February 10, 2011
CAC ballot
Voting by mail back in election mix By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The next Clintonville Area Commission election will feature some form of mail-in balloting, after all. Although members of the election committee failed to reach a consensus on rules regarding voting by mail and included no recommendation on the matter in their report to the commission, District 5 representative Nick Cipiti pushed
hard at last week’s monthly meeting to allow mail-in balloting. After considerable wrangling, by a vote of 5-2 with two abstentions, election Nick Cipiti committee chair Mary Rodgers was directed to fine-tune a voteby-mail concept that found little favor when she brought it before the commis-
sion back in December. Cipiti, who serves as the CAC’s liaison to the election committee, was not on hand for that meeting. Commission members did not unanimously to adopt the report of the elections panel, which jettisoned last year’s absentee procedure that permitted residents who were willing to allow their driver’s licenses or other photo identification to be photocopied for verification purposes vote at the Whetstone Branch
of the Columbus Metropolitan Library for nearly a month ahead of the actual election day. Concerns were later raised that these might be considered public records, opening up those voters to possible identity theft. In addition, library director Greg Denby subsequently said his personnel would no longer be available to help people with early voting. Instead, Rodgers and the members of her committee — Justin Goodwin from
Founder hopes to top 25,000 boxes this year
By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
Mim Strait organizes items that will be boxed and sent to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of Operation Buckeye. The organization is staffed only by volunteers and 100 percent of the donations goes to items for the boxes as well as shipping. For more information on the organization, visit www.operationbuckeye.org.
They wound up sending 94 that first time around, Jim Caronis recalled last week. The letters of appreciation received in return were heart-warming, so when Nancy asked her husband if they were going to do it again the next year, he replied: “You betcha!” With the help of a growing number of like-minded people, Caronis said that the second year’s batch of boxes increased to 184. To date, the total is 18,000 boxes. Caronis hopes that figure tops
25,000 by the end of 2011. “Each and every year we’ve grown, and we continue to grow,” Caronis said. Nancy Caronis passed away this past Nov. 3, and her husband now carries on with Operation Buckeye in her honor. On Feb. 18, Jim Caronis will be receiving the 2011 Community Volunteer of the Year honor during the annual awards dinner and silent auction of the Clintonville Area Chamber of Commerce.
“I just wish my wife could be there, too, to also receive that award,” Caronis said. Operation Buckeye depends upon a network of Army chaplains, the National Guard and occasionally Ohio State University head football coach Jim Tressel to come up with the names of soldiers in need of the pickme-up one of the boxes could provide. Caronis was a member of the same See OPERTION, page A4
Wine bistro concept may be coming to Clintonville By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
What at one time was to have been home to a bookstore, then condos, may now become a wine bistro. Clintonville Area Commission members, at last week’s meeting, heard a proposal for yet another use of the first floor of 4041 N. High St., most of which is an office building. No action was taken on a variance request for fewer parking spaces, since the zoning and variance committee’s Feb. 1 meeting at which the matter was to be considered was called on account of winter. Commission mem-
See VOTING BY MAIL, page A2
Rabbit rescue group now has paid director
Operation Buckeye
Operation Buckeye started out on the dining room table of founder Jim Caronis’ Worthington home. It moved into his garage when his late wife, Nancy Priode Caronis, wanted someplace to serve Thanksgiving dinner. The nonprofit organization, which packs and ships boxes of snacks, candy, Girl Scout cookies, playing cards and other items to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to help lighten the burden and gloom of being far from home, now has its headquarters on North High Street in Clintonville, a post office box for donations in Westerville and volunteers from throughout central Ohio. Caronis said last week that he was inspired to launch Operation Buckeye back in 2006 after reading a piece by the late Dispatch columnist Mike Harden about a local Army officer and his soldiers who, instead of coming home from South Korea, were diverted instead to further duty in Iraq. Caronis immediately told his wife he wanted to send boxes of goodies to those poor military personnel, who so abruptly found themselves diverted from reuniting with loved ones to putting their lives on the line. They decided to pledge $10 for each of their 13 grandchildren and match that figure with their own money, expecting to send perhaps 20 gift boxes to soldiers.
District 7, Terry Sharkey from District 1, Nancy Stewart from District 9 and Retta Simones from District 6 — came up with a plan to expand in-person voting to three days, instead of the single election day included in the CAC’s bylaws. Cipiti expressed dismay at the proposed reduction in voting opportunities for last year’s 30 to only three, and only
bers will make a decision on their recommendation of the variance request on March 3, two days after the zoning and variance hearing. Ostensibly the variance request is a reduction from the required 165 parking spaces to 85. But attorney Jack Reynolds, representing Metropolitan Partners, came up with a wide array of figures for just how many spaces might be necessary and how substantial a reduction could be sought. For example, he said, including the site in the North High Street commercial overlay would mean only 102 spaces are necessary for a restaurant use.
According to Reynolds, Metropolitan Partners bought the building in December 2005 and early the following year came before the area commission seeking permission to make turn the top three floors of the structure into condominiums. That concept didn’t work out economically, Reynolds said, which was also true for the previous variance request, one in 1973 to allow retail use of the first floor to pave the way for a book shop that never opened. This time around, however, the new use of 4,700 square feet of what had been retail space for restaurant use as a wine bistro involves a concept that’s
thriving in two Columbus locations, the attorney said. The reduction from the required number of spaces versus the number available is less of a burden than it might be in some situations, according to Reynolds, because the offices in the rest of the building close at 5 or 6 p.m., while the wine bistro customers would come primarily after those hours. Also, Reynolds said, some parking spaces can be borrowed during evening hours from a nearby lot. While 4041 N. High St. is in the See BISTRO, page A4
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Ohio House Rabbit Rescue has progressed by leaps and bounds since it was founded by Clintonville resident Beverly May in the summer of 2009. “Our big thing was that we hired a director,” May said last week. Heather Dean of Grove City, who developed grantwriting skills while working for United Cerebral Palsy and who has a communications degree from Otterbein University, came on board as a paid director for what had been an all-volunteer organization in early January, according to May. Ohio House Rabbit Rescue, which has members from throughout central Ohio, including Northland, Dublin, Upper Arlington, the campus area and Gahanna, grew throughout 2010, including upping the number serving on a team planning for construction of a physical shelter specifically for unwanted pet rabbits, May said. “We decided to keep that momentum going,” she said. “There was just so much we could get done if we hired somebody to work eight hours a day.” Dean, who has had pet rabbits since about 2004, was one of the first members of the planning team for the fledgling rescue operation. “So we could see her skills just as soon as we started the organization,” May said. Dean’s experience seeking funding through grants, as well as her ability to communicate with people in general and the media in particular, made her the ideal candidate for director of Ohio House Rabbit Rescue, May said. “Additionally, she really knows rabbits,” May said. “She knows all the issues of rabbits. She knows the needs of rabbits.” “Before it was always something I did outside of my work,” Dean said. “I wouldn’t call it a hobby but it certainly was more on a volunteer basis. Now I find I can devote a lot more time to digging for informaSee RABBIT RESCUE, page A4
‘Luv Some Bunny’ wine-tasting set for Feb. 12 The first fundraising event of the year for Ohio House Rabbit Rescue will be a wine-tasting scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 12. Billed as “Luv Some Bunny,” with a nod to Valentine’s Day, the event will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at House Wine, 644 High St. in downtown Old Worthington. Those attending will be offered a chance to “sample emerging brands and artisan wines,” according to the announcement. Tickets are $30 for the event, which pays for four wine selections, cheese and flatbread. A silent auction will also be held in conjunction with the tastings. Items up for bid will include handpainted wine glasses and baskets of Ohio State University gear, according to rescue organization founder Beverly May. Another silent-auction fundraiser benefiting Ohio House Rabbit Rescue is to take place on May 1 at Galleria Evangelia in Clintonville. “We’re hoping it will be a really big event,” May said. More information is available at the nonprofit organization’s website, www.ohiohouserabbitrescue.org. — Kevin Parks
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