January 6, 2011
Columbus City Council seat
NCC president among interviewees By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Will the second time prove to be the charm? Northland Community Council president Dave Paul is hoping that proves to be the case. He is among the 17 applicants, winnowed down from an initial field of 49, who will be interviewed by members of city council to fill two vacancies cre-
ated by the departure of Council President Michael C. Mentel, who indicated he desires to spend more time with his family, and Councilwoman Charleta B. Tavares, who was elected to
ing a newly allowed executive session of the remaining council members, today (Thursday, Jan. 6), with the rest scheduled for Friday, Jan. 7. The process, as announced by city council spokesman John P. Ivanic, will involve public meetings being convened at 8:45 a.m. both days with the purpose Dave Paul of voting to go into executive session the Ohio Senate. to conduct the interviews with appliPaul will be among the potential ap- cants who made it through the initial pointees who will be interviewed, dur- cut-down from the 49 original appli-
cants, one of whom dropped out after realizing he didn’t live within the city. On Monday, Jan. 10, the five council members are scheduled to again hold a public meeting in order to convene in executive session to discuss the appointments. They are to come out of executive session at 5. “The council members shall then have the opportunity to nominate applicants for each of the two vacancies and vote to appoint new members,” according to
Ivanic’s timeline. “If a majority of the council members vote to appoint a nominee, he or she shall then be eligible to be sworn in under oath and take office …” Paul, 53, who is in his fifth and, he says, final term as NCC president, is hoping this time around he will be among the two appointees. His last try was unsuccessful; A. Troy Miller and See NCC PRESIDENT, page A2
Community leaders saw some bright spots in 2010 By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
It might not have been the worst of times but it was definitely not the best of times for the Northland area in 2010. Still, according to a sampling of community leaders, the year just ended had its bright spots and there are reasons for some optimism about the year that’s just begun. “ ‘It’s the economy stupid,’ is sort of the short answer in terms of what had the greatest impact on us it 2010,” Northland Community Council president Paul said. “That’s a biggie, the overall effects of the economy, ... just the struggles of the resident that make up our neighborhoods.” “We got a lot of ideas going last year, we put a lot of ideas down on paper,” Roseann Hicks, the 2010 Northland Area Business Association president who will continue in that office this year, said late last month. “By this time next year I want to see all of this come full cycle.” In the village of Minerva Park, one definite highlight for the year that has passed into the history books, according to spokeswoman Lisa Craddock Thitoff, was the Community Association’s launching of a summer concert series with three performances spread out over three months. “We had Dixieland band, a jazz (group) and a country-pop group,” Thitoff wrote in an e-mail. “Food offerings were hot dogs, potato chips, pop and ice cream for sale.” Although 2010 saw one Northland civic group, the Devonshire Civic Association, cease to exist with the start of the new year and another, the Little Turtle Civic Association, be dropped from the NCC’s rolls for lack of participation, things hummed right along last year for the Sharon Woods Civic Association, according to John Kirkpatrick, who was once again elected president last month. In his “State of the Woods” message to association members, Kirkpatrick had some good news to share. “It was a good year for monetary contributions from residents to our treasury, as well as the items donated for selling at our annual fundraising garage sale,” he wrote. “A little over 225 residents joined our association this year and we were able to operate in the black and within our budget. I wish to thank the executive board and trustees of the Sharon Woods Civic Association for all their hard work and support of the many programs we completed this year. The Beechcroft Lions also were instrumental in helping us with most, if not all, our community projects this year. My thanks go out to them.” A project begun in November, involving construction of a walking path, shelter house and playground at Beechcroft Park, should be finished in the spring, according to Kirkpatrick. “This is a real benefit to all residents of Sharon Woods, especially for parents and grandparents, who will have a place for their children to play and have a picnic,” he wrote. In addition, several streets in the neighborhood were repaved in 2010 with nine or 10 more planned for 2011. One major ongoing highlight for the entire Northland area, according to NCC president Paul, is the Menards hardware stare “coming out of the ground” on the site of the mall that once provided the name and identity for the community. “It is taking shape,” he said, along with the new Franklin County Animal Shelter and the repurposing of the former J.C. Penney building into a permanent home for Vaud-Villities as well as offices for Franklin County Job and Family Services. See LEADERS SAW, page A2
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By Laurie Stevenson/ThisWeek
Shaune Skinner, president of Northland-based ASC Group Inc., a cultural and environmental consulting firm, stands by some of the artifacts collected by her staff from the field.
Women-owned firm offers cultural, environmental services By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
What started out as two archeologists scrambling to fill a void has burgeoned into a 45-employee Northland-based company with offices in four states offering services dealing with ancient history as well as completely modern issues and problems. What is today the ASC Group Inc. Cultural and Environmental Consultants, with headquarters on Freeway Drive North, was founded by business partners and Clintonville residents Shaune M. Skinner and Elsie Immel-Blei on April 1, 1986, as simply Archeological Services Consultants. “ASC Group Inc. is a certified, women-owned cultural and environmental resources management company,” according to its website. The cultural part provided the underpinnings for the enterprise when the Ohio Historical Society, as a result of a potential conflict of in-
terest, was forced to drop archeological surveys as a service offered. Skinner and ImmelBlei, archeologists for the society, faced losing their jobs so, with the blessing of the director, started their own firm to provide the surveys, which are required by federal regulations for many types of development and land use. It was a propitious time to get into the field, so to speak, according to Skinner, now president of the company; business partner ImmelBlei is more involved in the financial end of things. In about 1986, Skinner said, the federal Office of Surface Mining had just been sued for failing to comply with a requirement to conduct archeological surveys before mining operations started. As a result, coal companies were lined up waiting for a whole backlog of these surveys to be conducted. For the first two years of the company’s existence, all Skinner and Immel-Blei did was surveys for mining companies, to permit operations to begin where
nothing or archeological significance was found or halted where there was. “All we needed were shovels,” Skinner recalled “Back then, people wrote reports on typewriters. We didn’t have to go out and buy a building. We didn’t have to buy a lot of expensive equipment.” With the expansion of services over the years since, ASC Group Inc. has had to buy a building, lots of expensive equipment and has expanded to have offices in not only Columbus but also Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Pa.; and Huntington, W.Va. Although archeological investigations remain a mainstay of ASC Group’s business, operations have expanded to embrace architectural history as well as ecological and environmental services. The latter aspects, added in the early 1990s, provided the impetus for changing the comSee FIRM OFFERS, page A2
Hicks returning as NABA president By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Major life changes are in store for Roseann Hicks in 2011, but one thing will stay constant: She will still be president of the Northland Area Business Association, as she was for all of 2010. Hicks said last week that she was delighted to be asked to serve a sec-
ond consecutive term as NABA president, even though very shortly she’s going to have way more important things to think about, such
expecting their first child in less than a month. They know she is carrying a boy and have named him Christian Dale, after Roseann’s great-grandfather and her husband. Roseann Hicks, who also serves as secretary for the Northland Community Council while helping to Roseann Hicks run the family’s business, Yogi’s as her new baby. Hoagies, admitted she wasn’t cerHicks and her husband Dale are tain about accepting the request of
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NABA’s nominating committee to stay on in the president’s post. “The doubts and the reservations that I had didn’t have anything to do with the organization or the area or anything like that,” she said. “It had to do with personal things. Nobody knows what their lives are going to be like when they become See HICKS, page A2
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