August 7, 2011
No raises in final city school contract By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers No Delaware City Schools employees will see raises this coming year after the school board approved a contract with the final employees union, United Electrical. Earlier this summer, the board approved contracts with the district’s three
other bargaining units. The board on Aug. 1 unanimously approved the contract with United Electrical, which represents the district’s bus drivers, mechanics, maintenance workers, custodians, cooks and cashiers. The agreement includes both a base salary freeze and no step increases for the coming year — the same terms the board approved for the Ohio Association
of Public School Employees, the Delaware City Teachers Association, district administrators and non-union employees. “It brings really everybody in the district into the same situation and it shows that every member of this team understands the challenge the district faces financially and is willing to make sacrifices to make sure that we can preserve
the programming for kids,” Superintendent Paul Craft said of the new agreement. The one-year agreement affects 120 district employees. The lack of step increases is expected to save the district $54,051 during the life of the contract. United Electrical president Liz Bertsch said the vote on July 13 to approve the contract was close.
“We realized that during the tough economic times, we really need to support the school district,” Bertsch said. “It’s hard times.” The total savings to the district from all the step freezes are expected to total $478,095, with the majority of that coming from teacher salaries — $341,772 See NO RAISES, page A2
HARRY POTTER FUNDRAISER
Photos by Eric George/ThisWeek
(Above, right) Jon Powers, as Albus Dumbledore, commands the students to go outside for tryouts for a Quidditch team during Main Street Delaware’s Harry Potter fundraiser at Slocum Hall on Ohio Wesleyan University’s campus July 29. (Above, left) Seven-year-old Evan Sidders carries a Quaffle in an attempt to score during the Quidditch tryouts. Other activities at the event included a character lookalike contest.
Volunteers Sunbury eyes health coverage change preparing to promote school levy By TOM SHEEHAN
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By LISA AURAND ThisWeek Community Newspapers
They might not be publicly visible yet, but the Delaware City Schools levy committee members have been hard at work behind the scenes this summer prepping for a campaign launch coinciding with the start of the school year. “I think we really got organized pretty quickly,” levy campaign co-chair Susan Wells said. “Obviously, we’ll be doing some big kickoffs in September. Behind the scenes, we’ve been trying to get our strategy together and meeting to discuss the issues that people will want to talk about.” The district is asking voters to approve a fiveyear, 8.3-mill emergency levy that is expected to bring in $6 million per year. The Delaware County Auditor’s Office estimates that the levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 house an additional $260 per year. The average residential property value in the school district is $130,802, the auditor’s office said in April. The committee will meet on Aug. 16 to discuss fundraisers and awareness efforts, including the official launch of a campaign website, delaware schoollevy.com. “We want to make sure that our message is concise and clear,” Wells said. Meanwhile, the committee hopes to create a database of willing volunteers. “We really want as many volunteers this time as we possibly can,” Wells said. “The more people we get involved, the better they have an opportunity to understand what it’s about and everybody’s working toward the same thing.” See VOLUNTEERS, page A2
Beginning next month, Sunbury village officials will start interviewing prospective insurance brokers to handle health coverage for the village during the next year. The current broker is Ohio Insurance Services Agency Inc. The contract is with Medical Mutual of Ohio, at a cost of $25,765 a month. That contract is up for renewal on Feb. 1. Six other brokers are interested in supplying the village’s health coverage. They are Benefit Administrators, Crown Benefits, H.R. Butler, McGohanBrabender, Rinehart Walters-Danner Insurance Agency and Wells Fargo Insurance Services. Council members Tommy Hatfield, Jennifer Witt, Bill Metzler and Tom Zalewski on Aug. 3 decided to wait until September to begin the interview process. Council members David Linnabary and Sean Currie did not attend the meeting.
Council asked Sunbury administrator Dave Martin if he could reduce the list, and Martin said he didn’t have enough information to do that. Martin suggested that council interview the individual brokers. “We need a good advocate,” council president Hatfield said. Currently, Frank Harmon from Ohio Insurance Services works with the village. Also at the meeting, the council voted 4-0 to have village solicitor David Brehm draw up legislation for the Aug. 17 meeting to authorize council to pay up to $23,000 to buy a used bucket truck. The issue has been discussed for several months. Council members decided it’s time to either buy a truck or continue to rent one when needed. Village officials have found three used trucks for sale, ranging from $16,000 to $22,900. Witt said she needs to know more about the cost, including maintenance and man-hour costs. During the past five years, the village has rented trucks at a total cost of about $10,000. Prior to that, the village had its own truck but retired the
33-year-old vehicle in 2006. Metzler and Zalewski said they think it’s a good idea to have a village-owned vehicle available at all times for changing street lights, hanging banners, tree-trimming and other projects. Resident George Owens agreed. He said the village has hundreds of street lights. “It’s something that’s going to be needed.” Martin said after the meeting the village doesn’t rent a bucket truck until a number of street lights need to be changed. It isn’t cost-efficient to do it when only a few are out. That would mean, he said, some residents would have burned-out lights for several weeks before they are replaced. That wouldn’t happen if the village had its own truck. Also at the meeting: • Martin told council members that demolition has begun at the former Nestlé plant on South Columbus Street. Everything but a warehouse is slated to be torn down. Most of the 275-acre site See SUNBURY COUNCIL, page A2
Lightning fires in county drawing attention By BONNIE BUTCHER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Fires caused by lightning strikes in Delaware County are attracting attention from around the state. Ohio Fire Marshal Larry Flowers will meet with fire department chiefs in Delaware County Aug. 31 to discuss lightning strikes that rupture corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) natural gas lines, said Shane Cartmill, spokesperson for the state fire marshal. “The reason we want to learn more is there is not a lot of information out there for the state of Ohio,” he said. “We’re not seeing it in too many places other than in Delaware County. There are reports of it sporadically in the state.” Cartmill said that Flowers, state fire
investigators and prevention officers will meet with the county fire chiefs to learn what they’re seeing and experiencing. Then more research might be done on the issue. The meeting was prompted by “growing interest in the subject among fire service personnel and the media,” Cartmill said. Cartmill isn’t sure about the number of fires involving ruptured CSST gas lines and lightning, because fire investigation reports used to look at statewide occurrences don’t have a “check box” for CSST. The reports do, however, have check boxes for lightning and for fuel. “We don’t have any good statistics, which is another reason for us to look into this,” he said. Meanwhile, area fire chiefs want residents to call if lightning strikes.
The season’s many thunderstorms have resulted in a number of homes being struck by lightning. That hazard and associated damage bring emergency crews concern enough, but crews have been seeing homes struck by lightning, accompanied by the failure of flexible natural-gas lines. That combination results in a gas-fueled fire that can burn rapidly, said Genoa Township Fire Chief Gary Honeycutt. “We had seven incidents of houses struck by lightning and then four of them ended up in basement fires with the (corrugated stainless steel tubing) CSST gas line being ruptured,” Honeycutt said. Those seven strikes occurred through the night and early morning of July 23-24. “The potential is losing the whole
house,” Honeycutt said. “We’re lucky nobody got injured or worse. Thank God these people that were affected by this recognized something was wrong soon enough.” In July, Liberty Township helped fight a fire accompanied by CSST failure in Concord Township. The house burned rapidly, Liberty Fire Chief Tim Jensen has said, leaving little standing but the chimney. Jensen said no fires with ruptured CSST gas lines have occurred recently but they “did have a flurry back in 2006 and 2007. “We spent a great deal of time researching the issue then,” he said. “The installers are supposed to have some minimal training, and the Liberty Township building department See LIGHTNING, page A3