June 9, 2011
Otterbein pressing for Kilgore cleanup By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Representatives from Otterbein University hope to soon see a judicial consent decree from the federal government that will allow cleanup to proceed on the final 40 acres of the former Kilgore Manufacturing site, 600 N. Spring Road. The university and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held
a public meeting June 7, after ThisWeek’s press deadline, to update nearby residents on the cleanup process. Kilgore Manufacturing opened in 1941 to make bombs for the American military. After World War II, the company manufactured toy cap guns, pyrotechnics and illuminating flares. The factory closed in 1961 and the property was donated to Otterbein in 1962. The university previously worked with
the EPA to clean the western 70 acres of the site, on which the university’s new equine center now stands. But the eastern 40 acres remain badly contaminated, university spokeswoman Jennifer Pearce said prior to the June 7 meeting. “The 70 acres, when Kilgore Manufacturing was there, they didn’t bury a lot on the front half of the property, they buried it all to the back (40 acres),” Pearce
said. “When Kilgore packed up and left, they literally blew stuff up and buried it.” In 2008, the university filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense, claiming that the government told the university the site had been decontaminated when it was donated to the school. The suit claimed flares, artillery rounds and fuses for grenades were found on the land in the mid 1990s and that highly reactive materials remain on the land.
See OTTERBEIN, page B2
Bridge expected to open before fall classes start
Trek opens new store along bike path
By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Despite heavy spring rains, construction is on track to wrap up on time on the West Main Street bridge over Alum Creek. The road should be ready to reopen before Otterbein University resumes classes for the fall on Aug. 29, Franklin County Engineer Jim Pajk said. “The weather has been an issue. It has slowed them down as far as some of the work out there, but it’s nothing that has set anything back quite a bit,” Pajk said. “It hasn’t caused delays to the point where we feel like it’s going to go into September or October.” And with the recent sunny weather, construction crews have been able to pick up the pace of the work and make up for some of the ground that was lost in April and May, he said. The county is determined to finish the bridge before classes resume for Otterbein because the
By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Cyclists won’t have to venture far off the beaten path to visit Westerville’s newest bike shop. Trek Bicycle Store has opened at 5985 Maxtown Road, right on the bike path in Northgate Plaza. The Westerville location is one of three Columbus Trek bicycle stores. The Westerville location was moved from Hamilton Road in Gahanna, allowing the store to integrate into a community. “I can’t tell you how excited I am and the staff is to be there,” owner Chris Bishop said. “It’s really nice to be in a community.” Another advantage to the new location is the proximity to the bike path, he said. Westerville made sense as a location, Bishop said, because the city is cyclistfriendly and places an emphasis on developing a good path system. “We’re right on the bike path. That’s the No. 1 thing,” Bishop said. “Westerville, of all the communities in Columbus, seems to be leading the way in terms of bike path development.” So far, Bishop said, the store has had a good reception in Westerville, bringing in old customers, people coming to see the location and cyclists who were eager for the new location to open. “It’s been awesome. We’ve had all sorts of people coming in off
The suit demands that the government take some responsibility in the cleanup. No timeline has been set for a ruling on the case, but Pearce said the university expects a consent decree to be issued soon. The consent decree would lay out who is responsible for different elements of the cleanup process. “Until we get to that point, we can’t
bridge project has severed a portion of the campus, Pajk said. For the last year, Otterbein has run a shuttle bus to get students and staff from one side of the closed bridge to the other, and Pajk said the county does not want the university to have to coordinate shuttle service for the start of the next academic year. “We don’t want to get the shuttle service back up and running again. That’s just more coordination, and we don’t want to run a shuttle for two weeks,” he said. Currently, construction crews are working to get the form up for the bridge deck, as well as forms for the span’s girders. “It’s starting to look more like a bridge now,” Pajk said. “They’re going to start to see the arches more now; it’s starting to take shape.” When the bridge reopens to traffic at the end of summer, there See BRIDGE, page B2
Underground Railroad site
Hanby House earns national recognition By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers By Lisa Rice/ThisWeek
27th annual regatta
Annehurst Elementary School fifth-graders Faith Perpignand (left) and Priscilla Moore race for the finish line as they paddle their raft across Annehurst Pool during the school’s annual regatta on June 2. The students compete to see which team can navigate the length of the pool the fastest. See story, page B1.
See BICYCLE SHOP, page B3
Atwell: Crochet tree is symbol of help, hope By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year, Bonnie Atwell found herself sliding into depression as she sat at home, recovering from surgery. Her sister, Debbie Mitchell, with whom she lives in Westerville, wanted to find a way for Atwell to steer her energy in a positive direction.
“She was going through this tough time of coping with the fact that she found herself with this struggle of cancer. She wanted to just find something that would keep her busy,” Mitchell said. “I just noticed she was getting into a funk.” Looking around online, Mitchell found photos from artists who had crocheted coverings for trees in public spaces. Mitchell suggested that Atwell crochet the tree in front of her business, Serendipity, 33 E. Col-
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lege Ave. “At first, I had no clue what she was talking about,” Atwell said. “Then she pulled up a picture online and showed me, and I thought, ‘I can do that, no problem. “Once I got started on it, it’s like I couldn’t put it down.” In two and a half weeks, Atwell crocheted five skeins of yarn together to cover the tree’s See CROCHET COVER, page A2
ThisWeek 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
Hanby House has been added to the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, which documents about 400 homes across the country that make significant contributions to the understanding of the Underground Railroad. The home, located at 160 W. Main St., is the only site in central Ohio on the Network to Freedom. Hanby House was identified as being nationally significant by the National Park Service in a 1995 study, but it was not included in the Network to Freedom when in was created in 1998, said Bill Merriman, president of the Westerville Historical Society. “It seemed odd to some folks that a 13-year-old program, at this
coming home at the end of a tour of duty. We’ve written about soldiers who arrive at their homes or their children’s schools to unexpectedly surprise their delighted families. If you have a story idea about a friend, family member or colleague, email editorial@thisweeknews.com, with the subject line, “Honoring Heroes.”
point, that the Hanby House had not been included in the network,” Merriman said. The Westerville Historical Society, which manages the house on behalf of the Ohio Historical Society, helped prepare an application on the Ohio Historical Society’s behalf to have the house included in the Network to Freedom. The National Park Service issued a certificate of acceptance to Hanby House on May 26. Representatives of the house will be officially presented with a certificate in a ceremony on June 16, Merriman said. The house originally was located where Church of the Master is now at Grove and Main streets. Slaves headed north along the Underground Railroad were See HANBY, page B2 Marley is a five-yearold mixed breed dog currently up for adoption at Citizens For Human Action. For information on adopting Marley, visit CHA’s website: chaanimalshelter.org. Watch a video of Marley at ThisWeek NEWS.com.
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