1/9/2011 edition of the Johnstown Independent by The Columbus Dispatch/Dispatch Magazines

January 9, 2011

Village getting ready for ODOT project Waterline to be improved, moved from Main Street before work starts By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Johnstown Village Council met Jan. 4 and approved ordinances confirming the village agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation to begin work in the intersection of state Route 37 and U.S. Route 62. “It’s just a general agreement that ODOT needs for all projects,” said Jim Lenner, acting village manager and village planner. “There isn’t much significance in it for the village.

“We did review administratively the plans for the project, which will be going out to bid April 1,” he said. “It’s their project. They run the ship.” ODOT is also preparing additional bidding documents that call for enhanced light polls and other fixtures associated with the project. Since the cost of such upgrades would be borne entirely by the village, Lenner said, council will have to decide whether to pay the price once it knows what that cost will be. “Once the bids come back, we’ll see

Legion baseball

what the alternate prices are, the upgrade of the light posts to go with the more decorative theme of the downtown revitalization and then we’ll have to see if we want to act on that,” Lenner said. “They’ll tell us it’ll cost so much money, and we’ll have to decide whether we want to do that.” The total project cost without the upgrades is estimated at $676,000, of which the village share is less than $20,000. Related to the project, the village has also decided to move a waterline on Main Street to Post Office Alley.

“The oldest water line in the village runs from Pratt to Coshocton on Main Street downtown,” Lenner said. “We’re going to move the waterline to Post Office Alley and make improvements. “Our service department has had to tear up Main Street twice a year with waterline breaks,” he said. “We didn’t want to have ODOT spend $700,000 and the village spend a few thousand and then turn around and tear it up. It makes us look foolish. “We want that bid by March 1, because have to get in and bid it and con-

struct it before ODOT begins (work on Main Street).” Council also approved the 2011 wage schedule for 31 village employees, only six of whom received modest increases in wages. All six earn less than $18 hourly. In addition, council adopted two financial policies suggested by finance director Larry Heiser, in compliance with state law and the village’s most recent audit. See ODOT, page A2

SUPPORTING COACH CARTER

Lack of coaches could mean canceling season By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Johnstown post of the American Legion, which has been sponsoring two summer baseball teams as part of the Legion’s nationwide baseball program, may have to cancel this summer’s schedule: It can’t find a coach. “The big thing is, if we cannot find managers and coaches for the two teams, there are some very talented young men that are not going to get to play ball,” said Bruce Tolle, commander of American Legion Post 254. “We’ve had some good coaches, but the well seems to have run dry,” said Jim Foster, the post’s first vice commander. “We just don’t know of anyone. It requires someone who can spend a good bit of time during May, June and July to help manage the boys’ teams and arrange schedules. “They’ve had quite a lot of success during the years,” he said of the local teams. Tolle said that nationwide, 80 percent of professional baseball players have played Legion baseball. The state of Ohio championship tournament is usually held in July, and for many years was played in Athens before being relocated to Lancaster last year. Johnstown has fielded both a junior team that plays locally and a senior team that plays around the state. “We have had teams from as far away as Sandusky come to play here,” said Jim Conrad, a legion volunteer who has run the concession stand for several years. One difficulty is that coaches are not paid. Any funds are spent on umpires, uniforms and equipment. And the job requires a serious time commitment. “It requires flexible hours,” Foster said. “Suppose you play in Chillicothe at 6 p.m., you have to be able to be there by 4:30 for warm-ups, and they might get involved in a tournament, maybe in Zanesville or Chillicothe, or sometimes here in Johnstown.” See LEGION BASEBALL, page A2

By Chris Parker/ThisWeek

Johnstown-Monroe Superintendent Damien Bawn speaks to a crowd of students and community members gathered in front of the school board office Jan. 5 in support of Mike Carter, the athletics director and football coach at JMHS whose contract, sources have told ThisWeek, will not be renewed for next year. Bawn has said he will not address the issue until the school board has acted.

Planning and zoning

Commission enforces new lighting standards By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Johnstown Planning and Zoning Commission met Jan. 5, approving one lighting proposal and rejecting another, both on Coshocton Street. The lighting plan put forth for a new Sears Home Store won the commission’s approval, but for one for H&R Block was denied. The Sears store will be moving into the vacant former site of CVS at 667 W. Coshocton St. “I was told they want to be open by Jan. 18,” said Jim Lenner, acting village manager and village planner. “They still need a zoning permit, but that’s an administrative function that we can

lage sign code, using “gooseneck” lighting fixtures that hang over the sign and light it from above. The main thrust of recent revisions to the sign The two big things are no huge pole code involved sign height and the method of lightsigns and internal illumination. ing the sign. “The two big things are no huge pole signs JIM LENNER and internal illumination,” Lenner said. “(Sears has) an externally illuminated sign, acting village manager and village planner and in accordance with the new sign regulations that the committee has recently done so much do, that I can do. They meet the criteria for the work on, Sears is going to have goose neck zoning, so council does not need to act on that.” (lamps),” Lenner said . “It’s to get away from the The planning commission approved Sears’ ap- bright, suburban sprawl style of lighting and get plication to construct an externally illuminated See LIGHTING STANDARDS, page A2 sign, consistent with recent revisions to the vil-

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Northridge board takes first step toward May income tax levy By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Northridge Local School District Board of Education held its organizational meeting Monday, electing Mark Dann as board president and Lee Hatfield as vice president, and taking the first steps toward putting an income tax levy on the May ballot. “The board passed the resolution for the alternative tax rate,” said treasurer

Jim Hudson. “That’s what we have to send to the department of taxation. Then that gets certified with an amount and sent back to us, and then if the board approves a second resolution that is then forwarded to the county board of elections. After that the levy will be official.” Dann said the decision will probably be made at the board’s Jan. 17 meeting. “The organizational meeting is about our business practices, meeting times and such for the coming year,” Dann

said. “We also discussed whether the income tax levy should be put on the ballot. The first step is to certify what the taxes are, and the agenda for the next meeting will probably include a resolution to put it on the May ballot.” The board also discussed various scenarios under which the district would make cuts to its operating budget. The income tax levy failed twice in 2010, once in the spring when it was proposed as a permanent income tax levy and again

in the fall when it was proposed as a fiveyear income tax levy, as it has been in the past. Because the existing 1 percent income tax expired Dec. 31 and any levy passed in 2011 would not take effect until 2012, the district knows that it will lose $1.8million in revenues from its $12.8-million budget because of lost 2011 income tax.

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The income tax levy failed twice in 2010, once in the spring when it was proposed as a permanent income tax levy and again in the fall when it was proposed as a five-year income tax levy, as it has been in the past.

See INCOME TAX LEVY, page A6