February 3, 2011
Hilliard to revive dormant CIC group By GARY BUDZAK ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Hilliard’s long-dormant Community Improvement Corporation is about to become active again, offering what city officials call “another tool in our toolbox.” Economic development director David Meeks said there was a vote last month to revive the CIC as an agency of the city after it had been voted to dissolve last
year. Articles of incorporation for the Hilliard Community Improvement Corporation were approved in 1975. According to article III, “the sole purpose for which the corporation is formed is to advance, encourage, and promote the industrial, economic, commercial, and civic development of the City of Hilliard, Ohio.” “The city had formed this CIC for the purpose of being more or less a financial conduit for industrial bonds and mon-
eys that were being provided to businesses that wanted to locate in Hilliard,” said city law director Pamela Fox. Fox said this was done a few times, but the industrial bond market was not the way most companies were going in terms of economic development. At some point, the CIC stopped meeting for many years. Another CIC, the Hilliard Development Corporation, was formed for Destination Hilliard, an organization that promotes the city and its events.
Last fall, a bank asked the city what it wished to do with funds from the Hilliard CIC, prompting a meeting of the original board members. Fox said, “They decided to dissolve, then they decided not to.” “We said, well we’ve got the CIC here, why don’t we just revive this?” Meeks said. Other communities, notably Upper Arlington, also have an active CIC. According to its website, “the UACIC and
the city of Upper Arlington have a number of financial incentives available to encourage businesses to relocate here or to remain in the city as they grow.” Fox said the CIC will need to get a board together, consult with council, and look at its organizational documents. She thought the CIC could be up and running by year’s end. Meeks calls the CIC a good tool to See CIC, page A2
Guests from Hong Kong sample American culture By GARY BUDZAK ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Chris Parker/ThisWeek
Michael Pirt (back), Briana Biffath and Ashley Kilpatrick rehearse a scene for their performance of “The Girls of the Garden Club” at Hilliard Bradley High School on Thursday, Jan. 27. The play will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 3 and 4 in the Black Box Theatre.
Bradley High School
Two theatre productions to be staged By GARY BUDZAK ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The two plays being presented this month at Bradley High School will involve performers from all four classes at the school and both of the Bradley stages. “The Girls of the Garden Club,” which opened last weekend (Jan. 28-29) and concludes tonight and Friday, features juniors and seniors, and will be performed at Bradley’s 75-seat Black Box. A few weeks later, “James and the Giant Peach,” with a cast of freshmen and sophomores, will be staged in the school’s 900-seat Performing Arts Center. “The Girls of the Garden Club,” written by John Patrick (1905-95), is a comedy that runs 105 minutes with a 15-minute intermission. There is a cast of 17 females and 2 males. “The lure of this play was the size
of the female cast — a lot of plays have a lot of men, but not a lot of girls,” said director Matt Wolfe. The PG-rated comedy of errors includes gossiping and misinterpretations. “The show is basically about Rhoda Greenleaf, and Rhoda wants to become president of her garden club so that her husband will build her a greenhouse,” Wolfe said. “All of her friends have greenhouses. So she’s fighting for status, it’s a power play. She calls the girls of the garden club over to trick the current president and try to steal her title.” Wolfe said auditions began before the holidays, so students could go home with a script, and rehearsals began at the start of the year. Because “Garden Club” is not as well known as some of the school’s other productions, it is being staged in the Black Box.
“Instead of trying to get 200 people to come out on one night and the (PAC) theater is still empty, we do these shows in the more intimate setting, and the kids get to perform to sellout audiences,” Wolfe said. “I’ve really tried to utilize the Black Box. We use it three or four times a year.” Performances of “The Girls of the Garden Club” will take place at 7 p.m. tonight (Feb. 3) and Feb. 4. Wolfe said tickets are $5 general admission. More familiar with the audience will be Roald Dahl’s (1916-90) popular children’s story “James and the Giant Peach.” James, an orphan, is being raised by two bad aunts. He enters a giant peach, where friendly bugs take him on a trip to New York. “In the Hilliard City Schools, all of our fourth-graders read ‘James
and the Giant Peach,’” Wolfe said. “The district’s fourth-graders are coming to watch an in-school performance.” The 50-minute show is geared towards children. Wolfe said 15 students started building the scenery in January. Performances are at 7 p.m. Feb. 25 and noon Feb. 26. The latter show will be followed by a family carnival, Wolfe said. Admission is $5. There are 300 students in Bradley’s theater club, Wolfe said. “This is Bradley’s first graduating class, and these seniors are the ones that really helped me get started with the program,” he said. “It’s always exciting to see the kids’ confidence level grow every year, so the product that they put out gets so much better.” For more information, call 614921-7425 or visit bradleytheater.org.
A dozen students and two teachers from Hong Kong experienced life in Hilliard and at Hoffman Trails Elementary last week, including things we take for granted. Like snow. “In Hong Kong, their climate is more like Hawaii, so they had never seen snow before, never touched it,” said Hoffman Trails principal Shelli Miller. The students, ages 11 and 12, were from the Taoist Ching Chung Primary School and are the equivalent of fifth- and sixth-graders, Miller said. After a weather delay in Chicago, the students were met at Port Columbus and stayed Jan. 21-29 with host families who had children attending Hoffman Trails. They shadowed the American students at Hoffman and other schools in the district. This week, students from a Hong Kong secondary school are also spending time at Davidson High School. (Today, Feb. 3, is the Chinese New Year.) Miller said the idea for the cultural exchange took place during an International Alliance for Invitational Education conference last fall. Seventy-eight educators visited the HCSD for a day, and one of them asked Miller if she would be interested in hosting some students. Miller agreed, and went about looking for host families. “We went to families that we see very involved in the school and the community that could offer a wide variety of experiences to each of the children,” Miller said. “To be honest, I thought that would be very hard to do. I’d say, I don’t expect an answer right now, I know it’s something you need to think about or talk over with your family. One of them called back in 10 minutes and said, ‘We’re in.’” “We were honored to be asked,” said Jennifer Wyngarden, whose daughters Sydney (fourth grade) and Mia (first grade) attend Hoffman Trails. They communicated with their guest student and her family via e-mail prior to her visit. “Her American name is Yoyo,” Wyngarden said. “She turned 12 on Jan. 22, so we had a family birthday party for her while she was here. They have gotten along fabulous. It’s like they’ve known each other for ever.” Wyngarden said Yoyo loved playing in the snow. See GUEST FROM HONG KONG, page A2
Parks & recreation Business, club join in charitable effort beginning spring, summer preparations By GARY BUDZAK
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By GARY BUDZAK ThisWeek Community Newspapers
As the snow continues to fall, the Hilliard recreation and parks department is making plans for its spring and summer programs. “I have been on the phone with vendors and entertainers for the Fourth of July, and I pretty much have all those things confirmed,” said recreation and parks director
Steve Mazer. “It’s one of those things where we have to get an early jump to make sure that they haven’t been booked yet.” Spring and summer programs, camps and swim lesson registrations began Feb. 1, and new catalogs are available. Mazer said they’re also looking at lifeguard applications, and planning projSee PARKS & REC, page A3
On Thursday nights, two Hilliard Kiwanis members leave their weekly meeting and head over to Panera Bread on Bethel Road before it closes. That doesn’t sound special, but what they do next is. Don Patterson and George Clark pick up the store’s unsold bread, bagels and pastry, load them into Clark’s pick-up truck and deliver it all to the Bell Center, a drug treatment center on the east side of Columbus on Bryden Road. “They ‘God bless us’ all over the place and we’ve gotten to know some of them by name and have a nice time,” Patterson said
of their visits to the Bell Center. Patterson, 78, a member of the Hilliard Kiwanis for five years, said he came up with the idea two years ago, after learning that Panera donates its unsold baked goods nightly. He talked with the store manager, got the OK from Kiwanis, filled out a form online, and got approved. Patterson said his biggest problem was finding a suitable recipient. Several local food pantries wouldn’t take the entire delivery. “I had all kind of people want it, but they couldn’t take it as a package and I had no way of breaking it up. Most of the places, you pick it up at night, you have to wait until the next day to deliver it. I couldn’t find any-
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body who would take that much bread on Thursday night without having some place to store it.” Patterson said the amount of food they’ve picked up varies, but they’ve had as much as eight bags and two boxes. “The bagels are in the bags and they’re loose. The boxes are the good stuff — cookies and stuff that they put out and get rid of every night.” Bad weather has prevented the duo from making a delivery to the Bell Center only twice in the past two years. “It works out very well,” Patterson said. “I’m happy and they’re happy and Panera’s See HILLIARD KIWANIS , page A3
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