January 23, 2011
County projects revenue decline in 2011 By LIN RICE ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The word Union County commissioners and office holders should keep in mind for this fiscal year is “maintain,” according to the county’s financial auditing contractor. Following an analysis of the county’s appropriations for fiscal year 2010 ear-
lier this month, Bob Fry recently presented what he believes the county can expect to receive in income for FY 2011. While some sources of funding will be hard to anticipate because of changeover in the Statehouse, others can be predicted fairly dependably. And Fry says most of those revenue sources are expected to decrease in 2011. “I just want to impress upon you that
the word should be ‘maintain’ for the county,” Fry said. “Because if you maintain (the same spending) as you did last year, you’re going to end up even for the year in my projection.” According to Fry’s figures, Union County is expected to receive $17.4-million in revenues in 2011, including transfers. This is down 1.3-percent from last year’s figures, which amounted to $17.63-
million. Fry’s numbers vary slightly from the county auditor’s projections (the auditor projects revenues of $16.3-million in 2011, compared to $16.69-million in 2010), because the auditor is required to estimate all those figures as conservatively as possible, county commissioners have said. General property tax revenues are expected to keep dwindling for the coun-
ty, according to Fry. Projections for property tax revenues for 2011 are down 4.1percent from last year, at $4.18-million compared to $4.35-million in 2010. “We’ve lost half a million dollars over the last two years in property tax,” Fry said. “But I do think that’s going to slow down.” See COUNTY PROJECTS, page A2
Career education
MHS, OHP want students to be aware of options By JIM FISCHER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Photos by Chris Parker/ThisWeek
(Above) Marysville resident Rylee Cavins has her picture taken with Cinderella at Nationwide Arena for the “Disney on Ice: Princess Classics” on Jan. 20. (Below) Rena Parrill does Cavins’s hair as she and two other young cancer survivors are treated to a princess makeover before the show.
Cancer survivor Rylee Cavins transformed into Disney princess By LIN RICE ThisWeek Community Newspapers
A 10-year-old Marysville resident, Rylee Cavins, was treated like a princess, in the company of princesses, last week. Along with two other young girls who have life-threatening illnesses, Rylee was treated to a princess makeover at the Jan. 20 performance of Disney on Ice at Nationwide Arena. “They did my nails, and my hair and my makeup,” Rylee said. “It was great, the whole show was great.” Diagnosed with a form of bone cancer called Ewings Sarcoma, Rylee has undergone eight surgeries in the past two years. With the cancer in remission for the past year, however, Rylee has spent her free time working to again participate in sports, her mother said. “She was very active, doing gymnastics, snowboarding and soccer, and then went to being told she
couldn’t participate in contact sports,” Heather Cavins said. “That was quite an adjustment for her.” Although Rylee’s bone cancer has been in remission for one year now, she has undergone some profound surgeries. Ewings Sarcoma is a rare form of cancer in which cancer cells appear in bone and soft tissue. Although Rylee might have had part of her leg amputated to deal with
the cancer, doctors opted for a limb salvage surgery, her mother said. “They decided to try and save her leg, and what they ended up doing was removing five inches of her leg and putting a cadaver bone in,” Cavins said. “She now has titanium plates and 18 screws. She’s always been my strength – even when they did the surgery she didn’t cry. The first time she just laughed, because
the (bone graft) was from a 10-yearold boy. She laughed and said, ‘Oh, I’m part boy now!’” While long trips require a wheelchair and moving around the house takes crutches, Cavins said Rylee’s progression toward walking on her own has been admirable. Rylee’s even managed to get back into sports. “She’s found that being disabled doesn’t stop her, though,” Cavins said. “Now she’s become a part of the Ohio sled hockey team.” Ohio Sled Hockey is the only competitive junior team sport providing league and tournament play for kids with physical disabilities in Columbus, according to the league’s website. An official event at the Winter Paralympics Games, sled hockey includes all the safety equipment and pace of traditional hockey. “I play forward. The other kids are pretty good,” Rylee said. “I like (playing sled hockey) because it’s a
ty to purchase county land for a new fire station. Klingman said residents should start noticing progress on the police and court facility this spring. “For the spring, we’re hoping to start some public involvement by early March, and we’re starting to nail down some specific schedule items with the architect,” she said. “We’re envisioning some town hall-style meetings, to show off different concepts we’ll be looking at, and to see which are more appealing to residents.” Klingman said the new building is intended to be a one-story structure, and that the city’s preliminary studies show a need for about 50,000
Events designed to show students what’s available That’s Hi-Point’s goal as well. Kim Davis, OHP superintendent, said the biggest push is for sophomore campus visits in the fall. (This past November, 343 of 417 MHS sophomores registered to attend; only 68 showed up.) “We used to take the entire sophomore class up there, but now that’s so many more students,” Chrispin said. “The benefit now is we’re getting kids who really have an interest.” Other events, including OHP’s annual Taste of the Future open house and Tech Tuesdays also offer students – and parents – a chance to find out more about OHP and its programs. “Tech Tuesdays give students a chance to shadow a program so they can be confident whether it’s right for them,” said JoEtta Spain, OHP’s recruitment and placement coordinator. Spain said there are also opportunities at the various home schools for students in OHP programs to share their experiences with prospective students. OHP will participate in Marysville High School Career Day on Friday, Jan. 28, featuring Bellefontaine and satellite programs. “They want the same things as we do – the right kids in the right programs, whether they go there
See ARCHITECT SELECTED, page A4
See MHS, OHP WANT STUDENTS, page A2
See YOUNG CANCER, page A4
Architect selected for new police, court facility By LIN RICE ThisWeek Community Newspapers
An architectural firm has been selected to design Marysville’s new police and municipal court facility, and an architect should soon be picked to design the city’s new fire station, city engineer Valerie Klingman said last week. Klingman said that Dublin-based Horne & King Architects has been selected to design the new police and court facility, which will be located on about 16 acres of city land at the northeasterly corner of W. Fifth Street and Raymond Road. “We received 23 SOQs (statements of qualification), and went through those and short-listed to
three firms, which we then interviewed,” Klingman said. “We got a contract signed with (Horne & King) around the end of December, and they started work the first of this year.” Horne & King Architects was contracted by Marysville for $872,825, according to Klingman, and will be responsible for basic site planning, surveying, geo-technical work and all design services, among other pre-building needs, she said. Relocating Marysville’s police and municipal court facilities to a brand new building was greenlighted after voters approved a municipal income tax increase last year. Land already owned by the city was selected for the site, and Marysville is currently working on an agreement with Union Coun-
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Scheduling materials for Marysville High School students for the 2011-12 school year will be handed out this week. Sophomores and juniors will additionally be considering whether a course of study at Ohio HiPoint Career Center is right for them. Hi-Point, the district’s vocational education partner, offers more than 30 programs of study in 10 content areas. In addition, OHP offers five satellite programs that meet at Marysville High School. “Ohio Hi-Point is incredible,” said MHS principal Matthew Chrispin. “The programs, the college credit, the skills learned. There are a lot of benefits.” Yet participation lags, despite moderate gains in recent years: 52 Marysville students attend programs at OHP’s Bellefontaine campus versus 42 two year ago, and nearly 200 students are enrolled in the five satellite programs at MHS. But those numbers represent just 10 percent of eligible MHS students, the smallest percentage among OHP’s 14 partner schools over five counties. Marysville students make up just short of seven percent of the on-campus population at OHP. “When we look at our students and (post-high school options), we figure (a vocational education) is appropriate for about 25 percent of our kids,” said Larry Zimmerman, Marysville Exempted Village School District superintendent. “We obviously don’t have those numbers (participating).” “I think OHP is a great option for so many kids,” Marysville school board member Doug Lassiter, the board’s representative on the OHP board, told ThisWeek. “I think OHP offers a tremendous alternative and I would love to see more Marysville students benefit from this.”
Nemo, who was rescued from a hoarding situation, is up for adoption from the Ohio SPCA. To see a video of Nemo and Scamp, another cat looking for a home, visit www.ThisWeekNews. com. For more information on Nemo, visit ohiospca.org.
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