ThisWeek New Albany 6/30

Page 1

June 30, 2011

New Albany-Plain Local Schools

Officials: PLEA contract saves money By LORI WINCE ThisWeek Community Newspapers A new teachers’ contract will take effect June 30 after the New Albany-Plain Local school board approved it June 22. The district is expected to save a total of $3.8 million over the next three years after the Plain Local Education Association (PLEA) asked to renegotiate the

agreement a year before it expired, which would have been June 30, 2012. The contract and its updated documents are available on ThisWeekNews.com. “This is what education looks like,” said Joe Armpriester, vice president of PLEA. “We want to be leaders, not followers. We wanted to be partners in dealing with the fiscal deficit and continue

Residents on FRRC assigned new roles

to move forward, adding programs and continuing to have the same class sizes. … We knew we had to take an active role in reducing costs.” During the June 22 meeting, a report by superintendent April Domine and financial review and reporting committee member Parag Patel said that the new contract is anticipated to save more money than Ohio Senate Bill 5

would have through fiscal year 2014. S.B. 5, which was signed into law by Gov. John Kasich but is not yet in effect, places limits on collective bargaining for Ohio’s public employees. In the time since its passage last spring, opponents of the legislation mounted a campaign to place the issue before voters as a referendum on the November ballot.

By LORI WINCE ThisWeek Community Newspapers New Albany Parks and Recreation is ready to put another levy request on the November ballot. “We’re considering right now going back on the ballot in November,” said Dave Demers, New Albany’s representative to the parks district board. Demers and the village’s other appointee, Richard Williams, spoke to New Albany City Council on June 21. Jeff Johnson, the New Albany-Plain Local School District’s representative to the parks board, told the school board June 22 that the parks district will ask for the same 1-mill permanent levy in November. “This is strictly for operational needs,” Johnson said. Voters rejected Issue 8, a 1-mill replacement levy, in the May 3 election. It would have replaced a 0.75mill permanent levy, which was approved when New Albany Parks and Recreation was formed as the New Albany-Plain Local Joint Park District in 1999 by New Albany, Plain Township and the school district. Each entity appointed a representative to a

By LORI WINCE ThisWeek Community Newspapers After Dave Maul resigned from the New Albany-Plain Local financial review and reporting committee (FRRC) last week, two of the remaining four residents on the committee talked to their school board representatives June 22 about establishing better communication and then agreed to expand their roles. Maul submitted his letter of resignation June 20, citing an inability to help the district with reviewing its finances, which was the mission of the FRRC when the school board formed it in 2010. Laura Kohler, the school board vice president and one of two board members serving on the FRRC, said she was sorry Maul resigned just as the board was ready to have committee members increase their responsibilities and share their expertise in different ways. “I think we’ve been underutilizing the individual expertise of the committee members and it’s time to make a positive change,” Kohler said. Phil Derrow and Parag Patel, the community members on the FRRC who attended the June 22 meeting, said they, like Maul, often felt as though they were not contributing all they could to help the district. The other community members, Chris Luffler and Dave Demers, were absent. After hearing a description of the FRRC duties, Patel said, he felt his strength was in identifying problems and solving them. “I don’t know that I’ve helped,” he said. “If you say I’ve helped, I don’t see it.” Kohler said the committee was asked initially to make recommendations on policy, more than crunching individual numbers. She said the FRRC has greatly influenced the board’s decisions.

See PARKS LEVY, page A3

City limits subdivisions’ lawn height to 8 inches By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek

Special Olympian Matthew Thomas waves to the crowd from his perch atop the shoulders of his father, Paul, as he and the rest of the New Albany Special Olympics team take their places for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics Ohio Summer Games at Ohio Stadium on June 24.

See RESIDENTS ON FRRC, page A5

Anomatic project receives state incentives Anomatic received a 50-percent, seven-year tax credit June 27 from the state of Ohio for construction of a 75,000-square-foot production facility in New Albany. Anomatic is based in Newark, where its of-

fices will remain, and has production facilities in Newark, Naugatuk, Conn., and China. “Most of our production currently is done in Newark but we need additional capacity, in large part because of our growth with Limited Brands,” said Scott Rusch, company president. The company developed an anodizing system in 1967 and provides customers with colored

metal lids for bottles. Anodizing is “an electrochemical process that converts the metal surface into a decorative, durable, corrosion-resistant, anodic oxide finish,” according to the website of the Aluminum Anodizers Council. The tax credit is a refundable credit, which

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Ron Kendle Full time Realtor 614-325-6295 Jill Richardson Licensed Assistant 614-599-2193

By LORI WINCE ThisWeek Community Newspapers New Albany subdivision residents now are required to keep their grass cut under eight inches after city council passed an ordinance June 21 regulating “turf grass swards.” “This has been written in the simplest form possible to address specifically grass growing on lawns,” said deputy city manager Debra Mecozzi. Mecozzi presented the legislation at the June 21 council meeting, where it was approved in a 5-0 vote. Mayor Nancy Ferguson and Chris Wolfe were absent. See GRASS ORDINANCE, page A3

See ANOMATIC, page A2

DIRECTORY

Customer Service: 1-888-837-4342

See PLEA CONTRACT, page A2

Parks and recreation to give levy another try

SUMMER GAMES

OAPSE could be the next union to begin negotiations

By LORI WINCE ThisWeek Community Newspapers

With the new contract in place, the district is projected to end fiscal year 2013 with a $2.1-million cash balance. According to the report by Domine and Patel, if S.B. 5 were approved by voters in November and teachers were working under the former contract, the district would have had to pay a 3-percent

Arts, eats and fun in central Ohio

The 2011 Special Olympics Ohio Summer Games were held June 24-26 at various locations in the Columbus area. To view a multimedia presentation on opening day, visit ThisWeekNews.com.

Click on Social Scene at ThisWeekNEWS.com

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