February 20, 2011
Columbus City Council
11 candidates to run in May 3 primary By GARY SEMAN JR. ThisWeek Community Newspapers
For the first time since 2005, there will be a primary election battle for Columbus City Council. A quartet each of Republicans and Democrats and three Libertarians had their petitions certified Feb. 15 by the Franklin County Board of Elections. The GOP ticket includes Matt Ferris,
Alicia Healy, Joe Healy and Daryl Hennessy. The Democrats seeking office are council incumbents Andrew Ginther, Hearcel Craig, Zachary Klein and Michelle Mills. Two placeholders, Donald Klco and Zachary Roberts, will be replaced by Klein and Mills on the primary ballot. Mark Noble, Andrew Ullman and Robert Bridges were certified on the
Libertarian ticket. Genaro Garcia did not collect the required number of valid signatures. In an officially nonpartisan race, the eight top vote-getters from the May 3 primary will seek four open seats on council this fall. Meanwhile, there will be no primary race for Columbus mayor. Democratic incumbent Michael B. Coleman, who is seeking a fourth term, will square off
against retired police Sgt. Earl Smith, a Republican, in November. Mayoral hopeful Paul Nerswick, an independent, did not get the 1,000 valid signatures needed to put him on the primary ballot. “We’re a little dismayed,” he said of his campaign. “We wish it could be different.” Nerswick, who lives in the Northland area, wouldn’t rule out the possibility of running for mayor in the future.
“We were ready for this race, though,” he said. “We thought we had a good platform and we thought we had people who were on board who were infectious and we thought that would work in our favor.” But he had little to say about the race between Coleman and Smith. “I hope Columbus gets what it needs,” See PRIMARY, page A2
WAC encourages residents’ involvement in creating park By CARLA SMITH ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Westland Area Commission (WAC) is encouraging residents to get involved in the development of a community park. “I’d love to see some young people come to this and get involved,” commission chair Linda Pitts said. “It’s their park.” A meeting on the subject is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, at the Westland Area Library, 4740 W. Broad St. Maureen Lorenz from the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department will be present to discuss design options and hear input. “It is my understanding that one of the park designers will be there,” Pitts said. “We should be able to give them some good ideas.” A closer look The parkland set for development is located The parkland set for developat the corner of ment is located at the corner Alton Darby of Alton Darby Creek Road Creek Road and West Broad Street. At and West Broad its January meeting, the Street. At its commission members January meet- agreed they wanted to get a ing, the com- little more aggressive in their mission mem- stance on acquiring a recreation facility for the area. bers agreed they wanted to get a little more aggressive in their stance on acquiring a recreation facility for the area. A few years ago, Columbus voters supported a bond issue that was to fund the regional recreation center concept around the city. The West Broad Street location was considered ideal for such a facility to be built. With the downturn in the economy, however, all the planned recreation centers were put on hold. Last fall, a representative of Columbus Recre-
Photos by Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
SPELLING BEE (Above) South-Western City School District Spelling Bee runner-up Jordan Wilt and the champion, Said Ahmed, look at their trophies following the annual event on Feb. 10. Wilt is a sixth-grader at Park Street Intermediate School and Ahmed is an eighth-grader at Norton Middle School. Ahmed won on the word “pyrite.” (Right) Eddie Dennis, a sixth-grader at Franklin Woods Intermediate School, concentrates as he tries to spell “aborigine.”
See PARK, page A2
Graffiti problems
Local company will add 55 jobs this year Meeting to embrace We’re going to employ several neighborhoods engineers, designers, assembly By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
What started out as a simple effort to convene Clintonville residents concerned about graffiti has taken on a life of its own. “It’s kind of become a career,” joked James R. Blazer II, the District 3 representative on the Clintonville Area Commission. Several months ago, Blazer polled his fellow area commission members to see if they would be willing to let him call a community meeting on the subject of “tagging.”
“It’s become a big issue in Clintonville, and people are upset,” Blazer said last week. “It’s defacing the neighborhood.” Since the graffiti problems that beset Clintonville are, if anything, more pronounced in the University District, Blazer approached that area’s commission chairman, Ian McConnell, to gauge his support for the concept. He was “gung-ho,” according to Blazer. “We have common related areas that have similar problems,” Blazer said.
The Grove City branch of an international corporation will bring 55 new jobs to town this year. Switzerland-based Kern International, which manufactures and sells mail inserting systems, is expanding its Grove City branch off Gantz Road. The local arm of the corporation will become the only one of its U.S. facilities to manufacture mailing systems, said company spokesman Ryan McManis. “We’re transitioning from a sales and service division to actually a manufacturer of equipment,” he said. The new A1-Class machine will be the world’s fastest mail inserter once it is launched in April, according to Kern officials. “It will definitely be a standout in our in-
See MEETING, page A2
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workers — really spanning all the way from management to parts and inventory as well as sales and service.
RYAN MCMANIS
”
—Kern International spokesman
dustry,” McManis said. “April will be the official launch, so that we’re starting to take orders. By mid-year, we’ll be starting to produce things domestically.” The company demonstrated the new machine at a trade show in November, which generated a lot of interest because America
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is the biggest market for direct mail marketing in the world, he said. “We’re driven by technology that is demanded by the U.S. customers,” McManis said. “We came across this technology and we were able to acquire it and turn it into a commercially viable product.” Kern chose to bring some of its manufacturing to the United States because of the dollar’s current low value relative to world currencies, McManis said. “It makes these products cheaper for our customers in the U.S. versus buying them with the euro.” Kern moved its local facility to Grove City from south Columbus in 2007 and will expand into existing warehouse space next door to its current location. See 55 JOBS, page A2
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