June 2, 2011
Restaurant requests town center loan By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers A new restaurant is seeking funds through the town center loan program created by Grove City last year. The Town Center Loan Review Committee met Wednesday, May 25, to review a loan request from Tossed-NGrilled, 3985 Broadway. The committee recommended the restaurant be approved for a $110,000,
10-year loan, clerk of city council Tami Kelly said. Tossed-N-Grilled is only the second company to receive a positive recommendation from the committee since the loan program began. Quicksquare Consulting was the first. City council voted in November 2010 to award the company a $150,000, 20year loan at the same 3-percent interest rate the committee has recommended for Tossed-N-Grilled.
The Community Capital Development Corp. is being paid up to $45,000 a year to administer the $1-million loan program, which was established to promote town center economic development. The loan process usually starts with a referral from the city development department. Applicants provide the same documentation and information a bank would require before granting a loan. That includes tax returns, a business plan and a credit analysis.
Program guidelines require applicants to have a commercial banking relationship and adequate collateral. Tossed-N-Grilled has a security loan on the primary residence of owners Abdallah Bahij and Natalie Dennison, Kelly said. “They’re putting up their home as collateral,” she said. Documents submitted to the loan review committee reveal the restaurant plans to serve lunch and dinner.
“It’s going to be a nice little restaurant,” Kelly said. A sample menu included salads, sandwiches, gyros, hamburgers, soups, frozen yogurt and beer. A liquor license for the business is pending, Kelly said. The restaurant also plans to offer board games, wireless Internet and a largescreen television to encourage family dining. See RESTAURANT, page A3
Lumberyard park proposal considered by city council
LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN
By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers The old lumberyard site behind City Hall will become a park, if Grove City Council members approve a proposal from council member Steve Bennett at their June 6 meeting. Bennett introduced an orNo one is buying dinance, which proposes spendit. We’ve spent more ing $110,000 than $2 million on from the genermarketing and adveral fund on the project, for a tising it and we’re still first reading at at square one. It’s time the May 16 to do what we should council meethave done 10 or 12 ing. It is scheduled for a secyears ago. ond reading and public STEVE BENNET hearing Mon—Council member day evening. “What we are going to do is take a property that’s in ill repair and is owned by the city and bring it up to standards,” Bennett said on May 27. In March, council members voted 3-2 to get cost
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Photos by Adam Cairn/ThisWeek
Grove City High School freshman Dallas Bowshier pretends to be a bowling ball as he somersaults into 10 Greyhounds baseball players to pass time during a rain delay before a Division I regional semifinal at Dublin Coffman on May 26. The game eventually was postponed and rescheduled for the next day. Grove City beat West Chester Lakota West 5-3 in the semifinal and defeated Westerville Central 10-3 on May 28 to win the regional title. See Sports, page B1.
See CITY COUNCIL, page A2
Park Street students keep Summer Sizzle floral tradition blooming Concerts begin June 3 By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers
It’s one of the signs of spring in Grove City. Fifth-graders from Grove City’s Park Street Intermediate School spent Wednesday, May 25, learning about citizenship while planting flowers in the town center. As she’s done every year for the last decade, teacher Debbie Delozier and her teaching partner, Mindy Sowers, brought about 60 children to beautify the town center. “Part of our curriculum talks to the kids and introduces them to the idea of good citizenship and what it takes to be a good
citizen,” Delozier said. “In fifth grade, they’re not quite so self-centered and they can grow beyond themselves,” she said of her students. “That’s a nice tie-in with their social studies curriculum on citizenship.” The field trip started when state Rep. Cheryl Grossman was Grove City’s mayor, and Delozier, who is a friend of Grossman’s, asked if her class could help the city. “She hooked me up with (environmental specialist) Linda Rosine,” Delozier said. “(Rosine) brings the flowers and brings down the trash bags and the gloves.” The students walk to City Hall
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from their school and plant flowers in 16 large pots throughout the town center, Rosine said. A plaque in the town center next to the Graeter’s Ice Cream honors Delozier’s students for their work over the years. “The flowers are based on the flowers .... in the hanging baskets (along city streets) in the summer,” Rosine said. After the planting is finished, she said, “The kids break up into teams with their chaperones and their teachers, and they go throughout the town center doing a cleanup.” This year, the students collected more than 100 See FLOWERS, page A2
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By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Music will fill Grove City’s town center when the Summer Sizzle Concert Series begins Friday, June 3. The annual concert series, sponsored by the Grove City Parks and Recreation Department and Grove City Tomorrow, features a wide variety of styles from ’70s to zydeco. “It’s one of those things to provide free entertainment for the community, to bring the community together and to showcase the businesses located downtown,” said recreation superintendent Ed Merritt. The concerts are held from 7 to 8:30 p.m Fridays and Saturdays at the Town Center Plaza, on the corner of Park Street and Broadway. Admission is free. “It’s basically right out in front of Graeter’s (Ice Cream),” Merritt said. “There’s a little stage
emorial Day was not conceived to be the kickoff to summer activities or as a reason to schedule a three-day weekend. It was established to recognize the nation’s military veterans who died while fighting for their country. In keeping with efforts to recognize and honor the sacrifices and service of military veterans, ThisWeek Community Media is launching Honoring Heroes, a continuing series through which we will share the stories and remembrances from and about local men and women who are either on active duty or retired from service. As part of covering their beats, our reporters often hear about and write about veterans leaving for overseas or com-
A closer look The concerts are held from 7 to 8:30 p.m Fridays and Saturdays at the Town Center Plaza, on the corner of Park Street and Broadway. Admission is free. The concerts will be canceled in case of inclement weather. Call the city’s special events hotline at 277-1818 for the latest status.
set up right there, and on the Friday evenings, we close Park Street down for a little more space and have the kids’ games and activities.” Sidewalk chalk, hula hoops and a small cornhole game are provided “so the kids can have fun running around and letting off a little steam,” Merritt said. See CONCERTS, page A2
ing home at the end of a tour of duty. We’ve covered funeral services of those who have sacrificed their lives. We’ve written about soldiers who arrive at their homes or their children’s schools to unexpectedly surprise their delighted families. We know many more stories are out there, waiting to be told. We want to tell them. And we need your help. If you have a story idea about a friend, family member or colleague, let us know by emailing editorial@thisweeknews.com, with the subject line, “Honoring Heroes.” Honoring Heroes isn’t just a ThisWeek Community Media project: It’s about sharing history.
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