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.

ThisWeek CW 07/23/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/20/firm-hired-to-move-modulars-to-dunloe-elementary-school.html

Two modular structures now at Groveport Madison High School will be moved as a first step in clearing the way for construction of a new high school.

The school board voted unanimously July 8 to hire Taylor Classroom Sales Inc., a Toledo-based company, for slightly more than $100,000 to move the two-classroom units to Dunloe Elementary School.

District Treasurer John Walsh said the move will take place in two phases; the first is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2015-16 school year while the second phase is expected to be completed by October.

Superintendent Bruce Hoover said the decision to move the modulars to Dunloe was related to current capacity issues at the elementary school.

“This decision isn’t based on the current building size but on capacity, which is why we need these at Dunloe,” Hoover said.

Although the classrooms are considered mobile, they still require a permanent, structural pad and a complete building inspection that includes electrical and plumbing systems before they can be used.

Taylor Classroom Sales Inc. will be in charge of completing all these steps, along with the actual relocation of the modular units.

A third modular unit currently on the high school property is a 14-classroom building which the district leases. It will still be in use by the high school at the beginning of the school year while a replacement 14-classroom modular unit is installed in front of the current high school building.

Walsh said that to purchase a new modular unit of that size, particularly one that would only be used temporarily until the new high school is completed, is cost-prohibitive.

“New units that size run about $600,000 so we’re going to look at another lease agreement or possibly finding a used unit for much less,” Walsh said.

Hoover said that space restrictions mean the high school cannot be without the modular unit during the school year. By placing a new modular in front of the high school, which he anticipates will be done by October, the district will be able to move out of the old modular classrooms and into the new ones over a weekend, meaning no break in classroom time for students.

In other project news, Chris Dumford, the architect for the new high school project, said his team is still working to reconcile construction estimates with the construction manager. He anticipates having a schematic design and construction budget plan ready for board approval in August.

ThisWeek CW 07/23/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/20/eagle-scout-candidate-receives-approval-for-local-park-project.html

Eagle Scout candidate Kevin Diehl received the go-ahead from Canal Winchester City Council earlier this month to implement a beautification project at Guiler Park.

Diehl presented his Eagle Scout project proposal to city council at its July 6 meeting. He wants to install a brick paver patio with benches and a flagpole along the east side of the parking lot at the downtown park. Council members said they support the plan but did not need to take a formal vote on it.

“My project is to put a flagpole and seating area in Guiler Park near the pool,” Diehl said. “The only concern is the concrete pad already there with the picnic bench, so we’ll have to work around that.”

He said he’s pursuing sponsorships from local businesses to acquire the building materials he needs and, since the flagpole is considered “structural,” he will work with Public Works Director Matt Peoples on that component.

“We are covering the construction of the flagpole and benches and expect that to be around $1,750 installed,” Peoples said. “Kevin will be fundraising for the brickwork. We’ve worked with the Flag Lady on a similar project at the roundabout, so we’ll work with her on this, too.”

Council President Rick Deeds said he was excited to see this project come together, and wished Diehl the best of luck with it.

In order to earn an Eagle Scout ranking, a Boy Scout is required to progress through the “life” ranking and earn 21 merit badges covering more than a dozen topics. Candidates are also required to serve six months in a troop leadership position and take part in a Scoutmaster Conference.

The most public part of becoming an Eagle Scout, however, is the community project which requires the scout to plan, develop and take a leadership role toward completing it.

Diehl hopes to finish his project before the end of this year, after which he’ll have to complete an Eagle Scout board of review before earning the rank.