Conkle's Hollow and the Devil's Dulcimer - by Colin Gawel

So on the first nice spring day of the year I decided to borrow a page from Lost Weekend Records owner Kyle Siegrist’s playbook to visit Hocking Hills and take a hike at Conkle's Hollow. I was cruising down 33, just passing Clear Creek Metro Park when I saw a sign for a music store selling guitars. I thought, that’s kind of interesting but I was on the wrong side of the road and wanted to knock out the hiking task at hand before I lost momentum.

After hiking the stunning upper rim and reading some pages of the excellent "A Tale for the Time Being" by Ruth Ozeki, I was ready to hit the road home before rush hour traffic got too bad. On the way back, I passed the guitar store again doing sixty and my lapsed Catholic guilt kicked in, “You should stop and check that place out. You are a small business owner and a guitar player. If you don’t stop, who will? You could drop off a copy of the League Bowlers record. Hearing Mike Parks play guitar will make that guy’s day.”

So after hemming and hawing in my brain, I decided to exit the highway and find a service road to take me back. I wandered around on back roads before 86-ing that strategy in favor of attempting to make a left turn across the busy divided highway and retrace my path. And let me make this clear: folks driving away from Columbus sure are in a rush to get home. After almost getting run off the road, I drove five miles back to the last exit, u-turned, and this time, made the quick pull-off to the music store. Point being, it was a big pain in the ass to get back to that music store, but I was determined to do the right thing.

I finally pulled into the gravel lot, grabbed a copy of the Bowlers CD off the floor of my car and wandered up to the big wooden front porch. Nice place. I opened the door and stepped  into a well-lit room with all sorts of guitars & stuff hanging everywhere. It was a  pretty big space. Behind the counter, partially obscured, I see a gentleman hunched over with his back to me.

“Hi, I’m a musician traveling back to Columbus and figured I’d stop and check you out.”

“So?” was the curt reply.

“Yeah, I spent the day at Conkle’s Hollow. What a beautiful day, huh?”

Total F-ing Silence.

In fact, it suddenly occured to me that the whole place is silent. I’d never been in a music store with no music playing. Not even some dude playing "Stairway to Heaven" in the corner. It creeped me out.

Anyway, I started looking at stuff, pretending to possess interest and/or knowledge. The store was filled with mostly cheap electrics, decent acoustics, and a bunch of hippie Nelsonville-type instruments. If there is such a thing as a bluegrass drum circle I imagine this would be a pretty good spot to shop. I start fiddling with a dulcimer, or what I remember is a dulcimer from 4th grade music class. It had four strings, was tuned to a chord and wasn’t a banjo. I knew that much.

The door opened again and an elderly couple walked in. They turned towards me and asked, “Do you sell anything other than musical instruments?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t work here. You will have to ask him?” nodding my head towards the guy behind the counter.

They ask, “Excuse me sir, do you sell anything here besides musical instruments?”

“Does it look like it?” was the reply without turning around.

“Somebody down the road said there was an antique store around here. Do you know where that might be?”

Total F-ing Silence.

The elderly couple waited a moment, and then headed back out the door into the sunlight.

I was sort of enjoying fiddling with this dulcimer thing and figured what the hell, I’ll buy it. Maybe this dude’s fiance just left him for his co-worker and now he has a broken heart AND is stuck covering the guy’s shift. I tried to imagine a mile in his shoes.

I was hoping the tag said $32 but upon closer inspection it said $132. Oof. I started to rationalize that I would be doing a good deed and maybe this different instrument would spark a new song or two. This must have been why I stopped at this store, right? Time to embrace my destiny. So I grab the four-stringy thingy, put it in the case and threw in a string winder for the hell of it.  I went and stood at the cash register, maybe 10 feet from the back of the gentleman working there. 

I’m sort of scared now so I don’t say anything. I just stand at the cash register, which traditionally means I’m ready to engage in a transaction. The man makes no move.

Total F-ing silence.

After about 30 seconds, which felt like 5 minutes, a recorded Bible verse came over the speakers. LOUD.  

“He who walks in the valley of sin…..words..words..repent…. words...bible stuff….devil….words….bible stuff...jesus…... words ...words.. words..”

I stood there stunned, thinking, "That voice reminds me of 'we have assumed control' from the the end of Rush 2112."  It ended as quickly as is started.  Then back to total f-ing silence. The man didn't  move a muscle. 

I quietly put the dulcimer back on the shelf and exited the store.

I stole the string winder, though.

(Just kidding.)   (editor's note: I doubt that he's kidding.)

Colin Gawel plays in the League Bowlers and Watershed. He started Pencilstorm while killing time at Colin’s Coffee.

Random Thoughts About A Thousand Thoughts - by Anne Marie

While I have fully-loaded cable plus Amazon plus Netflix, and generally love having all those thousands & thousands of viewing choices, I do sometimes get nostalgic for the days when we had just four national television networks and everyone would watch the Wizard of Oz or A Charlie Brown Christmas on the same night. There is just something to be said for a shared experience. It’s a large part of what keeps me going to see movies at theaters.  Yes, I like a big screen and seeing a movie when it first comes out, but I really like how seeing the movie with a bunch of other people somehow heightens my own reaction to it. That happened when I went to see The Post a few Saturdays ago. It’s a movie based on actual historical events - so I knew the ending - but that did not stop me from being on the edge of my seat as Meryl Streep so convincingly played Kay Graham’s hand-wringing, lip-biting uncertainty over whether or not to publish the Pentagon Papers, and it was worth every penny of my $10.25 when the whole theater broke into raucous applause at the ending. 

But what’s even better than watching a movie together with others?  For me, it’s enjoying live music.  That’s when I’m most in the moment and when I most can feel the energy of not only the performance but the crowd reacting to the performance.  Director Sam Green has developed a merger of both movie and live performance, a form he calls the “live documentary.”

Last Thursday night, The Wexner Center for the Arts co-premiered A Thousand Thoughts, a live documentary by Sam Green and the Kronos Quartet. (Columbus was supposed to be the “World Premiere” but it actually premiered earlier that week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. I guess that was an offer too good to refuse.)

This is how it worked. Green spent weeks combing through the archives of the Kronos Quartet, housed floor to ceiling, room to room. in a second floor San Francisco apartment that doubles as their practice space.  He interviewed and filmed current and previous members of the quartet, as well as a handful of the nearly 1,000 composers with whom Kronos has collaborated (including Phillip Glass, Terry Riley, the Inuk throat-singer Tanya Tagaq and the Chinese pipa player Wu Man), then fashioned a film which played on a large screen while Green narrated the history of the quartet from its founding in 1973 by violinist David Harrington up to the present, as Harrington and Kronos’ three other current members – violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Sunny Yang - played live on the stage in front of the screen to more than twenty compositions, providing the soundtrack to the movie, while oftentimes also telling parts of the story from within the film. 

This is how it felt.  Always interesting and entertaining. At times intense.  At times powerfully moving.  And overwhelmingly immediate and fleeting. I did not see one person look at a cell phone or even whisper to their neighbor.  We were hundreds of people in the collective moment from 8:00ish to 9:30ish. (Sam Green told us the exact times to the second at the start and at the finish but since I was in the moment and wasn’t taking notes, I don’t remember.)  Unlike a live concert, you could never be complacent in a moment.  You could never think to yourself, “Oh, here comes that long [bass][drum][guitar] solo” and mentally check out. There was always a new clip or image hitting the screen, a new part of the story being told. 

The story of any group that has been together for 45 years is sure to have its share of comic and tragic moments and both were shared in equal measure, from the quartet's outlandish hair and clothing stylings throughout the years in an effort to break with the stuffy “penguin suits” of traditional string quartets (my favorite were the Star Trek-looking outfits), to the deaths in quick succession of Dutt’s longtime partner, of Harrington’s son and the loss by cellist Joan Jeanrenaud of her baby, who was stillborn. 

In one of the most compelling portions of the documentary, Harrington described how following the joyous event of the birth of his first grandchild in early 2003 he felt himself pulled down into a deep depression. He related that the buildup to the invasion of Iran began to trigger flashbacks to his late teens and early 20's and his reaction to the Vietnam War, and he dreaded what the world would be for his grandson.  As a consequence of the depression, he lost his inner resonance, and was unable to hear/feel music inside of him.  He felt hopeless and on a downward spiral until he realized he needed to talk to someone with a great voice to lift him up, and he thought of Howard Zinn, the American Historian and author of People’s History of the United States (and - by the way - my Professor back in the day at Boston University).  Harrington describes how he got Zinn’s telephone number from a friend of his, called him and asked “What can a normal person do in this time?” The film then cuts to Zinn’s answer in a clip from Zinn speaking at a fundraiser for Spare Change street paper and the Homeless Empowerment Project in 2004.  (It's at 11:19-12:42 of the video below.)

Then we are back to Harrington saying that after an hour of talking with Zinn, he had confidence and energy and could return to his mission of finding music that can protect people from suffering and children from harm, which is what still drives him after more than four decades.

Although Sherri Geldin, Wex director, mentioned that there are plans for a limited tour of the production, I am not sure where, and as far as I know, it was one show only for Columbus. But if you can see it somewhere else, do!  And, in the meantime, go have another shared experience at the Wex.  Here’s a few upcoming events on my calendar:

Paris is Burning on Feb. 6th @ 7 PM – winner of a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, looks at the drag ballroom subculture of 1980s Harlem (1990) 

In the Intense Now on Feb. 16th @ 7 PM – documentary revisits the revolutions of 1968 in France, Czechoslovakia, Brazil and China (2017)

Dementia 13 and Lick the Star on Feb. 24th @7 PM – a double bill of Francis Ford Coppola and daughter Sofia Coppola movies - or catch Adam O’ Farrill’s Stranger Days, a jazz quartet that took the last Winter Jazzfest in NYC by storm, in the Wex Performance Space at 8 PM

You can find the full calendar of events at www.wexarts.org.

And, if you are looking for a place to eat before or afterwards to continue your communal experience, check out the South Village Grille, a relaxed and yet upscale little grill located next to the Thurman Café in German Village. This place is so good that it inspires love letters rather than reviews on Yelp. The food (American, with especially fantastic seafood & vegetable selections but also steak and many other offerings), craft cocktails, atmosphere and service have been very, very far above par on each of my visits (and there's also plenty of free, on street parking).  If you want a fun place for a drink and snack, try Service Bar, the front portion of the distillery at Middle West Spirits, tucked in a street back from High Street in the Short North.

Even though we are finally having a bit of an actual winter, it's definitely worth heading out into it in Cbus!

Anne Marie covers the Wexner Center and other non-KISS related material for Pencilstorm.

TV Party Tonight! Season Two: Andy Kaufman vs Jerry Lawler - by Colin Gawel

Welcome to season two of TV Party Tonight! Just to get you up to speed, TV Party Tonight is us folks at Pencilstorm sharing the Youtube rabbit holes we are diving into to kill time during the boring Ohio winter. John Lennon didn't live in the Midwest, but if he did, he might have written a song called, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night". or whatever. Also, I'm writing this in real time. Grammar may be dicey. Just imagine we are in a bar together and i'm jamming my phone in your face screaming "Watch This!"

Anyway, I'm going to kick off season two with clips of Andy Kaufman and his feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler. I recently read the book Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman by Bill Zehme. The thing I enjoyed most about this book was....

"WAIT!! Did you see Man on the Moon? Did you see Jim & Andy? Or the documentary I'm From Hollywood?  Did you read the Bob Zumuda Book? Did you? DID YOU?? huh? HUH? HUHHHH?"

The answer is no. I just read the one book. And then starting surfing Youtube for wrestling clips. And typing this. 

I'm sure I will catch up on all that stuff eventually, but Andy Kaufman is sort of like Muhammad Ali in that no actor can do the real person justice. Andy had been wrestling women at his standup shows and on Saturday NIght Live. People HATED this bit. It pretty much ruined his career. Still, being a performance artist and pro-wrestling fan, Andy had the idea to take this act directly to the people. He proposed the idea to WWE CEO Vince McMahon but he passed. Just too much heat having Latka from Taxi do the heel turn against women. 

However, in Memphis, a budding young promoter and wrestler himself, Jerry Lawler,  jumped at the chance of having a huge celebrity become part of his local wrestling program. The two agreed to start a video feud with Andy promising to  eventually show up in Memphis .... Below are the highlights of that feud. I'm so excited for you to watch this. 

Here's something I've been meaning to put up for a while now. Its Andy Kaufman versus Jerry Lawler from '82 and '83. Some of this stuff you'll have seen before but some you may not have. I used a variety of sources to pull this together.

This shove prompts a Hollywood lawsuit. 

Here's a clip from the great movie I'm From Hollywood. Kaufman's challenge is accepted by a large local woman named Foxy. The match isn't really shown but the post match antics between Kaufman and Lawler are here.

Clips of this have been seen everywhere but here's the full segment from Memphis television. Lawler announces he's received a deposition and a video tape from Andy Kaufman. Kaufman and "lawyer" Bob Zmuda sit poolside in Hollywood announcing they're suing the King over the shove after the Foxy match.

Andy sends in a tape accepting Lawler's challenge. He also wrestles a woman named Susan to show how tough he is. Kaufman is tremendous in this video.

So this leads to the infamous Andy Kaufman / Jerry Lawler appearance on the David Letterman show. I watched this live as a kid while on vacation with my family in Ocean City Maryland. It blew my mind wide open. I had no idea what was happening. It made me a Letterman fan for life. A couple of thoughts before watching this..

- Lawler was every bit the performance artist as Andy. 

-The two were supposed to make up on air. Just before going on, Andy told Lawler, "you have to hit me". Jerry responded, "I'm just this hick from Memphis, these cops will arrest me." Just before break, Lawler went for it. Nobody on Letterman knew it was coming. There was a 22 minute commercial break while security sorted out the melee.

- Letterman handled it all beautifully. 

ENJOY

Kaufman and Lawler on Late Night with Dave Letterman

Even though it was over on the national scene, the feud kept going on local Memphis TV. Andy was not doing this for the money. He loved it. The crowd hated him!!

July 9, 1983 at WMC-TV in Memphis. Andy Kaufman makes his in studio debut. Like I said before, this isn't every segment in the feud but its everything I have in my collection. Andy and Jimmy have taken on Jerry Lawler in a handicap match. It didn't go well.

Can it get better? Yes, Kaufman goes face and humbly asks for Lawler's help.

July 16, 1983 from Memphis TV. This segment opens with Jimmy Hart vs Andy Kaufman from the Mid-South Coliseum on July 11, 1983. Hart's First Family jumps Andy during the match. Kaufman says he wants revenge on Hart and attempts to recruit arch-enemy Jerry Lawler to be his partner against the Mouth of the South.

Big mistake Lawler!! Kaufman and intellectual equal Jimmy Hart pull ultimate heel turn.

July 23, 1983 from Memphis TV. In the words of Brian Alvarez..shenanigans! Andy Kaufman and Jimmy Hart, along with the Assassins, celebrate their big swerve of the King. The July 18, 1983 match with Kaufman and Lawler vs. the Assassin and Hart is shown. Note, these are not the same Assassins from Georgia and Mid Atlantic.

And then, cementing his greatness, upon learning of Andy Kaufman's death, Jerry Lawler doesn't break character. He does it the right way. Andy would have been proud.

From the 1984 Season available now at www.70s-tv.com.

As time passed, Jerry has come clean about his and Andy Kaufman's relationship. Listen here. 

Colin Gawel writes for Pencilstorm and is going to Wrestlemania this year. 

Elf Anxiety - by Andra Gillum

Elf Anxiety by Andra Gillum.

Every year just after Thanksgiving, I look forward to unpacking all our Christmas decorations.  I pull out the boxes, and the kids and I put everything in its proper place.  I must admit, however that there is one holiday decoration I wish I could leave in the bottom of the box.

The Elf on the Shelf triggers my anxiety.  I hate to admit it, but this little guy really knows how to push my buttons.

As I said, I love almost everything about Christmas.  From the decorations to the lights to the music and traditions, I l really do love it all.   It’s just that darned Elf!

It’s not that I dislike elves in general.  The movie Elf is a classic.  I love that Buddy the Elf and his Pop-tart pasta with syrup.  And how could you not root for the little misfits: Herbie the dentist and his friend Rudolph?

It’s just the Elf on the Shelf who makes me twitchy.  The holiday season is busy enough, and the stress he adds just pushes me over the top.

Every night, I’m expected to come up with some clever thing to do with the Elf, or some funny place to put him.  There are photos and ideas all over the web about it.

Somehow, I’ve gotten on an email list that sends me ideas an inspiration for my elf.  When they suggested that I soak the elf’s feet in a bath of marshmallows and call it a spa day, I decided that I’d rather leave the elf on his shelf and have my own spa day.

My kids show me You Tube videos of all the clever things that other elves do.  Someone’s naughty elf actually wrapped their entire Christmas tree in holiday paper.  I’m lucky to get all the gifts wrapped.  Never mind ribbons and bows.

Then there’s the Elf Shaming.  My daughter comes home from school with stories of all the silly and clever things that her friends’ elves did.  She tells me how bad she feels that she has nothing to share. Mom guilt.

Plus, the pressure goes on all month long!  That means 24 nights of anxiety.  24 days of trying to think of something new and different.  

There have been nights when I have finally climbed into my warm bed after an evening of wrapping gifts.  I’m half asleep when I am jolted awake by the realizations that I have forgotten to do anything with the elf.

I’m certain that I am not the only one with elf-anxiety.  A friend posted a funny picture on You Tube of an elf wearing a full leg cast.  He left a note for the children saying that he wouldn’t be able to move from the shelf for 2-3 weeks.  That’s one smart mom.  

I hate to come across as a Grinch because I really do love Christmas, and all the fun traditions for our kids.  Maybe we can just shorten the elf’s visit from the North Pole?  How about a nice, 3-day weekend?  Who’s with me?

I mean no offense to any Elf lovers out there.  I applaud your enthusiasm and perseverance.  We’ll just have to agree to disagree.

So, whether you love the Elf…or count down the days to his departure, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

Andra Gillum is a Pencil Storm contributor and the author of the children’s books “Doggy Drama” and “Puppy Drama” and “Old Doggy Drama”.  Learn more or order online at www.doggydrama.com.  Like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/doggydrama.   

If you work for a school, or know of one who would be interested in an author visit, please contact Andra at andrag@wowway.com.  Follow Andra on Twitter @GillumAndra

Holiday Edition of Some Things to See: in Columbus and Streaming Online - by Anne Marie

In early November, some friends and I had plans to have lunch at Heirloom Cafe and see the Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life exhibition at the Wexner Center.  But there was a hitch.  Veterans Day was celebrated that Friday and OSU, including the Wex, was closed.  Bummer.  We were physically hungry and art-starved and so we headed instead to the Columbus Museum of Art where we enjoyed lunch at the Cameron Mitchell-catered Schokko Art Cafe overlooking the new sculpture garden and then toured the current CMA special exhibition, Beyond Impressionism – Paris, Fin de Siècle: Signac, Redon, Toulouse-Lautrec and Their Contemporaries.

The CMA is the only U.S. stop for this exhibit of more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and other works. If you are still reading this, you may just be enough into art to know that Columbus is also the only traveling location for the Cindy Sherman exhibit as well. You may be asking yourself just how is humble li'l old Columbus shaking off its Cowtown reputation and pulling off these art coups?  I'm not sure, but however it’s happening it’s all the more reason to go see some art.  

Presented in partnership with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Beyond Impressionism exhibition explores the Parisian art scene, focusing on the most important French avant-garde artists of the late 19th century, including Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Odilon Redon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  This exhibit has something for everyone.  Impressionism, Symbolism, Pointillism, the Nabis, and Art Nouveau. My favorite find was Redon, whose displayed works ranged from hybrids of humans and inanimate objects like The Egg to images of fantastic creatures like Pegasus to delicate but vibrant flowers or an imaginary vision of a beautiful boat.

The Egg (1885)

The Wing (1893)

Pegasus (1895-1900)

If you are like we were the day of our visit, and are overly chatty and many of the pieces lead you to reminiscence about past trips or art history classes taken back in the day when you were in college, you will definitely have a hard time seeing this is one viewing.  By the end, we could only briefly walk through the prints by the Nabis, the best known of which are the colorful Moulin Rouge posters of Toulouse-Lautrec.

Good thing the exhibit is on view through January 21, 2018 since I need to go back.  Museum admission is free on Sundays and the exhibit is only $6 and free to members.    

I got the stomach flu the weekend after Thanksgiving. Luckily, it really was a stomach bug and not anything related to the turkey day meal itself since no one else was taken out by it. With Caitlin in Pittsburgh for a weekend of hockey and the guys off busy with Blue Jackets hockey and Buckeye football, I was left on the couch recovering - and in charge of the remote control.

I’d had the Glen Campbell documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, on my “to watch” radar for years and with Campbell's August passing, Scott Carr’s mention of the film again in his in memoriam piece,  and an encore presentation of a story about the making of the documentary that aired on All Things Considered, I felt it was overdue for viewing. If you haven’t heard about this one, it follows Campbell and his wife Kim as they receive his Alzheimer's diagnosis and then embark with a small extended family on what began as a 5-week farewell tour that eventually expanded into over 150 shows across the country over 15 months.  While I’m not a huge country music fan, I grew up in the pre-Sony Walkman days of AM/FM radio where the whole country seemed to know the same songs and watch the same few tv channels so I know a few of his solo hits. But before fame struck, Campbell was a studio musician with The Wrecking Crew and he has immense musical talent that transcends genres. At first I enjoyed the film and watching Campbell soaking up the applause from his faithful fans. He was still able to play the music even as lyrics completely evaded him without the teleprompter. But, I couldn’t quite finish it. It was just too painful to watch this man who was the epitome of the alpha male (four times married, the embodiment of the Rhinestone Cowboy and the Wichita Lineman) as his kids kept teasing him forgetting to stay on his mark on the stage or as he had to pee in wastebaskets because he couldn’t remember the way to the bathroom.

Next up was The Winding Stream, another 2014 documentary, about the Virginia folk band the Carter Family. This quirky little film tells the story using interviews and goofy, but kinda charming, animated still photos intermixed with musical footage. I wasn’t at all familiar with the early story of the start of the Original Carter Family and enjoyed having living relatives tell the tale of how A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter left the family farm in 1927 to travel to Bristol, Virginia to make recordings in an old hat factory. But what was most fascinating about the early period was the story of A.P. collecting music from all over the country and turning it into songs. On the one hand, old family music that wasn’t recorded anywhere else and may have been lost was preserved but, on the other, no compensation was paid.  The film moves through the start of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, the end of Sara and A.P.’s marriage and her self-imposed exile to marry and live with his cousin Coy in California, June Carter’s marriage to Johnny Cash, and up to the creation of the Carter Family Fold, where you can still go hear their music today in Virginia.

Last, but not least, I watched Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch’s film making the case that the Stooges were one of the most under-appreciated, greatest rock-n-roll bands of all time. I have to say I expected more scenes of wild mayhem in this movie, but I was good with what I got instead.  Iggy Pop, at age 69, looking intensely at the camera and telling the story as clearly he wants it told. And I respect that. I recently heard that reporters are pissed that Robert Plant, out to support his latest solo album, essentially tells them to go get a life when they keep asking him if he plans to write a book.  He tells them it’s all between his ears and that’s enough.  I get the sense that for Iggy that’s not quite enough but he wants to tell the story his way.  What’s there is good stuff (you just wish there was more). Childhood stories, opening for the MC5, working with Bowie, almost making it to stardom but needing to return home broke to his parents’ trailer, and performance footage. One of my favorite moments is when Jarmusch captures the reaction of the Asheton brothers’ mother, as related by their little sister, of when Iggy called to put the band back together 35 years later. “Iggy called! Iggy called and he wants to get the band back together!” says the excited 70-something year old about her 50-something year old sons getting to play with the Stooges again.  I love that power of rock and roll.

Happy viewing! - Anne Marie

Pencilstorm Post UA Election Interview: Next Steps For Rebuilding The Schools

Now that Upper Arlington's School Levy (Issue 43) passed with 54% of the votes, Pencilstorm reached out to Upper Arlington Superintendent Paul Imhoff  and Treasurer/Chief Finance Officer Andy Geistfeld with five questions about what will happen next. Their unedited answers are posted below.  

Paul Imhoff, Superintendent

Now that the levy has passed, what are the next steps?
It’s important to remember that none of the projects has been designed yet.  The next step is launching a community-based design phase for the six schools that are to be renovated or rebuilt.
 
Community involvement was the key to the success of our master planning process, and we believe that will be true with the design phase, too.  We’re sticking with the theme “your voice matters,” and we’ll be holding community meetings and asking for volunteers to be on building design teams and a district-wide green team.
 
The design phase will last about 12 to 15 months, and only then, once we have community-developed design plans for each of the six buildings, will we break ground — tentatively in early 2019.
 
In terms of timeline, which buildings will be worked on first? Do you have an estimate on when each will be finished? In addition, when will all day kindergarten start?
Tentatively, in early 2019, we’ll break ground first on a renovated Barrington and Tremont elementary school; a new Greensview and Wickliffe Progressive elementary school; and a new high school. The exception there is Windermere. We won’t be able to break ground on Windermere until the fall of 2020. And that’s because we’ll build a new Windermere on the footprint of the old building.
 
A renovated Barrington and Tremont and a new Greensview and Wickliffe will open to students tentatively in the fall of 2020. While the new Windermere is being built, students from that school will be educated in the old Wickliffe building. Then, a new Windermere and high school will tentatively open the next fall, in 2021. All construction on the high school site will be finished by the fall of 2022, with the athletic fields and support spaces completed and the old building demolished.
 
The plan is to add enough space at the elementary schools through these projects to accommodate both our enrollment growth and a future all-day kindergarten program.
 
How can the community get involved in the next stages of planning?
We’ll be having community-wide meetings to launch the design phase in December, and we’ll be setting the date for that in the coming days. We’ll offer both a morning and an evening option as we did during the master planning process. Community members can watch their mailboxes and our website, www.uaschools.org/facilities, for more information.
 
We will also be reaching out to community members about more opportunities to get involved, including building design teams and a “green team” that will explore environmental best practices for the new or renovated buildings. Neighbors living in close proximity to the buildings can also join a neighbor committee to share feedback and offer guidance throughout the design phase and construction process.
 
Which high school sports will be impacted by the construction and at what point will they need to be moved to a temporary facility?
Our goal is to minimize the impact the construction will have on our extracurricular activities.  The new turf field, baseball field and softball field to be built on the land behind Tremont Elementary School will definitely help with that.  However, we do anticipate that baseball, softball, tennis, and track and field will have to be temporarily relocated during construction.

Andrew Geisfeld, Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer

Let’s talk money. How will you look for savings and if there’s any extra money, what will you do with it? (Answer from Andy and Paul)
We will look for savings during each step of the community design process.

If funds remain after the projects are completed, those funds would be used to reduce the amount collected from residents to pay annual debt amount.

Pencilstorm would like to thank Paul and Andy for taking the time to answer our questions. For more information about the construction visit: www.uaschools.org/facilities.

Local UA Politics coverage provided by Wal Ozello. You can email him at Pencilstormstory@gmail.com or try to catch him at Colin's Coffee.