January 13, 2011
Open house focus is on Oakland Ave. By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers The city of Grandview Heights will hold an open house meeting today (Thursday, Jan. 13) to give details and gather residents’ input on an upcoming project to improve Oakland Avenue. The open house will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the John Glenn Community Center at the middle school. The city has received nearly $975,000 for the project from the Ohio Public Works Commission through the State Capital Improvements Program. Grandview received the funds as $631,868 in grant money and $341,751 as a loan, according to Patrik Bowman, the city’s director of administration/eco-
nomic development. The OPWC funds A closer look should be sufficient to pay for virtually the entire cost of the The open house will be held Jan. project, he said. 13 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the The street pave- John Glenn Community Center at ment and curb on the middle school. Patrik Oakland Avenue will Bowman receive a total rehabilitation, Bowman activity on it, including bicycles, skateboards and pedestrians,” Bowman said. said. The city will be working with the A new sidewalk will be installed on the residential (west) side of the street school district to determine the exact and a new eight-foot wide multi-pur- route of the path, he said. New water lines will also be installed pose asphalt path will replace the sideon Oakland and the storm sewer syswalk on the east side, he said. “It’s being called a multi-purpose tem will be improved, Bowman said. Because of the work, the existing path because we’d expect a little more
street trees will be removed and replaced with new ones on both sides of Oakland, he said. “All in all, the trees on Oakland aren’t particularly great trees,” Bowman said. “We’ll be putting in good street trees.” The city will plant the same species at the same time at regular intervals so the trees will grow together and will put in trees that will provide better shade and cooling of the pavement, he said. To address Oakland Avenue residents’ concerns about speeding traffic, the project will include two traffic-calming elements, Bowman said. A raised crosswalk will be installed to replace the existing crosswalk at the southernmost driveway to the middle school, he said, while a slightly raised intersec-
tion island will be installed at the northernmost driveway. An intersection island is designed to break up the visual plane and help cause motorists to slow down, he said. The city plans to put the Oakland Avenue project up for bid in March and complete the project during the summer while school is out, Bowman said. Oakland Avenue residents should have access to their driveways during almost all of the construction period, he said. In addition to the Oakland Avenue project, the city is also planning to upgrade the traffic signals and improve the intersection at First Avenue and See OAKLAND, page A2
Final design for Pierce Field building due next month
IN SHERWOOD FOREST
By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Paul Vernon/ThisWeek
Carriage Court Players members David Huncherick, left, and Austin Channell perform in Robin Hood during the Chocolate Afternoon event at the Grandview Center on Jan. 8. Huncherick played the role of Little John and Channell played Robin Hood. The Chocolate Afternoon event also included a performance by the Jollysteppers Line Dancers, Wildfire Cloggers in addition to the play. Visitors were treated to samples of chocolate desserts prepared by various area restaurants and bakeries following the performances.
The final plan with cost estimates for a new multi-purpose building at Pierce Field is expected to be presented next month to the Grandview Parks Advisory Board. Meyers and Associates, the architectural firm working with the city on the design for the building project, has completed a preliminary design, said Sean Robey, parks and recreation director. “They’ve been getting input from representatives of user groups of the park, such as the Grandview Baseball Softball Association, the Bobcat Boosters, Stevenson Elementary and the high school athletic department as well as parks staff and parks advisory board,” Robey said. “They will be gathering some more input before completing the final design proposal,” he
said. The firm will make its final design presentation at the advisory board’s February meeting, the date of which has not yet been set, Robey said. The multi-purpose building will include a concession stand, storage facilities and restrooms and will replace the three buildings currently at the park, he said. The existing buildings were built in the 1960s or ’70s and are not up to current code, Robey said. The new single building will meet code and will be designed to meet the LEED green building certification system, he said. Although the final cost of the project is still to be determined, a $450,000 budget was stated when the city began seeking bids from architectural firms for the design, Robey said. How the building project See PIERCE, page A2
Wagenbrenner Co. building City to start Facebook page reopening set for Monday to promote community By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Two years to the day since the fire that displaced it, Grandview Avenue Physical Therapy will host a grand reopening Monday, Jan. 17, at the Wagenbrenner Company’s new building on Grandview Avenue. The event will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. and will be highlighted with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Grandview Mayor Ray DeGraw and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman are expected to attend the ceremony. GAPT is the only original tenant to move back into the Wagenbrenner building site on Grandview Avenue between Third and Fifth avenues. On Jan. 17, 2009, a three-alarm fire damaged the two-story Kingswood Building beyond repair, displacing all of the 27 business tenants save for the Z Cucina restaurant on the southern edge of the building, which was pro-
“
We worked with the Elford company and we’re so pleased with the result. Even though it’s taller than the previous building, it fits in nicely with the surrounding neighborhood. I’ve had other people tell me that it doesn’t appear like it’s a fourstory building.
”
ANGELA ZEIGLER — Wagenbrenner COO
tected by the atrium-like structure that connected it to the main building. The Wagenbrenner Company has built a new four-story development on the site, which has five retail spaces totaling 11,028 square
DIRECTORY News: (740) 888-6100 editorial@thisweeknews.com Sports: (740) 888-6054 sports@thisweeknews.com Retail ads: (740) 888-6009 jwillis@thisweeknews.com Classified: (740) 888-5003 classified@thisweeknews.com Customer Service: 1-888-837-4342
feet on the first floor and 37 oneand two-bedroom apartments on the upper three floors. The development has been named The Windsor Building. “It’s been a long process to rebuild, and we’re thrilled to see the project completed,” said Angela Zeigler, Wagenbrenner chief operating officer. “We worked with the Elford company and we’re so pleased with the result. Even though it’s taller than the previous building, it fits in nicely with the surrounding neighborhood. I’ve had other people tell me that it doesn’t appear like it’s a fourstory building.” Along with GAPT, other retail tenants at the Windsor Building will include Elli Nail Spa, which will be opening in the next few weeks, she said. Matt the Miller Restaurant and Orange Leaf Yogurt are expected to open in February or March. Another business has signed a letter of intent to locate in the fifth
By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers The city of Grandview Heights will soon be joining the Facebook revolution. The city is working with Mlicki, a branding company, to develop a Grandview Facebook page. The page is expected to be up and running in the next several weeks, said Patrik Bowman, director of administration/economic development for the city. “We’ve been meeting with Mlicki and they have since developed a strategy for us about the design of the page and how we can use it,” he said. The primary focus of the Facebook page will be promoting economic development in the city, Bowman said. “We don’t want it to be just the town’s news and views, like a lot of cities’ Facebook pages,” he said. According to the strategy developed by Mlicki, the page will be an online resource for neighbors and local businesses to connect and find information and serve as an online communi-
ty to connect businesses with the community and allow businesses and residents to have a dialogue with the city. The page will also help with the city’s economic development effort by serving as an online community that focuses on the marketing of businesses and connects them to the Grandview community. “We want to create a buzz about the community,” Bowman said. The Facebook page will be updated at least once daily, he said. Postings will include spotlights on local businesses and neighbor spotlights featuring local executives, new business openings, recent business innovations, updates on new developments and construction and commercial real estate availability. The page will also feature information about city and school events and programs, upcoming festivals and concerts, local sports news and fun facts about the city of Grandview Heights. “The idea is to get people checking the page See FACEBOOK, page A2
See REOPEN, page A2
Who’s got the beat? We do!
Weekly newspaper. Daily updates. Central Ohio’s choice for community news.
ThisWeekNEWS.com | ThisWeekSPORTS.com
Read the BeatBlog on ThisWeekNews.com for arts, dining and entertainment in central Ohio.
BLOGS