Miami University bans Smoking

Miami University announced that as of September of 2008, the campuses will be smoke-free. This action goes hand in hand with Ohio's ban on indoor smoking that began in December of 2006. This will affect all campuses including Oxford, Hamilton, Middletown, and even the campus in Europe. Smoking will be banned on all university property, including sidewalks, athletic facilities, and any other open space on campus. The only exception will be small, limited spaces near campus housing. Anyone who smokes must leave university property before smoking. In addition to this, the university will be offering programs to help students stop smoking.

Middletown Schools - Game On

The news this afternoon is looking pretty good for the Middletown kids who were in danger of being without sports of any kind this year. The announcement that a solution had been reached was made at 3:00 p.m. today in a press conference called by school officials.

Below is the entire statement just released by an anonymous group involved in the fund raising:

Statement:

Thanks to the efforts of many different segments of the entire community, our Middletown Junior and Senior High School students will all have the opportunity to participate in extra curricular activities this fall.


The coaches and advisors stepped up to work without pay, the Administration has cut drastically into the support services of the Athletic Department and other cuts have been made in the school extra-curricular budget.

The Middie Touchdown Club and Middletown High School Athletic Boosters have dug deep into their treasuries. Many, many private citizens and businesses have made significant donations of cash to the 543 Committee and Booster Club.

Collectively, all those efforts have brought down the cost for individual
families. That result, coupled with a financial guarantee from several citizens will mean that all Middie activities will be available this fall.


Everyone involved stresses that this is a short-term fix, just to see that all
students can participate in the activities that mean so much to their education and college futures. All of these fees, above the usual pay-to-play fees are expected to be refunded once the two levies are passed in November.

Everyone also understands that, while this is not a perfect solution to a very complicated issue, it is the best that can be done on such short notice. We know “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.” Those of us involved know we did what was right at the time.

To read more on the funding of Middletown School Sports visit MiddletownUSA.com

Middletown Mayor's Race Heats Up

The most recent addition to the race for Middletown's first directly-elected mayor is well known community activist Merrell Wood, former director of TV Middletown, founder of Middletown Habitat for Humanity, founder of the Sink Or Swim foundation, and chairman of the Middletown Park Board.

Merrell Wood is a familiar face at Middletown City Council meetings, and the same can be said about his peers. Two other mayoral candidates have experience in Middletown's government: Larry Mulligan Jr. is a current member of city council representing the 2nd ward. Another candidate has already served as mayor from 1997 to 2001, and comes with a plethora of other public service experience under his belt as well, Fred Sennet. Other community activists campaigning for the job are frequent city council and school board critics Paul Nagy and Nick Kidd. Both have worked in civilian organizations towards the betterment of the city and have often been vocal about their opinions.

Current vice-mayor Tony Marconi had also pulled petitions to campaign previously, but decided not to run stating that he felt he could better serve the city in his current position. Two other residents, Mike Presta and James Garrett also pulled petitions but did not file them.

The Final Days of the Middletown Carnegie Library

The Carnegie Library that many of us in Middletown grew up with is perhaps in its final days.

Abandoned and falling fast into a terminal state of disrepair the grand old building is facing a Sheriffs Auction at the end of August.

Our Carnegie Library dates back to the turn of the 20th Century and was without a doubt part of one of the most ambitious and philanthropic construction projects the country has ever seen.

For more information on our Historic Carnegie Library and the effort to save it visit the Butler County Citizens for Historic and Preservation Services website or leave your comment on The Middletown Ohio Forums.

AK Steel Logo obscures Verity Statue

AK Steel Headquarters in Middletown
Originally uploaded by John Beagle

From Curtis Street in Middletown, Ohio, see the old AK Headquarters complete with giant logo almost blocking the statue of George M. Verity, the company founder.

Ritchie's Pawn Central

Richies Pawn Cental
Originally uploaded by John Beagle

Not part of the Middletown, Ohio revitalization project, Richie's Pawn Central is for sale.

Excellent, high profile location. If you have something for the Middletown, Ohio market, this is a good retail location at a moderate price.

See Richies Pawn Shop on MiddletownUSA.com

or Review Richies Pawn Shop on MiddletownReview.com

Middletown City Schools - Ohio Department of Education Data

In the face of tough and difficult times, such as the Middletown City School District now finds itself in, complaining and finding fault is the easiest thing to do.

The editors at MiddletownUSA.com appreciate Dr. Price and his efforts to stay positive and educate the community on the state of our School District. We sincerely believe Dr. Price when he points out that there is plenty to be proud of when it comes to the Middletown City Schools.

Although turnout was low Dr. Price should be commended for making the effort to meet with the community in several open sessions over the last few months.

During one such session, that we documented on our Middletown Community Website, many of us heard Dr. Price say that we need to take time to see the numbers and the data in regards to the Performance of the Middletown City Schools. His intent is of course to encourage the community to be informed on the issues and the schools performance. With that goal we are in total agreement.

Many of us have also heard the Superintendent say, in that same Video of Dr. Price as mentioned above: “if anyone tells me personally that we have not made progress, and that scores have not improved, they have not taken the time to see the numbers and the facts”. Though that may be true we understand that in the face of constant negative publicity about the schools and the community there would also be a high level of skepticism accompanying that statement. But even that skepticism is understandable as most of the community would have no idea where these “numbers and facts” on school performance came from or what they in their entirety show.

Traditionally the community would gather its opinion of the Schools Performance by articles printed in the local paper or perhaps a 30 second sound byte from the nightly news. But newspaper reporters, just like TV reporters, for the most part report on someone’s selected view of the data. They rarely if ever at all report all the raw data itself. Both of these mediums also tend to focus on the negative aspects of any story as that is what sell papers and brings up the ratings. That is the nature of this style of reporting and in our opinion taht is why news reported in this manner tends to have a bias.

In support of Dr. Price to and his efforts to educate the community, and along with our own goal to eliminate bias, we encourage Middletown to bypass the “middleman” when it comes to the schools performance. To not take the word of either elected official or paid reporter. But rather to look at all the data on school performance as intelligent individuals who can and will make up their own mind as to the state of our district.

Ohio School Rating Data * (In an Excel Format - Chose Save & Download Locally Before Opening)

School Years 2002-2003
http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/Downloads/2003B/0203B_LRC_District.xls

School Years 2003-2004
http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/Downloads/2004/0304_lrc_district.xls

School Years 2004-2005
http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/Downloads/2005/0405_LRC_building.xls

School Years 2005-2006
http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/Downloads/2006/0506_LRC_building.xls

For the complete list of School data available from the State visit the
Ohio School Data Download page.

Unofficial Results Show Middletown School Levy Failure

The unofficial election summary report posted on the Middletown community website MiddletownUSA.com from the August 07 school levy comes down right to the wire. The final, but unofficial result shows that less than 51% of the residents who voted were against the levy, with the count being 4,489 to 4,303.

However, there are still 285 provisional ballots that will not be counted until 10 days or more after the election, possibly up to a month, at least 236 of them -- 83%, would have to come back in favor of the levy for it to pass. Voters won't know the official results of the election until at least August 21st, one week before the start of the 2007-2008 school year.

While it does not appear likely that the levy will pass this time after the provisional ballots are counted, the results from this election are much closer than May 8th's failure, which came in with 59% of voters going against the measure. Officials are already discussing putting it on the ballot again in November, and if the gains between May and August are indicative of the results pro-levy campaigning will show, it looks as if it will pass if they do so.

MiddletownUSA Blog Introduction

Welcome to the Middletown Ohio Blog sponsored by MiddletownUSA.com and Xponex Web and Media Services.

This Blog is dedicated to Middletown Ohio and will be used as a repository of Video and News for Middletown and the surrounding community.

Our Mantra is Do No Harm and the focus of each story and video will be the edification of the community as a whole. Our focus will be on Economic Development, The Middletown City Schools, and Community Events.

We hope to encourage local Middletown community leaders and citizens alike to participate in this Blog as we sincerely believe that the community is served best when these two groups have an open and ongoing dialogue.

Sincerely,
MiddletownUSA.com