Serving all the communities of the Buckeye Lake Region

Looking back at 2014





 

 

BUCKEYE LAKE AREA – Here are some of the top stories from 2014.

Once again weather – this time a brutally cold winter – is a top story.

This year our website host tracked our most viewed on-line stories. The most viewed story was the March 29 edition’s “High hopes for new clinic.”

Buckeye Lake Village’s financial problems appeared to be solved as the former Buckeye Lake Truck Stop was to be reborn as the Happy Medical Center – Ohio’s first medical marijuana clinic. Though some readers were disappointed, it was The Beacon’s most recent April Fools creation.

Here’s some of the real top stories in 2014.

January- A Brutal Winter

Last year’s relentlessly cold winter has Buckeye Lake Area residents hoping there’s no repeat performance in winter 2015. According to the Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness, no major winter storms occurred in Dec. 2013, but winter returned with a vengeance from January into March 2014 with numerous arctic cold fronts and widespread snowfalls. Extreme cold led to low temperatures of -10 to -15 with winds chills near 35-below, the morning of Jan. 7. Wind chills ranged from -10 to -15 on the morning of January 22, and record low temperatures from -15 to 22 below zero occurred the mornings of January 28 and 29. The largest and most widespread storm of the season occurred overnight Feb. 4 into the next morning with 4 to 10 inches of snow in Central and eastern Ohio, with freezing rain falling south of I-70.

 

 

But, the severe winter did have its high points as Central Ohioans were treated to very rare snow rollers in late January and early February, and the first Polar Bear Plunge at the Buckeye Lake Winery helped raise roughly $5,000 cold cash for the Buckeye Lake Historical Society.

 

 

Nearly 100 of the 500 people who attended the event plunged into a hole cut in Buckeye Lake’s icy surface to raise money for the society and to prove that one of the coldest winters on record couldn’t put the deep freeze on outdoor fun.

January- Buckeye Lake Museum Improves Cranberry Bog

Last winter, Buckeye Lake Historical Society members – the society took charge of the bog’s well being at ODNR’s request -cleared trees from the bog to keep it afloat and extend its life.

Buckeye Lake Historical Society Director J-me Braig explained that the trees removed, mainly “swampy maples” and sumac, were not supposed to be there and were literally weighing down the floating bog and shortening its lifespan.

The weight of a tree depresses the spongy bog surface, allowing lake and rainwater to pool on the surface, destroying the acidic conditions the bog requires and cutting channels through the bog mat. In addition, bog plants thrive in sunshine and are choked out in the shade of trees.

 

 

The bog, which was once 50 acres of sphagnum moss, has been whittled down to 11 acres due to weather and wave action. The felled trees were used to create a reef around the outside of the bog to protect it from waves and boats, and to create a fish habitat.

February- Lakewood rejects Daubenmire for coach

In one of the area’s most controversial events last year, Lakewood School Board members narrowly rejected Superintendent Jay Gault’s recommendation to hire Dave Daubenmire as Lakewood High School’s new football coach.

The 3-2 vote to reject the recommendation came after extensive public comments on both sides of the issue. President Judy White and board members Trisha Good and Bill Gulick voted to reject Daubenmire and board members Forrest Cooperrider and Tim Phillips voted to accept Gault’s recommendation.

Daubenmire, who formerly coached at Fairfield Christian Academy, is also a minister, motivational coach, and founder of Pass the Salt, a conservative online talk radio program. Change.org, a free online petition tool, hosted a petition encouraging the Lakewood School Board not to hire Daubenmire, alleging that Daubenmire, in video blog posts on Pass the Salt, encouraged bullying, particularly toward homosexuals.

However, the Feb. 12 board meeting, held in the high school auditorium, was packed with supporters (as well as detractors) for Daubenmire who defended his winning record as a coach and were certain he could turn around Lakewood’s shaky football program.

Daubenmire believed the Feb. 12 meeting amounted to a “public lynching,” and the board should’ve addressed any concerns about him privately with him during an executive session. He said he never had the opportunity to defend himself to the board ahead of the public meeting. Daubenmire said White never asked him if Change.org’s accusations against him were true. “All the administration wanted me to be coach,” he said.

Ultimately, board members hired Marysville High School JV head coach and varsity assistant coach Craig Conley as the district’s new head football coach and as a high school social studies teacher.

May- Liberty Union-Thurston names new superintendent

Todd S. Osborn will be Liberty Union- Thurston School District’s fourth superintendent in 40 years. He was selected in the board’s second round of applicants. Osborn will replace Paul Mathews who is retiring after 35 years with the district and 11 years as superintendent. Osborn is currently principal of Canton South High School, a position he has held since 2009. Canton Local School District, not to be confused with the Canton City School District, is located in southern Stark County. The district is similar to Liberty Union with an elementary school, middle school and high school. Total enrollment is approximately 2,300 students, compared to 1,369 for LU-T. This is Osborn’s first superintendent’s post. He has a BS in Secondary Education from Kent State University and an Master of Educational Administration from Ashland University.

June- Work begins on Glenford sewer system

Nineteen years after it was first proposed, the Village of Glenford began installing a sewer system. Mayor Leonard Sheppard said he personally worked on securing grants and funding for the new $2.25 million sewer system for seven and a half years. After securing four different grants for the project, construction began June 2.

Sheppard said he expected the crews to finish installing the collection system by the end of 2014 and he expected residents to be hooked up to the system by the following summer.

Residents whose properties come within 200 feet of a sewer line are required to connect their homes to the public sewer system. Sheppard said roughly 60 houses would likely connect to the system. He expects customers would have to spend about $40 to $50 per month for public sewer services.

June- Lake dredging to increase

Buckeye Lake’s single dredge has been losing the battle with sediment for years. Help is now on the way. ODNR purchased two larger dredges this year – one each for Grand Lake St. Marys and Indian Lake. A third new dredge will be purchased next year and it will be stationed at the east end of Buckeye Lake. A third dredge will be coming here next year from Grand Lake. The two additional dredges and a change in operational practices should remove five times the amount of sediment currently being removed. That level of dredging means that sediment levels will start declining.

July – Baltimore Festival cancelled

The Baltimore Festival is waiting until 2015 to celebrate its 26th anniversary. The August festival was cancelled after sponsors said it couldn’t afford the village’s requirement that it repair any damage to Johnson Park. Weather had affected the festival in recent years and it was cut from Wednesday through Saturday to Thursday – Saturday in 2013. The cancellation includes Fairfield County’s largest parade; the Little Miss Baltimore, Jr. Miss Baltimore and Miss Baltimore pageants; a cruise-in, free entertainment; and fireworks show. The 23rd Annual Baltimore Festival 5K Road Race was not affected.

July- Hebron residents want help with flooding

A July 1 storm dropped three to four inches of rain in a couple of hours flooding streets, yards, basements and some ground level structures in Hebron.

More than a dozen Hebron residents pleaded with village council members on July 9 to address flooding problems. Most of the residents speaking live on North Street which runs east to west, parallel to US 40 (Main Street).

Two weeks later it was Greenbriar Estates’ residents turn to complain about chronic flooding. A 20-year resident, said the creek needs cleaned out and there needs to be another way out of the park. Others agreed.

Mayor Clifford Mason said village officials have visited a number of properties and walked some of the ditches since the last council meeting. The next step is to convene a meeting of everybody that may be able to contribute to resolving the persistent flooding. Mason named Licking County Commissioners, Union Township Trustees, Licking County Planning Commission, ODOT, Soil and Water Conservation District, OSU Extension Service, Farm Bureau and Hebron’s Village Engineer. That meeting was held in September.

Council members unanimously agreed to spend about $20,000 with Bird + Bull – the village’s long-time engineering firm – for a hydrology study. That study has not yet been completed.

July- Juggalos come to Legend Valley

Some local residents and law enforcement braced for impact when it was announced the Gathering of the Juggalos – a music festival anchored by the Insane Clown Posse – was to come to Legend Valley July 23 through 26. The Juggalos earned a reputation for illicit drug use and violent crime following being asked to leave Cave-In-Rock, Illinois’ Hogrock campground following complaints by vendors who said they had either not been paid or had received bad checks in excess of a combined $300,000.

Originally, the event was headed last summer to Crybaby Campground in Kaiser, MO, but complaints from the neighbors surrounding the venue prompted another change to Legend Valley.

Col. Chad Dennis of the Licking County Sheriff’s Office said the Juggalos previously gathered at the Frontier Ranch on York Road near Pataskala several years ago and there were no major issues.

Legend Valley owner Steve Trickle, who lives adjacent to the grounds, said he’d attended a Juggalo event elsewhere and was ready for the event and confident of its success.

In the end, law enforcement officials said the event went far more smoothly than expected, and the Licking County Sheriff’s Department made no arrests during the four-day event. Roughly 4,500 people attended.

Some Legend Valley neighbors complained about the noise, but throngs of other neighbor’s jumped to Trickle’s defense, saying they had no problem with the Juggalos. The event may return in 2015, but it hasn’t been confirmed.

August- Gault retires

Lakewood Superintendent Jay Gault announced in August that he planned to retire June 2015 after serving as superintendent for 10 years. Gault said family issues prompted his retirement. November, the Lakewood School Board announced that Mary Kay Andrews, then Director of District Services at C-TEC, would be acting Lakewood superintendent as of January 2015.

Gault’s retirement schedule moved up, however, as board members announced Dec. 10 that Andrews would serve as interim superintendent beginning Jan. 1, until her contract as permanent superintendent begins Aug. 1.

Board members unanimously approved medical leave status for Gault effective Jan. 1 through June 30.

August- Sen. Portman convenes Buckeye Lake summit

Fairfield County Commissioner, Buckeye Lake for Tomorrow director and Buckeye Lake Marina owner Dave Levacy hosted Portman’s visit and the summit. Portman spend about 30 minutes on the lake with Levacy and watershed coordinator Merv Bartholow, who used the nearly uninterrupted one-on-one with Portman to explain the challenges Buckeye Lake faces and current efforts to improve the lake’s water quality.

After the lake ride, Portman meet with about 40 state and county officials for about an hour to discuss the algae problems and factors that contribute it. The lake’s large resident Canada geese population is a major source of the nutrients that promote the growth of algae. Geese are primarily managed at the federal level and Portman promised to help efforts to reduce the population.

August- Dawes Designer Returns

Dr. Makoto Nakamura, who became a lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Kyoto University, Japan, returned to Dawes Arboretum Aug. 11 to see the Japanese Garden he designed nearly 50 years prior.

Dawes Executive Director Luke Messinger said it was just coincidence that Nakamura was in the United States – working on a garden he designed for the City of San Diego – and had the opportunity to visit the Dawes Japanese Garden while it’s being overhauled for its 50th anniversary celebration May 2015.

The garden’s original blueprints are being used to re-create the authentic elements Nakamura designed in 1963. “The Japanese Garden continues to be one of our visitors’ favorite places at the arboretum,” Dawes Executive Director Luke Messinger said. “This reconstruction will help preserve the garden and ensure its beauty for many years to come.”

August- Dawes creates new trail

This summer, Dawes Arboretum created a new, 100 percent accessible and ADA compliant half-mile trail from the main parking lot, past the maple syrup shack to the flowering shrub area. Director of Education Sarah Mill said many people, for various reasons, are not able to experience the arboretum unless they’re in cars or traveling on Dawes narrow roadways. They may not be able to navigate Dawes’ gravel and occasionally relatively steep walking trails.

With that in mind, the new trail is fully paved, five feet wide, and never more than a five percent grade – perfect for wheelchairs or families with small children on bicycles.

August- Thornville/Thorn Township firehouse lawsuit settled

A lawsuit over the sale of the former Thornville/Thorn Township firehouse in the Village of Thornville was settled in August following a lengthy legal process.

In 2011, Thorn Township advertised and “sold” the former firehouse, located in downtown Thornville at 25 E. Columbus St., to former Thorn Township Trustee Tim Phipps. A title search undertaken for that sale allegedly did not uncover the fact that the Village of Thornville partially owned the building. When Phipps tried to sell the building, the dual ownership was discovered and lead to a lawsuit.

Now, Thorn Township owns a one-half undivided interest in the property. The village owns the other half. He said the village owns the parking lot next to the firehouse.

September- Thornville teams agree to share field

The TYRA and Timberwolves baseball organizations agreed Sept. 15 to compare notes and provide Thornville officials with a schedule of teams and practices so the organizations can share Thornville’s baseball facilities.

Village officials met with representatives of both baseball organizations and village government to settle when and how the Thornville baseball facilities would be shared. Following plenty of debate, both baseball organizations agreed to provide the village their schedules for next season by the third Monday in February.

Thornville village has agreements with two different baseball organizations for use of the facilities at the village park. The Thornville Youth Recreation Association (TYRA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing co-ed youth baseball to the area, has been an active partner of the village since the 1970s.

The Timberwolves, organized more recently, is a private travel baseball team made up primarily of players from the Thornville, Glenford, and Millersport areas.

TYRA coach Tim Cooperrider was concerned he would have to turn Thornville kids away from playing community baseball if the Timberwolves took up too much time on Thornville’s field. Thornville officials told Cooperrider he and Timberwolves coach Brian Winters would have to work out a compatible schedule for themselves and present it to council. They agreed to do so.

October- Army Corps of Engineers assess Buckeye Lake dam

Late October, ODNR held two identical community open house forums in Buckeye Lake and Millersport to update the community on the progress of an assessment the US Army Corps of engineers is conducting on the Buckeye Lake dam. The assessment is expected to be complete early next year.

ODNR representatives were clear that the reason for the assessment is not to induce panic or create concern about the dam’s immediate safety, but there are several long-term concerns about the dam, which will need to be addressed in the future.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is under contract to ODNR to conduct an independent, thirdparty assessment of Buckeye Lake Dam. The final assessment will serve as a foundation for continued discussions between ODNR and community interests, including risk reduction planning.

ODNR currently does not have a construction repair plan for the dam. ODNR staff members continue to conduct daily inspections of the dam and educate area homeowners concerning dam safety and best management practices. Other risk reduction measures are in place and include removal of selected trees from the dam crest, clearing of the Sellers Point spillway outlet channel and other routine maintenance.

October- Buckeye Lake strictly enforces speed

Buckeye Lake Village Council member Barry Herron steadfastly stood behind the village’s strong traffic speed enforcement, certain that the enforcement convinced residents to slow down, and did not affect village businesses.

“If I had my druthers, (the number of speeding citations issued) would be a lot higher,” Herron said. He said the citation rate this summer was about two citations per shift. “Going from a basis of almost zero enforcement to about five citations a day is not what I consider (a huge number of citations),” he said.

Herron was clear during council meetings that he was concerned about drivers speeding through the village and not obeying traffic laws, especially since ODOT repaved Ohio 79 this year.

Village records showed Buckeye Lake issued roughly 120 traffic citations each month during August and September. By comparison, Hebron issued about 40 per month and Baltimore citations varied strongly from about 20 to 40 per month, according to their respective Mayor’s Court clerks.

Herron said the village is not relying on citation revenue for income. “The reality is that we only write citations over a predetermined speed tolerance and we consistently have people at 48,49, 52, 55, and even going 60 plus miles an hour through the village, which is a 35 miles an hour speed limit,” he said.

The receipts are not insignificant. In July, the village collected a total of $11,695.60 in fines. The village’s share was $8,669. Total fines collected in August were $18,301.85, with the village keeping $13,174.75. Fines collected increased in September, totaling $20,540.33 with the village holding onto $15,156.53. In October, fines collected totaled $19,876.43 with the village receiving $15,001.33. November’s receipts dropped to $12,362.47 with the village holding on to $9,166.67. Most fines are $127 for excessive speed.

However, council president Jeryne Peterson later said she appreciated the Buckeye Lake Police Department’s success at reducing traffic speed through the village, but she would rather cruisers wind through the village on patrol than idle along the roadside waiting to catch speeders.

November – Voters reject school levy again

Walnut Township School District voters rejected an additional levy for the second time this year. The district was seeking 8.8 mills, which included the renewal of an emergency levy raising $258,000 a year. A spirited campaign raised “yes” votes from 36 percent in May to just over 41 percent in November.

Without the additional revenue, the district faces general fund deficits starting this fiscal year (June 30, 2015). General fund deficits for school districts are are prohibited by state law

The Ohio Department of Education placed the district in fiscal caution in December, giving it 60 days to come up with a plan to eliminate the roughly $100,000 deficit projected for June 30. Board members have eliminated the June 30 deficit by transferring $27,968 in maintenance/custodial expenses from the general fund to food service fund, saving $40,000 by cutting bussing to one route limited to K-8 students effective Jan. 5 and saving $37,000 by not filling a vacant central office secretarial position.

The $900,000 projected defidispatched. cit for June 30, 2016, is a much tougher hurdle. The Department of Education is currently conducting a staffing analysis which may be available for the board’s Jan. 12 meeting. The district will need additional revenue to avoid being placed in fiscal emergency which puts the district’s finances in the hands of a five-member Financial Planning and Supervision Commission. A levy request will be on the May ballot. Districts in fiscal emergency can get advances on their state aid, but in every case but one don’t get out of fiscal emergency until voters finally approve additional funding.

November- Black elected county commissioner

Union Township Trustee Rick Black was elected a Licking County Commissioner Nov. 4, defeating candidates Mark Van Buren and James Snedden, Jr. to take over the commission seat left open following long-time commissioner Doug Smith’s retirement effective Dec. 31.

Nov. 4, Black received 25,307 votes, or 55.44 percent, Van Buren received 17,814 votes or 39.03 percent, and Snedden garnered 2,525 votes or 5.53 percent.

Black said he expected his new position to be far more complex than that of a trustee. “There are so many more responsibilities commissioners have than a trustee,” he said.

November – Millersport police levy rejected.

Millersport voters rejected plans to provide 24/7 police coverage by turning down an additional four-mill police levy for five years by a 217-147 vote.

Concerns about the village’s dwindling general fund prompted a discussion about a possible one percent village income tax at village council’s December meeting. Ohio law allows statutory villages to enact up to a one percent income tax without voter approval. The mayor and council members called it a “last resort,” but acknowledge that the status quo can’t continue. Property sales are also being considered.

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November-Millersport football program turns around

The Millersport Lakers football team broke a 48-game losing streak and were undefeated midway through the season.

The Lakers narrowly missed the playoffs and finished with a winning record. Coach Terry Holder was named Coach-of-the- Year for Division VII.

November- Lakewood Completes Solar Arrays

After years of enduring hurdles and delays, two solar arrays were finally installed on Lakewood property to generate electric power for the intermediate and high schools. Lakewood has a long-term power purchase contract with Solar Planet to purchase solar-generated power at rates expected to be below AEP’s rates. The arrays are expected to generate roughly 60 percent of the district’s power needs.

Once actual construction began, following months of struggling to reach an interconnection agreement with AEP, the project was completed slightly ahead of schedule in November and went on-line in December. .

December- Hebron gets a new festival

The seven-year-old Hebron Music and Arts Festival becomes the Route 40 Festival Sept. 25-27. The Ohio Festival and Events Association approved the change in November. The previous oneday format was challenged by weather and participation. It will continue to feature live music.


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