Jan. 6, 2011
Jim Mosic is the city’s new top cop Both Mosic and Jerry Strait, promoted to lieutenant, rose through ranks over years By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers Improving community involvement with programs like Blockwatch will be a top priority of Worthington’s new chief of police. Jim Mosic, who was named last week to succeed Chief Mike Mauger when he retires Jan. 11, said he will hold open houses to familiarize the community with
the department, and will stress outreach to his officers. “I want them to realize we can’t do this alone,” Mosic said during an interview on Monday. Lt. Jim Mosic, 49, has Sgt. Jerry Mosic worked his way Strait through the ranks at the police depart- has,” he said.
ment over the past 26 years. He said he knows the community, the department, and the officers and civilian employees well. “They are the reason the Worthington Police Department has the fine reputation it
Mosic has been a lieutenant for the past year. He was promoted from sergeant when Lt. Doug Francis accepted a position with the Hilliard police department. Francis is now chief of that department. Mosic has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Ohio State University. Also promoted last week was another department veteran, Sgt. Jerry Strait. Strait, one of four applicants for the chief’s position, will take over the lieutentant’s po-
sition. Strait has been a police officer for 28 years, starting with the Worthington Division of Police in 1987. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Ohio State University and from Franklin University with a bachelor’s degree in public administration. He has a master’s degree in human service manSee MOSIC, page A3
Mauger closes chapter of Worthington city history By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Tim Norman/ThisWeek
Mike Duffey listens while talking to State Rep. Cheryl Grossman following his honorary swearing-in ceremony for friends and family at the Ohio State House on Jan. 2. Grossman represents the 23rd district and Duffey will represent the 21st district. Longtime resident Joe Davis is replacing Duffey on Worthington City Council.
Family, friends surround Mike Duffey as he becomes state representative By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers Soon enough, he will be dealing with deficits and Democrats. But for a few moments this past Sunday, Mike Duffey looked out and saw only family and friends in the statehouse chambers. About 50 of them – including the Democratic side of the Duffey family – turned out to watch him take the oath of office as the Ohio representative from the 21st district. With wife, Lindsay, and 8-month-old son, Jack, by his side, Duffey was sworn in by former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson. He then thanked those who supported him through a tough campaign and
a year he will not forget. During 2010, both his mother and father died, his son was born, his Worthington home underwent a major addition, and, not incidentally, he ran for state office. The election was close – he won by only 377 votes over Democrat David Robinson – and was marked by a deluge of attack ads against Duffey. He thanked his wife and many supporters for seeing him through it all. “So many of you emerged from the woodwork and helped me with my campaign,” Duffey said. One of those was George Campbell. A lifelong Democrat, Campbell was so offended by the attacks on Duffey that he became one of his most hard-working cam-
paigners. “I feel very gratified that a big attack ad campaign did not work,” he said on Sunday. Campbell, a former president of the Colonial Hills Civic Association, also felt a kinship with Duffey because both grew up in the Colonial Hills area. Duffey attended Colonial Hills Elementary School, graduated from Thomas Worthington High School, then returned to his hometown after graduating from the University of Michigan. Duffey began running for Worthington City Council in his early 20s, and lost twice before being elected five years ago. He beSee DUFFEY, page A2
Worthington City Council
Delayed cop contract reaches agenda By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Worthington police officers may start 2011 with a new contract. Though terms of the agreement have not been announced, Worthington City Council on Monday returned from a closed session to introduce an ordinance accepting a new labor agreement with the union representing the city’s officers. Police have been working without a contract for more than a
year. City manager Matt Greeson said a public hearing on the contract could take place as early as Jan. 18, but the exact date will be determined by the timing and outcome of the vote of the police union. Both sides have declined to comment on the issues that caused negotiations to continue for more than a year. Council also approved a Swiminc loan extension which will help the public pool complex expand. A “splash pad,” similar to but
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larger than the one at Easton, will be built in the southeast corner of the pool property at 400 W. Granville Road. Cost is expected to be $225,000. The city will defer two annual $35,000 payments on a $600,000 promissory note issued in 1996 to help pay for other improvements at the complex. The Swiminc board has made timely payments on the loan and will resume annual payments on Dec. 31, 2012. The balance due is $210,000. Also at the Jan. 3 meeting, new
council member Joseph Davis took the oath of office. He replaces Mike Duffey, who resigned to become a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. Council also passed a resolution thanking retiring Police Chief Mike Mauger for his 40 years of service to the community. “You really need to be proud of the job you’ve done, nobody could have done it better,” said city law director Mike Minister. cbrooks@thisweeknews.com www.ThisWeekNews.com
A bit of Worthington history will walk out the door when chief of police Mike Mauger retires next week. Mauger, who once considered becoming a history teacher, instead has created his own story as an integral part of the Worthington Division of Police for the past 40 years. He joined the department in 1970, hired by the city’s first police chief, Paul Abbott. He was one of ten officers who drove used highway patrol cars and communicated with three walkie-talkies. As he retires, the department’s 30-plus officers drive computerequipped cruisers, can find stolen or wanted vehicles with a hightech license plate reader, and are more interested in DNA than fingerprints at the scene of a crime. “The only thing that doesn’t change is there are good guys and bad guys,” Mauger said. His memory is filled with details about both. There are records of some of the city’s most infamous crimes, but Mauger will take with him an encyclopedic recall
of what happened on those fateful occasions. There were six murders – and twelve bodies – durMike ing Mauger’s Mauger tenure. In 1974, when Mauger was a patrol officer, Clifford Chase murdered his parents and brother in their house on Medick Drive. A few years later, Worthington Estates mother Margo Davies murdered her three children and put their bodies in trash bags, leaving most of them in Delaware County. In the late 1980s, Loreen Smith killed her two small children and left their bodies in their beds in their Hayhurst Street home. In 1983, two drug dealers were murdered in a deal gone bad in their home on East North Street; and a man was murdered by a man he had taken to his Ville Charmante condominium. The last was Thane Griffin, one of the victims of a man who went See MAUGER, page A3
Antique show has a storied past of its own By CANDY BROOKS
eral Beightler Armory Headquar-
ThisWeek Community Newspapers ters, a base of the Ohio National
The Worthington Antique Show, said to be the longest-running antique show in central Ohio, will be held this Saturday and Sunday at the Worthington Holiday Inn. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at the door. The Worthington Historical Society, which sponsors the show, was formed following World War II, when the economy was strong enough to support the first antique show, said historical society president Jutta Pegues. It has continued every year. More than 30 dealers from all over the Midwest participate each year in the show that was first held in St. John’s Episcopal Church. The venue changed to Green Meadows Inn, and later to the Gen-
Guard on West Dublin-Granville Road. When the Guard needed all its space for training, it was moved to the Hilton Hotel, which is now the Holiday Inn. Some of the managers over the years have been Jim and Jordy Ventresca, Jack and Jean Frost, Bunny and Bill Nolt. Tom Heisey has managed the show since Mrs. Nolt’s death in 2007. He is great-grandson of the founder of the famous Heisey Glass Company in Newark. As in past years, the dealers will bring a comprehensive scope of formal and country furniture, folk and fine art, fine china, glassware, toys, silver, jewelry and porcelain for both the advanced collector and those just beginning to acquire See ANTIQUES, page A2
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