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March 10, 2011

Council launches search for manager By CHRIS BOURNEA ThisWeek Community Newspapers Upper Arlington City Council took another step toward finding a new city manager at Monday night’s conference session when members interviewed executive search firms. City manager Virginia Barney has announced that she will retire at the end of the year. The three firms interviewed March 7 were selected from a pool of eight that responded to the city’s request for pro-

posals, said council member Erik Yassenoff, who sat on the committee evaluating the proposals. The committee also included council president Frank Ciotola and Virginia Barney member Wade Steen. The three firms interviewed were Colin Baenziger & Associates of Wellington, Fla., Hudepohl & Associates of Columbus, and Ralph Andersen & Associates of Rocklin, Calif.

Representatives of all three firms said they would conduct nationwide searches for city manager candidates, with a focus on those located in the Midwest. They said they would evaluate Upper Arlington residents who apply with the same scrutiny as other candidates and would consider applicants from the private sector with comparable managerial experience. All three firms said they would conduct extensive background checks of potential finalists, with criminal, reference and credit checks, Internet searches and

verification of education and employment. Baenziger said he would refund his proposed fee of $20,500 if the successful candidate were to leave the city of Upper Arlington within a year of hiring. In response to council member Mary Ann Krauss’s question about what the most important trait that a city manager should have, Baenziger said integrity is a priority. “But that’s not enough,” he said. “You have to have people skills. You have to understand people’s motivations.”

See MANAGER, page A6

UA Chamber of Commerce

Vonnegut play to be presented March 10-12

Celebrating success, looking to the future

By KATE HETRICK ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Upper Arlington High School theatre company will tackle the challenges of a postmodern production when they present an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” March 10-12. “In the play, scenes appear without regard to time or space. One moment, the players are in the battlefield, the next they’re in a zoo on an alien planet and the next, they’ve time warped into some time that seems closer to now,” said director Greg Varner, who teaches theatre and public speaking at the high school. Dealing with the show’s abstractions has been difficult, he said, but the process has “resulted in some nice theatrical moments.” The play is narrated by “Man,” played by senior Matt Wydick. Protagonist Billy Pilgrim appears at three different ages: Boy Billy (freshman Jack Mellon),Young Billy (junior Austin Bruns) and Billy (senior Alex Verlage). Nine other actors play multiple characters as Billy’s story unfolds. Senior Nellie Sanderson is the stage manager for the production, and is working with a backstage crew of about 10 students. “In contemporary language, we would assume that Billy Pilgrim is displaying classic traits of post-traumatic stress disorder,” Varner said. Pilgrim was a prisoner of war during World War II, witnessed the burning of Dresden and was the sole survivor in a plane crash that killed 36 others. In his opening dialogue, Pilgrim explains that he has become “unstuck in time.”

The proposed fee of the second firm council interviewed Monday night, Hudepohl & Associates, is 30 percent of the base salary of the successful city manager candidate. Yassenoff noted that the firm’s quote is double and even triple the quotes of some of the other firm’s proposals. Firm owner Gary Hudepohl said the city could pay 50 percent at the start of the search and the remainder after the search is completed. He said his firm has

By ANDREW MILLER

the event. Nominations are col-

ThisWeek Community Newspapers lected from the general public and

By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek

Upper Arlington High School student Joey Prines, front, Jason Crouse, back left, and Austin Bruns perform during a dress rehearsal for “Slaughterhouse Five” on March 4. The play will be performed March 10-12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Little Theatre at UAHS.

“The play is an attempt to make visible curriculum, and staging Eric Simonsons’s the experience Billy is having,” Varner said. See PLAY, page A2 Vonnegut’s novel is part of the UAHS

The business community celebrated another successful year at the Upper Arlington Area Chamber of Commerce annual awards ceremony last Friday. The chamber is also celebrating its 35th year of service to Upper Arlington. The event, hosted by chamber president Becky Hajost and board chairman Don Leach, included a video presentation by board member Deborah Taylor highlighting the chamber chairs’2010 accomplishments and 2011 strategic plans and keynote address by Kenny McDonald, Columbus 2020! senior vice president and chief economic officer. “This is an exciting time for the chamber,” Leach said. “Our annual meeting lets us recognize the people and companies that have made significant contributions to the community. We have focused our strategic vision, which we get to share tonight, and we are celebrating the strength of the business community in UA.” Six awards were presented at

then voted on by the chamber’s 22 board members. Janet Boissy, vice president of sales and marketing at Indus Hotels (which operates the University Plaza Hotel where the event took place), was awarded the Arthur Cullman Business Person of the Year, as recognition for her business expertise, experience and accomplishments. Edie Blough, vice president of Title First Agency, Inc., was awarded the Jeanne Schaal Outstanding Contributing Member, in recognition for dedication to promoting the chamber to the business community. Upper Arlington Senior Center administrator Sally Gard and president Ron Wigington accepted the Outstanding Community Organization award on behalf of the senior center. The award recognizes the senior center’s community outreach, programming excellence and commitment to service for the community’s older adult population. See CHAMBER, page A6

March 16 forum will address issues affecting older adults BY GARY BUDZAK

p.m. Wednesday, March 16, at the “Experience Freedom Again.” comfortable to discuss, inconti-

ThisWeek Community Newspapers Meadow Park Church of God, Novi will discuss the treatment of nence can lead to more serious

Incontinence and talking to doctors about one’s ailments — two awkward topics for some senior citizens — will be the focus of Northwest Counseling Services’ seventh annual educational forum. The forum on older adult issues takes place from 9 a.m. to 1:30

2425 Bethel Road. The fellowship hall of the church will have displays of local programs and businesses for older adults, and there will be two speakers in the sanctuary. First, Dr. Joseph M. Novi, a urogynecologist at Riverside Methodist Hospital, will present

pelvic disorders and incontinence in women. “He’s going to be talking about all those areas of bowel and bladder control, things that sometimes people even hate to bring up,” said Hollie Goldberg, an associate director at Northwest Counseling Services. And while it may be un-

health problems. “A lot of women have actually experienced falls because they may have a sudden urge to get to the bathroom real quickly,” Goldberg said. Among the causes is pelvic organ prolapse, when weak- Cindy Vaughan, owner of Vaughan Music Studios on Tremont Road, accepts this year’s Best Place to Work award from chamber board

See FORUM, page A2 chairman Don Leach.