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"AROUND OUR TOWN"
By Mayor Chuck Haney

City Hall Hosts Students----
Excellent Numbers for Golf Course, Aquatic Center
Wednesday, June 3, 2009

It was a very busy month of May for many of our city departments much of it caused by the extremely wet spring of April and early May.

However, the recent extremely warm weather and lots of sunshine have been big assets for the Green Hills Golf course and the Aquatic Center. Golf numbers are really up for the same period a year ago and the Aquatic numbers were excellent this past weekend because of the hot weather.

Joe Gilliland, Green Hills clubhouse manager, reported at a recent golf advisory board meeting that the course showed an $11,000 increase for April 2009 compared to April 2008. “That’s real good and things are busy now and have been for much of May,” said Gilliland when I spoke with him this past weekend. League golf play is underway with the Thursday night men’s league showing 108 players. There are 30 to 40 seniors at the weekly Tuesday morning league play and some 13 three-man teams show up each week for Match play. The golf course will be host to MGA Junior State Golf Tournament Tuesday, June 30 for boys age 13-18. The Course Improvement Tournament is set for June 20, Father’s Day weekend.

This past weekend saw more than 600 swimmers at the Aquatic Center as the temperatures soared into the mid and upper 80’s, according to Lifeguard Cody Lowe. Saturday had a season high 353 since the pool opened under cool and wet conditions on Memorial Day and the Tuesday following the holiday. This past Sunday as of late afternoon there were 268 students, adults or season punch card members passing through the gate. Last Saturday the numbers showed 205 students, 60 adults and 88 season or punch cards.

C-T Photo, 05 29 09

Last week the new city council took the day to tour city facilities and to meet department heads and employees. All council members—Councilman-at-Large Darrel Rinehart, First Ward Councilman Sid Cornell, Second Ward Councilman Maurice Zion, Third Ward Councilman Tom Douglas and Fourth Ward Councilman Paul Howard—were on the tour as well as City Administrator Dean Brookshier. City Attorney Adam Warren was also on a couple of the stops.

The group toured city sites, heard from the department heads and had the opportunity to learn more about the city departments, their duties and their employees. The group gathered at city hall last Wednesday (May 27) at 8 a.m. and then departed by van for the 11 scheduled stops.

During the morning hours, there was a visit to Hedrick Medical Center where CEO Brian Johnston presented a short PowerPoint on St. Luke’s and HMC and introduced key members of the local staff.

Next came the street department facilities and Director Hugh Musselman. Around 90 minutes was donated to the parks system as Director Ron Krammes joined the group. There were tours of Simpson Park, Danner Park, Shaffer Park, Clay Street Park and Mills Park.

C-T Photo, 05 27 09, Tour of Aquatic Center

The group broke for lunch around 12 p.m. at Victories inside Fast Lanes Entertainment Center.

Following lunch, it was off to see property owned by the city and Green Hills Golf Course which joins private property of Fritz Kline on Lakeview Drive. The engineering office of Shafer-Kline-Warren was the next stop where the group was met by resident engineer Ron Urton.

The group then moved to the police department for a tour of the facilities led by Chief Rick Knouse. Then it was off to the municipal airport east of Chillicothe for an update of the facilities and tours of the terminal buildings, hangers and runway led by Manager Bill Kieffer.

From the airport the group then checked out the golf course club house and the maintenance building and its operation with tours led by Manager Joe Gilliland and Course Superintendent Gerry Gabel.

Green Hills Golf Course - View of Maintenance Shed

The final stop was the department of Emergency Services where Fire Chief and Director Darrel Wright showed off the city fire equipments, ambulances and station as well as giving some rides in the aerial truck bucket.

Department heads and assistants and other elected personnel and guests then joined the mayor, council and administrator for a cookout prepared by Hy-Vee and Jeff Frampton and Brett Jeschke. The evening concluded around 6:30 p.m.

I want to thank all department heads and employees for their courtesy and time.

A Day on the Square for Chillicothe Middle School students included tours of the city hall offices led by City Clerk Roze Frampton and concluding remarks from the mayor about city history. Students in six middle school classes had been learning about Chillicothe—past and future—and researching entrepreneurs.

Graham’s Mill Mural - Photo by Butch Shaffer

Jana Shira of the middle school set up “Day on the Square” where students also visited the Chamber of Commerce office, historic Strand Hotel, Courthouse, Lauhoff Jewelry and Hometown Pharmacy and the Graham’s Mill Mural. Presenters at those sites included Ken Lauhoff, Lindy Chapman, Kelly Poling, Gordon Smith and Deanna Kepner, Mike Palmer and Kathy Hundley.

Earlier in the month of May, the city was proud to host 40 students from Tina-Avalon who were from the Future Business Leaders and FCCLA classes of Renee Trussell and Susan Rucker for Student Government Day at city hall. It included a tour of city hall, a mock city council meeting and tours of the fire and police departments. The students also enjoyed refreshments at city hall provided by the mayor as well as lunch and bowling at Fast Lanes Entertainment Center provided by Chillicothe State Bank. Those making remarks to the students included Clerk Frampton, City Administrator Dean Brookshier and City Attorney Adam Warren as well as Chief of Police Rick Knouse and Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Hoskins.

We always welcome students and groups to Chillicothe, city hall and our city-owned facilities. We are very proud of many things Chillicothe offers from work/industry and recreation as well as our many city departments.

Another Student Government Day was hosted at city hall in April for approximately 20 4-H students through a program of Livingston County University Extension.

Many good things are happening and being announced in Chillicothe right now. Chillicothe is also getting ready to host a stage for the Tour of Missouri in September when the top professional riders in the world will be in our town.

As mayor, I represented the city and presented comments, proclamations or attended meetings at Morningside Center, Bike Tour, Chamber, hospital, economic development, Main Street, Darin Bryan Memorial Run, Grand River Entertainment, Silver Moon Plaza, and the tribute to the old high school at six sessions of “If Halls Could Talk.”

I am in the mayor’s office in city hall each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well as other special occasions or meetings. My office is always open to hear from you—suggestions, comments or a complaint. The telephone number is 660-646-2267.