dfly

St. Charles breaks ground for new building Lima News, 12/2/06 St. Charles students broke ground Friday for a new building that will put all students under one roof and consolidate numerous services. Students participated in a ground blessing officiated by Father Steve Blum. The new building will house the early childhood education center for preschool, kindergarten and extended day care. The ceremony included students dressed in robes carrying water to each direction in the school’s gymnasium for symbolic reasons. For example, North is associated with winter, Blum said. The ceremony originally was scheduled outdoors but moved into the gym due to the cold weather and high winds. Students on student council opened a door long enough to trade off on the ceremonial shoveling of dirt.

I asked a friend about Fairborn Camera and he said that he was pretty sure that they no longer rent lenses.

Township trustees, what hell is the big deal? The state promised the Freedom Center money to build the facility and now they are making good on their promise. So what exactly is there to oppose?

What about Fairborn Camera?

The way I see it, the main site and the forum could just as easily be two separate sites (not necessarily a bad thing), but I can't tell you the last time I've even looked at the main site. IMHO, if caipenar can better integrate the two (not as it is in the current beta version, but actually integrated), I only see that as strengthening UrbanOhio and our already great online community.

I'm actually finishing up a really good book on the history of P&G, Rising Tide, and especially after reading that, I don't think I could have imagined P&G going into the service sector. If anything at all, I would have assumed they would have just licensed the brand name to someone else in the car wash industry.

^ I use Gallery2 and love it. As you said, it can be as open or closed as you would like it. You can set permissions on who can upload, view, etc. so you can have galleries that would be visible to just you and admins, to users only, or to anyone. Also it is easy to set it up so that only mods could upload pictures. I use just a small part of the functionality, so I'm sure it is even more powerful than I even know. One thing I would warn you about though, it there seems to be some performance issues with using G2 with Powweb. I think there may be some technical work-arounds to address this, but that's beyond me.

Looks like a nice little city. The Egyptian Theatre looks quite impressive.

I first learned about this rumor from Robert Stack on Unsolved Mystries (1-800-876-5353) back in the day. However, not being a native Daytonian, I guess I guess I was behind the times, because this common knowledge for Daytonians. I wouldn't be surprised if more Daytonians know about Hangar 18 than know of the Wright Brothers.

Rossford: 8-year plan is proposed for facilities' construction Toledo Blade, 11/30/06 If the Rossford school district's operating budget remains stable for the next eight years, each of its school buildings could see a major overhaul. At last week's school board meeting, board member Brian Hughes presented a facilities master plan flow chart outlining a course of action the district could follow over the next eight years to alleviate the district's space constraints and fix problems with its aging school buildings. He began creating the plan after seeing that school buildings topped the list of where district officials felt that enterprise zone money should be directed throughout the district. Enterprise zone funding comes from tax abatements with companies - limited donations typically 10 years in duration. The district's enterprise zone fund has a $1.2 million balance. The district has also been battling an issue with expanding enrollment figures in its elementary schools for two years, forcing some students to learn in rooms the size of closets.

With both businesses and residents participating in this, it will be interesting to see what consensus they reach on the liquor license issue...the businesses generally being supportive of liquor licenses and the residents generally opposed to additional ones.

So when they say communities that put up a fight, I assume that they really mean wealthy communities and places like parks. Otherwise, what's keeping all communities from enacting stricter requirement for cell phone towers?...the welcome addition of additional tax revenue?

LOL! Actually it has just been sitting in my garage, but I have a friend who runs a soup kitchen and they have a patron who is looking for a car to get to doctor's appts, grocery store, etc. and it sounds like they may be interested in trying to fix it up. So I think I'm just going to give it to them, along with my wishes of luck--unless, of course, GM comes along with a nice check. :lol:

Global, city seek $60 million grant BY HEATHER RUTZ - Dec. 4, 2006 LIMA — Global Energy is asking the state for a $60 million shot in the arm to help a power plant under construction create thousands of new jobs statewide and make the city a research and development hub. Global is one of eight groups applying for the state development department Wright Mega-centers of Innovation grant, possibly $60 million, to establish centers to commercialize technology and transform Ohio’s economy from rust belt to high-tech. Global’s project, filed with the state in August, proposes to build a new facility, to be called the Lima Synthesis Gas Product Commercialization Center. The center would develop products derived from synthesis gas, a byproduct of its Lima Energy coal gasification electricity plant, currently under construction on South Main Street. MORE: http://www.limanews.com/story.php?IDnum=32800

My '93 Olds just died (actually more like I decided it was best not to put it on life support) this spring at over 199,000 miles--although not quite to 200,000, but ya never know...maybe "The Beast" still has a long life ahead. :) Anyway, nice pictures. I'm definitely not ready for 12" of snow yet. Just the flurries this morning were enough to make me cringe.

Nice job Jeff. I've gotten a good dose of St. Anne's Hill this weekend....went to a Christmas party there on Friday and then the Liederkranz-Turner Kristkindlmarkt on Saturday.

lol...I think they more or less have. Is that where the Dublin Pub is today?

This thread made me think about a couple of the books by Arcadia Publishing that I have seen. There is a Railroad Depots of Northwest Ohio and a Railroad Depots of West Central Ohio. Just thought it might be appropriate to mention it here.

And I would attribute that to the housing component of the Genesis Project much more than the addition of more retail along Brown Street. Sure the retail is great and has had a positive impact on the area, but I think the investment in improving the housing has had a much more profound effect on the Fairgrounds Neighborhood.

Alright, while I agree with what Ronnie and Billy have written about "Scary Kroger" rightfully earning its title with its issues with dirtiness and infestations, let's not forget that it is Kroger who let the conditions deteriorate to the point where they are now. If this were a suburban store, the conditions would have never gotten to this point. This is the closest grocery store to my house, and as Billy said, it is really best used for the basics and not regular grocery shopping, although I sometimes do my regular grocery shopping there. While I do agree that this project does have its merits--especially by providing a decent grocery store to the neighborhoods in the surrounding area (and also increasing the appeal of downtown housing), in my gut this just isn't sitting right with me. If this were truly about community redevelopment, as the city has said, I think there are better ways for true community betterment without displacing residents. One place to start would be through stricter code enforcement--and not just by citing people, but actually following through with the problem until it is resolved. And for those who may not be able to afford repairs, such as seniors, there needs to be increased resources available to assist them such as program like Kettering's Housing Rehabilitation Program and Rebuilding Together Dayton. Also, I hate run down housing just as much as anyone else, especially when it is by slumlords and people who just don't care. But I am empathetic toward people who are trying their best and this housing is all they can afford. Let's face it, when the check are written for this housing, it is going to make slumlords happy and the rest of the owners will be given a check for not enough to replace their current house. I am curious as to how this is going to reduce crime. Sure, if you replace housing with a 550 car parking lot, there is will less crime there, but that crime isn't going to just disappear, it is just going to be displaced. If our solution to crime is to build huge parking lots, we're going to end up with a lot of parking lots around Dayton. ;) I am also confused as how they plan to accomplish this project after the Ohio Supreme Court ruling with Rookwood Exchange. If the City of Dayton ends up using eminent domain (which it sounds like they will have to), I truly believe that the city should hold Midland Atlantic to higher standard. It could be by incorporating the Ecki Building into the project (highly unlikely, but the site plan does show a retail building right at that corner--probably for a CVS :lol:), holding them to higher architectural standards, or forcing Kroger to actively redevelop its former store (can you say College Hill Kroger in Cincinnati?). It's called reciprocity...the city scratches the developer's back, the developer needs to scratch the city's back. I will have to try to scan the site plan this weekend and post it, but basically it is just a large Kroger oriented toward Wayne Street with about 550 parking spaces in front of it and one or two other smaller retail buildings. Also, the renderings of the store I saw did look nice, but I'm certainly not ready to get excited over them yet--especially as someone who will have to drive by this place twice a day, everyday.

I'm not very familiar with Detroit, so please forgive me if I'm way off. When I was in Detroit, I drove past Ford Field and Comerica Park away from downtown and ended by a big hospital near a highway (I-75 I think). Some of these pictures reminded me of that neighborhood. Are they the same?

I'm just throwing this out there and have no idea if the parties involved would be interested, but it has just been something that I've been thinking about. Jeff has obviously invested a lot time and effect into creating his historical Dayton threads, which I am quite grateful for as I have learned a great deal from him and his research. I was just wondering if his research could actually be hosted on Urban Ohio as a part of the Dayton section. It is good to have it in the forum to discuss, but after time it gets buried and I would hate to loose that info if the forums were ever pruned or something like that. It was just an idea I had...and like I said, I have no idea if Jeff, Chris, and Rich would even be interested but I just wanted to throw it out there.

From the 11/29/06 Celina Daily Standard... Ag economist: Ethanol plants may have more problems than profits SIDNEY - Ag economist Matt Roberts is doubtful the latest wave of ethanol plants in Ohio will be profitable due to the unstable industry and the many unknowns associated with government regulations. Roberts was one of three ag panelists who spoke during a Farm Policy and Outlook program held in Sidney on Tuesday. http://www.dailystandard.com/archive/story_single.php?rec_id=1482

Brian West, the legal guardian of the tower, was at the Dayton City Commission meeting the same night as the developers presented the Ballpark Village development. One of the commissioners or the mayor thought it would be nice if the clock tower could be incorporated into the Ballpark Village. All thought that was a good idea and the two traded business cards. But we've already seen a promise from a developer regarding this tower, so I'm not holding my breath. Another idea I've heard is to put it on one of the building in Carillon Park--I think it was the Dicke Transportation Building.

I think that's Barnes and Noble.