us know if the phosphate system is helping.

“I think back in 2007 when we started the new water plant up and running, we didn’t want to rush to judgment as to whether there was still a problem or not, because it takes some years to figure that out and then figure out what works best with your system to correct the problem,” he said.

Public Works Director Matt Peoples said the city has been working on the issue during those eight years, and upgrades to lines, adding a new aeration system and abating lime issues have all addressed specific problems along the way, leading to what he hopes is a final clearing of the water.

“We count on customer complaints to help troubleshoot, but those have been somewhat inconsistent, so over time, we were trying to figure out if there was a line problem versus a system problem,” Peoples said. “So many different things went into this, and we wanted to make sure due diligence was done.

“Never once have we violated EPA standards and all water quality parameters have been met. Of course, if you see stains or red water, you’re not going to want to drink it even if we know it’s safe.”

The fall hydrant flushing will take place September through October, at which point officials believe residents with water issues will begin to see an improvement.

Metro Parks seeks change in city’s hunting zones

ThisWeek CW 08/27/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/24/metro-parks-seeks-change-in-citys-hunting-zones.html

Central Ohio Metro Parks officials have asked the city of Groveport to amend its current map of hunting and trapping zones to show that such activities are prohibited at Three Creeks Metro Park.

At the Aug. 10 Groveport City Council meeting, the city staff introduced legislation to prohibit hunting and trapping at Three Creeks. According to a November 2011 Metro Parks rules and regulation document, the parks system only allows hunting and trapping at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park.

City Administrator Marsha Hall said the current hunting and trapping zone map includes areas where other regulations and rules may take precedence, such as state licensing and hunting seasons, or other city or park regulations.

“If you look at the map itself, there are areas within the city in which hunting is permitted; land that is undeveloped and (where hunting is) permitted by the owner,” Hall said. “Some of the land is public property, like the golf course.”

However, she said, even though The Links at Groveport golf course shows up as a permitted area on the map, additional permissions are still required prior to doing any hunting or trapping. Any land not designated as a permitted area on the hunting and trapping zone map is automatically considered closed to hunting unless the property owner asks the city to amend the map.

“Hunting is permitted by the city only during hunting season while the golf course is closed,” she said. “The person must apply for a hunting permit and is then provided with a copy of the map.”

Council was scheduled to hear a second reading of the proposed ordinance at its Aug. 24 meeting, afterThisWeek‘s press deadline.