South & Canal Winchester Messenger - December 25th, 2022

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PAGE 2 - SOUTH & CANAL WINCHESTER MESSENGER - December 25, 2022 We are the BEST community newspaper! Need advertising? Call 614-272-5422. EXCLUSIVE LIMITED TIME OFFER! 20 % + % OFF OFF YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE * FINANCING THAT FITS YOUR BUDGET! 1 1 Subject to credit approval. Call for details. Promo Code: 285 10 SENIORS & MILITARY! FREE GUTTER ALIGNMENT + FREE GUTTER CLEANING* The Gilmore Group Office: 614-834-HOME (4663) Cell: 614-774-4416 www.GilmoreGroupHomes.com YEAR-ROUND CLOG-FREE GUARANTEE A FREE ESTIMATE 1-855-595-2102 www.columbusmessenger.com Years later, woman earns CW diploma By Linda Dillman Staff Writer Dec. 19 was special for Canal Winchester resident Deidra Hudson when she became a graduate of Canal Winchester Local Schools after interrupting her education at the end of her junior year in the 1980s. “Ms. Hudson earned her diploma this year through the 22+ adult high school program,” said Canal Winchester Schools Superintendent Kiya Hunt during the Dec. 19 Canal Winchester Board of Education meeting. “The program is free to adults over age 22 and living in Ohio. As a young mom living in Cleveland in 1980, Ms. Hudson left school after completing 11th grade so she could work and raise her family. She had a fulfilling career in health care as an STNA.” Hudson raised three daughters who all earned their high school diplomas. Hunt said the new graduate made a bucket list and put earning her high school diploma at the top of the list. “She took courses online and tonight we are thrilled to present her diploma and congratulate her on this accomplishment,” said Hunt. Hudson said she was proud of herself and said earning her diploma was challenging because it’s been a long time since she was in school. “I was boxing and I came out on top,” said Hudson. “I thank you all for having me. God bless you all and live for today. I’m going to take it one day at a time because I’ve been through a lot of things. I’m going to keep moving forward.” Ohio’s 22+High School Diploma Program is an opportunity for Ohio residents age 22 or older with no high school diploma or GED to earn a diploma at no cost. Graduates receive a fully accredited high school diploma from their local school district. All classes are online. The Graduation Alliance highly recommends prospective students have completed at least some of their 10th grade year to enroll. There are other options for adults who have not finished ninth grade. Your Schools, Your Voice survey Canal Winchester Schools officials are asking community members to add their voices to a survey to set goals and create plans guiding education into the future. The Your Schools, Your Voice survey gathers input from families, residents, community members, staff, and students. The anonymous survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is available online in English, Spanish, French, and Nepali. The survey opened on Dec. 6 and closes on Jan. 10. Every student has the chance to take the anonymous survey during school hours. Students spend a lot of their time at school and have valuable insights the district hopes they can provide on their experiences. According to information provided by the district, the survey data will be used to set goals and create plans to meet those goals. By collecting input from various perspectives and experiences from community members, the information provided in the survey will help ensure goals reflect the values of the community. The survey is anonymous and responses will not be used to identify anyone. After the survey closes, the data will be compiled to be used in the goal-setting process and shared online for community members to review. For information about the survey, email communications@cwls.us Resignations The school board accepted the resignation of Principal Eric Riddle and the resignation of high school teacher Todd Phillips for retirement, both effective after the end of the current school year. “Todd Phillips has been in the district for over 30 years,” said Hunt. “He has been a staple in the district. He is very involved in music and has brought a lot of different activities to our district that separate us a little from the others.” America’ ica’s s Fa Fa av av vorite Treasure ure e Hunts! 2022 Dec. 17 & 18 Antiques, Collectibles, Jewelry, Vintage, Home Decor, Militaria and more! 2023 Jan. 28 & 29 Feb. 25 & 26 Mar. 25 & 26 FUNDS Continued from page 1 Except for a $500 request from David Lutheran Church for food and supplies for a Thanksgiving meal and an application from the local Chamber of Commerce received after the Nov. 30 deadline, all 13 requests for $2,000 were granted. “Councilman Patrick Shea and I reviewed the applications and didn’t see anything wrong,” said Councilman Steve Buskirk. The list includes the Boy Scout troop’s request to expand, replace, and repair camping gear and equipment; a City Kitty Round Up event to trap-neuterreturn-adopt program; supplies and advertising for the 2023 Veterans Day Celebration and basic needs kits for 48 older adults at David’s Way. A Bed Tax Grant Committee previously reviewed applications and made their recommendations as to how the grants should be distributed. CWAHS funding support Council held a second reading on legislation providing up to $20,000 in financial support to the Canal Winchester Area Historical Society, which preserves artifacts, buildings, etc. and provides education covering Canal Winchester historic and cultural resources. Society operations include the O.P. Chaney Elevator —which is undergoing renovation–Queen of the Line Depot, Prentiss Schoolhouse and the National Barber Museum housed in the school district’s education center. CWAHS President Bruna Brundige said the organization is not asking for anything new because of a $10,000 agreement already in place that expires at the end of the year. However, the historical society is asking council to consider doubling the amount due to increasing insurance and utility costs for all buildings. “In 2023 we’ll start paying for the utilities for two floors in the school we’ll use for the museums,” Brundige said. “We’ll pay $300 per month per floor. The total will be for over $24,000 and we’re asking for $20,000 with the reapproval of the agreement. We did a very quick count of how many visitors we had to the historical complex and it’s at least 10,000 a year.” The society is in the process of creating a Canal Winchester Museum in the same wing and on the floor above the barber museum, which will house a growing collection of artifacts and provide community space for meetings and programming. “Right now, we are enjoying a $300,000 grant from the state of Ohio that is for the renovation of the O.P Chaney grain elevator,” said Brundige when asked about other funding sources. “Additionally, we have a $300,000 donation from the Wood Foundation, which was given to us last week.” Brundige estimated the total cost for renovating the historic structure between $4 and $5 million.
www.columbusmessenger.com Obetz’s 2023 city budget approved By Katelyn Sattler Staff Writer Obetz City Council approved the city’s 2023 budget at its Dec. 19 meeting. Obetz’s general fund for 2023 is around $15.8 million and can be spent on any legal city expenses, while the rest of the budget — which has a series of funds meant for specific purposes only — adds up to more than $26 million. “Each year, we take an educated guess of how much revenue we’ll have and we always guess conservatively,” said Obetz City Administrator Rod Davisson. In 2020, the city had $13 million in revenue and $11 million in spending, in 2021 the city had $16 million in revenue and $13 million in spending. “This year, we estimated $16 million in revenue and $15 million in spending, but it looks like it’s going to be a bit higher and we’ll end the year at $16.7 million, probably closer to $7 million, in revenue,” said Davisson. “In order to get there, we’ve had to make a Herculean effort. We had two really bad quarters to start the year. We had two really good quarters to finish the year. As a consequence, we ended up with the largest revenue year that we’ve ever had, which is good. I don’t know what that means for next year. I can’t tell you that.” The $41.9 million appropriations budget only covers the city’s expenses and does not include revenue. For example, while the city has appropriated $3.1 million for water operations, $2.3 million for sewer operations, $6.8 million for electricity operations, $505,000 for refuse operations, and $2.3 million for gas operations, they are all offset by money coming into the city. “Remember, the water fund pays for the water, to fix the water, all those kinds of things,” said Davisson. “The electric appropriations also includes the cost of buying the electric and then reselling it. This doesn’t have anything to do with profit, for lack of a better description, or net income. It’s just how much it costs.” The city budgeted $3.2 million in economic development, the majority of which is $2.8 million in payments to the Prairie- Obetz Joint Economic Development Zone. Because, per Ohio law, townships cannot collect income taxes, an agreement was passed by Prairie Township voters in November 2011 and approved by Obetz Council in July 2011 where Obetz collects income taxes from employees working in the West Broad Street corridor and pays 80 percent of it back to Prairie Township, while retaining 20 percent of the money. Davisson said, “It can be confusing because you say, ‘Why are we spending $3 million on economic development?’ The answer is, we’re not. That JEDZ we’re in sends us a bunch of money and then we have to send them back their cut. We have to account for this income to us, even though we end up giving it right back to them. The JEDZ nets the city a million bucks. The amount you’re authorizing us to spend this year is $41 million, which is up $1 million from last year’s $40 million that we spent. We expect the revenue to obviously outpace that. We had a surprisingly good year for the way we started. It’s tough to predict what next year will look like. There’s still a threat for a recession. We have enough cushion and we’ve done this long enough to not be afraid of that. And we run hyper efficiently here. Whatever happens, we’ll figure our way through it. We’re well positioned to withstand whatever comes.” Tentative agreement with FOP Council ratified and approved the memorandum of understanding between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police, Capital City Lodge No. 9, authorizing back pay and longevity pay payments for 2022. According to Davisson, “We have reached an agreement in principle with the police union. We offered to back pay them for this year. Obviously, we didn’t plan for that earlier in the year, so we have to do some appropriations to back pay the police.” This means $204,675 will go to the police for back pay. The officers received their back pay in their accounts within days after council ratified and approved the MOU. In the same legislation, some overtime from Christmas kickoff in the amount of $1,118 will go to the Street Fund, $2,352 will go to the Water Fund, $1,278 will go to the Sewer Fund, $2,509 will go to the Gas Fund, all for overtime pay, and $12,000 will go to the Refuse Fund to cover Waste Management Inc.’s contract to pick up the trash. Bonus for part-time employees Council approved for the city’s part-time employees to receive a one-time bonus this year. “This is what it sounds like. It’s a bonus for all employees that we do at the end of the year,” Davisson said. “The full-time bonuses come from the handbook. So what we’ve done is changed our year end bonus to a longevity bonus. And the longevity bonus is included for full-timers in the handbook. But for part-timers, we’re still debating the best way to work that out. So we just went with the traditional year end bonus for part-timers.” Correction In the Dec. 11 edition of the South/Canal Winchester Messenger, the photo caption for the photo, “CW’s Christmas in the Village,” incorrectly designated Jill Amos as the event organizer. The event was a city event that was organized by several and various city officials. The Messenger regrets the error. December 25, 2022 - SOUTH & CANAL WINCHESTER MESSENGER - PAGE 3 Canal Winchester Library Branch The Canal Winchester Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, 115 Franklin St., is located in the rear portion of the former school at 100 Washington St. For information visit www.columbuslibrary.org or call 614-645-2275. The LARGEST SELECTION of IN-STOCK Kitchen Cabinets Home Outlet is your sourc e for quality in-stock kitchen cabinets for your home. Whether you need project ideas and inspiration or you’ re ready to roll up your sleeves and get started, our experienced store represen ntatives are ready to help with completely FREE Kit chen Planning services . Or, start your project online at homeoutlet.com. Two Convenient n Loc ations to Serve You Wagnalls Memorial Library Wagnalls Memorial Library is located at 150 E. Columbus St., Lithopolis. For information call (614) 837-4765 or visit www.wagnalls.org. Southeast Library The Southeast Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library is located at 3980 S. Hamilton Road, Groveport. For information visit www.columbuslibrary.org or call 614-645-2275. North Columbus 2433 East Dublin Granville Road 614-794-9330 West Columbus 4117 West Broad Street 614-274-9842
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South & Canal Winchester Messenger - December 25th, 2022

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