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April 24, 2014
Market and Main streets
Roundabout could come full circle by August By LORI WINCE THISWEEKNEWS.COM
Egged on Children dash onto the field at the New Albany High School football stadium to collect Easter eggs Saturday, April 19, during New Albany Spring Fest. CHRIS PARKER/THISWEEKNEWS
Transmission headquarters
AEP will move facility to New Albany
By LORI WINCE THISWEEKNEWS.COM American Electric Power is moving its transmission headquarters to New Albany, next door to its central operations center on Smith’s Mill Road. Dennis Welch, the company’s executive vice president and chief external officer, said AEP has outgrown one of the two buildings on Morrison Road in Gahanna. The company is expected to move employees from Gahanna to New Albany when the 195,000-square-foot facility is built within two years, said Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s community-development director. Chrysler said the total number of jobs on site is expected to reach 600. That includes 100 employees who currently work in the operations center. The 83,500-square-foot operations center opened in May 2008, according to the company’s website. Welch said AEP recently purchased 35 acres east of the site, which is where it
will build the transmission headquarters. Two buildings will have a secure connection, Welch said. New Albany City Council on April 14 unanimously approved an incentive package for the project that includes: • A 100 percent, 15-year real property-tax abatement valued at $7.2 million. • An income-tax credit for creating health and wellness programs valued at $1.5 million. • A sustainability grant of $250,000 from the city’s economic-development fund to achieve LEED certification for the building. • A $100,000 training grant from the city’s economic-development fund. Four members of New Albany City Council were present for the vote: Mayor Nancy Ferguson, Glyde Marsh, Mike Mott and Sloan Spalding. Chrysler said AEP is investing $39 million in project, which is expected to generate $1.16 million annually in incometax revenue. That is based on the estimated $58 million annual payroll.
Chrysler said the city shares revenue from income taxes collected in that area with four entities. According to City Council’s legislative report: • The New Albany Community Authority, which helped build infrastructure in the business park, will receive 30 percent or $348,000. • The Licking Heights school district will receive 27.5 percent or $319,000. • The city of Columbus, which provides water and sewer services to the properties, will receive 15 percent or $174,000. • The city of New Albany will retain 27.5 percent of $319,000. Chrysler said having AEP as a partner in the community has helped bring in other businesses because AEP helped to extend fiber-optics lines in the city, which also are maintained by AEP. AEP also partnered with the city on its renovations at High and Main streets in the past two years, helping fund the burial of utility lines at that intersection. lwince@thisweeknews.com
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New Albany-Plain Local
November levy request possible
By LORI WINCE THISWEEKNEWS.COM
The NewAlbany-Plain Local school board and the financial review and reporting committee are expected in May to talk about a potential levy for the November ballot. The district’s last operating levy was approved Nov. 6, 2012. Issue 50 included a 2.59-mill
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Construction of a roundabout at Market and Main streets in New Albany is expected to begin May 26. New Albany City Council agreed Jan. 7 to approve a plat for the roundabout at the intersection in anticipation of the New Albany Co. retail building opening this fall and the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany opening early in 2015. City Councilman Glyde Marsh was the only member to vote against the roundabout. He has been an opponent of roundabouts for several years because he says they create accidents. He lives just north of a roundabout at Morse and Reynoldsburg-New Albany roads. A traffic study completed by
the city recommended a roundabout. The alternate choice was to add two to three lanes at the intersection. City officials structured the roundabout at Market and Main – also known as Johnstown Road and U.S. Route 62 – to accommodate pedestrians. In January, deputy community-development director Adrienne Joly said city officials consulted with Mark Johnson of MTJ Engineering of Madison, Wis., and learned that the roundabout could be considered safe if it were designed correctly. Joly said lanes must be kept narrow – not more than about 12 feet wide – to keep traffic from moving faster than 15 miles per hour through the intersection. The design also includes
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