March 24, 2011
Insight Bank may buy old Dalt’s site City offers $75K to company, which would bring 30 employees, add 20 more By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
With the help of a $75,000 city venture grant, Insight Bank might purchase and move to offices at 140-150 W. Wilson Bridge Road. Insight is under contract to buy the building from the Worthington Square owners, who purchased the old Dalt’s
restaurant and the building next door, along with the mall, in December. Like Worthington Square owner Tom Carter, Insight president and CEO Harvey Glick is a Worthington resident. The city has worked with Glick in the past. In 1999, he and a group of former State Savings officials founded Prospect Bank, which they opened in the former Bill Knapp’s restaurant on North High
Street. The bank was sold to Sky Bank in 2006, and the building currently is a Huntington branch. Insight is on Orion Place in the Polaris area. The bank’s headquarters will be in the brick building next to the former Dalt’s, and a branch bank will be in the former restaurant. Worthington City Council on March
21 introduced an incentive package that would provide Insight with an upfront single payment of $75,000 after Insight has moved to Worthington. A public hearing before council was set for April 4. In exchange, the company will enter into a seven-year agreement bound by payroll commitments. The bank has pledged to immediate-
ly move about 30 employees to the Worthington site and to add another 20 positions over seven years. According to Worthington economic development director Jeff Harris, moving the corporate headquarters from Columbus to Worthington would greatly enhance the city’s income-tax colSee INSIGHT, page A2
Superintendent search firm seeks input on criteria By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
Kilbourne Middle School student Sarah Bellish of Worthington receives a check from Dublin Scioto High School seniors Noha Ali and Jae Young Yoon during an assembly March 18. The students raised more than $6,000 to send Bellish to Nashville to record a song through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Also pictured in the back are Scioto special-education teacher Karri Ward and enrichment coordinator Holly Hall.
Make-A-Wish Foundation
Worthington girl to record song in Nashville Dublin Scioto High School students donated $6,000 to make the wish of a Worthington girl come true. During an assembly last week, Scioto High School students donated the money to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which will redirect the money to Sarah Bellish, a Worthington 14-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy. The donation will help fulfill Bellish’s wish to travel to Nashville, where she will make a recording. Scioto students held numerous fundraisers to collect money for
the Make-A-Wish Foundation, including bake sales, a gingerbread-house auction and a donut sale. Scioto students have raised money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation for several years and have donated more than $20,000 total. The Make-A-Wish Foundation sponsors a “Students for Wish Kids” program that enables students to help grant the wishes of local children, according to the foundation’s website. Students come up with ideas for fundraisers and manage the projects with help from their teachers and a Make-A-Wish representative.
Staff, parents, business leaders and community members will be asked to identify the characteristics they would like to see in the next Worthington superintendent of schools. The Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESC), consultants hired to lead the superintendent search, will hold a series of meetings over the next three weeks to gather input before the nationwide search is launched. Melissa Conrath, superintendent for the past five years, will retire in the fall. The Worthington Board of Education hopes to have a successor ready to start during the summer. ESC is an agency that supports school districts in Franklin, Delaware and Union counties and has assisted in administrator searches in Dublin, Granville, Olentangy and other school districts. ESC is expected to take about nine weeks to complete a four-step process. The first step will be to gather information about what kind
Unfamiliar state law prompts rush decision By CANDY BROOKS
About Riverlea
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
An obscure state law is pushing Worthington to make a quick decision on the proposed annexation of the village of Riverlea. Worthington City Council will hold a special meeting April 10 — a Sunday — to meet the deadline set by the law governing annexations. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m., when council will decide to either reject an overture by a group of Riverlea residents to annex into the city or appoint three commissioners to work with three from Riverlea to negotiate terms of an annexation. The six-member commission then would have 120 days to come to an agreement, the details of which probably would go on the ballot to be decided by the voters of Worthington and Riverlea. If the six cannot agree, a probate judge would appoint a seventh member to cast the deciding vote, but the seventh member would
Riverlea is a village of 545 residents and 236 housing units west of North High Street and south of West Riverglen. It is surrounded by Worthington on three sides and the Olentangy River on the west side.
not live in Worthington or Riverlea. Council members said they were feeling rushed by a state law that requires them to pass an ordinance entering into negotiations within 30 days of receiving a certified ordinance from Riverlea, declaring its intent to enter into annexation negotiations. Worthington received the letter March 11. With spring vacations slated for many Worthington council members, the only date when all could be present is April 10. City law director Mike Minister said he could not see how other communities handled the requirements of the law for one
simple reason: He could find no other instances of the 1953-approved law being used. “I’m sure there must be one, but we can’t find it,” he said. Council member Robert Schmidt said during the meeting that before he votes to move forward, he wants a better understanding of the motives of those who want Riverlea to become part of Worthington. Riverlea resident Duncan Aukland said he has talked to residents of the village, and most want the alternative to be explored. Some council members said they might prefer to reject the ordinance and instead move forward with more casual talks between representatives of Worthington and Riverlea. If an agreement then could be reached, the official channels could be followed, they said. Aukland said he would prefer the city say, “We’re going to look at it,” rather than simply reject it. See OBSCURE STATE LAW, page A2
DIRECTORY
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City sees $300K hit over two years if Kasich plan passes By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Riverlea annexation
of leadership skills are most desired for the district. For residents who cannot attend one of the scheduled meetings, information is available on the district’s website at www.worthington.k12.oh.us. A staff advisory group will meet with the consultants March 24, with a parents advisory group March 29 and with a business and civic advisory group March 30. Everyone else is invited to share their input during a community advisory group meeting April 12, following spring break. It will begin at 7 p.m. in Room 101 of the Worthington Education Center, 200 E. Wilson Bridge Road. ESC representatives will run the meetings. Attendees will be asked to complete a survey and then will move into small groups to come to a consensus on what characteristics would be important in a new superintendent. After the firm understands the community’s needs, it will recruit candidates and then follow the standard process of screening, interviews and contract negotiations.
A proposed budget cut of $300,000 over two years did not come as good news to city officials, but it also would not put the city on the brink of financial disaster. According to Gov. John Kasich’s proposed biennial budget, the Local Government Fund would be cut from $665-million in the 2011 budget to $339-million in 2013, almost a 50-percent decrease. In a letter included with the state budget, Kasich wrote that the budget “closes an $8-billion structural imbalance while preserving the $800-million, two-year income-tax cut that went into effect Jan. 1. Kasich’s budget would reduce Worthington’s share of the Local Government Fund by $150,000 next year and $150,000 the following year, according to city spokesperson Anne Brown. The city’s projected generalfund revenue for 2011 is $23.6million, so the cut is relatively small.
“
It was something we expected, so we’ve already made plans.
ANNE BROWN city spokesperson
Also, city revenues overall are projected to increase over the next few years, thanks to the recent increase in the city income-tax rate from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. Voters approved the increase last spring, and it went into effect last summer. Income-tax revenues in 2009 totaled $12.6-million. In 2010, with a half year under the higher rate, revenue was $13-million. It is expected to increase to $14.7-million in 2011. The city’s share of the Local Government Fund was cut from $800,000 a year to $600,000 this year and then would be cut by an additional $300,000 over See CUTS, page A2
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