July 7, 2011
Summit Chase
Signs protest generator; issue in court By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
In the days before the Tour de Grandview Cycling Classic on June 26, signs stating “Remove the illegal generator” were placed in the neighborhood surrounding the Summit Chase condominiums. The signs list the name “Citizens Against the Generator” and the name of a Grandview resident who lives on Urlin Avenue as the group’s treasurer. Neither city officials nor the president of the Summit Chase Homeowners Association know exactly who is behind the signs or why they put them up. The association’s appeal of the Grandview Board of Zoning Appeals vote last August regarding the condominium’s generator is pending in the environmental division of Franklin County Municipal Court.
Attempts by ThisWeek to contact the treasurer identified on the signs for this story were unsuccessful. “I’m not sure what the purpose of the signs would be, because it’s in the courts right now,” said Mark Krausz, president of the Summit Chase Homeowners Association. “The wheels of justice grind slowly,” he said. The case is being heard by Judge Harland Hale. The judge has held discussions with the condominium association and the city in an attempt to broker an agreement between the two parties, but no agreement is on the horizon, Krausz said. John Kuss, the city’s director of building and zoning, said he did not want to comment on the case while it is still pending in court. He concurred with Krausz that he did not know why residents would put up the signs now that case is in court.
Last August, the BZA denied the condominium association’s appeal of a zoning code violation order for the backup power generator it installed on its lawn facing Urlin Avenue. The violation order stated the generator had been placed inside the 100-yard setback required by the city’s zoning code. An attorney for Summit Chase argued the yard facing Urlin is actually the side yard and is governed by the 25-foot setback for side yards specified in the code. At the same meeting, the BZA also denied Summit Chase’s request for a variance from the city’s front yard setback requirement for corner lots. The board’s denial would require the condominium to move the generator to bring it under the 100-foot minimum front yard setback, but everything is on hold as the case makes its way through court.
That includes a landscaping plan Krausz said would address neighbors’concerns about being able to see the generator. The plan would involve such elements as painting the generator a different color and planting trees and shrubs to serve as screening, he said. A number of Summit Chase residents also can see the generator from their homes, so the condominium is eager to put its landscaping plan into effect, Krausz said. The current location of the generator was not the condominium’s first choice, he said. The original plan was to place it farther up the hill, but the city nixed that plan because it would be too close to the condominium’s swimming pool and it was determined the soil would not be able to handle the generator’s bulk, Krausz said. Other sites along the property were considered, but problems emerged with each one, he said.
Library to COOLING OFF host exhibit of radiation masks made into artwork
A photo of the ‘Mullet Man Bandit.’
‘Mullet Man Bandit’ hits Grandview Avenue bank
By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The Grandview Heights Public Library will host an exhibition of radiation masks worn by head and neck cancer patients that have been transformed into works of art. “Courage Unmasked for Joan’s Fund” will be on display July 14-25 in the library atrium. The exhibition features works by 26 professional visual artists, most from the central Ohio area. The masks will be auctioned Oct. 21 at a gala event at the Franklin Park Conservatory to benefit the Joan Levy Bisesi Foundation for Head and Neck Oncology Research (Joan’s Foundation). The foundation is the fundraising arm of Joan’s Fund, an endowment fund that supports research at the James Cancer Hospital to find a cure for all types of head and neck cancer. “Joan’s Fund” is named for Joan Levy Bisesi, who, along with her husband, created the fund shortly before she passed away in 2001 from cancer that had developed in her mouth. “In the first 10 years, more than $750,000 has been raised for the fund,” said Melinda Fenholt Cogley, executive director of the foundation, which recently earned 501 (c) (3) status and can now begin fundraising efforts on behalf of the fund.
By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
Carrie Furbee, 4, runs through the sprinkler during Water Day at the Grandview Heights Public Library. This was the second year the library held the event, which is part of the summer reading program.
See MASKS, page A3
Folk festival returning to Camp Akita Aug. 19-21 By ALAN FROMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers “My Voice” by Jeanie Coy Auseon of Upper Arlington.
“Speaks More Softly, Sees More Clearly” by Karla Sheppard.
An old Camp Akita tradition is being reborn in 2011. The Akita Folk Festival will be held Aug. 1921 at Camp Akita, First Community Church’s camp located in the Hocking Hills area. Former Akita campers and counselors and anyone else who would like to perform acoustic and folk-based music is welcome to participate in the festival, said Tom White, one of the event’s organizers. “In part, it will serve as a reunion for Camp Akita alumni,” White said. The public is also welcome to attend either for the entire weekend or just for a day, he said. A folk festival began being held at the end of the summer at Camp Akita in the mid 1960s, inspired by the folk music boom of the time, White said. “Campers and counselors would get together
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and perform folk music on stage,” he said. “It was kind of the old sitting around the campfire type of thing.” The event continued until the mid-70s, and, after a hiatus of about four or five years, White was one of the organizers of an effort in 1980-81 to restart the festival. “For some reason, it sort of fizzled out after that,” he said. “No one took the ball to keep it going.” The idea to revive the festival came about from discussions on a Camp Akita alumni Facebook page, White said. “People write their memories of the camp and send in pictures and the talk began, ‘Hey, remember the folk festivals we used to have? Why don’t we try to bring it back,’” he said. Many former Akita campers or counselors who performed at previous festivals have already signed up to perform at the three-day event, White said. About 130 people have already indicated they See AKITA, page A2
The man known as the “Mullet Man Bandit” is believed to have committed his fifth bank robbery, this time in the Grandview area. At about 9:43 a.m. June 28, the man entered the Arlington Bank, 1460 Grandview Ave., and showed a note to bank tellers that stated he had a gun, was robbing the bank and demanding cash, said Harry Trombitas, special agent for the FBI. As in the previous four robberies, the man did not actually show a gun, Trombitas said. “But there is something in his demeanor that scares the hell out of many of the bank employees” who have been confronted by the man during the series of robberies, he said. “It’s the perception of some of the employees that he means business.” The wise and safe thing for bank employees to do is to assume the man has a gun, Trombitas said. Although the FBI does not reveal the amount of money taken in a bank robbery, most robbers make off with less than $4,000 and usually in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, he said. The Mullet Man Bandit “fit that pattern” in last week’s robbery “so you can draw your own conclusions,” Trombitas said. The other robberies the man is believed to have committed have occurred in south Columbus, Grove City and in Columbus on Polaris Parkway. “We are pretty certain this is the same man who committed the other robberies,” Trombitas said. “We make the connection because the physical description is the same in the surveillance photos and his manner is the same. “He comes in, holds a note up, which is different from a lot of bank robbers who usually hand the note to a teller,” he said. “He holds the note up for the employees to see.” The man received his nickname because witnesses have described him as having long, dark hair in the back like a mullet. In the June 28 incident, he was described as being a white male, approximately in his 30s, 5-feet, 8-inches to 5-feet, 10-inches tall with a medium build, scruffy facial hair, See ROBBER, page A2
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