Loveland, Ohio – Last Friday, April 22, Cassie Mattia and myself, along with CeeCee Collins and Meridith Taylor with the Little Miami River Chamber Alliance went to the LIFE Food Pantry to present checks. We were greeted by Pantry Executive Director, Linda Bergholz.
CeeCee presented a check that represented all the VENMO donations that were collected during our Easter Weekend Food Drive. Cassie, who had the vision of holding the food drive on Easter Eve presented a matching check from Loveland Magazine.
The Food Drive was held under the Town Clock in Historic Downtown Loveland.
David Miller, Meridith Taylor (with son), CeeCee Collins, and Cassie Mattia under the Town Clock in Historic Downtown at the start of the Easter Weekend Food Drive.
The Pantry said that as a result of seeing about the Loveland Magazine and Chamber food drive a neighborhood was inspired to do their own. Linda said the current need for food by folks in the community is “enormous”.
This LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV video is of the reception we received at the Pantry. It tells the story of how Cassie was led to organize the food drive, how the Chamber so enthusiastically agreed to partner with her, and Linda talks about how the Pantry serves the community and how you can help them. Cassie talks about how easy it is to organize a food drive.
If you feel inspired to make a dollar donation to the Pantry right this moment, please do so with this PayPal link where you can also use your credit card. Or write a check today and mail it to LIFE Food Pantry, 541 Loveland-Madeira Road, Loveland, Ohio 45140.
There are so many ways to get involved! Click Here
RECEIVE FOOD OR ASSISTANCE
To receive food from LIFE, come to our pantry during regular hours and you will be provided groceries on that first visit.
Partnership Benefits
By choosing to partner with LIFE your business will not only provide assistance to the community but LIFE will proudly spread the word about your generosity. See the chart to review all of the benefits our partners will receive.
Washington, DC – “This is the honor of a lifetime,” said Evan Osgood, who was awarded the $25,000 top prize by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “Meeting the other finalists and learning their stories this weekend reinvigorated for me the power of our generation. We can do anything,” said Evan Osgood in a press release issued by the organization.
Loveland High School’s Evan Osgood was named the winner of the 2022 National Honor Society Scholarship during an awards ceremony in Washington D.C. on Monday evening. He was chosen from nearly 10,000 applicants, and as the winner, he received a $25,000 National Honor Society scholarship.
“We are incredibly proud of Evan for receiving this honor. He is truly a remarkable young man, and his dedication to others, along with his hard work, will take him on to great things. Congratulations to the entire Osgood family on this accomplishment,” said Superintendent Mike Broadwater in a press release.
As a national finalist for the award, Osgood was invited to attend the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Trailblazing Leadership Week, which he attended with his family and Loveland High School Principal Adam Reed.
Osgood was recognized for his work during the pandemic creating the nonprofit SOSforPPE, to make and ship protective equipment, along with his creation of STEMsfForYouth, a nonprofit committed to improving access to STEM education.
Read these past Loveland Magazine stories about Evan Osgood:
The hillside in Loveland’s downtown where a highly contested proposed parking garage may be built
“It is not known whether the ‘mound’ remains or is an Indian mound, but it is possible.” – Hamilton County Community Development
David Miller is the Publisher and Editor of Loveland Magazine
by David Miller
Loveland, Ohio – The possibility of Native Americans’ remains under the site of a proposed parking garage on a hill in “Historic Downtown” may give a new connotation beyond the history of White settlers and developers of the area.
At Monday’s City Council meeting, both Lauren Enda and Tom Scovanner reported that they have come into possession of a 2019 report by a preservation consultant that was commissioned by Hamilton County. The report says there is some potential for “archaeological resources” on the property. The report was based on an 1848 map of Loveland. The consultant said the map identifies a “mound” at the location. The report was commissioned because Loveland was seeking federal dollars to demolish two houses on the site and the money Loveland was seeking, was ultimately federal dollars. According to Enda and Scovanner, the report concluded that there was no historical significance to the houses so the City was given a green light to proceed with removing them.
However, after the houses were removed, the City proceeded to do excavation on the hillside to make a temporary overflow parking lot to mitigate parking congestion in “Historic” downtown apparently without the knowledge of the reported mound that may contain the remains of American Indians who once lived on the bank of O’Bannon Creek which abuts the hillside. O’Bannon Creek enters the Little Miami River a few hundred feet downstream.
The proposed garage site is 213 North Second Street (Parcel 200602.029).
Enda says that as soon as she received the report she immediately put in a call to City Manager Dave Kennedy who could not be reached. She then sent the report to both Kennedy and Councilmember Andy Bateman on April 8. She sent it to Bateman because he is the council’s representative on the City Historical Preservation and Planning Commission (HPPC). Bateman is a sitting member of the Commission.
Enda’s presumption was that Bateman would forward the report to all of the HPPC members, however, the report was not brought up or discussed at their next meeting. She had asked Bateman in an email, “Please share with the other members as I do not have their addresses.” She said on Monday that she was surprised that it was not discussed at the HPPC meeting.
After Enda and Scovanner gave speeches during the open forum at Monday’s council meeting, there was also no discussion between Council and the City Manager. She said on Monday that she did not hear back from either Kennedy or Bateman after she sent them the report. *
City Manager Kennedy told Loveland Magazine via email that he first knew of the report when Enda sent it to him on April 8 at 2 PM. He said that subsequently, the Ohio Historic Preservation Office contacted him and they are scheduling a time to discuss the matter.
The Hamilton County Community Development Historic Preservation Review worksheet says, “It is not known whether the ‘mound’ remains or is an Indian mound, but it is possible. The area appears topographically similar to other areas with Indian mounds. Locations on a bluff or hill overlooking a flat river or creek bottom always have high probability for prehistoric sites of all time periods.” It concludes, “The property is not considered eligible for historic architecture for the purpose of demolition, but consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office regarding the need for an archeological survey is recommended if a federal permit or funding is involved for new construction.”
Enda said at the council meeting that according to Loveland’s Director of Finance, Mark Medlar, Loveland taxpayers have already spent $980,000 on purchasing the site, demolition, and design engineering for the “multi-million dollar” proposed garage.
Enda wants Council to commission an archaeological survey of the property which she says is the recommendation of the Ohio History Connection. The Ohio History Connection was formerly the Ohio Historical Society and carries out history services for Ohio and its citizens focused on preserving and sharing the state’s history. This includes housing the state historic preservation office, the official state archives, local history office and managing more than 50 sites and museums across Ohio.
Enda was contacted by the Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition, who in turn have reached out to other Native American organizations such as the National Congress of the American Indians in Washington, DC. During the council meeting, Scovanner read a letter from the Cincinnati organization.
Enda has advocated for months for residents to be given the chance to vote the proposed parking garage up or down at the ballot box.
She says that if there are Indian remains at the site they should be treated with respect and dignity.
The Republican majority members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Top row from left, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose. Bottom row from left Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, House Speaker Bob Cupp, and Senate President Matt Huffman. Official photos.
Anti-gerrymandering groups are again asking the Ohio Supreme Court to determine if the Ohio Redistricting Commission should be held in contempt, and to force the commission to meet by the end of the week to redraw legislative maps.
The ACLU, on behalf of several groups including the League of Women Voters of Ohio and the A. Philip Randolph Institution of Ohio and some individual Ohio voters, asked the court to yet again demand answers from the Ohio Redistricting Commission as to why they shouldn’t be held in contempt for making no moves to meet a deadline to draw “entirely new” legislative maps.
The fourth effort by the ORC was rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court on April 14, and found not to be an “entirely new map” they were ordered to create, but merely a tweak of the third attempt, which was also rejected as unduly partisan.
The commission has until May 6 to adopt and submit a map, but the groups say the urgency of the situation has “dramatically increased” because of a federal court’s decision to implement the third map found unconstitutional by the supreme court as the map to use during the 2022 election season. The U.S. District Court said they would order the use of the map, which was found to be unduly advantageous to Republicans, if no plan was adopted by May 28.
“Based on the commission’s conduct to date, this appears to be exactly what the commission is trying to do,” the ACLU wrote to the supreme court. “The Court should not allow the commission to intentionally avoid its constitutional obligations.”
GOP members of the commission argued that the court did not have the authority to hold them in contempt for several reasons, most important of which was the fact that the commission had passed a map by the court-ordered March 28 date. They said they conducted their legislative duties, and also were protected by the separation of powers doctrine from being held in contempt.
One member of the state supreme court, Justice Sharon Kennedy, has consistently sided with the Republican members in saying they should not be held in contempt and the court does not have the power to do so.
The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a previous request to hold the ORC in contempt at the same time they rejected the fourth map by the group.
The ACLU, however, argues in their most recent challenge for contempt that legislative immunity is not “unlimited” and separation of powers principles do not “constitute an insurmountable barrier to a contempt order against the majority of the commission.”
“In ordering (the ORC) to reconvene and to draft and adopt a constitutionally valid General Assembly-district plan, this Court is not ‘asserting control’ over purely legislative duties … but simply ensuring that the commission itself undertake those duties,” attorneys said in their Monday filing.
GOP members of the ORC told the court in the last debate over contempt that they could not be charged as individuals for something decided by the commission as a whole.
The ACLU called the argument an “improper attempt to evade responsibility” in their Monday filing. The argument also does not hold when it comes to calling a meeting of the commission, the court challengers said. Calling a meeting only requires three commission members, leaving five others “fully responsible for the defiance of the court’s order,” court documents stated.
Attorneys urged the court to force the commission to convene no later than Friday if they are held in contempt, as a way to “purge” their contempt charges.
The commission has not announced any plans to meet on or before the May 6 deadline. Democrats, including commission co-chair state Sen. Vernon Sykes, attempted to bring a meeting together on Monday, but ended up alone in front of the room where the ORC has met in the past, having had their offer rejected by every other member of the commission.
A representative with House Speaker and commission co-chair Bob Cupp said no meetings have been scheduled, and a spokesperson for Senate President Matt Huffman said meeting dates were up to the co-chairs.
House Minority Leader Allison Russo and state Sen. Vernon Sykes speak to media outside of Room 313 of the Ohio Statehouse. The two Dem members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission tried to convince GOP members to renew talks on legislative redistricting plans, but no other members showed. (Photo: Susan Tebben, OCJ)
Members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission have not publicly announced any plans to meet and discuss legislative redistricting, despite requests by Democratic members, and a mandate by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Commission co-chair, state Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, and House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, met with reporters Monday outside the committee room that has been used for ORC meetings, the most recent of which was March 28, when a simple majority passed a fourth version of legislative maps.
Those maps were subsequently rejected as unconstitutional by a majority of Ohio Supreme Court justices, who then gave the commission until May 6 to come up with a new plan.
“This is a state process, these are state legislative maps,” Russo said. “This is, I think, terrible precedent that is being set that we will have federal courts come and overrule what our state process is in these partisan gerrymandering cases.”
The two Democrats asked the rest of the commission members to meet with them and start the legislative process again, but no other members showed up Monday morning. Commission rules state that three members are needed to call for a meeting of the whole.
Sykes said fellow co-chair, House Speaker Bob Cupp, agreed to talk with Sykes this week about the future of the process. A spokesperson confirmed the Friday conversation, but said a public meeting has yet to be scheduled.
“We’ll be sure to let you know when a meeting is scheduled,” said Aaron Mulvey, spokesperson for Cupp.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s spokesperson simply said he had no plans to attend the Monday event with Sykes and Russo, and a spokesperson for Senate President Matt Huffman said there was “no meeting scheduled this morning.”
Any questions about official meetings would be for the co-chairs, spokesperson John Fortney said.
Gov. Mike DeWine’s office had previously told reporters he had a scheduling conflict.
Requests for follow-up comments from Auditor Keith Faber’s office went unanswered, but he had previously stated through a spokesperson he would not be available Monday morning.
While the date for Statehouse races to be on a primary ballot is still up in the air, all other races in the state are continuing on the May 3 primary ballots. Early and absentee voting is ongoing for those races.
David Miller is the Publisher and Editor of Loveland Magazine
by David Miller
The statue that wasn’t to be seen in Loveland
Loveland, Ohio – In December of 2011, I hadn’t seen the statute of Abraham and Isaac by Trina Paulus since it was first brought back to Grailville, carefully on the bed of a pickup truck. I was invited to be there when the statute was returned to Grailville for safekeeping. So jumped at the chance to be there when she saw it again for the first time in many years. Seeing it for the first time, placed temporarily under a gazebo behind the House of Joy, it was in my opinion the most significant piece of art I had ever seen in Loveland, and I believe, still so.
We met Trina with our video camera for an interview by Alana Johnson, an artist in her own right, at Grailville and went in Alana’s car from the House of Joy to another house on the Grailville property, one across the road – to see if we could find it. This video was shot on December 9, 2011.
It is wretched, distressing, tragic – and beautiful.
At the time of my first seeing Abraham and Isaac, I begged the Grailville folks to let me help them find a place where the father and son could be publicly displayed, however, they determined it too controversial to do so. I think if I remember correctly, it was only “appropriate for mature audiences” and no one in Loveland was mature enough to see the old testament story depicted so threateningly and savagely real.
Relistening to Paulus talk about her Abraham and Isaac and the essence of what she was conveying through the work of her sculpting hands and spiritual heart, is still is heartbreaking that the human soul was meant to struggle to understand such a contemptible subject.
They were right of course because seeing the statute naked, absent Trina Paulus telling the story, is utterly perilous.
At the time, I wrote, “The Abraham and Isaac statue is a poignant and significant piece of art. It is wretched, distressing, tragic – and beautiful. It has been stored temporarily for several years just outside of Loveland. Loveland Magazine Reporter Alana Johnson went with Paulus to an unlit garage at the Grailville Conference and Retreat Center Wednesday morning to see it. Paulus hadn’t seen her statue for several years.”
“Johnson, kicking aside weeds at the door, struggling to operate the key, brushing away cobwebs, and in the darkness, her eyes needed a few seconds to dilate… ‘Aah. Oh. Ooh,” each second, as more is revealed. “That’s incredible. It’s incredible.”
During Johnson’s interview, Paulus said, “Over here you will see a hand with the knife in it… and over here… you’ll see the hand with his son. I’ve done a lot of thinking about this over the years – the great Christian mystery of the crucifixion and the resurrection and… The very unpleasant thing is that God can ask everything of us sometimes… The whole mystery of why we die, and why we die so miserably sometimes… In our time it’s a very unpopular story.“
View Loveland Magazine’s other stories in our Graville Archive:
Cincinnati, Ohio – I went to the Isaac M. Wise Temple at the corner of Eighth and Plum Streets in Cincinnati for my grandson’s bar mitzvah. While formal photos were being taken of the rest of the family, I peeked into every corner on every floor where a door was unlocked. Extraordinary is that everything has been so beautifully cared for and pampered over since its construction.
The building is used nearly every week for Sabbath services, programs lifecycle events, and other religious functions.
The Plum Street Temple was dedicated on Friday, August 24, 1866. As a daily paper writes at the time, “Cincinnati never before has seen so much grandeur pressed into so small a space.”
The building has been carefully preserved, with original flooring, pews and pulpit furnishings all still in use. Its chandeliers and candelabra, formerly gaslight, are now electrical, but still the original fixtures. The original pipe organ, a unique historical instrument built by the Cincinnati firm Koehnken and Company, is still in place and was restored as the Rockwern Organ in 2005.
Designated a national historic landmark and placed on the Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places in 1975, it was recognized then as a “splendid and exotic building.” A restoration in 1994-1995 gave a renewed sense of vitality and sparkle to the building, which looks much the same now as when it was built over 130 years ago.
Here are the photos I took that day and below is a video published by the Wise Temple that will tell you more about the history of the building and its people.
Governor Mike DeWine has repeatedly given his personal commitment to our community on combating hate, especially Jew-hatred. His issuance of last week’s Executive Order defining antisemitism is the latest step. Together with his powerful letter to college and university presidents in December on making the campus safe for Jewish students, faculty, and staff, Ohio leads the way in facing this ancient hatred head-on. We are grateful for his leadership.
Sadly, statistics bear out that antisemitism is on the rise in Ohio, nationally, and throughout the world, including recent incidents at The Ohio State University and a frightening arrest of a security guard who was betraying the very Jewish institutions in Central Ohio he was supposedly protecting.
FBI hate crimes statistics bear out this trend, with nearly 55 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes in the US targeting Jews, despite being only 2 percent of the population. Both Hillel and ADL statistics also show a rise in anti-Jewish hate on campus, with Hillel showing an astonishing 178 incidents in 2019-20, in a year when many campuses were shut down for months due to the pandemic.
To Governor DeWine and Lt. Gov. Husted, we say: as Passover falls this week, we are reminded that at times of danger and persecution, the Jewish community has always counted on allies to help protect them. You are modern day exemplars of that
Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine today signed Executive Order 2022-06D to further define antisemitism using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition, and…
CHERI BRINKMAN: Author of the CINCINNATI AND SOUP BOOKS Local history and recipes for everyone in the family ! All the classic recipes are in the books including Cincinnati chili, Goetta , fun festival treats as well as easy recipes for the beginning “chefs” in the family and some for the more experienced cooks.
DOUG COATES : Author of Children’s character building books: PITCHING FOR SUCCESS ( Joe Nuxhall children’s book) and RILEY’s WINNING CATCH ( special needs girl plays baseball: covering so many important issues !). Doug’s books are something for every child and every family to keep for generations to come.
BETH GULLY : AMBIGRAM ARTIST ( Art which is upside down and right side up) Beth is one of 94 ambigram artists in the world and a talented artist and designer. She is the Author of THE OTHER SIDE OF CHRISTMAS AND THE OTHER SIDE OF EASTER books presenting a NEW look at the holidays with both religious and secular images. These books are great gifts any season.
LAURA HOEVENER: Author of ADVENTURES AROUND CINCINNATI, a classic family book with all sorts of day trips and new places to visit with your family around the greater Cincinnati area. An experienced “mom” Laura has all the info and the “smarts” to make every outing one for great memories and fun ! Everyone with children needs her book !
JEFF WILSON: Jeff is the author of the OHIO LEGENDS book series. The four books in the series are short stories about some of the interesting people we have in our state. These popular books make Ohio history “fun “ for adults and children. Jeff a lifelong history buff, is also a popular speaker. He hails from Vandalia, Ohio.
ADDING AUTHORS NOW !!
COME OUT AND MEET THESE WONDERFUL FAMILY AUTHORS AT THIS
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