December 26, 2010
Council hears community center plan By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Delaware City Council on Dec. 20 expressed support for a proposal by the non profit Second Ward Community Initiative to establish a community center at 50 Ross St., to be operated by volunteers. The building is currently owned by the city and partially occupied by the parks staff.
“We want to be able to provide more services in the community, because seniors won’t venture beyond their homes,” said Lamont Coates, pastor of the Second Baptist Church. “We have the Council for Older Adults on Cheshire Road, but many do not go there.” The center would be used for recreation, tutoring and other community purposes. The agreement discussed Monday would provide the facility rent-free to
the initiative, which would be responsible for raising funds and providing utilities and services such as Internet and telephone. Associate pastor Tracey Sumner of Second Baptist Church said the initial indications are that the community has significant support for the idea. “We’ve already started some fundraising toward any improvements,” Sumner said. “We would welcome any (financial) help we can get from the city,
but right now we have a lot of people around the city interested in what we are doing. Hopefully we’ll be able to raise enough for the work, a few thousand dollars for plumbing, a lot of sweat equity time to go in and do the work ourselves.” Council members Lisa Keller and Windell Wheeler said the group would need to prepare more detailed budget projections and take into account regulatory and insurance requirements for any services it may offer.
“The church I go to, we’ve had to institute a lot of things we never thought we would have to do or desire to do, but in order to carry insurance you have to institute some of these policies,” Wheeler said. “We don’t even allow kids to leave the sanctuary without an adult being with them.” Council member Lisa Keller said a revenue source should be identified. See CENTER PLAN, page A3
Grant from CRAFTS AT THE LIBRARY Homeland Security gets support from county
Stapleton cites his experience working for state
By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The Delaware County commissioners on Dec. 20 approved a preliminary application for a $365,000 federal Homeland Security grant that would buy some emergency-response hardware. On the shopping list are a flexible radio patching unit to allow mobile emergency responders to link incompatible radio systems, a new communications vehicle and bulletproof vests for emergency medical responders. “This is a preliminary submission ... to put in for some items through the Urban Area Security Initiative,” said Brian Galligher, director of the county office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “It’s a large grant the city of Columbus receives but shares with the ‘metropolitan statistical area,’ the surrounding counties around Franklin County.” Galligher runs a three-person office that primarily works to prepare emergency planning documents and administer grants provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the state and local agencies that act as conduits for federal funding. “We do not have weapons or fire trucks (in the county office of Homeland Security),” Galligher said. He said most of the grants buy items for other departments. “We’ll buy for the sheriff, for the fire department. We’ll buy things for the coroner’s office out of an upcoming grant.” In the event of an emergency, the county office of homeland security acts as a central information clearinghouse. “If there is a large incident, we open the emergency operations center,” Galligher said. “We coordinate the emergency from the operations center, to make sure everything is flowing and we have resources so we know where to get things we need. We keep up (geographical information system) data so we know if something is affected downstream.” The response of the various units occurs according to plans and contact information prepared by Galligher’s office. “We assist in writing the plans that try to get all the different agencies to work together,” Galligher said. “If there is a flood, you would have fire (departments) and law (enforcement) out there, the health department, Red Cross. We have contacts for all of them and we are kind of the missing link.” The “Motobridge” component of the grant, which at $175,000 is the largest item, is the radio equipment device that can be used in the field to link otherwise incompatible radio systems. “We would use it to try patching things that don’t normally patch,” Galligher said. “Say the National
Newly seated Delaware County commissioner Dennis Stapleton said he expects his experience in state government will give him an unusual perspective on county office. He served as a state legislator from 1996 to 2003, and was state director of insurance under former Gov. Bob Taft. “I was a pretty doggone good state legislator and I enjoyed my time there,” Stapleton said. “I thought this was something I might be effective at.” Stapleton said he supports the practice of requiring matching local spending when receiving federal grants. “Any time you have sharing of revenues, it’s probably a good thing. The problem I have with it though is that we have a tendency to think federal money is not tax money. For whatever reason you hear all the time people say, ‘We didn’t pay for that, it’s not local money or state money.’ Well, we did pay for that. It’s federal tax dollars, which are our dollars.” Among the biggest policy problems he sees in Ohio is the use of property taxes to fund schools, which he thinks can never work because of the disparity in property values. “We have districts in this state where 1 mill will bring in $1,800,” Stapleton said. “Then we have districts where 1 mill will bring in $340,000. How are those districts going to compete? They can never keep up.” Despite opposition from wealthy school districts, Stapleton said the only policy that makes sense is to pool the revenue at the state level. “At some point in time, the state has to decide that it’s going to pool taxes and then distribute it back out,” Stapleton said. “I’ve met so many people who say they cannot afford to stay in their house because their taxes are three times what their mortgage ever was. There has to be a way to have a fair distribution for the schools.” Stapleton expects the state government to cut local funding significantly in the 2011 budget. “There may be some drastic cuts and levels of service provided in poverty guidelines that will be adjusted,” Stapleton said. “That’s
By Chris Parker/ThisWeek
(Above) Maudena and Jonathan Lundberg work on crafts during the holiday party at the Delaware County District Library on Dec. 21. (Right) Volunteer Lindsay Cardwell, left, helps Brynn McGrail and Rachael Bourget, right, make crafts.
See GRANT, page A2
See STAPLETON, page A2
Downtown merchants say business is OK, not great By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Downtown merchants report that business seems to be up this year compared to a year ago, but no one feels like boom times are here. “It’s been busy, very busy,” said Carlene Cutler, owner of DPS Antiques
and Collectibles, in its 12th year of business downtown. “We’ve had better years, but I think it’s a little better than last year,” Cutler said. “I know there are a lot of people that don’t have work, but it is the holidays.” Tami Furlong, owner of Fundamentals parent-teacher store for 22 years,
DIRECTORY News: (740) 888-6100 editorial@thisweeknews.com Sports: (740) 888-6054 sports@thisweeknews.com Retail ads: (740) 888-6007 Classified: (740) 888-5003 classified@thisweeknews.com Customer Service: 1-888-837-4342
said her business is about the same as last year, and last year was strong. “I carry educational toys and children’s books, so December is always a good month,” Furlong said. “I haven’t really had time to sit down and run the numbers, but it seems about the same as last year. “I think our business was above av-
erage the last few years. As people were re-evaluating their spending, I think they were looking for more quality and more educational things, and they did not cut kids out of their budget they way they may cut out presents for other people in the family.” Business seems down at The Hamburger Inn, according to manager Donna
Rice, who has worked there 22 years. “It’s down,” Rice said. “It’s kind of hard for us to judge because (new owner) Bill (Michiliatis) just took over in March. Maybe on the whole things are better than last year. Our busy day will be Christmas Eve. It does seem See BUSINESS, page A2
Sally (left) is one of the homeless pets still waiting to be adopted from the Second Chance Humane Society. Her shelter mate, Daisy, was featured in the October video at www.ThisWeekNEWS.com and is also waiting to be adopted. For more information on adopting one of the dogs, visit www.secondchancehs.com or call (740) 967-3700.