May 19, 2011
School board
November levy, more budget cuts possible By CHRIS BOURNEA ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Canal Winchester Board of Education will hold a special meeting May 23 to decide whether to place another levy before voters in November. During the board’s regular meeting on Monday, May 17, district officials discussed how to move forward in the aftermath of voter rejection of a levy on May 3. The board has scheduled a special meeting for May 23 at 7 p.m. to discuss
whether to place another levy on the ballot again in November. The May 3 levy failed by a margin of 50.71 to 49.29 percent, or 1,784 “no” votes and 1,734 “yes” votes, according to Franklin County Board of Elections official results. If it had passed, the levy would have cost $469 per $100,000 of home value and would not have increased the amount that voters already pay as a result of the two-year, $6.4-million emergency levy that was approved in May 2009. The 2009 levy expires at the end of
the year. Superintendent Kimberley MillerSmith said low voter turnout may have had contributed to the results. “We had a 25-percent turnout in Franklin County and a 15-percent turnout in Fairfield County,” she said. “In my opinion, that had something to do with it.” Board President Debra Waites said the board will analyze financial projections supplied by district treasurer Joyce Boyer at the May 23 meeting. Since the board only has until Aug. 5 to file doc-
uments with the Franklin County Board of Elections to place a levy on the November ballot, members will have to make a decision at the May 23 meeting or shortly after, Waites said. “We have to make a decision very quickly,” she said. Jodi Klimfoth, who represents the local teachers’ union, said Canal Winchester teachers are supportive of trying to pass the levy again in November and will do their best to continue to educate students with fewer resources. “We will think about how we can serve
our students with less,” Klimforth said. In the meantime, the district is moving forward with a $3.7-million budget reduction plan for the 2011-2012 school year, Miller-Smith said. The plan includes eliminating 49 jobs, including 27 teaching positions, and increasing the extracurricular activity fee from $140 to $300 for the next school year. District officials will also explore how to cut an additional $5.1 million from the budget for the 2012-13 school year, See LEVY, page A2
Council OKs higher water rates at Canal Pointe
BUYERS’ MARKET
By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Contributor
By Chris Parker/ThisWeek
Auctioneer Tom Rawn collects bids for chairs in the old Canal Winchester High School, 100 Washington St., on Saturday, May 14. The Canal Winchester Local School District and city of Canal Winchester held a public auction. Bargain hunters found a variety of items, including kitchen and classroom items, chairs, tables and trash cans being sold by the school district. Items being put on the auction block by the city included a 1991 Chevrolet 2500 pickup, a zero-turn mower, an air compressor and a power washer.
Project in the works to paint trestle By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers After the city’s Old Town Committee last week discussed the practicalities of painting the steel railroad trestle over West Waterloo Street, a resident of Canal Winchester has come forward to let city officials know that he has already received preliminary approval from the Indiana and Ohio Railroad to paint the bridge. Canal Winchester resident Joe Hanna said he has been working for several weeks, exchanging emails and phone calls with railroad officials and state health, environment and transportation officials to obtain all the necessary permissions. Council member Bobbie Mershon said she wanted to assure Hanna that the city is not overlooking his efforts
“
(Joe Hanna) has already contacted the railroad and gotten permission from the railroad to do the painting, and he is in the process of working out to get paint donated by Home Depot and getting volunteers to help him.
BOBBIE MERSHON —Council member
and she encouraged his work. “He has already contacted the railroad and gotten permission from the railroad to do the painting, and he is in the process of working out to get paint donated by Home Depot and getting volunteers to help him,” Mershon said. Hanna told Mershon that many of the regulatory requirements apply only to commercial painters and would
”
not apply to volunteer efforts. “He wants to be able to strip that paint off, and he has a friend in the village who is an amateur mural painter,” Mershon said. “He read the article about (the Old Town Committee) meeting and he was concerned he was being overlooked, and I assured him that was not the case. “I am very excited that a member of our community has taken this upon
himself to help the village in this manner,” she said. Canal Winchester Mayor Mike Ebert said the city could provide traffic control and other support for the project. Public works director Matt Peoples said the city would cooperate with the project, but details are still being worked out. “We’re not coordinating it,” Peoples said. “A resident is doing that. He is working with us to try and do it and he does have a work plan, but we have to get together on the details. “I know he is working hard to get volunteers and the donations of materials, to do his due diligence,” Peoples said. “Once he does that, we’ll take the next step of finding out where
Canal Winchester City Council agreed Monday, May 16, to increase water rates at the Canal Pointe Industrial Park. Under ordinary council procedures, ordinances require three separate readings before they become law. Usually, the readings are heard at separate meetings, but council has the ability to waive the requirement and make the law effective immediately, as it did for the ordinance affecting water rates at the industrial park. Council member Rick Deeds said the water rate increase would affect only commercial users at Canal Pointe. “We have water and sewer that we provide to our residents, and a long time ago, we created a water and sewer agreement with Pickerington that overlaps service areas,” Deeds said. “As part of that agreement, Pickerington services water at the industrial park and we provide sewer to some of their subdivisions. In this case, what they charge for water, mostly to businesses, we bill them, and it’s mostly pass-through. Pickerington raised their rates, and because of that increase, we had an increase.” The new rates will be $6.12 per 1,000 gallons of water, up from $5.65. The rates within Pickerington are slightly less, $6.02 per 1,000 gallons, up from $5.33 per 1,000 gallons. Finance director Nanisa Osborn said Canal Winchester reduced its carrying fee to 10 cents from 32 cents because officials were concerned that the rate increase was large. “We had great concern about passing through a large rate increase to our large users,” Osborn said. “It’s very real money to the hospital and medical office building and some of those companies that use a great deal of water.” In other business Monday, council heard the first reading of ordinances that would establish a separate category in the city zoning code for dog groomers and trainers, separate from kennel operators. “Right now, we have dog groomers and kennels in the same (zoning code) section,” zoning officer Andrew Dutton said. “This splits groomers and trainers from kennels. Kennels have to be more than 200 feet away from residences, but groomers and trainers can be within that distance.”
See PROJECT, page A2
See COUNCIL, page A2
Service committee proposes new competitive bidding rules By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Canal Winchester City Council’s service committee approved new competitive bidding rules Monday night, May 16, following through on recommendations made by the charter review committee. Service committee member Rick Deeds said the existing rules are not cost-
effective, requiring too much administration for too small amounts. “We can control the competitive bid process instead of having the state control it,” Deeds said. “In the past, we have found we have had to go out for competitive bids on things that just really don’t fit well.” The primary change is that the new rules will raise the threshold for competitive bidding from $25,000 to $75,000.
Construction services manager Bill Sims said the changes would align state law, the city charter and the city code. “It provides some better tools to really suit our interests when it comes to contracting, and still protects the public interest as well,” Sims said. He said the higher threshold for requiring competitive bidding was consistent with what other home rule cities use. “It (especially) affects our large con-
struction contracts,” Sims said, noting that $75,000 “is the threshold used by other communities that have home rule. “It kind of makes sense,” he said. “It’s similar to the current prevailing wage thresholds. In construction, it’s kind of a breaking point, typically.” In other business, the service committee heard a report from urban forester Dick Miller that 30 trees remained from the tree giveaway. Miller said the re-
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maining trees are magnolias and buckeye trees, and could be provided to anyone who is a village resident. He estimated the retail value of the trees at $20 each. “This is season 12 (of the tree giveaway),” Miller said. “Last year, we ran out in 20 minutes. I think this year, wordof-mouth was we were not going to run See SERVICE COMMITTEE, page A2
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