August 7, 2011
Board will ask voters to OK tax swap Northridge will try income tax again — paired with property tax reduction By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
For the fourth election in a row, Northridge voters will see a 1percent income tax on the Nov. 8 ballot, but this time with a twist. The income tax will be paired with a reduction in the school district property tax. The Northridge Board of Ed-
ucation Aug. 1 approved placing a five-year, 1-percent income tax on the ballot, paired with a reduction in an existing property tax levy, reducing its millage from 9.3 mills to 5 mills. If successful, the measure would bring about $1 million into district coffers and save residents about $1 million on their current property taxes. To that end, the board adopt-
ed a concurrent resolution authorizing district treasurer Jim Hudson to ask the county auditor to reduce the property tax on the condition the income tax is approved by voters. Board member Lee Hatfield said the ballot language will not reference the property tax re-
A closer look The Northridge Board of Education Aug. 1 approved placing a five-year, 1-percent income tax on the ballot, paired with a reduction in an existing property tax levy, reducing its millage from 9.3 mills to 5 mills. If successful, the measure would bring about $1 million into district coffers and save residents about $1 million on their current property taxes. To that end, the board adopted a concurrent resolution authorizing district treasurer Jim Hudson to ask the county auditor to reduce the property tax on the condition the income tax is approved by voters.
See BOARD, page A2
Hartford PHITATHALON Fairgrounds buzz in preparation for opening By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
It was the Friday (Aug. 5) before opening day, and the Hartford Fairgrounds were jam-packed. The crowd included most of the 24 members of the fair board, dozens of campers, vendors, suppliers and workers setting up tents, building the race course infield and stands, adding last-minute electric power service, and generally running from one place to the next all day at the 190-acre Hartford Fairgrounds. “This week I’d say it’s 12 hours a day at least,” said board member and maintenance man Jerry Cashdollar. After a few power outages last year, board members were expecting improvements this year, with upgraded service to the campgrounds and temporary lighting facilities just in case. “Take away the parking and you have about 40 acres of concentrated peoA closer look ple, and if the lights go out, it gets exciting,” The 153rd Hartford Fair said board opens today (Sunday, Aug. member Dick 7) and will run through Fisher. Saturday, Aug. 13. Among Board memthe featured acts this year bers estimated are the JaneDear Girls and between 300 Josh Thompson, in a country and a 1,000 music performance at 7:30 people were p.m. Monday, along with busy at the fair horse shows and horse pulls Friday, beand motorized events such tween concesas tractor pulls and obstasionaires setcle course contests. ting up, campers coming in and harness racers training their horses. “You want to be careful to look both ways when you cross the track,” said fair manager Larry Hughes. Vendor Jim Ison is preparing to celebrate his 42nd birthday and has been coming to the Hartford Fair for 28 years. “I’ve been coming here since I was 14,” Ison said. “That was back before they had pavement.” Ison, who co-owns Northstar Concessions with Carrie Williams, arrived from New Hampshire, traveling the NASCAR circuit along the East Coast for most of the summer. See HARTFORD FAIRGROUNDS, page A2
By Paul Vernon/ThisWeek
Karlee Michael of Johnstown rinses off after competing in the PHITathalon July 30 at Union County Fair on July 30. PHITathalon is a 5-mile physical endurance race. For a slideshow of the event, visit www.ThisWeekNews.com.
McDonald’s supervisor
Sign removal would fast-track fast food By JENNA GANT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Johnstown village officials may remove a “no left turn” sign from West Coshocton Street to Bigelow Drive in order to help bring more customers to McDonalds. McDonald’s supervisor Kelly Welker said people who want chicken nuggets and Big Macs have to backtrack to get to her restaurant, and she’s worried about losing customers. She asked village council Aug. 2 to consider removing the sign so drivers could turn left onto Bigelow Drive. Welker said some customers don’t want to deal with driving to the next street light — which allows turns into the parking lot shared by the old Kroger’s, Goodwill and Hallmark stores — to eat at McDonalds. “It’s a hindrance for some customers, who say ‘I’m not even going to deal with that,’ whereas it’s very
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It’s (no left turns onto Bigelow Drive) a hindrance for some customers, who say ‘I’m not even going to deal with that,’ whereas it’s very easy to get into Wendy’s.
KELLY WELKER — McDonald’s supervisor
easy to get into Wendy’s,” Welker said. Village manager Jim Lenner said he talked to the Ohio Department of Transportation about the “no left turn” sign, and ODOT didn’t have an issue with removing it. Lenner said he still wants to talk to the village’s safety and service committee. If the committee approves the change, he said, he’d want to try it on a trial basis. He added that he wants to put restricted times on the sign so drivers
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wouldn’t be able to turn left during rush hours times of 6-9 a.m. and possibly 4-6 p.m. “That’s the rush hour heading out (6-9 a.m.) so if you have someone turning left, they’re just stopping up traffic all the way in town,” Lenner said. Police Chief Don Corbin told Lenner there haven’t been many accidents at the intersection of West Coshocton Street and Bigelow Drive and attributed that fact to the current “no left turn” sign.
“The fewer turning movements you have onto 62, the fewer chances of rear-ends or pulling out in front of somebody, so as a general rule the fewer access points the better for any major roadway,” Lenner said. Lenner said it also helps that motorists can only go 35 mph on West Coshocton Street near the intersection. “If the signs go up and we start to see (car crashes,) then we’ll have to address it and take them back down,” he said, “but I don’t see it to be a problem.” He said Bigelow Drive will eventually lead into a huge residential area, at which point a stoplight would have to be put in at the Bigelow Drive and West Coshocton Street intersection. Lenner said he should know by the end of the month whether the “no left turn” sign would be removed or altered, with designated restricted hours.
‘Hoping for the best,’ workers encounter problems in P.O. alley By JENNA GANT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
When work began on improvements to Post Office Alley, officials had their fingers crossed that upgrades could be made with few obstacles and very little fuss. But some obstacles have been encountered, village manager Jim Lenner told Johnstown Village Council at its Aug. 2 meeting,
water, sewer and stormwater lines and asphalt along the roadway. Lenner said construction crews discovered an old pipe underneath current lines in the alley, and had to identify it before proceeding. “When the building went up JIM LENNER in 1842, they put a storm tile down there and no one knew about it,” — Johnstown village manager Lenner said. “We didn’t map them back then. We didn’t know about and it’s not really surprising, given the infrastructure — there. the age of the structures — and The village is installing new them so we just found them by
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We knew we were going to run into problems just because of the age of the infrastructure. “We were hoping we wouldn’t find them — hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.
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digging them up.” He said workers had to take time to flush dye down the toilet of a business on Coshocton Street to determine if the pipe was for sanitary or stormwater use, causing an additional “headache,” Lenner said. “(The village needs to know) If it’s stormwater or if it’s sanitary,” he said, “because if it’s sanitary, we need to tie it in so it can’t
continue on to where it’s going.” Lenner said officials were relieved to find out it was an old stormwater pipe, but he said construction crews would have to wait to fix the problem. “They’re going to have to reopen (U.S. Route) 62 to get across for storm and water. We weren’t able to coordinate the opening of See ‘HOPING’, page A2