As crews worked Wednesday morning to repair damage caused by a vehicle to the Bigelow Covered Bridge a month ago, the Spain Creek Covered Bridge near North Lewisburg got hit – much harder. While the damage at the Bigelow Bridge on Axe Handle Road, near Chuckery, did not require its closure, the Spain Creek structure on Inskeep Cratty Road will be out of commission for some time. “It’s hard to say how long it’ll be closed. I expect it’ll be closed for at least a month but it depends on our evaluation,” Union County Engineer Jeff Stauch said. Sometime shortly…
Author: Chad Williamson
Supply chain issues have forced Marysville Schools to adjust the timeline for a renovation project involving two district buildings. The upgrades involving the former East School Building on Chestnut Street and district administration offices on Edgewood Drive will now take place concurrently, rather than consecutively. The plan for the original $4.4-million dollar project involved renovating the Chestnut Street property into the new home for the district administration and then creating four or five new classrooms in the Edgewood property, which would be used by the nearby elementary school. The Chestnut Street construction was to run from August through December. The…
While school and law enforcement officials have been innocuous in their responses to House Bill 99, the Marysville teachers union has taken a stand. “The idea to protect kids from gun violence (by bringing) more guns into closer proximity to kids is ludicrous,” Marysville Education Association (MEA) Co-President Kevin Brandfass told the board of education Thursday night. On Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law, making it possible for school districts to permit any member of their staff to carry a concealed firearm within the school safety zone. The bill passed this month in the Ohio Senate 23-9…
Ken Chaffin will be the first person to be principal at both Marysville high schools. The Marysville Board of Education voted to approve the recommendation of district Superintendent Diane Allen to make Chaffin the next principal of Marysville High School. Chaffin served as principal of the Marysville Early College High School from 2018-21. Chaffin replaces Tom Cochran, who informed the district at the end of the school year that he would be leaving to become principal at Dublin Scioto High School. Chaffin moves into the principal’s job after serving a short stint in district administration as Director of Leadership and…
When Tom Cochran announced he would be leaving his position as Marysville High School Principal in late May, it left the district scrambling to find a replacement. Cochran’s departure to become principal at Dublin Scioto High School left the district with a short window in which to solicit applications and name a replacement heading into next school year. “It is late and we are experiencing workforce issues as well,” District Superintendent Diane Allen said. District officials were busy in early June and have received 17 applications for the posted position. That list of candidates has been narrowed to three finalists,…
As Marysville school officials were still processing the response to a shooting incident near the high schools on Friday, they were reminded 1,400 miles away that worst case scenarios are sometimes real. Locally, no one was injured when a suspect opened fire on another man outside of a home in the Meadows apartment community, a quarter-mile away from the Marysville High School, six days ago. School officials in Uvalde, Texas were not as fortunate when a teen gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school on Tuesday. “Our world isn’t as it used to be,” Marysville Superintendent…
A program originally designed to fight terrorism is being molded into a form that will allow older Marysville students to mentor younger Monarchs. Three Marysville students addressed the board of education at Thursday night’s meeting to discuss the Invent 2 Prevent program. The program, funded by the McCain Institute and Department of Homeland Security, was originally geared toward college students but has recently branched out to involve high schoolers. At the college level, the program encourages students to develop products, tools or initiatives to prevent targeted violence and terrorism. “While foreign terrorist organizations still have the intent to attack the…
A young girl smiles at a Pink Panther character during the first Friday Nights Uptown event of the 2022 season. The event featured a musical performance by Fleetwood Gold and NACHO Street Band. Vendors filled the streets and parking lots around Partners Park as hundreds of local residents packed the area, taking advantage of the pleasant temperatures. (Journal-Tribune photo by Chad Williamson)
Hundreds of law enforcement cruisers from across the state made their way through the area Tuesday night as part of the Light Ohio Blue Caravan. The caravan made its way along Fifth Street at about 8 p.m., headed out Columbus Avenue and made a brief stop at the Scotts Corporate Office. It then made its way to Plain City. Marysville Police Chief Tony Brooks led the caravan through Marysville, Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton led on county roads and Plain City Police Chief Dale McKee led the way through his village. Above, the caravan makes its way down West Fifth…
At the March meeting of the Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees, it was mentioned that COVID numbers at the hospital were good, but there had been an up-tick in data collect by wastewater senors. An upswing in cases generally follows a few weeks after an detected increase in the virus in wastewater samples. During a recent meeting of the trustees, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jason Russell said the hospital is seeing a bump in COVID-related hospital visits, but the numbers aren’t overwhelming. The Ohio Coronavirus Wastewater Monitoring Network is operated by the Ohio Department of Health and looks for the…
In this photo from the Northeast Champaign County Fire District, hazmat crews from the Marysville and Jerome Township fire departments operate at the North Lewisburg wastewater plant Tuesday after a chemical leak was found in one of the buildings. (Photo submitted) — A chemical leak at the North Lewisburg wastewater plant led area fire department hazmat teams and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to respond Tuesday. No one was reportedly injured by the spill and the EPA remained on scene Wednesday to investigate and aid in the clean-up. According to a notice of response by the Ohio EPA “hydrochloric…
School officials said little the last eight times the City of Marysville put tax incentive agreements on residential developments. But the ninth appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. At Thursday night’s meeting, the Marysville Board of Education unanimously approved a statement that politely, but pointedly, made it clear the district was opposed to any such incentives in the future. At the heart of the matter are tax increment financing (TIF) agreements which divert a portion of tax money to make properties ready for construction by funding such things as demolition, utility installation and paving. “While we…
When North Lewisburg created its own police force in 2020, village officials knew they would need some help. The village budgeted for a pair of officers to give the village coverage for about 80 hours per week, with the Champaign County Sheriff’s Department available to respond to calls during other hours. Mayor Cheryl Hollingsworth and other village officials feel it might be time for the village to stand on its own, with North Lewisburg officers on duty at all hours. To fund the move, the village is considering a .75% income tax, which could appear before village voters in November.…
Pictured above is a graphic used in Honda’s Tuesday presentation about the future of electrified vehicles in the company, including hydrogen fuel cells and swappable batteries. (Graphic submitted) The primary difference between Honda and other automobile manufacturers is that the local company’s name appears on many products that don’t have four wheels. As such, when Honda makes innovation shifts, it must think about motorcycles and snowblowers as well as cars. In fact, Honda calls itself a mobility company, which includes products as big as airplanes, and claims to be the largest “power unit” manufacturer in the world with annual sales…
I called somebody a skinflint the other day and got an appropriately perplexed reaction. I don’t know exactly when that term lodged in my brain, but I suspect it might have been from cartoons in my youth. At any rate, the person I was talking to was younger and had no concept that I was calling them a cheapskate. I then realized that I had no idea why the combination of the word skin and flint had come to represent someone who was fiscally conservative. A little research revealed that the term originated from flintlock riflemen. The flint on an…