Classes resume Aug. 24; virtual courses still available.
Students will also be able to return for in-person services, such as advising, financial aid, enrollment, admissions, testing and tutoring starting July 6.
“This is for the students that wish to come back to campus for those services face-to-face,” she said. “They still have the option to receive services virtually, but some will want face-to-face.” There will be a mixture of in-person and online courses for the nearly 5,700 students that will attend fall semester, Blondin said. She also said that 38% of the courses are online and all courses have an online component. “We are ready to pivot to a fully online environment should the situation necessitate it,” she said. “Faculty create a virtual “shell” for every course for additional course materials, grading and teamwork/ collaboration for courses. Because of this preparedness, Clark State can move courses quickly to an online environment if need be.” When students return to campus, they will be asked to follow a “Return to Campus Daily Checklist” that follows guidelines regarding the “Responsible Restart of Ohio.” Some of what the college is doing includes shifting staff to be available 24 hours a day to deep clean and sanitize, purchasing new equipment to make sanitization more efficient using hospital-grade tools and cleaning agents, increasing communication, developing new signs, establishing physical distancing requirements and redesigning classrooms. “We’ve been working hard on the best possible plans for the safest possible environment,” said Matt Franz, vice president of IT and Emergency Management. “As you move throughout campus, you will see many of the safety and wellness measures that we’ve implemented, such as reconfigured classrooms that accommodate physical distancing, Plexiglas barriers where staff and students come in face-to-face contact, virtual meetings and even stickers on the floor.” Franz said individuals on campus are also asked to wear masks, frequently wash hands with soap and water, use the hand sanitizer that is outside of the classrooms as people enter and leave, and stay six feet apart of others. “We want to do everything possible to remove the barriers that prevent students from receiving the education and training they need to enter employment, get promoted or transfer to a university,” Blondin said. “We are doing everything in our power to mitigate risk while at the same time ensuring that we meet our mission to serve students.” Contact this reporter at 937- 328-0356 or email brooke.spurlock@coxinc.com.
The building capacity will be greatly reduced during this time. Extra staff will be available to help direct visitors. If you see a group in the building, please wait outside until they leave the building. Please help us by following all directions on signs on the doors and around the building. Please follow all social distancing guidelines while in the Nature Center and Preserve. Visitors are encouraged to wear a face covering.
Credit card use is preferred for admission fees at this time. The gift shop will be open to ADULTS ONLY. Please help by keeping children out of the gift shop. Inventory will be somewhat reduced at this time. The boardwalk will remain accessible Wednesday - Sunday from 9:00am - 5:00pm. Please remember, restrooms will not be available except when the Nature Center is open.
A public Open House Celebration to tour the facility and meet staff and Cobblestone executives will be announced in about 45 days. The three-story, 54-room hotel is located intersection of 68 & 55 on the south end of Urbana. Click here to learn more about the project and what it will mean for Champaign County!
New for this round of funding, employers can apply for TechCred funding for specific credentials, without specifying employee name on the initial application. This allows companies to apply and receive funding that can be used for new hires and their future pipeline. With this change, companies can confidently hire individuals who may have been displaced due to COVID-19 and know that they can get the credentialing and training they need in a convenient, timely and affordable fashion.
To see the full list of credentials, please visit https://techcred.ohio.gov/. Does your workforce need a different credential or training? Work with them to submit an application customized to fit your needs for TechCred funding review. Employers can request a credential be added to the eligible list.
He said, however, that the project is expected to come in under $3 million and that he believes the senior center already has about a third of the funds that will be needed.
Champaign County voters narrowly passed a five-year, 0.5-mill levy in April to build a new senior center on Patrick Avenue near Water Street. The current facility is located at the corner of Thompson and Walnut streets. Passing with a 3,613-3,512 vote, the levy is expected to generate an estimated $458,000 a year, which Miller said will be used to repay a loan the senior center will acquire from Civista Bank. In 2019, the bank donated 2.2 acres behind its 601 Scioto St. location for a new senior center. Stacy Barnhart, the center’s executive director, expressed gratitude to Civista, the community and center members, including building committee members Anita Phillips, Mary Lee and Jerry Gecowets, Larry Headlee, Roger Koerner and Miller. “It took many meetings and lots of hard work to get the building levy passed,” Barnhart said. “We had many people make calls, send out post cards and speak on behalf of the (center) for the need of a new center.” “It’s taken a lot of effort, a lot of work,” Miller said of tasks accomplished so far to get a new facility. “I know it will be successful.” The senior center moved to its current site, a former church, in 1980. The senior center also owns and rents the house just south of the former church. Miller said these properties will be sold. The new building and parking lot will offer many improvements, Miller and Barnhart said. “There will be three times as much parking, at least 46 spaces,” Miller said. The one-story 9,452-squarefoot structure, designed by Beasley Architecture & Design, will include larger pantry and kitchen areas, walk-in freezers, a large activity room, as well as game, meeting and conference rooms that will provide privacy when needed. Members no longer will need to maneuver stairs and ramp, and carts of groceries no longer will need to be carefully guided up and down the ramp. Barnhart said she looks forward to more pantry space and room to expand outreach services. “We are always faced with a lack of space at our current center,” she said. Both she and Miller said the need for senior center services will increase. “Our senior population is growing tremendously in the county,” Miller said. “Right now, probably 23% of (the county’s) 40,000 are seniors.” Click here to read full article on Urbana Daily Citizen. Submitted Story
The Champaign County Chamber of Commerce and the Champaign Economic Partnership (CEP) have formed the Champaign County Economic Recovery Task Force to help local businesses recover from COVID-19 shutdowns. The task force is composed of Chamber and CEP board members and other community leaders representing retail stores, restaurants, manufacturing, education, agriculture, banking, and city, village and county government. In initial meetings the task force created subcommittees to focus on specific initiatives, Chamber Executive Director Sara Neer said. These include Urbana University, Fundraising, Personal Protective Equipment, Marketing, and Training and Support. The Training and Support subcommittee, Neer said, is planning webinars with guest speakers, who will share industry-specific regulations and best practices for operating in the pandemic. The online sessions will be scheduled for restaurants and food service, retail, manufacturing, beauty and barber shops, and health and fitness. Task Force objectives include: · Support local businesses impacted by the pandemic · Ensure that the local economy rebounds from the pandemic as quickly as possible · Connect local businesses to government · Establish a unified voice to advocate in the community’s best interests · Ensure consumer confidence in local businesses as they reopen “We want people to have confidence that they are safe when they visit and shop or dine at Champaign County businesses,” CEP Director Marcia Bailey said. “Our local businesses are taking every precaution and are looking forward to having their businesses reopened and serving their customers.” Neer said that the Chamber will conduct a second Support Local apparel fundraiser. In the first, buyers designated businesses to receive a portion of each sale. In the second, money will be raised to support recovery efforts, Neer said. In addition, the CEP has conducted a survey to determine the needs of businesses impacted by the pandemic and established, with the help of Champaign County commissioners, the COVID-19 Champaign County Small Business Emergency Grant Fund, which recently presented a total of $54,265.15 to 24 businesses.
The group will be a housing consortium that will consist of volunteers that could range from government officials to local business leaders. They would also be using a recently released 128-page analysis of the county’s housing market as a guide in future efforts to strengthen it.
That includes diversifying as well as adding to available housing stock in the county, fostering more development of new homes and the redevelopment of old ones as well as preexisting buildings that can be converted to apartments and lofts. One of the tasks of the housing consortium could be to look at existing zoning and rules in the county and what can be done to make them more conducive to current housing needs, said Marcia Bailey, the director of the Champaign Economic Partnership. That includes also focusing on multi-family housing options, instead of just on single family homes. “We want development to occur where there is available or nearby infrastructure. We are an agricultural community and we want to be able to preserve agricultural land as well,” Bailey previously told the News-Sun. A point she said they will continue to focus on. Efforts to boost the local housing market were temporarily put on hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, Bailey said they are looking to hold conversations next month and hope to have the housing consortium up and running in the near future. This follows a series of discussions held in the beginning of the year that went over some of the findings of the comprehensive housing study, which was conducted by the Greater Ohio Policy Center. That organization, according to its website, “is focused on improving the communities of Ohio through growth strategies and research. Bailey said that she wanted to continue having those conversations as housing is an issue that will not soon go away. She said that having available housing stock and looking at ways to grow the population is key to economic development in the county. The News-Sun previously reported that lower housing stock, coupled with high demand has led to a continued stable market in the area even during the pandemic. The study commissioned by the Champaign Economic Partnership looked at common housing challenges in the city of Urbana as well as the villages of Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg and St. Paris. It also compared municipalities in the county to others in the state that are tackling similar problems such as having aging housing stock, a fair amount of blighted properties and limited land for new housing developments. In Champaign County, it was noted that 75% of homes there were built before 1990, according to the Greater Ohio Policy Center. Additionally, there has been a total of 324 permits filed in the county since 2010 for the construction of single family homes. It was also found that about 80% of new home construction since 2010 has occurred outside municipal boundaries in the county. “It can be within a township or another unincorporated territory,” said Maria Walliser-Wejebe, a research associate with the policy center, earlier this year. The study cost about $40,000 and came from funds set aside by the Champaign County Commissioners that are to be used for economic development. In addition, the analysis offered a total of 22 recommendations that followed six main themes. The recommendations fell into the categories of prioritizing down towns and main streets, ensuring that local governments are strong partners to development, protecting existing housing stock and preventing it from declining, having creative financing and funding strategies and maintaining affordability. Click here to read full article on Urbana Daily Citizen. Last week 24 local businesses received a total of $54,265.15 in grant funds to support them during the difficulties faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To be eligible for the grant program, commercial or retail businesses must have a storefront in Champaign County (cannot be home-based or nonprofit), have fewer than 50 employees, be current on local, state and federal obligations such as taxes and assessments, been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and, if a franchise, have no more than two storefronts in the county and not be corporate owned. 24 local businesses applied for this grant program and the CEP Board of Directors agreed to assist all 24 businesses that applied. The following businesses received funds: The Half Day Cafe, LG Industrial Supply, Tommy Brooks Salon, Massage on Monument Square, The Cutting Edge Hair Salon, The Hair Closet, Carriage House Salon, Let's Eat Cake, Pam's House of Beauty, Kim's Creative Designs, Theresa's It Figures, East Lawn & Garden, Kaleidoscope, Oxner's General Store, Vape on the Square, Main Graphics, The Vintage Traveler, Brugh's Auto & Tire, Family Country Cuts, Tom's Varsity Barbershop, Paul's Catering, Metz Painting & Roofing, Jones Country Store and The Hive. Many of the business owners were overwhelmed with emotions and all were grateful for the opportunity these funds offered. Some said they were struggling to decide whether to continue after being closed. Mike Manoloff, owner of Oxner's General Store, said, "Thanks to this grant, I'll be staying in business." "This will improve my chances to remain apart of Urbana's Small Businesses... It also keeps a dream alive, " Tina Blakeman, owner of The Vintage Traveler. “Our small businesses are essential to the vitality of Champaign County. We want to do what we can to help get them back on track, to continue providing jobs and valuable products and services that make our county a better place to live and work,” explained Marcia Bailey, CEP Director.
“Quite a few years ago NASCAR started honoring fallen soldiers on the race that was held on Memorial Day, which is the Coca-Cola 600,” said Mark Grieser. “My brother was killed 51 years ago on May 18, 1969, and his commanding officer in Vietnam, where he was killed, is still alive and lives out on the west coast. His son just happened to work for Chip Ganassi Racing, which has two cars I think. The father asked his son ‘how come I’ve never seen Phil’s name on any of the cars on Memorial Day?’ And Doug, that’s his son, said ‘dad, I don’t know, but I’ll ask some questions.’ So he went back to the Chip Ganassi Racing and he asked the PR guy what we have to do to get Phil’s name on there. They said they would work on it, and this was about this time last summer, and we got notes here a month ago that it’s all fallen into place and Phil’s name is going to be across the windshield of the Kurt Busch car, the number one car.”
The 600 Miles of Remembrance NASCAR Cup Series was created to honor and remember the men and women who gave their lives in active duty service defending the country. Fallen service members will be honored by featuring their names on the windshield of each NASCAR Cup Series car during the Memorial Day Weekend race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, according to media representative Jeff Dowling. The program highlights service members who have died in service to America, and Dowling said that ideally the driver and/ or team have a personal connection to the service member through a family member or hometown. The car was painted on Wednesday. Although Grieser said he does not plan to be present for the race, he and nine other family members - including three daughters and their children - are traveling to North Carolina for the weekend to take some photos with the car and meet a representative of the FOX network. Mark is the last surviving brother of Phil, as middle brother Wayne passed away from cancer about 10 years ago. Mark did not himself choose to serve in the military, and said he had few clear memories of his brother because he was in sixth grade when his brother was killed at 24. “When he left in ’65 I was 6-7 years old,” Mark said of his brother. “My memories were of the summers when he was in the Navy stationed in California, so up through my seventh grade in school, I’d go out to California in the summer time and spend a month with him out there. We did a lot of things and he took me a lot of places out there.” Phil became a U.S. Navy Seabee, a member of the U.S. Naval Construction Force, and died on his third tour to Vietnam during the war. “He graduated from high school in ’64, we lived on a dairy farm and in ’65 is when he left for the Navy,” Mark said. “He was in his fourth year of the Navy. That was his third, eight-month hitch in Vietnam, he had 22 more days left in ‘Nam and he had 40 days left in the Navy, he was going to be out, so he almost was done with the Navy. He was going to come back and take over the dairy farm.” Mark said that when he was at home, Phil was the responsible brother and always made sure that the chores were taken care of. Christopher Selmek can be reached at 937-508-2304.
When discussing the changes, Gilbert noted that “The company has experienced significant expansion over the last several years. Providing global oversight to these critical areas of our business ensures that customers receive the highest level of quality and service around the world.”
William Bundy has been promoted to President, Global Manufacturing. His responsibilities include management of all Bundy Baking Solutions pan and equipment manufacturing operations and leadership teams. William has been with company for over 10 years and most recently served as leader of European operations. Robert Bundy has been promoted to President, Global Coating Operations. He is responsible for the management of all Bundy Baking Solutions pan refurbishment and coating facilities and their leadership teams. Robert has over 15 years of service with the company serving in various management positions for the pan coating businesses. Jason Tingley has been promoted to Global Innovation Officer. Jason has been with the company for over 30 years and served as Vice President of American Pan for the last 10 years. In his new role, Jason will lead multinational teams focused on new product development and process improvements. Bundy Baking Solutions, headquartered in Urbana, Ohio, USA, provides baking pans and equipment to the global baking industry with locations worldwide including two facilities in the UK, one in Spain and one in Romania. The family owned group of companies includes American Pan, Chicago Metallic, DuraShield, Pan Glo, RTB, Shaffer and Synova. |
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