Far Northwest Coalition

SEPT 2008 FNWC MINUTES

FAR NORTHWEST COALITION

FNWC – September 2008 Minutes

Far Northwest Coalition
P.O. Box 340285
Columbus, OH 43234-0285

September 24, 2008

The FNWC met for its regularly scheduled meeting at St. Andrew Christian Church. Member present were John Best, Joe Macomber, Mike Brown, John Marley, Rich Herner and Kelly Thompson.

Guests included Alan McKnight (Columbus Recreation & Parks), Patty Schaffer (Carriage Place Rec Center), Anna Lee (Sawmill Forest) and Brian Smith (Copper Tree Estates).

The May 2008 meeting minutes were reviewed, and the minutes were approved by the board.

John said that Dr. Osborn’s zoning request had been approved by the city. He was not sure what the status was of the Claremont zoning request.

There was a brief discussion of the Hard Road improvement project. Phase 2 (Linworth Rd to 315) is projected to go to the end of 2009 or into 2010. The board would like to have ODOT and/or Paving the Way back in to meet with the group and to talk about the I270/315 interchange project.

John introduced Alan McKnight. Alan has 32 years with Columbus Recreation and Parks department. Alan passed out brochures which outline the Columbus City bond issues 14 – 19 that are on the November ballot. Alan talked about how the bond packages work. The city sells bonds to raise capital for needed capital improvements. These cover 5 years of projects covering $1.6 billion. Of this, $1 billion is for water and sewer projects. These are paid for from water/sewer revenues. Other bonds are retired via city income tax revenues. Columbus has a AAA bond rating. We are the largest US city with a AAA rating. Information on the bond packages can be found by going to the Columbus web site where there is a link to the bond package information.

$124 million is earmarked for recreation and parks. They anticipate that this will include two new fitness centers, one in 2010 and one in 2012. These will be 50,000 – 60,000 square feet centers with aquatic components, similar to the Lazelle Park and Dodge centers build a couple of years ago. There was a discussion of the city partnering with the Y or other organizations in running the centers, similar to the Powell Y partnering with OSU Medical. The city is looking at several possible business models:
• Free areas for community: game room, gym, etc.
• Memberships for fitness center and pool.
• Activities for all age groups. Programming for arts/crafts, etc.

There was a discussion about the Nielson/Schwab park property. The is a wooded area that Columbus Rec & Parks plan to keep as woods with nature trails and with access to a parking area. The house and cottage are not yet available, being still controlled by the family. The house is rented. Patty Schaffer said that she would like to be able to have art classes there if the house becomes available to the city. Development of the area is planned in 2- 5 years.

The Hard Road park may be developed within two years, having parking and a small playground.

Bike paths were discussed. It was noted that it would be good to have bike paths from Worthington Hills park connected with Hard Road, and to connect north to Highbanks park.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes submitted by Mike Brown.