ThisWeek Westerville 5/5/11 by The Columbus Dispatch/Dispatch Magazines

May 5, 2011

Walmart’s fate rests with city council By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Westerville City Council will make the final decision on whether The Hadler Cos. can tear down three storefronts in its Westerville Square shopping center to construct a 108,000-square-foot Walmart. The Westerville Planning Commission voted 6-0 on April 27 to declare the proposed changes to the shopping center a major modification, meaning that city council will have to vote on the matter. The commission also voted 5-1 to recommend that council approve The Hadler Cos.’ application, as long as any outstanding issues the city has with the plans are resolved. Commission member Amy Koorn cast the lone dissenting vote and member Brian Szuch was absent.

Senior planner Bassem Bitar said the earliest the case would go before council is May 17 but a date has not yet been determined. In addition to constructing a small-scale Walmart store, The Hadler Cos. plans to renovate the rest of the 48-year-old shopping center to match the newly built storefront. Since the proposal was presented at the March planning commission meeting, The Hadler Cos. altered the design to create a more traditional entrance to Walmart to tie in to the rest of the center, changed sheet-metal roofing to shingles to create a warmer color scheme and moved a rear loading bay so that it would tie in better with the structure and be better hidden from view. The company’s new plans show a 10-foot masonry wall with a brick finish along the north edge of the property that will serve to block sounds from the center to Sugar Grove, the retirement

This artist’s rendering shows plans for the shopping center, which would be anchored by Walmart.

center to the north. The Hadler Cos. also committed to renovating outparcels along Schrock Road, which now include a Taco Bell and a Goodyear tire store, within 18 months of earning approval to renovate the center. The site’s third outparcel, Lucky House, has a lease through 2017, and The Hadler Cos. said it will commit to renovating the restaurant within a year of that lease being up.

Planning commission members continued to have concerns over the company’s plans, however. “My biggest concern is traffic,” said councilwoman Diane Fosselman. “I’m still disappointed that we have the same number of curb cuts.” The site plan for the center shows all eight curb cuts being maintained, though The Hadler Cos. has See WALMART, page A2

Gooding resigns

GETTING READY TO ROW

Board could name interim treasurer by next week By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers

By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek

From left, Westerville crew coxswain Amanda Poll goes over the game plan with teammates Lindsey Brown, Victoria Langwasser, Tatiana Lundstrom and Ashley Bauer prior to their race during the Governor’s Cup on April 30 at Griggs Reservoir. See Sports, page B1.

WARM to offer summer lunch for children By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers

More children will be able to enjoy hot lunches during the summer months, thanks to a partnership forged by the Westerville Area Resource Ministry (WARM), Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital and Westerville City Schools. WARM has created the Westerville Area Lunch Club, which will serve lunch will each weekday as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Ser-

vice Program. The additional funding needed for the program has been donated by St. Ann’s, said WARM program coordinator Deb Wallace, and Westerville City Schools will prepare the food. With no kitchen, WARM has never been able to provide meal service, but providing summertime lunches to children has long been a goal for the organization, Wallace said. “This is a big new venture for us,” she said. “It’s been on the dream list of director Scott Marier for a number of years. It’s been in the

planning process for him for a long time.” Though serving lunch sounds easy enough and the program receives funding from the government, there still is a great effort and a considerable cost involved in organizing a Summer Food Service Program. “You would think that would be simple enough to do and that is why there are not more of these programs around in our communities,” Wallace said. “It’s really expensive to do this and comply with all of the manSee LUNCH, page A3

Westerville City Schools treasurer Scott Gooding announced his resignation April 29. Gooding, who has served as the district’s treasurer since June 2004, will take a position with the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio. His last day with the district will be May 16. Until then, or until the district names an interim treasurer, Gooding will continue to perform dayto-day tasks and the duties that only treasurer can do under state law, such as signing payroll checks. The Westerville school board held a special meeting May 2 to accept Gooding’s resignation. School board president Kristi Robbins said the board is prepared to act quickly to name an interim treasurer, as the board and the administration had been aware for some time of Gooding’s desire to seek a position outside the district. “Scott has been very forthcoming in terms of letting us know that he was thinking of leaving,” Robbins said. “We have had some contact with people who have been

interims in the past and do that for a living and have good experiences as previous treasurers of larger districts.” Robbins said some board members will meet with candidates for interim treasurer this week. The goal is to name an interim treasurer quickly and then begin to search “in earnest” for a permanent treasurer, she said. Because the district is about to enter into its annual budget process, the board is looking outside the district for someone with extensive experience working for a large district, Robbins said. If the district is in a position to do so after this week’s interviews, Robbins said, the board could take action to approve an interim treasurer as early as the May 9 work session. As for the search for a permanent treasurer, Robbins said the district already has reached out to professional groups who help recruit school district treasurers to ask for contract proposals. The board plans to contract with one of those groups to secure the See GOODING, page A3

Delaware County voters approve 911, developmental disabilities levies By SARAH SOLE ThisWeek Community Newspapers Delaware County voters on May 3 warmed to a levy without a tax increase, supporting the five-year, 0.45-mill renewal operating levy for the county’s 911 emergency communications system.

There were 14,386 votes for the renewal levy and 7,957 votes against it. Sixty-four percent of voters were in favor of the levy. Residents voted down a fiveyear 0.62-mill 911 levy in November.

“We clearly understood the message from last November of no new taxes,” said Bob Greenlaw, Delaware Emergency Communications Operations director. “We reduced the levy to provide for no new taxes and I’m very

pleased that the voters responded favorably to our actions.” The levy replaces the 911 levy that will expire this year. The renewal amount means a homeowner will pay at the same rate as the expiring levy: $13.68 per $100,000 of residential valuation a year.