State of the City Address
2007 Community Award Recipients

Bob Long of Long & Wilcox

Bob Long has been a leading catalyst in the recent growth and redevelopment of UA. It started with the simple premise of headquartering one of Central Ohio's most successful condominium developers, Long and Wilcox, in an owner-occupied building in Kingsdale. Understanding that quality housing is key to vibrant mixed-use redevelopments, and embracing the core values of the Master Plan, Bob championed the cause by being a pioneer in the Kingsdale redevelopment area with the Arlington Crossing project, which has helped spur three other adjacent projects and has caused Bob to engage in a second project immediately west of Arlington Crossing. Bob's love for the community is not just about business, he also commits his time and energy to good causes. Bob just completed a three-year term as president of the Tri-Village Mentor League, and has also participated in the Leadership UA program, continuing to mentor new classes.

Congratulations to our additional 2007 Business Award nominees:

EMC2
In 2007, Engineering Mechanics Corporation of Columbus partnered with the Cultural Arts Division, serving as the location for the first exhibition for the new Arts in Work Spaces program, providing artists an opportunity to display their work in local office buildings while increasing visibility for Cultural Arts programming. A growing technology company, EMC2 is focused on experimental and analytical evaluations of piping and other devices using engineered products for the nuclear, oil and gas industries. In 2007, the company patented a process to break down and reformulate the molecular structure of fibers such as hemp, which can be a substitute for fiberglass as a strengthening agent in polymer and plastics. These lighter weight polymers can be more readily recycled and reused.

National Church Residences
National Church Residences is an established, large UA employer and a cooperative corporate citizen. The mission of National Church Residences is to provide quality housing and care at affordable prices in communities of caring persons. While their ministry has been targeted primarily toward older adults, they also have special concern for low- and moderate-income seniors, persons with disabilities, and low- and moderate-income families. As a respected member of the not-for-profit community, National Church Residences are vitally interested in contributing to the formation of public policy issues affecting those they serve.

Panera Bread
Panera is involved in reducing hunger in Central Ohio and supporting programs sponsored by non-profit organizations in UA. In addition to its end-of-the-day contribution of bread to local food pantries, during the holiday season Panera was a drop-off site for non-perishable foods for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. In 2007 a new collaborative partnership, Volunteer UA, was formed between five non-profit and public organizations to raise awareness of the benefits of volunteerism and promote public participation in volunteering. Panera donated food for the event that drew over 150 guests. Panera is a good business neighbor to have in the community.

Papa Murphy’s Take N Bake Pizza
Papa Murphy’s promotes reading and has partnered with the UA Public Library to offer incentives to encourage and reward young readers. Before opening at Reed and Henderson roads in June 2007, store manager Scott Levengood reached out to the Library and expressed interest in being a business partner. Papa Murphy’s provided 1,800 “edible bookmarks.” Young readers would have the bookmark stamped by a librarian and after the 10th stamp they could turn it in for a free medium pizza. Papa Murphy’s donated 25 large pizzas for the Volunteer UA event that drew over 150 people in attendance, even providing dinner for the Police and Fire personnel on duty that evening.

Upper Arlington Area Chamber of Commerce
While every business makes a meaningful impact on our community, businesses can work together to have an even greater influence. The Chamber serves as an advocate for all UA area businesses, representing members’ wishes on issues like taxation, legislation and economic development, and has been a fixture in the community for the last 30 years. In 2007, the Chamber gave out two scholarships to Leadership UA, contributed a scholarship to the Ohio Business Week Foundation, held eight chamber lunches with total attendance of over 500 and conducted New Member Breakfasts and Afternoon Business Network Exchange and Small Business Gathering events.

ursus
In 2007, URSUS worked with the Cultural Arts Commission and Friends of the Arts to host Commission meetings and interviews for new commissioners. URSUS continued to work for the arts in UA by hosting re-dedication meetings for the Friends of the Arts. In the summer, URSUS worked with the Historical Society and Cultural Arts Commission, providing garden art for the Tour of Homes. URSUS continues to support the arts in UA by selling artists’ work in the store and deserves to be recognized for its support of the arts and community service.

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Community Enrichment
Cool UA
Members of the Cool UA Group

Cool UA is a citizen group whose mission is to encourage local officials and individuals to adopt energy efficiencies. The group encourages sustainable building practices, purchasing energy star equipment and appliances, retrofitting facilities with energy efficient lighting, and increasing the fuel efficiency of vehicles. At the UA Schools, Superintendent Jeffrey Weaver and Business Director Paul Craft analyzed the district’s energy bills and decided to take action. Energy teams are being formed at each building to educate students and staff on the human factors that waste energy. Each team will look for ways to conserve energy and save taxpayer money.

Congratulations to our additional Community Enrichment nominees:

Mark Calvary
Mark Calvary’s initiative and persistent work on the referendum to force a vote on the attempted purchase by City Council of the Christian Apostolic Church property on Kenny Road saved the UA community roughly two-million dollars.

Tim Casey
Tim is the UA varsity basketball coach. However, this nomination is for his volunteerism and leadership with the youth basketball program. The Golden Bear Basketball Club (GBBC) exists because of Tim. The program touches kids from third to sixth grade. Tim devotes countless hours to the GBBC program. He also runs the Youth Basketball Camps and the Optimist Youth Basketball Program for grades K-3. All of this is in addition to his job as the high school basketball coach. This is a tremendous service to the community.

Cultural Arts Commission
The mission of the Cultural Arts Commission is to provide and promote a diverse, lively and accessible arts environment that advances the cultural assets and enriches the quality of life in the community. They fulfill this mission by supporting an art curriculum in our schools, hosting visual art shows in the Concourse Gallery, programming free concerts, creating art opportunities for residents and encouraging diversity and appreciation for the arts. As part of its goals for 2008, the Commission will conduct a survey to build awareness and influence future programming.

Northwest Kiwanis
Northwest Kiwanis has donated more than $13,000 over the past four years in support of the elementary Special Needs Activity Camp for kids program. The program for youths, ages six to 12-years old, who have a disability requires a 1:3 staff-to-participant ratio, making the program costly. Through Northwest Kiwanis’ donation the registration fee can be kept the same as a typical day camp program, thus making it more affordable for parents who have a multitude of expenses for their special needs child.

Riverside Methodist Church
The Riverside Methodist Church members volunteered at the City’s Parks & Recreation Department’s Fall Fest in October. Don Adams spearheaded the effort and worked several months coordinating volunteers with the Recreation Division. Fall Fest, in its third year, is an annual family-fun community event. This event has challenged the staff of the Recreation Division on the basis of finding qualified volunteers to help with activities, games and demonstrations. More than 25 volunteers from Riverside Methodist were recruited by Don Adams to work the event, helping children carve pumpkins, press apples for apple cider making, string buckeyes for necklaces, filling thousands of helium balloons and attending to numerous other tasks, much to the delight of those in attendance.

Upper Arlington Library Outreach Volunteers
The Outreach Program is made up of Jim Bowen, Jean Cook, Walter Coultas, Joan Edwards, Joanne Fuhrman, Mary Ann Gilbride, Roy McKenna, Bob McLinn, Pat Moore, Stefani Powell, Dave and Estelle Scott and Patricia Ann Smith. They are a group of dedicated volunteers who deliver to individual homes, as well as retirement communities and assisted living facilities. They currently provide service to individuals who are homebound, as well as residents of Abbington on Arlington, Arlington Court, First Community Village, The Forum at Knightsbridge, Mill Run Gardens & Care Center, Sunrise on the Scioto, Traditions at Mill Run and Whetstone Gardens & Care Center. The Volunteers of the Outreach Program are more than a delivery service, they make personal contact with homebound patrons and friendships are made. These volunteers are the bloodline of the Outreach Program and their service of bringing the public library books, movies and music enhances the quality of life for residents of Upper Arlington.

Volunteer UA
The first Volunteer UA expo launched a partnership enterprise with exciting potential for the TriVillage area. More than 20 non-profit organizations participated in the event, to promote their needs and opportunities for prospective community volunteers. An estimated 150 guests attended, and many exhibitors reported a high success rate in speaking with and getting initial commitments from prospective volunteers. Volunteer UA was made possible by a partnership of the Commission on Aging, Library, TriVillage Mentor League, Northwest Partners (a volunteer component of Northwest Counseling Services) and the City. All five entities provide essential quality of life services to the community, all share the need for volunteers in a variety of ways, and all recognize the value of partnering and sharing resources to create a mutually beneficial program that further supports the fabric of the community. In 2008, this lead group is already beginning to plan out ways to take the Volunteer UA program to the next level.

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Community Safety
John Monaghan
John Monaghan

Volunteers helped to make the largest full-scale emergency exercise ever conducted in Franklin County go smoothly. John recruited others to volunteer and helped to kick-off the event by volunteering to dress up and be pulled over by UA Police at Thompson Park. He also volunteered to take part in activities in Sharon Township and at the UA High School. The training took place throughout the day with terrorism simulation events in Gahanna, Westerville and Worthington. The main goal of the exercise was to test the capabilities of bomb squads and other local agencies that typically don’t have the ability to train in real life conditions. The training event addressed how a multi-jurisdictional emergency event might transpire and John’s participation was crucial. John has also proven a leader of the first Citizen Police Academy class from 2007. He has coordinated their volunteer efforts at various community events, serving as ambassadors for the Police Division.

Congratulations to our additional Community Safety nominees:

Don Stanko
Don has been with the Police Division since 1992, and recently completed a 10-year stint as the Community Relations Officer. Throughout Don’s time as the Community Relations Officer, he worked as the DARE and Safety Town officer, self-defense trainer and created innovative school programs to educate students in Upper Arlington schools, and has positively touched the lives of many of our community’s children, teaching them about personal safety and providing a positive link between them and our safety forces.

Team Delta Max
Team Delta Max is the drug and alcohol-free student-led group from UAHS developed in November 2006 in response to the call for a student movement needed to combat the underage drinking problem facing the UA community, in which nearly 50 percent of all 11th and 12th graders drink alcohol at least once a month (according to the 2006 PPAUS Survey). Throughout 2007, Team Delta Max earnestly sought proactive solutions that encouraged students to make positive life choices regarding drug and alcohol-use. To begin 2007, the group created and implemented a series of teen dance parties, called The Max, to promote having fun in a safe and substance-free environment. In April, Team Delta Max held a student-forum to discuss how to make a difference in the issue. Using ideas from the forum as well as research from successful national programs, Team Delta Max developed an action plan to elevate awareness, create dialogue and galvanize the community. It was presented to and approved by the UA City Council and School Board in June.

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Super Senior
Jake Will
Jake Will

Jake, a lifelong UA resident, currently serves on the Community Improvement Corporation (10 years of service), the Northam Park Tennis Advisory Board (four years of service), the UA Historical Society (four years of service), the UA Board of Education Finance Advisory Group (six years of service), the Northwest Kiwanis Club (49 years of service) and the Saint Agatha Parish Administration Committee (nine years of service). Jake is an advocate for businesses in UA and is involved in helping all prospective companies who want to re-locate by giving them direction and guidance.

Congratulations to our additional Super Senior nominees:

Jean Baskwill
Jean is an active member and patron of the Senior Association and the Senior Center. She has volunteered for Café UA for more than 10 years and now serves as its manager. She has totally re-vamped the operation by contracting with Gordon Food Service and trying out new items to keep the menu fresh and exciting. Café UA is a wonderful social program at the Senior Center; no one ever has to eat alone and there is always delicious food at affordable prices. Jean also serves as the secretary of the Finance Committee at the Senior Center, volunteers at the Upper Arlington Library and serves as the secretary for the condo association where she lives.

Georgia Bruce
Georgia is an active member of the Senior Center and the Senior Advisory Council (SAC), and is in her third year as SAC President. In 2007, under Georgia’s leadership, SAC donated new fitness equipment for Studio 55 and partnered with the City on the purchase of new computers for the computer lab. Georgia is also chairman of the desk volunteers for the Senior Center, assistant to the instructor of the Shakespeare group and a volunteer at The Discovery Shop, which benefits the Cancer Society. She is active in the community and not afraid to take a leadership role.

Barbara and Bob Miller
Barbara and Bob volunteer for Northwest Partners, a volunteer component of the Northwest Counseling Services Older Adults Program. Bob has served as a volunteer since 2000 and helps provide transportation for homebound seniors in the northwest area who otherwise would have very few transportation options. In 2004, his wife, Barbara, got tired of fielding phone calls regarding transportation requests and decided to also become a volunteer for Northwest Partners. They happily and patiently help as much as they can. After being a volunteer for some time with Northwest Partners, Bob accepted a spot on the Northwest Counseling Services board of directors and has served in the capacity of president.

Doyle Stoner
Doyle has shared his professional skills with the Senior Center for many years as the treasurer of the Senior Advisory Council (SAC). Over the years, Doyle has paid millions of dollars of bills for the Senior Association. He is a true professional and easy to work with. Doyle has decided to give up his position at the Senior Center and he is now avidly working with the new treasurer. Doyle also served as the group’s City Council liaison, attending many evening meetings to keep SAC up to speed on community issues. His service to the Upper Arlington Senior Center has been commendable.

Joan Riegel
Joan is a seasoned citizen in UA when it comes to leading community projects that promote cultural enrichment, provide social entertainment and endear friendships. Joan has led and been involved with community quilt projects for more than 30 years. In 2007, when the UA Public Library made a public request for community participation in a quilt exhibit to celebrate its 40th anniversary as an independent system, Joan responded. She gave her time, resources and expertise to the Library in planning for this special event. She was invaluable and significant to the great success of the Library’s community quilt exhibit, on display in the atrium of the main branch for 40 days and hundreds of residents and library patrons enjoyed the exhibit and commented on how much they appreciated viewing the quilts and reading about their history.

Sara Jane Young
Sara has been a resident of UA for more than 40 years. She has been an active member of the Senior Center since its opening. During these years, Sara has served as Coordinator of Café UA, the lunchroom facility at the center. As term limits permit, she has served on the Center’s Senior Advisory Council time and again.

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Youth Award
Jeff Sale

Jeff’s desire to help others through service sets an amazing example for youth in our community. During the summer, Jeff spent time tutoring middle school students. He also completed a service project making the triangular frames for flags awarded to the families of military personnel. The frames were donated to local funeral homes. At the High School, Jeff serves others by volunteering in the office, working as a high school counselor at sixth grade camp and founding and leading the Frisbee Club. Jeff has been a guest speaker in health classes, has planned an assembly for the eighth graders and is planning club activities promoting the DARE concepts. Jeff is totally committed to leading by example.

Congratulations to our additional 2007 Youth Award nominees:

Jason Crouse
Jason personifies excellence and is conscious of setting a good example for others to follow. He has completed several service projects through Boy Scouts and his church. At Hastings, Jason is involved with Power of the Pen, Orchestra (section leader), Drama Club and serves as class president. Jason has evolved into an extremely conscientious and dependable person. He carries himself with unmistakable integrity. He is passionate about his life and his work. Fellow students look to him as a quiet, but resolute leader.

Ryan Kahle
Ryan exemplifies the pillars of ethical behavior daily while at school, but more importantly he truly lives the ideal of caring for others while outside of school as well. Ryan is involved with his scout troop as a patrol leader, through which he has been involved in serving members of the UA community while assisting with projects to build a fence around a church playground and putting a baseball field in at another church. Ryan also volunteers as a teen helper at Saint Andrew’s Vacation Bible School. At Hastings, Ryan is a member of the band, baseball team and a co-captain of the golf team. Ryan also organized an event this year to raise money for the Columbus Chapter of Honor Flight, an organization that provides veterans the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C. Ryan is an outstanding example of youth serving others in the Upper Arlington community.

Kelcey Laylin
Kelcey has been a leader in Hastings Middle School Service Club since sixth grade and is recognized by her peers as one of “those students” who is always serving the community. She has been an integral part of our student body connection with the Columbus Chapter of Honor Flight, an organization that takes World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. Kelcey also is involved with her church, the Charity Newsies and is a champion of service at Hastings Middle School.

Bailey McClellan
Bailey is the shining example of a young person committed to all levels of the community. Her efforts reflect not just the required service hours for school, but an enduring dedication to reaching out and giving back to the community. At the High School, Bailey is a peer collaborator for students taking Spanish and is serving as a freshman mentor for the 2007-2008 school year. She also takes AP and IB classes, participates in two varsity sports and maintains a high GPA. Bailey has also volunteered with the Childhood League School, the Franklin County Dog Shelter, the UA Civic Association and the Big Brother/Big Sister Program. Bailey is the community spirit of UA.

Kelly Spangler
Kelly is a person who gives her heart to everything she does. When she first came to Hastings Middle School, she volunteered for many activities such as raising money by caroling and at “read-ins” and helping to start a model United Nations. As a seventh grader, she continues to volunteer within the school, but has also expanded out of school by helping at the Family Literacy Day, Church Bible School and by purchasing and wrapping gifts for needy families. Kelly gives her heart to the world around her in many little and big acts.


City Manager's Office
City of Upper Arlington
3600 Tremont Road
Upper Arlington, Ohio 43221
Phone: 614-583-5040
www.ua-ohio.net