ThisWeek CW 10/8/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/10/05/mayors-race-uncontested-after-paini-withdraws.html

Canal Winchester Mayor Michael Ebert will run uncontested on the Nov. 3 ballot after challenger Victor Paini unexpectedly withdrew from the race.

Paini surprised supporters at what was supposed to be a campaign fundraiser Sept. 30 with the announcement that he no longer would seek election.

His name still will appear on the ballot in Franklin and Fairfield counties, but votes for him won’t count.

Susan Bloom, Fairfield County Board of Elections director, said signs would be posted at all voting stations and notices would be inserted in all absentee ballots that are mailed.

Ben Piscitelli, Franklin County Board of Electionsspokesman, said the same process would apply in Franklin County.

Paini declined to speak directly to ThisWeek about the decision, but sent a press release citing work responsibilities as his reason for withdrawing from the race.

“I owe it to my family, my company and the community to make this decision,” he said in the press release. “I’m proud of my service to Canal Winchester and Madison Township and I’ll continue to serve this great community.

“In fact, I recently joined the boards of the BrockStrong Foundation and Motts Military Museum, so there is no shortage of projects to work on.”

Paini currently serves as a Madison Township trustee, is a member of the Canal Winchester Landmarks Commission and is a representative to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. He intends to remain in those roles.

In responses to questions from ThisWeek before he withdrew from the race, Paini made it clear a top issue for him would be to bring in a city manager and shift many of the full-time mayoral responsibilities to that person. He said if he were elected, he would cut his own pay in order to provide funding to hire a city manager.

Incumbent Ebert, also responding to questions from ThisWeek, said his record speaks for itself.

“We have 47 new businesses and more on the way, one with its USA headquarters coming here; more than 10 businesses expanded their Canal Winchester operations to make way for additional customers,” he said. “We never cut any services to our residents even during the recession.”

He said he wants to continue to “lead the team of professionals I have assembled” but acknowledged that finances are something city officials must monitor.

“Budgeting is always an issue, even in the best of times,” Ebert said. “Go back a few years to when gasoline first hit the $4 mark and the economy was good. I watched the market very closely and I felt that it didn’t appear gas was going down any time soon. Even though that was the only indicator of a severe downturn, I had all city departments cut back on spending immediately. We continued that practice into early 2011, saving residents hundreds of thousands of dollars without increasing taxes.

“Not many communities today can say they reacted as quickly as we did, and by doing so, we’re in great financial shape today.”

ThisWeek CW 09/17/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/09/14/brewdog-promises-locally-brewed-suds-by-july-2016.html

“Give me Columbus, or give me death,” was the slogan BrewDog representatives exclaimed to a standing-room-only crowd at the Frances Steube Community Center last week, promising to serve fresh beer from their new $30-million Canal Winchester facility by July 2016.

More than 200 people packed the room to capacity at the Sept. 8 meeting, where representatives from BrewDog and the city presented draft plans for construction and operation of the new facility and participated in a lengthy question-and-answer session.

The deal to locate the new U.S. headquarters for Scottish craft-beer brewer BrewDog was originally announced on June 29; since then, the project has been on a fast track for getting settled in and running.

BrewDog project manager Katie Murphy, who originally worked on the site-selection process as a member of Columbus2020, said Canal Winchester officials “rocked it,” resulting in the city’s selection.

“We looked at taxes, benefits, sites and workforce and found this perfect site,” Murphy said. “Canal Winchester has been part of the family since the beginning of this process … there’s no better place in the U.S. for this brewery.”

Economic development partners in the project are Jobs Ohio, Columbus 2020 and the city of Canal Winchester.

A press release from the city said Canal Winchester will give BrewDog a 15-year, 100-percent property tax exemption on the value of the building improvements, an incentive worth an estimated $2.7 million over the 15-year agreement.

Canal Winchester also will waive more than $325,000 in utility capacity and building permit fees.

Development Director Lucas Haire said the process from initial discussions to agreeing on terms to preparing for groundbreaking took less than six months to pull together, leaving some residents with unanswered questions that he invited them to ask during the meeting.

BrewDog Finance Director Neil Simpson said the company hopes to have “fresh beer in your glass by July.”

Residents seemed to be most concerned about potential odors from the brewing process, issues stemming from increased traffic and how soon the 125 new jobs at the facility will be available.

BrewDog Human Resources Manager Zarah Prior said she’d heard about the traffic and odor concerns and sat down with community members from Ellon, where BrewDog has its home operations, before leaving Scotland for the Canal Winchester meeting.

“Before I left, I was in Ellon and I heard through the grapevine that there is a worry about odor, so I sat down with some of the locals and they said, ‘odor? what odor?’ ” Prior said. “I think maybe a good thing to do would be to go back to Ellon and put you all in touch with our community in Ellon and you could become pen pals or something; but really, it might be a good idea to get you their impressions.”

According to Prior, and reiterated by Haire, the town of Ellon, which is situated about 30 minutes from Aberdeen, is very similar to Canal Winchester.

“We have ordinances in place to protect our community from odor and noise and traffic and all sorts of things,” Haire said. “I had a chance to go to Scotland and I can say for certain there is no issue with smell.

“We’ve looked at traffic at the site and the majority of the restaurant and bar traffic will be in the evenings. During the day, truck traffic there will be less than when TS Trim was running about 30 trucks a day out of there.”

Mayor Michael Ebert said he specifically asked Haire to be conscious of any odor or noise issues related to the Ellon brewery because that wouldn’t be acceptable in Canal Winchester.

“Odor was my No. 1 concern when Lucas went to Scotland to check things out, ” Ebert said.

Other than Murphy and Special Projects manager Keith Bennet, the only other two U.S. positions being filled immediately will be a CEO and director of sales.

Other positions will be filled closer to the opening of the new 100,000-square-foot facility, including roles in sales, brewing, distribution and hospitality. Murphy said a new U.S.-centric website will be online soon with updates on job offerings.

Prior added that BrewDog is currently the only hospitality company in the U.K. to pay a living wage to all of its employees, something the company plans to replicate in the U.S.

“There is a charity in the U.K. that does an annual survey to state what it requires to live on, which is so much more than a minimum wage,” Prior said. “It’s something when we come to the States we want to try and replicate to make sure we are paying our employees appropriately so that they are happy and our customers are happy.”

One audience member asked if employees would receive free beer.

“We do have a monthly beer stipend in Europe, but I don’t know how that works with the laws here,” Prior said.

ThisWeek CW 08/20/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/17/more-recycling-containers-available-in-canal-winchester.html

City officials are hoping that additional recycling centers will help alleviate the problem of littering and overfilled containers in Canal Winchester.

Mayor Michael Ebert said an additional freestanding recycling container has been installed in the public parking area at Waste Management’s Canal Winchester facility, 1006 W. Walnut St.

The city has also doubled the size of the recycling container at the downtown recycling center located in the public parking area behind the Interurban Building and Chase Bank, 8 S. High St.

“We’re encouraging our residents to use all recycling containers as intended and not to litter by discarding materials on the ground,” Ebert said. “If a container is full when you attempt to use it, we ask that you please return at another time.”

The new recycling containers will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We think that the additional containers should help keep people from just leaving recycling outside of the container, which creates a mess,” Ebert said.

“One thing that has changed recently is that Waste Management is no longer accepting glass for recycling because they said the market for that has bottomed out. Instead, they want people to just put their glass in the regular garbage.”

According to Waste Management officials, the company will monitor and empty its on-site container daily and will note any service abuses or materials left outside the container; inappropriate dumping may result in Waste Management removing the container.

The downtown containers are emptied twice on Mondays and Fridays and once on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. No pickup service is provided on weekends.

A list of accepted recyclables is posted at both locations and on the Waste Management website atwm.com.

ThisWeek CW 08/20/2015

The Madison Township Fire Department is gearing up for new recruits with a new candidate test scheduled for Oct. 9-10.

Chief Robert Bates said the department could hire as many as 10 recruits off the new test list. Any new hires would be added to the current staff of 42 full-time firefighters, 30 part-time firefighters and one full-time office manager, he said.

Madison Township voters approved a 5.25-mill fire levy in May that is expected to generate $3,266,168 annually, with the money to be used for new equipment, additional staffing and construction of a new firehouse in the Blacklick Estates neighborhood.

Since 2014, the fire department has participated in theCentral Ohio Firefighter Testing Consortium, which consists of Madison Township, the West Licking Joint Fire District, the Newark Division of Fire, the Heath Division of Fire and the C-TEC Adult Education Center.

By participating in the consortium, the township and applicants save time and money, according to Bates.

“While this isn’t in our backyard, it saves us taking applicants out to the Fire Academy and then we don’t have to send some of our staff out to spend a weekend setting and resetting (physical ability) tests instead of working here,” Bates said.

“C-TEC will do it all, top-to-bottom, and once the applicant passes the testing, they can get on our list for our final hiring processes.”

According to spokesman Brian Wilfong, the goal of the consortium is to streamline a system that allows departments to minimize pre-employment testing costs for entry-level firefighter positions by having one test that serves multiple fire departments.

The applicants similarly will only pay one testing fee for consideration by multiple departments.

This year’s test will primarily serve the West Licking Joint Fire District and Madison Township.

For more information, contact Erna Holland at 740-364-2282 or email eholland@c-tec.edu or Kathy Roderick at 740-364-2261.