Pencilstorm Interview: Brendan T. King for UA Council

There are five candidates running for three seats on Upper Arlington City Council.  Pencilstorm asked each of the candidates five specific questions centered around issues that impacted Upper Arlington residents and questions that were being raised by fellow voters.  Pencilstorm will be posting their complete and unedited answers individually leading up to the election and reposting all their answers together the last week of October. Answers will be posted in order they're received. Our third candidate, Brendan T. King, is featured below.

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Brendan T. King
www.uaforbrendanking.com

What’s your vision for a potential Community Recreation Center?
Personally, I would love to find a way to create additional indoor community space for families and individuals. However, any future Community Recreation Center cannot be about my vision or the vision of any single person, it has to be the vision of the community. As a member of Council, I have helped empanel a group of highly qualified residents to study the feasibility of a Community Recreation Center. This group will determine (a) whether the community needs a center, (b) whether the community will support a center and then (c) what a center would look like. If Upper Arlington has a vision for a Community Center, it will be determined though this transparent and community-driven process and, again, it cannot be the vision of a single individual. Furthermore, I support the initiative of a prior Council that promised that any decision on indoor recreation space would be placed before the voters. 

Upper Arlington has had a record amount of development this year and continues to have increasing development pressure. How do modernize our city while controlling the traffic and maintaining the community feel that makes us special?
The pressure of development and its impact on UA is the single most difficult issue I’ve faced during my term on City Council. Change is happening in UA, and the City needs to lead the community through the changes in a responsive and collaborative way. The process of modernizing cannot be thrust upon the residents by the City and the byproducts and unintended consequences of modernization, such as increased traffic and impacted neighborhoods, must be carefully considered. Furthermore, because every development project is unique and every neighborhood is impacted differently, we cannot apply a one-size-fits-all approach to solving these problems. We must dive-in, study the particular project and work with the neighbors and the developers to achieve a balance between the interests of the neighbors, the developer and the City. Recently, we are proud to have hired a new City Manager that is uniquely qualified to help navigate these exact issues and through his experience in other roles we are excited to have his expertise to aid Council in creating a vision for development. 

When Compuserve was still headquartered in Upper Arlington, local income taxes from that commercial property represented approximately 35% of the City’s income tax revenue stream. Now that the Tree of Life court case is over, what should the city do to maximize that property and significantly boost our income?
There is no debating that the CompuServe property is a great opportunity for the City to increase the income tax revenue. In order to maximize the income tax revenue on that property, we need to take our time and carefully consider all of the potential options. The worst mistake we could make would be to make a quick decision that results in a long-term under-utilization of the property. Let’s engage the community of residents and developers to help us realize the full potential of that space. When the property was generating 35% of our income tax, City leaders learned that UA was not properly diversified, and that has resulted in the increased emphasis on economic development in our other commercial corridors.  

If there’s one thing you could fix within our parks and recreation, what would it be?
Upper Arlington’s parks are, and will forever be, a source of pride for residents. We saw up-close a few years ago when the tension that bubbled that our parks are both community parks and neighborhood parks. The challenge for the City is to improve the parks while juggling the competing interests of the community at large and the neighbors. That being said, the one thing that I would fix is to find additional field space outside our current park footprint. The pressure that the ever-increasing need for fields puts on the existing parks makes it difficult to satisfy all of UA’s field sports demands while still preserving the neighborhood atmosphere and passive park spaces. 

Remembering that Pencilstorm is typically a Rock N Roll blog, we’d like to end with a music question. What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to and why?
Finally, an easy question! The best concert I’ve ever been to is a three-way tie between my son Will’s choir concert at Jones, my daughter Ellie’s choir concert at Tremont and my daughter Annie’s second grade class play.

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Pencilstorm would like to thank Brendan King for taking the time to answer our questions.  Learn more about Brendan at his website: www.uaforbrendanking.com. Look for responses from future candidates in the coming days. Pencilstorm is an independent news source and does not endorse any individual candidate.

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. 

Check out coverage of all the candidates we've received responses from by clicking here.

Pencilstorm Interview: John J. Kulewicz for UA Council

There are five candidates running for three seats on Upper Arlington City Council.  Pencilstorm asked each of the candidates five specific questions centered around issues that impacted Upper Arlington residents and questions that were being raised by fellow voters.  Pencilstorm will be posting their complete and unedited answers individually leading up to the election and reposting all their answers together the last week of October. Answers will be posted in order they're received. Our second candidate, John J. Kulewicz, is featured below.

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John J. Kulewicz
http://www.jk4ua.com/

What’s your vision for a potential Community Recreation Center?
In going door-to-door (which is most of what I do in my City Council campaign), the concept of a community center is the subject about which people ask most frequently.  And they ordinarily pose the question in a hopeful way.   

My response is the same to everyone: I am in favor of a community center if there is a suitable location and acceptable way to pay for it.  A highly-experienced Community Center Study Group is at work on examining the subject in order to find and present the information necessary to let the community decide.  If we can find the right place and a fiscally-responsible way to build and manage such a center, I would support it.   

Recreation would be an important part of such a center, in my view, but not the only purpose.  We could significantly increase the space available for meetings, exhibitions, entertainment, lectures, classes and other programs and functions with such a facility.  Our senior citizens, who built this community, also need a new facility. With higher taxes and rising property values squeezing them, this could be a way to give them more value in the community.  And we could help to define the character and future of UA with a community center. 

Keeping up with other suburban communities is a factor, of course, but I do not  believe that it should be decisive.  We have a lot of things in Upper Arlington that are the envy of most other places -- the quality of our homes and schools, the talent of our population, the relative stability of our surroundings and the proximity to OSU and downtown Columbus.  As an already exceptional community with a bright future due to these attributes, we should go about any innovation proactively and not defensively. 

Upper Arlington has had a record amount of development this year and continues to have increasing development pressure.  How do modernize our city while controlling the traffic and maintaining the community feel that makes us special?
The projected growth of Central Ohio’s population to three million people in the next decades will present great opportunities and challenges for Upper Arlington.  Our community will become increasingly attractive to new families and businesses due to the quality of our homes and schools and our proximity to OSU and downtown Columbus.  At the same time, the anticipated upsurge will pose increased demands on our basic city services and the aesthetics that we love here.  

Measures that we should consider to address increased vehicular traffic on the 346 miles of paved roads in UA include: (1) strict enforcement of speed limits; (2) one-side street parking (also a safety issue, to allow unimpeded fire and police access to homes and businesses); (3) development of systems for drone deliveries; (4) more and wider pedestrian sidewalks; (5) sensors that connect with apps to give us up-to-the-minute information as to traffic flow; (6) adaptive traffic signals and other means to improve timing at the fifty-two signalized intersections in UA; (7) more street lights; and (8) preparations for autonomous vehicle usage.    

The City Council can do its part in preserving the essential character of our neighborhoods by careful scrutiny and, if necessary, updating of the development ordinances and zoning codes.  We should always keep buffer zones and step-down areas between the specific commercial corridors of UA and our residential areas. It is no less important that the City Council keep an intensive focus on continued steady improvement of our fundamental municipal services. 

The one thing that we cannot do is fail to innovate.  To take no risks at all under these circumstances would be the biggest risk of all.  The best way to calculate the risks and take the appropriate ones is to engage the community as widely as possible before the die is cast on any significant change.  As one who has conducted most of his City Council campaign by going door-to-door in every neighborhood, I have seen first-hand the wealth of talent, insight, creativity and commitment that abounds in our community.  We have the solutions to the future right in our midst.      

When CompuServe was still headquartered in Upper Arlington, local income taxes from that commercial property represented approximately 35% of the City’s income tax revenue stream. Now that the Tree of Life court case is over, what should the city do to maximize that property and significantly boost our income?
The Tree of Life property is the largest block of commercial real estate in the City of Upper Arlington.  And the courts have now confirmed the validity of local zoning ordinances and other home rule measures as applied to such premises.   In looking to maximize its future, we need to start by respecting the fact that the land is privately owned.  The City has considerable development tools at its disposal, including targeted infrastructure development and support, tax increment financing and other property tax incentives, development finance programs and additional means.  Because of the huge scale of the Tree of Life property and the unique now-or-never timing, the cost-effective use of these tools in a way that will maximize the net benefits to UA taxpayers should be the top priority of the UA Community Development Department.        

If there’s one thing you could fix within our parks and recreation, what would it be?
As an avid marathon swimmer who owes my love of the sport to the first morning swim laps that I took at the Tremont Pool years ago, I want to find out if there is any reason that the City cannot have a program, in our existing public pools, through which every child in UA learns to swim by age five (a public health and safety issue, because drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death among children age fourteen and under).  I also want to actively examine ways in which we can create convenient access to the new Quarry Trails Metro Park across Riverside Drive. 

Remembering that Pencilstorm is typically a Rock N Roll blog, we’d like to end with a music question.  What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to and why?
The Rolling Stones concert at Barclay Center in Brooklyn in December 2012.  My entire family was able to go.  If we decide to build a community center, we should play “Gimme Shelter” on opening day.  

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Pencilstorm would like to thank John Kulewicz for taking the time to answer our questions.  Learn more about John at his website: http://www.jk4ua.com/. Look for responses from future candidates in the coming days. Pencilstorm is an independent news source and does not endorse any individual candidate.

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. 

Check out coverage of all the candidates we've received responses from by clicking here.

Pencilstorm Interview: Michaela Burriss for UA Council

There are five candidates running for three seats on Upper Arlington City Council.  Pencilstorm asked each of the candidates five specific questions centered around issues that impacted Upper Arlington residents and questions that were being raised by fellow voters.  Pencilstorm will be posting their complete and unedited answers individually leading up to the election and reposting all their answers together the last week of October. Answers will be posted in order they're received. Our first candidate, Michaela Burriss, is featured below.

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Michaela Burriss
www.citizensforburriss.com

What’s your vision for a potential Community Recreation Center?
I’m very supportive of the goal of a community center in Upper Arlington and will be following the Task Force commissioned by Council to examine the feasibility of a community center very closely.  

Currently while canvassing, I rarely hear from members of our community about specific items within a center that would be desirable. Instead, I often hear about support for a center generally and programming options they would like to see. There are elements that would add value to a potential center (auditorium, indoor pool, meeting spaces, recreational courts, rooms for health screenings, etc.) that I support, and have heard from our neighbors that they support. I’d like to continue to formulate my vision around what residents want and need.  

Community Centers in theory could have anything and everything, but in Upper Arlington we will need to examine space and cost challenges.  We are landlocked. Seeing our city maximizing the land available and going to the public with feedback on land acquisition, private-public partnerships, location, and cost will be necessary if we wish to present a ballot item to voters and hope for its success. I’m eager to do more listening and supporting our Task Force as they work through some of these questions, which must include how to balance these competing interests. 

Upper Arlington has had a record amount of development this year and continues to have increasing development pressure.  How do modernize our city while controlling the traffic and maintaining the community feel that makes us special?
In 2017, I proposed Neighborhood Commissions as a vehicle to consistently have engagement between residents and developers, allowing for more dialogue prior to plan submissions to BZAP. I stand by this or other proposals that will, in a proactive way, strengthen development projects and ensure they align with what UA wants to see within their community. 

The neighbors near Westmont had to hire an attorney, circulate petitions, and threaten ballot action to bring developers to the table. Having done so, they reached an agreement that allows for change and growth while addressing their greatest concerns, which included traffic.  This should have been Council’s role or could be the on going role of a Neighborhood Commission, sparing heartache, money, and time on both sides of the issue, thereby reaching a desirable outcome that grows our economic base. 

The issue of transportation, traffic, and safety was a motivator in my decision to run for office, and an area where my expertise and passion can add value to Council. If you are genuinely listening to our residents, it’s clear when development projects are proposed that this is their main concern (not building density and aesthetics). It’s our job to enhance the quality of life for UA residents. Whether they fear increased fuel and parking costs, carbon emissions, or automobile accidents, we must really listen to our residents when they voice their concerns about the traffic that will accompany growth. 

Fortunately, we are living in the most consequential region in the country when it comes to transportation technology. Central-Ohio’s receipt of the federal Smart Cities grant is bound to quickly change the way we move. Upper Arlington must have a seat at the table. As a Council Member, this will be a top priority for me. 

Mass transit is not just buses. We must partner with our residents’ major regional employers on automated ride sharing, shuttle services, etc. that will decrease traffic and put more money in our neighbors pockets. We must also work with COTA to provide information on routes and ridership interest. 

As community leaders, we have the opportunity to grow the perception of mass transit within UA and create a culture that improves our health and finances while making UA’s small businesses more accessible to a region becoming increasingly less dependent on cars.

When Compuserve was still headquartered in Upper Arlington, local income taxes from that commercial property represented approximately 35% of the City’s income tax revenue stream. Now that the Tree of Life court case is over, what should the city do to maximize that property and significantly boost our income?
Having spent 4 years with Small Business Majority, a national nonprofit small business organization, I’m uniquely qualified and connected to Central Ohio’s entrepreneurial community. 

Because entrepreneurs and new, small businesses present the greatest economic growth potential, leveraging that space for tech (ideally bio) and startups could allow for great partnership opportunities with Ohio State University. Incubators and other entities that are focused on start up growth would be attracted to UA’s educated population and proximity to downtown/OSU. 

Additionally, our residents want more things to do nearby. This includes additional retail/entertainment options. Retail is changing, however. Because of this, and like all other future projects and opportunities, it would be great to first ask residents what they believe would be most sustainable and what they feel they would most likely consume if located there.

It is valuable to note that at this time the use and options for the building ultimately fall to the property owner, so long as they meet our zoning laws. 

If there’s one thing you could fix within our parks and recreation, what would it be?
Upper Arlington is a high achieving community with high expectations. While I’m thankful we have a center for our seniors, it does not meet the high standards our community expects for city facilities and services. “Fixing” the senior center as part of a plan for intergenerational recreation and facilities, while maintaining the great services and programming provided to seniors, would be a priority for me. 

Remembering that Pencilstorm is typically a Rock N Roll blog, we’d like to end with a music question.  What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to and why?
Patrick’s first birthday after we were married, I surprised him at work in the afternoon. All his coworkers were in on my elaborate surprise: taking him to a Hall and Oates concert. They helped convince him to leave, and we went to one of his favorite places downtown (Nada). He was convinced we were going to The Avengers at the Arena Grand. I started worrying he would be upset when he found out otherwise. 

Concertgoers started arriving at the restaurant in black and white Hall and Oates t-shirts. He loved the shirts, and asked if WE were going to the concert. I panicked. Acting fast, I asked one of the t-shirt wearers, “Is there a Hall and Oates concert tonight??” Patrick, who never met a stranger, made conversation and fast friends. Meanwhile, I whispered to others nearby that he was being surprised with tickets. 

They sent birthday margaritas to our table. He was in such a joyful mood. It seemed everyone was in on it but Patrick, and everyone was working together to make sure his birthday was the best. We finished dinner and I asked, “Hey, do you want to see if they’re selling those shirts outside the venue?” He gleefully said, “YES!” 

We walked over, holding hands and laughing. We were at the intersection just before Express Live when I turned and said, “actually, honey, we’re going to the concert.” He was so overwhelmed and laughing so hard. When he finally could get a few words out, all he said was, “awww you’re a rich girl,” in reference to their popular song. 

That surprise concert for my husband’s 30th birthday is one of my fondest memories with him, my best friend. After all the singing and dancing to their hit songs, before heading home for the night, we bought two of those black and white Hall and Oates t-shirts.  We joke that it was more fun than our wedding!

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Pencilstorm would like to thank Michaela Burriss for taking the time to answer our questions.  Learn more about Michaela at her website: www.citizensforburriss.com. Look for responses from future candidates in the coming days. Pencilstorm is an independent news source and does not endorse any individual candidate.

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. 

Check out coverage of all the candidates we've received responses from by clicking here.

No More Plastic Water Bottles at Colin's Coffee - by Colin Gawel

Colin’s Coffee is getting rid of disposable plastic water bottles. To replace them, we will sell you a water bottle you can refill and reuse for the same price of $2. Did you know it takes every single plastic bottle 1,000 YEARS to decompose and Americans buy 29 BILLION bottles each year? Well, it’s time to take a chunk out of that. If my math is right I figure our new efforts will reduce American’s plastic bottle consumption to just  28.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 BILLION each year. Boom. 

I know it’s not much, but it’s a start. Being a small business owner it’s a fine line between doing the right thing and paying the bills. I’d love to be able to provide everyone with organic, free-trade hand-crafted paper straws but I just can’t do it and keep the lights on. But here is the good news, you (and me) can use our own straws. Or no straws at all. We can individually make decisions to cut down on waste.

I know I try to do the right thing with decidedly mixed results. I probably bring my own bag to the store 80% of the time? I still pick up a plastic bottle of water on the way to a baseball game now and again. That needs to change. I can do better. From small things big things one day will come. Remember when rock n roll used to be considered pollution? Well, we put our minds to it and made it better. Change is possible.

Music video by AC/DC performing Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution. (C) 1981 J. Albert & Son (Pty.) Ltd. #ACDC #RocknRollAintNoisePollution #vevo #rockandroll #vevoofficial

This all ends up in the trash. Gross.

Ohio County Trippin' Part Nine: Madison County - by Nick Taggart

MADISON COUNTY

 “Little Towns on the Prairie”

29 June 2018

Previous County Trippin' from Nick Taggart: Meigs County - Medina County - Champaign County - Seneca County - Cuyahoga County - Fayette County - Mahoning County -

Every county trip begins with a strategic plan of attack and the one I formulated for Madison County involved treating it as if it were a mountain to climb.  We would begin in the south and make our way “up,” or north in a zigzag, or switchback fashion (or “Serpentine! Serpentine!” if you’re a fan of “The In-Laws.”).  We pierced the county at its southeastern corner on Ohio State Route 3 (or THE Ohio State Route 3 if you’re a fan of the Buckeyes.). Soon after crossing Deer Creek, we entered Mt. Sterling, one of the larger towns in the county, with just under 2,000 residents.

County trippers travel on their stomachs, so our first order of business was breakfast; and in Mt. Sterling, that’s almost synonymous with Ben & Joy’s.  Locally, it sits on the corner of North London and West Columbus Streets, also known by their more familiar route names of Ohio-56 and US-62, so there’s a fair amount of traffic.

Ben and Joy Stroup purchased the restaurant in 1984 and Joy continued running it after Ben passed away in 1993.  It looked as though she was ready for retirement a couple years ago when she put the place up for auction, but when the lone bid of $93,500 wasn’t enough to satisfy her, the 78-year-old decided to continue operating the restaurant.

I ordered the Belgian waffle for $6.50, with a side of bacon for $3.50.  Michele went with the “#1 Breakfast,” consisting of scrambled eggs with bacon, home fries, and toast for $7.25.  Two pesky flies came free. The food was a little slow in coming, which was odd as there were only two other occupied tables; two guys who had finished eating and were just jawing, and a lone woman who put in her order after us.  Michele blamed her home fries for the delay. Once our plates arrived, it didn’t take long for the food to disappear. The home fries were definitely worth the wait.

After breakfast, we walked a couple blocks to the Mt. Sterling Public Library.  It was built in 1911 of red brick and limestone and was another beneficiary of Andrew Carnegie’s largess.  Mt. Sterling has the distinction of being the smallest community in America to receive a grant for a Carnegie library. (The town’s population in 1911 was 1,071.)

The basement of the library houses the Mt. Sterling Community Museum.  It has limited hours, but we were lucky to find it open. Museum director Steve Chambers was in residence and couldn’t have been more accommodating, allowing us to freely wander the two rooms of town artifacts at our own pace, but being available for questions when asked.

Well represented in the museum are photos and ephemera of Mt. Sterling’s two most famous sons: former Ohio senator and governor John W. Bricker, and building contractor, sportsman, and philanthropist John W. Galbreath, both of whom graduated from Mt. Sterling High School.

Leaving Mt. Sterling, we traveled across the bottom of the county on State Route 323 past farms and turkey vultures.  We entered the town of Midway, whose claim to fame is a 1953 high school basketball game in which one of its players scored 120 points.  That Ohio record still stands and is also the third highest in the country. This achievement brings two thoughts to mind. First, what was the other team doing the entire time he was scoring?  Were they all four feet tall and working crossword puzzles? And secondly, did sportsmanship not exist in the 1950s that a coach would allow his team to embarrass their opponents like that? I later looked up the story in the Dispatch and found the final score against Canaan was 137-46.  While there might not have been sportsmanship in the ‘50s, there was justice.  In Midway’s next game against Tecumseh, record holder Dick Bogenrife was held to 20 points and his team got whacked 107-55.

We headed north away from Midway on State Route 38, driving about eight miles along more farm fields.  The corn was looking pretty good. (editor’s note: this story was filed last year and lost in the Pencilstorm warehouse until recently found) Just beyond Newport, we turned left on Old Xenia Road SW. Just around a bend in the road, we were surprised to come upon a large white globe sitting upon a 5-story metal base.  It was an odd sight in the midst of all that agriculture. A razor wire-topped fence made its message clear that we should “keep out,” but there weren’t any other signs hinting at what the installation was being used for.  Again, it took some post-trippin’ research to discover it was a government radar station. Built in the 1950s, it was under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration for almost half a century, but after 9/11, it became tied to the Joint Surveillance System, a coordinated venture between the United States Air Force and the FAA “for the atmospheric air defense of North America.”  It’s one of two such stations in Ohio, the other located in the Cleveland area.

We turned north on Roberts Mill Road and stayed on it as it dog-legged past US Route 42 and skirted property belonging to the London Correctional Institute. (“Don’t pick up hitchhikers!”)  Just north of Old Springfield Road, we turned into the parking lot of the London Fish Hatchery.  

The London facility is the oldest of the six hatcheries maintained by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.  It’s so old that the Division was known as the Ohio Fish and Game Commission when it was built in 1896.  There are six staff members, five permanent and one seasonal, who run the operation. One of them was kind enough to brave the blazing sun and give us a tour of the property.  So much interesting information was shared that I should have been taking notes. If I was able to retain only a tenth of what the accommodating staffer was telling us, I’d be the better person for it.

The hatchery is located on 80 acres, 13 of which are water, containing over a dozen ponds and an 800-foot raceway for the rearing of fish that are then used to stock Ohio’s public rivers and lakes.  In the past, London produced coho and chinook salmon, northern pike, saugeye, and largemouth bass, but currently, it’s concentrating on rainbow and brown trout, and muskellunge.  

Not all fish are sent away.  Our guide introduced us to two long-time residents who have become like members of the family.  They’ve not only been named, but they travel to the Ohio State Fair each year to be ogled by children and adults at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources building.  Lisa Left-eye is a carp who swims around in an outdoor pool and can be identified by a cloudy cataract. Gary gar lives in an aquarium inside the office and has been at the hatchery longer than any of the current staffers.

After the hatchery, we drove east into London, the county seat.  We came in on Old Springfield Road, which ended at North Main Street in front of the Madison County Hospital.  We turned south toward the town square and parked along one side of the Madison County Courthouse. It was completed in the final decade of the 19th Century and incorporates a few different architectural styles including a Second Empire design with Beaux-Arts Classicist elements.  A clock tower looks down upon a mansard roof and classical columns over the front entrance.

Once inside, I found the cozy warmth of the dark wood staircases outshone by a barrel-vaulted light court with a colorful stained-glass skylight.  After a quick look around and a stop inside the County Auditor’s office for an updated county map, we left and took a stroll down London’s original business district on South Main Street.  There were a few empty windows awaiting new shops and restaurants, but the strip appeared to be holding its own.  

After crossing over two sets of railroad tracks, we stepped inside the brick Dwyer Bros. Hardware store, one of London’s oldest businesses.  It opened in 1888 as a small hardware, tin shop, and implement dealer. It’s still owned by members of the Dwyer family and stocks everything you’d want in a hardware store.  The aged wooden floors remind shoppers of the double-digit decades this store has been around. We purchased a box fan and backtracked up the street, the irony not lost on me that I was perspiring while toting a cooling device under a HOT sun.  As we cranked the AC in our car, I noted the outside temperature was 88 degrees.

We drove to the London Public Library on East First Street, another Carnegie-funded library, built in 1904.  A rear addition was constructed in 1989. We stayed just long enough to use a public internet computer to research the location of one of our upcoming stops.

We were departing London along East High Street when we pulled off at the Madison County Historical Society.  The museum wasn’t open, but the grounds are accessible. Various historic buildings have been moved there including the Jonathan Alder cabin.  The simple log structure dates to about 1806 and was the home of Madison County’s first white settler. More on him in a moment. After a quick photograph, we were back in the car and driving the short distance to Andrew Court East.

When planning our Madison County trip, I learned that the county was home to a Champion tree; not just a State Champion, but a National Champion.  These trees are considered the largest of their species in the country. In this case, it’s a Downy Hawthorn. I wasn’t previously familiar with this particular type of tree, but after learning the largest one in the country was right here in Ohio, I can be forgiven for a slightly puffier chest and springier step. (Suck it, Michigan!)

The Ohio Division of Forestry has a Champion Tree Coordinator who keeps track of such things and has recorded that our champion Downy Hawthorn has a total point count of 173.  That calculation is made by adding the tree’s circumference in inches (131) to its height in feet (30) and a quarter of its crown spread in feet (47). The Forestry website lists the tree and the county in which it resides, but doesn’t give its precise location, so I emailed the coordinator.  He responded, “Unfortunately, the tree you are asking about is on private property and we are unable to disclose private information.” Undaunted by this rebuff, I was determined to find this tree, so I trawled the dark web and made inquiries of my sources in the deep state until I found the information I was looking for.

No, not really.  What I did instead was use clues from the photograph the Division of Forestry provides on its website and compare them to Google Map street views until I found its location.  It sits in the backyard of the house on the southeast corner of East High Street and Andrew Court East. Sure, it’s technically private property, but I was able to stand on the very public sidewalk to look at the tree and take its picture.

Now, please, if you’re a Downy Hawthorn fanatic, don’t go stripping off your clothes and holding a Woodstock-like festival in the yard where this tree is located because the authorities will certainly trace the dissemination of the tree’s location back to this article and the Men In Black will show up at my door and flash one of those little memory loss pens in my face and that would be regrettable.  Remember, this is top secret information! Be responsible and use it only for good.

We continued driving northeast to the village of West Jefferson.  I was told by a friend that West Jeff has more pizza places per capita than anywhere else in the state.  We did indeed pass a few on East Main Street, but I didn’t do an official census, so I’ll leave it to someone else to confirm this fact.  As good as pizza sounded at that moment, our destination was Ann & Tony’s Restaurant on the east edge of town. The restaurant has been serving delicious Italian cuisine for over 65 years, ever since the namesake couple, both children of Sicilian immigrants, decided to open their doors.  Their son Tom and his wife Judy continue offering authentic Italian cooking. I ordered the small “combination dinner” that included healthy samples of homemade lasagna, penne pasta, and spaghetti with meatball. Michele stuck to the single entrée spaghetti with meatball. The delectable garlic butter that comes with complimentary rolls is enough to entice anyone to Ann & Tony’s, but their delicious red sauce is testament to the Italian eatery’s longevity.  Despite our “small” portions, we were both stuffed by the end of the meal.

We attempted to walk off some of the calories at Prairie Oaks Metro Park, just a few miles north of West Jefferson on State Route 142.  The park straddles the Big Darby State and National Scenic River and offers a variety of recreational activities in its 2,000-plus acres, but we limited ourselves to a stroll along the Coneflower Trail.  We were rewarded with the sight of a rabbit and a beautiful monarch butterfly, but we also encountered a muddy section of trail and a swarm of hungry mosquitoes who would have been better served dining at Ann & Tony’s rather than on our bland skin.  We opted to cut our hike short and return to the car.

Just a stone’s throw (if you have a very strong arm!) north of the park is the Foster Chapel Cemetery, the burial site of the aforementioned county settler.  Growing up, I knew Jonathan Alder only as a name on a school building, but later I learned a little more about the man. He was only seven years old when he was captured by a Native American war party in Virginia in 1782.  He was brought to the Ohio country and adopted by an Indian family. He remained with the Indians until the Treaty of Greenville of 1795. Alder served as an interpreter for awhile before returning to Virginia in 1805 to be reunited with his mother.  Apparently, he wasn’t in a hurry since it took him a decade to make this journey. He eventually married and brought his wife back to Ohio, where he built a cabin and settled on Big Darby Creek.

We returned to West Jefferson and drove west on Main Street.  Soon after passing under a busy train trestle, we turned right off Main Street so we could see the recently constructed Taylor-Blair Road Covered Bridge that spans the Little Darby Creek.  It opened near the end of 2012, costing $2.7 million. Was it worth the price tag? Well, it was partially responsible for getting me to visit and inject a few dollars into the local economy.  A man and two young boys toting fishing poles were emerging from the creek as I got out of the car to take a picture. I was quick with my photographic duties as it was 90 degrees outside!

We continued west out of town on Main Street, aka U.S. Route 40, aka the old National Road.  Being an historically-minded man with simple tastes (Or am I a simpleminded man with historical tastes?), I get a thrill out of seeing remnants of the past.  In Madison County, a big such find is evident about seven miles west of West Jefferson at the village of Lafayette. The Georgian style Red Brick Tavern was constructed in 1837, the same year the National Road reached Madison County, and three years before William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren both stayed there during the 1840 presidential campaign.  It’s said that Van Buren drank tea with the aristocracy of the area while Harrison ordered a round of hard cider for everyone. On election day, voters proved they leaned more wet than dry by voting for Harrison.  

In the yard on the west side of the Red Brick Tavern still stands an old National Road milepost.  It’s a bit eroded, but so would you be after standing outdoors for over 180 years.

We progressed another couple of miles west on Route 40 before turning north onto State Route 38.  At the village of Plumwood, we veered northeast onto Arthur Bradley Road. Less than two miles further along, we crossed Little Darby Creek and pulled into a small parking lot for the Little Darby Preserve. It’s one of the state’s newest nature preserves, having just been opened in 2011.  It gets its name from the creek that it straddles, although after following about three miles of a mowed walking trail, I concluded that it could have just as easily been named the Bunny Trail Preserve. We didn’t get far in before a rabbit hopped out from the thick growth of tall meadow grass, paused to look at us and ponder where we’d come from, before skedaddling back into the grass.  This scene was repeated numerous times during our hot and sweaty hike.

Back in the cooling comfort of our car’s air-conditioning, we continued northeast on the road fronting the preserve, which had changed its name to Lafayette Plain City Road NE.  About six miles later, we turned left onto Converse Huff Road and then right onto Converse Chapel Road NE. A left on Boyd Road took us to a long lane leading back to Smith Cemetery.  This small, remote graveyard serves as a microcosmic history of the township. The plants that cover the tombstones represent the landscape the settlers encountered when they arrived and the people listed on the tombstones can be matched to the names on nearby roads.

When the first interment was made here in 1816, the settlers called the area the Darby Plains.  It was covered with thick prairie grass. Unfortunately, each year’s growth of grass would accumulate into a decaying mass that became a natural breeding ground for mosquitos.  That led to an outbreak of malaria resulting in more burials in the cemetery.

The land was eventually tamed through a combination of ditching and tiling that turned a once wet prairie into rich agricultural land.  Remnants of the tallgrass prairie can now be found only in small pockets such as the Smith Cemetery, thanks to management by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.  

Thirty years ago, I rode my bike out to the cemetery and snapped a picture that showed thigh-high grass left to grow wild among the grave markers.  During this most recent visit, I found chest-high flora. Thirty native species of prairie plants have been inventoried at the cemetery. A few narrow paths have been kept mowed to allow access to the remaining tombstones, only a few of which can be spotted above the grass.

The summer day was waning as we returned to Converse Huff Road and followed it to U.S. Route 42 and north into Plain City.  On its south side sits Der Dutchman Restaurant, a place we’ve been known to make special trips to from Columbus for the excellent made-from-scratch comfort food buffets.

My wife raised the touchy subject of county trip rules and whether our patronage of Der Dutchman was allowable.  After all, “thou shalt not spend money at chain stores, restaurants, and hotels” has been one of the sacrosanct commands since the establishment of county trips.  Der Dutchman, technically, falls into this category.  Its original restaurant opened in Walnut Creek, Ohio, in 1969.  Since then, four others have been established in small towns around Ohio, and another in Sarasota, Florida (??????).  I don’t think they’ll be vying any time soon with Starbucks or Subway for the most storefronts in a square block, but it does meet the chain definition as “a series of shops owned by one firm and selling the same goods.”

Damn!

I could take a moment here and devote a lot of words to rationalizing why eating at Der Dutchman upholds the spirit, if not the law, of the county trip rules, but that would just be inside-the-beltway self-indulgence, and anyway, all I wanted was a good piece of pie.  After crossing the threshold without the county trip gods smiting us, we slid into a booth and placed our order. We were still rather full from our mid-afternoon lunch at Ann & Tony’s, so we stuck to the dessert menu. Michele enjoyed a slice of coconut cream pie, while I opted for lemon meringue and a cup of coffee.  It was the perfect ending to an enjoyable outing.

All that was left was the driving.  We made our way to Main Street via some residential side streets and then drove east out of the city.  After bumping over railroad tracks and passing the Heritage Cooperative grain silos at Kileville, we exited the county at its northeastern corner.

Time spent in the county: 10 hours, 11 minutes

Miles driven in the county: 92 miles

Zion National Park Vacation by - Colin Gawel

Every two years we save up our pennies and flyer miles to splurge on a family vacation out West. Personally, I’m on the lazy side of the holiday spectrum. I’m not looking to hack through the rainforest in Brazil or skydive over the Great Wall of China. Plop me down on a beach with a book and some tunes and I’m perfectly fine spending a few days lost in my own head. However, living in flat Ohio, there really is no substitute for seeing actual mountains. It’s something I never saw until touring with Watershed in my early twenties and it left me awestruck. Not that I was complaining, growing up our family went to Ocean City, Maryland every summer and that was good enough for me. I suppose it still is.

However, my wife Erin is a “mountain” person as they say and certainly it’s important to us as parents to expose Owen to some different places while he is still under our roof. So the big ticket item for 2019 was a trip to Zion National Park in Utah. A number of things made this an attractive option for our family:

Watchman Hike

• I had heard from numerous people that Zion is their favorite National Park

• The trip could be done quickly and easily. Fly into Vegas and a 2 hour drive to our destination.

• Once there, a shuttle system eliminated the need for further driving/parking.

• The whole trip fit into a narrow window where Owen wouldn’t be missing many summer sports activities.

• Can spend one night in Vegas and see The Beatles Love by Cirque Du Soleil.

So after countless hours researching and preparing from the coffee shop, our family took off Sunday, May 26th, on a direct Southwest flight to Las Vegas. The early departure had us on the ground 9:30 am local time and traveling North on I-15 cranking Outlaw Country the whole way. The ride itself was impressive as the interstate cut through the mountains of Arizona before we arrived at our destination of Springdale, Utah.

Springdale itself is basically a scenic two lane road dotted with hotels and restaurants leading to the entrance of Zion park. The city runs a free shuttle that takes folks staying in town to the entrance of Zion where you can catch the park shuttle to one of nine stops each with hiking trails of different degrees of difficulty.

While there were many good options to stay, we chose Cable Mountain Lodge as it was literally 100 yards from the park entrance, eliminating the need to ride the town shuttle. When taking a teenager hiking, one less shuttle is one less excuse to stay in the room and watch Game of Thrones on the IPad.

The lodge was very nice, not too big, with scenic views of the mountains from the balcony. It had a coffee shop, small store and a brew pub right on sight. The pool was kinda small but the hot tub was handy after a long day of hiking. I cannot recommend Cable Mountain or Springdale for pre-teen kids as there aren’t any kiddie options like mini-golf or water parks, but for older kids and parents it’s pretty perfect. Note to beer drinkers: Utah only allows for low alcoholic beverages at this time (4.0 or less) so if you are interested in something stronger you will need to stock up before you enter the state.

We knocked off the Watchman hike right when we arrived just to get the blood pumping and because cool temperatures and rain were forecast for Monday. Sure enough, the next day the weather was extremely unseasonable for the desert: rain and 48 degrees. Though this was a slight bummer, it came with an upside, as we had the park almost to ourselves for one day.

Narrows

Riding the Zion shuttle couldn’t have been any easier and our first stop was to Riverside hike which takes you to the beginning of the Narrows, one of Zion’s two most famous trails. The Narrows itself requires you to walk in the river at the bottom of a towering canyon. However, with the rainy spring, it was closed as the water flow was too strong to allow people to safely make the journey. Still, Riverside was a very easy and scenic trail anyway. We got to see the Narrows, we just couldn’t go in the water.

The other popular trail is Angel’s Landing which goes straight up the side of a mountain taking folks to a stunning view of the Zion Canyon. The final step of this journey requires people to make a steep, narrow assent holding onto a guide chain. As it is a very popular trail, this last step can be very crowded and tack an hour and a half onto the trip. We decided to call it a day at Scout’s Landing, which was still plenty high enough for breathtaking views without the terror and aggravation of the final summit. It is best to start this trail before 8 am to beat the crowds. It is definitely worth the effort, though.

Three nights and two full days was plenty of time to enjoy Zion and we headed back to Vegas Wednesday around 10 am and were sitting by the Mirage pool by 2 pm. Since Love wasn’t scheduled until 7pm we had plenty of time to bathe in the Sun and take in some sights.

Sure, Las Vegas is trash, but I love it the same way I love KISS. There is nothing quite like it. While I never feel like an actual Vegas participant, I sure get a kick out of watching people who are. Crazy humans with our EDM pool parties and bottle service. And lots of tattoos. Fun stuff.

Owen and I laid down a few small sports bets before the show, (Damn you Mets, blowing a 4 run lead in the 9th) and LOVE was a sight and sound to behold. Burgers before bed and back on a flight the next morning at 9:30 am.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better 96 hours in my life. - Colin G.

Below: Angel’s Landing and well….duh.