DAVID COLLINSWORTH A memorable moment...
I’ll always remember...
I was on the job not even a year yet when Westerville got hit by its first hurricane in the fall of 2008. Hurricane Ike came through the Gulf of Mexico and Texas, headed north, and took a big right turn near St. Louis and walloped central Ohio with wind gusts over 70 mph. Nearly 80% of Westerville’s electric customers were out of power and crews worked feverishly to get the lights on throughout the City. For some reason however, my subdivision never lost power, a fact I did not broadly advertise, especially after two days when we still had a couple-hundred customers still out. But coming from a smaller city (Tipp City, pop. 10,000), Westerville didn’t feel as much of a small town to me until I got to my barber later that week for a scheduled haircut. After exchanging niceties and talking about the “big storm,” my barber nonchalantly breaks in. “So, I understand the City Manager’s house didn’t lose power.” It was then that I realized how much Westerville was still a “small town” in so many ways.
Again, there have been so many in just that 13year period, it’s hard to know where to start and stop. The purchase and development of the 62 acres now called Westar Place, which led to construction of the Renaissance Hotel; the creation of the WeConnect Data Center and Fiber Network; and the recent expansion of the Community Center are all stand-outs from a physical development standpoint.
I am proud of... This is really a tough one because there are so many. Probably what stands out as one of the most impactful (and difficult) was the South State Street Improvement Project. First, this was identified by City Council as a major priority and all the initial planning studies had been performed by the time I came on board. This commercial thoroughfare was tired, and it showed. We had an opportunity to not only improve the visual and aesthetic quality of the corridor, but also its functional efficiency in terms of traffic movement. Getting all of the right-of-way in hand for both phases was extraordinarily difficult, and I thought the contractor would never stop digging into the gas mains. But this corridor has greatly improved. And, for every $1 the City invested, the private sector has put in $3, encouraging projects like the Aloft Hotel, the major shopping center renovations and other smaller projects that have occurred. It has even spurred our friends in Blendon Township to dress up Westerville Road a little further south, sparking a bit of a revitalization down there as well.
This super groovy kid from the 70s washed dishes at his family’s restaurant in the Dayton-area. He also played high school football before deciding to attend the University of Dayton, then graduate school at the University of Kansas.
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Experience-wise, I’d have to add Gov. Kasich’s last (2018) State of the State address and of course hosting the 2019 Democratic Presidential Debate - the largest ever - was certainly an incredible event for the City to prepare for and manage. But I can’t really say any of these, as great as they were, surpass the horrific events of February 10, 2018. That day, that moment, that scene is emblazoned in the back of my mind and I think of it often. The loss of Tony and Eric and the overwhelming community response to their tragic deaths will be something I’ll carry with me the rest of my life. Those memorials, processions, tributes, and the funeral itself laid bare the heavy grief of an entire community that convened to publicly mourn their heroes - an incomparable and unforgettable sight.
A little “inside” joke ... I’ve been extremely blessed to have worked with great elected officials and staff. There’s a bit of an internal thing between Julie Colley, Mayor Cocuzzi and me. Julie and Kathy both happened to marry “Davids” whose last name begins with “C-O,” so it was not uncommon for me at times to get a misplaced text or phone call. One time, my phone buzzed alerting me to a text message. As I read it, it had attached a wine list for a restaurant somewhere in the south where the Cocuzzi’s were vacationing. The accompanying message was “How’s this look for dinner?” to which I replied “Great, but it’s gonna take me about 12 hours to get there.”
Always the community helper, Dave participated in a fundraiser to earn bail money a few years ago.
A fresh-faced Dave with wife, Jane, and kids Rachel, Abbie and Andrew in 2008 being sworn in as Westerville City Manager.
