Early Bird eNewspaper 05-29-16

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THE EARLY BIRD NEWSPAPER

S U N D A Y, M A Y 2 9 , 2 0 1 6

Jafe Decorating is Business of the Year RYAN BERRY

MANAGING EDITOR editor@earlybirdpaper.com

GREENVILLE – After having to reinvent their business several times over the years, Jafe Decorating has had back-to-back record years and is on pace to have another record breaking year in 2016. With that in mind, the Darke County Community Improvement Corporation named the company the 2016 Business of the Year. The award was presented at the annual Economic Development Forum on May 20 at Romer’s Catering in Greenville. Jafe Decorating has been in business for 38 years and was founded by Lloyd Williams. Today, Randy O’Dell owns and operates the small business. In the past six years, the company has expanded its facility and doubled the number of employees. They currently employ 73 individuals. Their most recent expansion of 14,000 square feet was completed

in December 2014. Jafe Decorating has been a huge supporter of the Emerging Workforce initiative and recently received a 20 Under 20 Award for providing an internship to a high school student. O’Dell expressed his appreciation for the award, “Wow, what an award. With all of the great companies we have in Darke County, this is truly an honor.” Although he has been at the helm of this successful business for the past six years, O’Dell was quick to point out there were two individuals that made a tremendous impact on how he approaches owning a small business. When he was first getting started in the workforce, he said he worked for a very special guy who had the American dream of owning his own small business. O’Dell recalled, “He had just purchased a hardware store in Arcanum and was going to merge his appliance and repair business with that. That special guy was my dad. My dad al-

Rhyan Turner spoke about his internship with Midmark and how it helped shape his educational and career goals.

ways said, ‘Work hard and good things will happen.’” The other person was Williams. “I learned a lot about business and a lot about life. Lloyd stressed the importance of planning and never losing sight of your dreams.” More than his mentors, he praised his employees for taking hold of the plan they’ve put in place. He said they drive the company and they drive the growth. “They make it happen every day at our plant,” he added. O’Dell admits capacity at Jafe Decorating is once again starting to get tight

Randy O’Dell addresses attendees at the Darke County Economic Development Forum after receiving the Business of the Year Award. He is shown with members of his staff and local legislators.

and the success they’ve witnessed over the past six years might only be the start of something great for the company. “Our expansion plans are just getting started for our next expansion,” he said. Lisa Wendel, Darke County Workforce Development director, shared the efforts to keep Darke County’s “best and brightest” in the county will eventually succeed. Local industry and schools continue to work together to show students the oppor-

tunities available in the county. A program derived from this partnership is high school mentorships. Rhyan Turner, a senior at Bradford, was given an opportunity to be an intern in the engineering department at Midmark. The company had to rewrite its “no one under 18” rule in order to make the program happen. For Turner, it was an opportunity to experience and focus on a future career. The internship allowed him to determine

his career path when he heads off to the University of Akron in the fall. He originally settled on mechanical engineer, but after experiencing several different sides of engineering, he is now focusing on software engineering. He will be working at Midmark full-time this summer and believes, “When I go to college I will have plenty of experience and plenty of opportunities after college.”

Memorial Day parade and service is May 30

Work moving along on Greenville’s new school SUSAN HARTLEY

STAFF WRITER shartley@earlybirdpaper.com

GREENVILLE – Work at Greenville’s new K-8th grade building is moving right along, board members heard during a work session held Thursday, May 19. Work on interior walls, including painting, installation of cabinetry and windows continue to take place. Exterior work includes the completion of concrete curbs with grading and preparation for sidewalks along Ohio Street. “Things are moving along and are progressing,” Gina Frick of Garmann Miller Architects told the board. Frick discussed the proposed storage barn that will be placed behind the school, telling board members the cost will most likely be somewhere near $80,000. The next step will be to obtain a permit for the storage unit from the city of Greenville.

Frick also presented information concerning the abatement and demolition of four of the district’s current buildings, which will be vacated after the December/January move-in to the new school. In keeping with the Ohio School Facilities Commission, Garmann Miller will be working with Gilbane Inc. to set up a schedule for the demolition of the junior high, Woodland, East and South school buildings. According to Superintendent Doug Fries, the schedule will be set up so that an auction, the abatement process, then demolition will take place about a month apart at each location. The first auction/demo project is expected to begin in mid-January. The footprint for each demolition project will be seeded with grass, Frick said. The board also discussed the possibility of turning the footprint of the junior high building into a parking lot for Memorial Hall.

SPECIAL PRICING THRU TUESDAY, MAY 31ST

GREENVILLE – The annual Memorial Day celebration in Greenville will take place on May 30, 1 p.m. As in years’ past, the parade will form in front of the Greenville Public Library on Sycamore at 12:30 p.m. The parade will leave the library promptly at 1 p.m. and head down Broadway toward the Greenville Cemetery. Serving as parade marshal for this year’s event is Kenneth Price. The parade will stop briefly at the bridge on South Broadway to salute the Navy. Chaplain Donald Dietrich, of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Chapter #57, will speak. The program at the cemetery will be emceed by City of Greenville County President

John Burkett. DAV State Adjutant Kenneth Marcum will give the memorial address. Also participating will be the Greenville High School Band and Ken Price, Chaplain for American Legion Post #140, will give the invocation and benediction. Emma Price will share President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The decoration of soldiers’ monuments will be presented by local veterans organizations and auxiliaries. The Honor Guard will honor our fallen veterans with a firing squad salute and taps. In case of inclement weather, services will be held at American Legion Post #140 at 325 N. Ohio St., Greenville. Units participating in pa-

(Clinton Randall photo)

rade include the Greenville Police, Darke County Sheriff, American Legion #140, Veterans of Foreign Wars #7262 (VFW), DAV #57, District Two Commander R.A. Foster, auxiliaries for VFW and American Legion, Daughters of the American

Revolution, Darke County Veterans Service Office, Greenville High School Navy Junior ROTC, state and local officials, Greenville Shrine Club, National Guard, Greenville Township Rescue and Greenville Township Fire Department.

State of the Heart earns Hospice Honors GREENVILLE – State of the Heart Care has been named a 2016 Hospice Honors recipient by Deyta Analytics, a division of HEALTHCAREfirst, the leading provider of web-based home health and hospice software, outsourced billing and coding services, and advanced analytics. Hospice Honors is a prestigious program that recognizes hospices providing the highest level of quality as measured from the caregiver’s point of view. “Hospice Honors is a landmark compilation of hospices that provide

the best patient and caregiver experiences,” said Bobby Robertson, President and CEO of HEALTHCAREfirst. “I am extremely proud of State of the Heart Care for achieving this highest of honors and I congratulate them on their success.” Award criteria were based on Hospice CAHPS survey results for an evaluation period of April through September 2015. In order to receive the award, hospices must have partnered with Deyta Analytics, a division of HEALTHCAREfirst,

as their survey partner and must have had at least one completed survey returned in each quarter of the evaluation period. Award recipients were identified by evaluating hospices’ performance on a set of 24 quality indicator measures. Individual hospice performance scores were aggregated from all surveys with a final survey status of complete for the evaluation period and were compared on a question-by-question basis to a national performance score calculated from all partnering hos-

pices contained in Deyta Analytics’ Hospice CAHPS database. State of the Heart Care Director of Business Development, Laura Retter, credits the receipt of this honor with having a truly dedicated staff. She said, “You can’t receive an honor of this magnitude without a caring and compassionate staff who have a true heart for hospice. It wouldn’t matter what else we did as an agency, if we didn’t have the highest quality staff, our efforts wouldn’t amount to anything.”

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