June 23, 2011
Westerville City Schools
Treasurer candidates narrowed to five finalists By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Chris Parker/ThisWeek
Claire Tyack reads to (counterclockwise, from left) Jenna Osborne, Lauren Osborne, Maggie Myers and Staci Tomblin during the Westerville Area Resource Ministry’s Kids Lunch Club at Ridgewood Park on June 20.
WARM lunch program thriving By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
A closer look
As 11:45 a.m. approaches, children begin to fill Ridgewood Park, 5402 Buenos Aires Blvd., playing on the swings and lining up next to plastic folding tables under a canvas canopy. At 11:45, children weave through the food line, with warm meals served from carts brought from Hawthorne Elementary School. They eat on picnic tables covered in brightly colored vinyl cloths. As they finish their meals, kids run excitedly toward the baseball field with volunteers, who lead them in games of kickball, soccer or Capture the Flag. It’s part of the Westerville Area Resource Ministry’s Kids Lunch Club, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Summer Food Service Program to provide hot lunches to children who otherwise might not eat them. The program launched June 13, and WARM organizers hoped to see between 25 and 50 children. About 50 children came the first day, said WARM program coordinator Deb Wallace. On the third day, WARM was out of its 75 meals in the first 10 minutes of lunch service, which runs from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
For this summer, lunch service will continue through Aug. 12 at Ridgewood Park. Lunches are available for children ages 1 through 18.
“It started out around 50 the first day, then the upper 50s, then in the 100s,” said WARM program coordinator Deb Wallace. “I’m ecstatic.” The program has an open-door policy. Because of its proximity to Huber Ridge Elementary School, where about 50 percent of students are on the free or reducedprice lunch program, those who show up at the park do not have to prove their need to receive lunches, Wallace said. Wallace said she knows from talking to the parents that the meals are going to those who need them. “We are reaching our target children,” she said. The summer food program has long been a dream of WARM executive director Scott Marier, Wallace said, but it was not possible for the nonprofit until Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital committed to supporting it financially for two years.
Scott Ebbrecht, principal of Longfellow and Central College magnet schools, attended a dedication of the lunch program June 20 and said he’s thrilled to see the program thrive. “I always worry about kids in the summertime. We take care of them during the year,” Ebbrecht said. “This ensures kids one balanced meal a day.” Joyce Orr, a St. Ann’s nurse who volunteers with the lunch program four days a week, said she knows how important the program is because she sees the need in her Westerville neighborhood. “I know there was a need for lunches for the little ones,” Orr said. “Once I got here, I saw the parents need this as much as the kids. They all come and play together.” In fact, it’s the sense of community that makes Wallace as excited as knowing that children in need are leaving with full stomachs. “The kids hang out the windows (of cars as they leave) and say, ‘See you tomorrow,’ which makes me so happy,” Wallace said. “What’s nice is the moms are staying with the kids, and it has a real neighborhood feel to it.” A large part of that sense of community See LUNCH, page A10
The Westerville City School District released the names of the top five candidates in its search for a new district treasurer June 17. The five finalists follow: • Newark City Schools treasurer Jeff Anderson, who served as the Hillsboro City Schools treasurer from 2005 to 2009, when he was hired in Newark. He also worked as plant controller and manager of finance for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. from 1985 to 2005. He holds an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Franklin University and a master of business administration degree
from the University of Dayton. • Massillon City Schools treasurer Teresa Emmerling. Emmerling has held her post in the Massillon City School District since 1999. She previously served as treasurer for the East Liverpool City School District from 1994 to 1999 and as treasurer of the Columbiana Exempted Village School District from 1993 to 1994, having served as that district’s assistant treasurer from 1990 to 1993. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Youngstown State University and is in the process of earning her master’s degree in education administration from Ohio University. See TREASURER, page A2
Ohio Chautauqua to bring Civil War history to town By JENNIFER NESBITT ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman and Mary Chestnut all will make appearances in Westerville over the July 4 holiday weekend. Or at least historians portraying the Civil War characters will, as Ohio Chautauqua returns to Westerville next weekend. Ohio Chautauqua will set up its red and white tent in the Westerville Sports Complex, 325 N. Cleveland Ave., from June 30 through July 4. As part of the program, there will be youth and adult workshops around Westerville each day, with performances by re-enactors in the tent each
Schedule of events, page A10 evening. The historians who travel with Ohio Chautauqua will present incharacter performances of Civil War figures in the evenings and give workshops as the Civil War experts they are during the day, said Beth Weinhardt, local history coordinator for the Westerville Public Library. “The presenters are all experts and they’re going to look at Civil War history from five different aspects,” Weinhardt said. “There See CHAUTAUQUA, page A10
Westerville employees speak out about Senate Bill 5 By JENNIFER NESBITT
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ThisWeek Community Newspapers
A handful of Westerville’s public employees gathered in front of Fire Station 111 June 16 to share their views against Senate Bill 5, the law to weaken their collective bargaining options. The gathering was organized by We Are Ohio, the campaign to repeal the bill that was signed into law in March. We Are Ohio is a coalition of union groups and their supporters. The employees were not on the clock while they spoke. “It’s so wrong what Senate Bill 5 is doing,” said Brian Young, a lieutenant in the Westerville Division of Fire. “I always thought the government was here to protect our rights. This takes away our rights.” The employees said while legislators say the bill would allow public union groups to continue to bargain, the law restricts it so
The best way for management and labor to be able to work together is to be able to sit down and talk.
TOM ULLOM Firefighter, S.B. 5 opponent
far that it really takes the power of collective bargaining away. Senate Bill 5 would require government employees to pay at least 15 percent of their healthcare costs, would not allow bargaining for staffing levels and many other workplace conditions, would eliminate strikes and binding arbitration, and would allow governments to approve their own settlement disputes. “The best way for management and labor to be able to work to-
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gether is to be able to sit down and talk,” said firefighter and medic Tom Ullom, who has worked for the Westerville Division of Fire for 35 years. “A lot of the things we’ve negotiated, we won’t be able to talk about if Senate Bill 5 (isn’t repealed).” Ullom said the three unions that represent Westerville’s city employees have never had to strike. “We’ve always settled our differences at the table,” he said. Westerville City Schools teacher Bethany Morris, whose husband Greg Morris is a Westerville firefighter, said she worries that if teachers aren’t allowed to bargain over things such as student-teacher ratio, classrooms will be set back 30 years, when teachers lectured over large classrooms and didn’t have time to engage individual children. By Adam Cairns/ThisWeek “We do our jobs and we do them without complaining, and Brian Young (left), Bethany Morris and Greg Morris listen to Tom Ullom express his disapproval of Senate Bill 5 during a press conference in front of Westerville Fire Station 111 on June 16. The
See SENATE BILL 5, page A2 Morrises were with their children, Anna, Madelyn and Michael.
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