July 17, 2011
Prairie Township budget looking bleak Approval of JEDD by voters in November would rebuild revenue stream By CARLA SMITH ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The Prairie Township Board of Trustees has approved a preliminary budget for 2012 that includes cuts to infrastructure improvements and safety forces. Prairie Township administrator Tracy Hatmaker presented the proposed budg-
et at the board’s regular meeting July 13. The budget reflects what the revenue stream will look like by next year — significantly reduced by at least 25 percent due to aggressive state funding cuts to the Local Government Fund. “This is an outline of a bleak 2012 proposed budget,” Hatmaker said. “Without these cuts, there would be $300,000 in deficit spending from the
general fund alone.” Hatmaker said the budget does not reflect revenue that can be captured if voters approve the creation of a JEDD (Joint Economic Development District) in November. “If this budget goes forward, the quality of life in Prairie Township will go down,” trustee Steve Kennedy said. “Hopefully, none of these cuts have to
be made. This is a budget process and the most responsible thing to do is work with the money we have.” For 2012, Hatmaker said, the township will have $9.7 million in revenue and the same amount in expenditures. In order not to spend more than the township takes in, Hatmaker said, drastic cuts that have to be made include: • Cutting the zoning department by
$50,000, which would reduce manpower in the office and affect how the township runs its nuisance program. • Cutting the road maintenance program in half for a savings of $129,000. • Cutting $17,000 in administrative costs. • Eliminating the senior center. • Reducing the contract with the See PRAIRIE, page A2
Volunteers COMING DOWN get close look at dogs’ life in shelter
Franklin County Fair
By JENNIFER NESBITT
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Musical freestyle a favorite By GARY BUDZAK
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
It was 6 p.m. on a Saturday and Stephanie Wimbish had been walked twice, let out for a playgroup, fed breakfast and lunch, and seen a steady stream of faces peering into her cage. Wimbish, CHA Animal Shelter director, was one of several volunteers who spent 24 hours sharing a cage with a shelter dog July 9 as part of an event dubbed “Trading Spaces.” The volunteers ate when the dogs ate, went for walks when the dogs walked and played when the dogs played. “The purpose was to bring attention to the long-term animals,” she said. “Not everyone gets adopted in one or two days. Sometimes it takes months.” Wimbish’s cage mate, for example, was a 2-and-a-half-yearold boxer mix named Benson who has been at the shelter for three months. “Dogs get overlooked when they’ve been in a shelter for a certain amount of time,” Wimbish said. “I think there’s a perception that if they’ve been in a shelter for awhile, there’s something wrong with them.” She said that perception couldn’t be further from the truth. “It means (the people who pass the animals by) are missing out,” she said. Sharing space with the animals for 24 hours also gave the volunteers insight into what it’s like to be locked in the cage for the majority of the day like the animals are. Wimbish said she was amazed by how quickly she longed for people to come and talk to her and how exciting it was when those looking to adopt an animal came through the shelter. “We can’t believe how happy we are when people come talk to us,” Wimbish said. “I’m sure by (the time this is over), I’ll be spinning in circles and jumping.” Volunteer Katie Stenman shared a cage with 5-and-a-halfyear-old Poet, who has been at CHA for six months after living in another shelter for two years. She said she, too, was surprised at how exciting it was when people came to let her out of her cage. She said she also learned how intrusive it seems when people come and stick their fingers into the cage to pet the dogs, something she said she often does. “I think I’m being sweet, and when I’m in here, it’s kind of annoying,” she said. See CHA ANIMAL, page A2
One of the Franklin County Fair’s most popular events takes place Tuesday, July 19, when the Junior Fair musical freestyle horse performance is held at 6 p.m. in the horse arena. Musical freestyle is an event where 4-H members ages 8-18 dress themselves and their horses in costumes and perform a choreographed 2- to 4minute routine with three types of skill requirements set to music. Two judges give scores to five elements in the routine, the scores are totaled, and ribbons are awarded to the first- to tenth-place finishers in seven classifications. “It’s just a fun event for people to watch, and it’s always very well-attended,” said Melissa Brinkerhoff, a member of the Franklin County Agricultural Society’s board of directors, which owns the fairgrounds. “I like to see the kids when they start out as beginners, and see them improve their riding skills through their years of 4-H and participation at the Franklin County Fair.” Lori Raugh and her daughter, Rachael, are cochairs of the fair’s musical freestyle event. Her son and husband help out with the music. “We’ve been running it a number of years now,” Lori Raugh said. “We’ve tweaked it to the event it is today. It’s real fun for the kids. They have a blast putting it together. The parents get just as excited and involved as the 4-H members themselves.” Musical freestyle can involve any kind of music, Raugh said, although the songs are screened in advance for length and lyrical content. The costumes See MUSICAL, page A2
Area school group provides tornado relief By MARLA K. KUHLMAN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
(Above) Chelle Smith, 11-year-old Eliah Smith and Cindy Hickey watch as the crew from Loewendick Demolition Contractors begins work to demolish the Hometown Inn, at 4601 W. Broad St. (Below) Gary Worthington, with Loewendick, keeps water on the inn to reduce the amount of dust from the demolition.
Tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., was a classroom of life lessons for Columbus Academy students and teachers who spent a week performing relief work there recently. “It was one of those experiences that slaps everything in your life into perspective,” said Karen Mozenter, an academy teacher from Gahanna. “It makes you see everything with a new lens. I’ll never look at things the same way again. Those people went from life like ours to nothing but the clothes on their back and the few items they could sift out of the rubble.” Recent graduate Alex Shahade of Dublin joined several others on the trip. Academy senior Mark Morford saw pictures of Joplin before and after the May 22 tornado. “The pictures didn’t tell the tale,” he said. “It was kind of hard at some points. There was so much wreckage.” The school’s volunteer service group of two teachers and four students worked through the National Relief Network, performing residential demolition and volunteering at a Salvation Army distribution center. “It was a very powerful experience,” said Tim Morford, an academy history teacher. “The scope of the destruction is indescribable. The work, mostSee TORNADO RELIEF, page A2