July 28, 2011
Former Kroger at Columbus Square Shopping Center
Space still in running for county office use By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The Columbus Square Shopping Center remains in the running to have a portion of the closed Kroger store become office space for Franklin County Children Services. George Hadler of the Hadler Cos., owners of the shopping center at Cleveland Avenue and East Dublin-Granville
Road, said as much last week and the communications director for Children Services confirmed it. Such a move would help salve some of the wounds left when officials with Cincinnati-based Kroger announced the closing of the Columbus Square store. The last day of business was July 10. “With the lease expiring at this location, it was determined during our
evaluation that we were unable to continue a profitable operation at the 5727 Emporium Square location and made the decision to not renew our lease and to close the store on July 10,” Robert Clark, vice president of operations for Kroger’s Columbus division, said in the mid-May announcement. Kroger had operated a store in the center since the late 1980s after purchasing it from Cub Foods.
Commensurate with the news from Kroger, Hadler said his firm had responded to a request for proposals from Franklin County Children Services regarding office space. He said the Hadler Cos. was willing to spend “millions of dollars” in turning part of the 83,000square-foot grocery store into offices. The proposal had made the short list and is still on it, Hadler said last week. “They have not yet made a decision,
and basically, they just sent out a notification saying they were continuing to evaluate all their options,” Hadler said. “As far as I know, it’s still very much a possibility. We would be delighted. We feel we have the best location and we’ve worked hard to keep the rent reasonable.” “All the proposals, including that one, See SPACE, page A2
Northland Alliance
Website seeks to become community forum By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Adam Cairns/ThisWeek
Northland Heating & Cooling owner William C. Tinsky has been battling with the Ohio Department of Transportation about the sound wall between his business and I-71 for the past year and a half. He paid for clear glass to be placed beside his business, but he contends that his sign still can only be seen from a short stretch of the interstate. He has also noticed water drainage problems since the wall was put up.
Business owner trying to make some noise about sound wall By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Northland Heating and Cooling founder William J. Tinsky used to come home from his job as a chrome buffer for General Motors and, instead of resting from his labors, would do what he could to support his four children. He worked with a man who had a heating and cooling business while studying the trade in order to obtain a license of his own. Eventually, Tinsky got his license, bought a truck and, in 1966, began operating a heating and cooling business out of the garage of the family home in Forest Park. “Thus the name, Northland Heating,” said William C. Tinsky, the founder’s son and now president of the firm. About 35 years ago, William J. purchased property on Moon Road, just across Interstate 71 from Clintonville, and had a headquarters built for his growing enterprise. This included an iconic sign, identifying it as “Protech Services Northland Heating and Cooling,” with a clock that, for decades, was clearly visible to motorists on I71. “People use that clock daily,” William C. said last week. Not so much any more. “This is a freaking nightmare,” Tinsky said. On July 7, 2006, according to Ohio Department of Transportation District 6 communications manager Nancy Burton, “property owners received notification” of a proposed project that would extend a noise wall along I-71 in front of Northland Heat-
ing and Cooling. The following March 1, again according to Burton, “notification letters” regarding public meetings on March 14 and 21 were sent out about the extension of the sound wall. Tinsky claims he never got any of them. “We’re pretty good about business and opening mail and reading it,” he said. “I don’t have any knowledge of that,” Burton said. Bill Tinsky’s “freaking nightmare” had begun. Now, drivers on I-71 can catch glimpses of the Northland Heating and Cooling sign through two clear panels in the noise wall, but the busy yard of the business is totally obscured. Tinsky said he had to pay $48,500 in order to get the clear panels installed and he’s being asked to pay an additional $25,000 to go halves on extending the number of transparent panels in the wall by an additional three feet, as is the case at Calvary Temple Lighthouse to the north. “In an effort to resolve this misunderstanding in what the noise wall was going to look like in front of Protech Northland and to provide additional visibility to the property, the
Department of Transportation is willing to add additional clear panels in front of Protech Northland within the same limits of the 180-foot length,” project engineer Andrew J. Opsitnik wrote in an April 26 letter to Tinsky. “The department is willing to split the additional cost, 50-percent each party, with Protech Northland to make this change.” “I’m not going to keep having an open checkbook,” Tinsky said. Instead of ODOT spending $25,000 for its portion of more clear panels in the noise wall, Tinsky said he asked for a maximum of $12,000 to increase the height of the sign. “That was discussed with Mr. Tinsky and it was decided to go with the clear panels,” Burton said. She didn’t say who made that decision, but Tinsky says it certainly wasn’t him. In a July 5 letter to ODOT District 6, Tinsky’s attorney, Brent L. Baisden, wrote: “First, Mr. Tinsky was assured that his freeway sign would be completely visible from the freeway. It is not. Approximately two feet of the bottom of Northland’s freeway sign is presently blocked. ODOT has refused to compensate Northland for the expense of raising its freeway sign,
You have a hole in your house.
which would cost approximately $8,000 to $12,000. “Second, Mr. Tinsky (was) also assured that the Plexiglass wall would look just like the section of Plexiglass in front of the Lighthouse church, just north of Northland along I-71. However, Northland’s panels are not as wide, causing the pillars to be closer and reducing visibility from the highway. “In addition, the solid concrete panels are much taller,” Baisden wrote. “Northland’s lower panels are approximately 7 feet tall, while the lower panels at the Lighthouse church are approximately 3 feet. ODOT has agreed to split the cost of dividing the lower panel to increase visibility, but this is not acceptable.” “I’ve been backed into a corner here,” Tinsky said. “ODOT, in its arrogance, said, ‘Mr. Tinsky, we’re ODOT. You’re part of the right of way. We’re going to do what we want.’ “I’m trying to be calm about this.” Northland Heating and Cooling specials used to be posted on the familiar sign. “You’ve hurt my advertising,” Tinsky said. “This is my livelihood. I don’t know what it’s going to do to people doing business with us, but, ‘That’s not my problem, Mr. Tinsky.’ You get a little frustrated trying to get through the chain of command to see who might be sympathetic. It’s just frustrating that nobody cares about the small businessman.” Asked to reply to Tinsky’s allegations, Burton requested questions in writing, but then declined, in the main, to respond to specifics. See BUSINESS, page A2
Since retiring as a business education teacher with Columbus City Schools in 2005, Northland resident Diane Hendrickson has used some of what she learned in the latter part of her career to create websites. “They’re very simple,” she said. “I’m not into fancy web design.” She did one for retired teachers from the city and another for those in Franklin County. Hendrickson went on to create the Maize Morse Tri Area Civic Association’s website and then one for the Helping Hands Health and Wellness Center free clinic, where she’s also a volunteer. After Helping Hands executive director Joyce Bourgault became chairwoman of the Northland Alliance in March, naturally she turned to Hendrickson. The result — and it’s not easy to find with a Google search — is http://northlandalliance.wetpaint.com/. Both its “webmistress” and the Alliance chairwoman hope it becomes much, much more than just a website for the 10-year-old organization, which works in partnership with the Northland Community Council and Northland Area Business Association. “What I’m hoping it’s going to end up being is a resource for Northland people about what is in the Northland area,” Bourgault said last week. She said she envisions the site becoming “kind See ALLIANCE WEBSITE , page A4
NABA golf outing
Planners hope for more sponsors, good weather By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Planning for the Northland Area Business Association’s annual Golf Outing on Aug. 8 is going quite well. Better than that, in fact, according to event cochairman Dave Cooper. “Terrific,” he said last week. “We could use more golfers,” Cooper then admitted. “We need more sponsors, but right now, we’re doing very well.” As of last week, 61 golfers had signed up to play in the fundraising event at York Golf Club, 7459 N. High St. Course officials require a minimum of 72 golfers, and with that many having participated last year, Cooper said he and co-chairman Lisa Fravel of PNC Bank are confident of meeting the requirement. “We’re approaching that magic number, and we’ve got good sponsor participation,” said Cooper, owner of the Ink Well. “What I need are hole sponsors. See PLANNER, page A2
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