Issuu

March 20, 2011

Action expected Monday on Carter contracts Grassroots group attempting to remove 2 school board members from office By SCOTT HENNEN ThisWeek Community Newspapers

The fate of Mike Carter will be decided Monday, March 21, but that might not be the only development involving Johnstown-Monroe Local Schools. Carter, the dean of students, athletics director, football coach and weight-room supervisor at the high school, will learn his future when the board of education holds its monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. in Johnstown Village Council chambers, 599 S. Main St. Carter was told in December that contracts for his four positions would not be renewed by the board. He has been the school’s football coach since 2002. “Action will be taken, but I can’t talk about that until the agenda comes out, which will probably be (March 19),” said Damien Bawn, superintendent of Johnstown schools. “But I won’t comment on it then, though, because no action has been taken.” ThisWeek requested the personnel file for Carter, whose given name is William Michael Carter. There also is a Mike Carter who is district technology coordinator. In all of coach Carter’s evaluations, he was given the highest overall performance rating, whether it was “commendable” in early evaluation forms or “meets standard” in later forms. In his last four evaluations — dated March 31, 2010, and Dec. 16, 2010, and

File photo by Rebecca Padula/ThisWeek

Johnstown-Monroe High School football coach Mike Carter has the attention of his team during a 2009 game. Coach Carter’s future with the team and the school is expected to be decided at Monday night’s board of education meeting.

See ACTION COMING, page A4

Finance committee

Village wrestles with possible pay raises WALLET: By JENNA GANT ThisWeek Community Newspapers Johnstown Village Council’s finance committee met March 15 to discuss future salaries for police and service department employees. Village manager Jim Lenner said the committee wants to decide whether those two departments’ employees would receive pay increases in 2012. “We just didn’t want to get to November and everyone asks questions about salaries,” Lenner said. He said the service department is proposing pay increases based on merit — “performance evaluations, how well they do the job.” The police department is looking at a fourstep pay increase where employees “aren’t guaranteed (pay increases) in four years but if council permits a raise, they know what step they

According to Heiser, the police department in 2011 will receive an estimated $869,650 for A closer look police personnel costs, including benefits, while the service department is expected to cost According to Johnstown finance director $873,900 for employees working with the vilLarry Heiser, the police department in lage’s streets, water and sewer divisions. 2011 will receive an estimated $869,650 Heiser said the police department was promfor police personnel costs, including ised a pay raise at the end of 2009 and employees benefits, while the service department is received higher salaries until June 2010. expected to cost $873,900 for employees “Then the raises were taken away and set back working with the village’s streets, water to the way it was at the end of the year, so oband sewer divisions. viously, it’s created some tension there,” Heiser said. Police chief Don Corbin and service director would go to next,” Lenner said. Johnstown finance director Larry Heiser said Jack Liggett butted heads over where the money should go in 2012 if there’s enough cash for he’s already working on the 2012 budget. “We’re trying to hit it early to figure out how raises. “It sounds to me like you are saying, chief, we handle it, what kind of police department we want and what that cost is to the village,” See PAY RAISES, page A3 Heiser said.

End of an era

Cason retires as ThisWeek executive editor By JEFF DONAHUE he has every week since cluding a career that ThisWeek Community Newspapers 1993. spanned the height of the However, come MonWatergate era as an ediFriday, March 18, marked the end day morning, for the first tor at The Washington of an era at ThisWeek Community time in 18 years, he won’t Post to building one of Newspapers. be leading a newsroom disthe nation’s most reLate that afternoon, vice president cussion on politics or the spected community newsand executive editor Ben Cason will NCAA basketball tournapaper organizations. Ben Cason shut down his computer, gathered ment. Under Cason’s leaderhis cell phone and coat and quietly Cason announced his retirement ship, ThisWeek Community Newsstroll edout of the newsroom the way to ThisWeek staffers March 11, con- papers have won hundreds of state,

regional and national awards for journalistic excellence. More importantly, general manager Stephen Zonars said, Cason won the loyalty of hundreds of thousands of central Ohio readers. “Ben has been the heartbeat of ThisWeek Community Newspapers for 18 years and his contributions

Education system not working By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers A group of Northridge Local School District residents calling themselves WALLET (Wallets Against Large Levies and Excessive Taxes) originated last spring, when one resident’s doubts about school levies prompted him to prepare a “vote no” mailing to district residents. With each passing election, the group adds a few more members, said founder Bill Jones. “People started writing to me, these little old ladies, saying thank you for standing up for us, we’re on a fixed income,” said Jones, who owns three properties in the district and operates a small business that employs 10 people. “You know if some are writing there are a lot more who agree but are not taking the time to write.” Soon enough, Jones’s neighbor Susan Smith, herself a retired public school teacher who continues to work part-time, was working with Jones. Smith was bothered by the closing of old school buildings in favor of more expensive new buildings. See NOT WORKING, page A2

See CASON RETIRES, page A2

Johnstown Historical Society to begin bicentennial planning By JENNA GANT ThisWeek Community Newspapers Terry Priest of the Johnstown Historical Society is thinking bicentennial, and to get people to start making plans for the 2013 celebration, he has called a meeting for all residents at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 26, at the Opera House. Priest said he would like to see a village bicentennial where projects and activities happen throughout the entire year.

“Two years I figured might be enough time to get a lot of this stuff done so when the bicentennial actually gets here, we can have a yearlong celebration of just different events on different weekends,” Priest said. He said he’s calling the meeting to see who’s interested in “doing something historical.” “If you live here, why not learn something about it?” he said. Priest said he’s looking for residents’ help in gathering documents and old

photos, as well as people who’d “probably enjoy identifying some of these people in pictures. “I’m talking about informational things that could be put on discs or scrapbooks, histories that could be written,” he said. “The history of Johnstown is not just buildings, it’s also what did people do in their life for fun.” Priest said he’d like residents to invest in the village and form projects from the pictures and historic information.

“Everybody has an interest in something, so why not go back in Johnstown’s history, find out what people did here in that general area and let’s keep it recorded in some way,” he said. Besides recording its history, Priest also envisions the community working on projects to beautify Johnstown and “get them involved in making their own history.” He said that could include anything