David Miller is the Publisher and Editor of Loveland Magazine
Loveland, Ohio – Whistle Stop Clay Works (WSCW), an intimate pottery studio in Historic Downtown, is excited to announce that Bonnie McNett has purchased the business from co-founders Tim O’Grady and Kay Bolin. The studio, which opened in 2010, will have ownership transferred effective April 1, 2022.
“We could not be happier or more excited for the future of Whistle Stop Clay Works, the pottery students, and the Loveland area. Whistle Stop is a vibrant, interactive business and a real asset to this community,” said current co-owner, Kay Bolin.
The acquisition of WSCW by McNett will allow the studio’s mission of bringing the ceramic arts to Loveland to continue and provide local residents a way to explore their creativity and relax with friends and family. McNett, who has been Operations Manager for five years, brings an energy and vision to WSCW that has helped the business prosper and grow. She has been an instructor at the studio for 8 years and has been involved in the ceramic arts for over 30 years
O’Grady and Bolin decided it was time for them to try retirement again. Both had previously retired from a textile company, but in 2010 bought the property at 119 Harrison Avenue and converted the building to the WSCW teaching studio and art gallery.
Whistle Stop Clay Works is a ceramics studio located in historic downtown Loveland, Ohio. The studio offers classes for adults and children, workshops, private parties, team building activities, firing packages for artists with home studios, and an art gallery. The studio is located at 119 Harrison Avenue and can be reached at (513) 683-2529 or at www.whistlestopclayworks.com.
During a 2-1/2 hour public hearing last week and speeches by 24 citizens about their traffic concerns, school crowding, poor infrastructurecapacity, and density, there was universal alarm expressed to the wave of the overwhelming tsunami of unbridled and unplanned growth in Loveland.
There was a standing-room crowd at the public hearing on the zoning map and text written by Drees Homes for Grailville
While foreseeing the tsunami, Jeff and Nicole Mullins said in their open letter to City Council, “Communities that choose quantity over quality become cheapened versions of themselves and lose the charm that made them desirable in the first place. Once this green space is gone, it is gone forever. There is no getting it back. To make a bad decision worse by increasing density allowances after that fact, would be downright unforgivable.” They also said “Council has already blown it” by annexing the property for low-density residential with houses on one-acre plots and so shortly after, the P&Z is now considering a Special Planning District.
Grailville, was an environmental, education, and retreat center of The Grail, an international women’s movement. Located on 300 acres, with organic gardens, hiking trails, woods, pastures, ponds, creeks, modest guest housing, and solitude.
Last Tuesday evening the City Hall Council Chamber was filled to standing room capacity for a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to hear the Northern Kentucky homebuilder, Drees Homes, present their case for building 209 homes on 111 acres of the property known as Grailville. The site is just on the eastern edge of the city limits on O’Bannon Road and was recently annexed into Loveland.
After hearing from City Manager Dave Kennedy, Drees and their traffic engineer, and 24 local residents, the Commission discussed the zoning map change that Drees wrote. At the conclusion of the public hearing, instead of sending the proposal along to Council with a recommendation, the meeting was adjourned and will resume on May 4.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We do realize the sound quality of these videos is not good, especially when the Commission members were speaking. The volume of the room sound system is quite low in the first place and the members do not pull their mics close to them when speaking. The news media is forced to record from the rear of the room. It’s quite difficult to overcome the noise of the overhead HVAC systems and room ambient noise.
Background of the Drees proposal and explaination of the re-zoning proccess
The Trina Paulus 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 for the first time. 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.”
LOVELAND, OHIO – Grailville has announced the revival of its Sunday Supper tradition, beginning Sunday afternoon, October 28, with “A Feast for the Body, Heart and Mind.” October’s Sunday Supper will be preceded by a book party and art…
“Give yourself and your poetry the gift of time and attention,” said Pauletta Hansel. Women are invited to Grailville Retreat and Program Center for a Midsummer Nights’ Practice of Poetry Retreat held Friday, June 19- Sunday, June 21. Th…
LOVELAND, OHIO – Freshly harvested produce grown in the certified organic gardens at Grailville can now be purchased by the public. All of the produce is grown at Grailville by Earth-Shares CSA and is organically certified. Freshly harv…
LOVELAND, OHIO – Permaculture is a philosophy and method of designing systems for sustainable living. It is applicable to farms, gardens, organizations, homes, housing developments, towns and city neighborhoods. Permaculture teaches peop…
What: Grailville’s 65th Birthday Celebration with MUSE Concert, Quilt Show, and Sunday Supper.When: Sunday, February 22. Benefit concert beginning at 3PM, followed by a reception at 4PM, and supper at 5:30PM.Cost: The suggested donat…
Convergence: a day of peace and beauty Saturday, April 5 10-4 All ages welcome GrailvilleRetreat Center (683-2340) 932 O’Bannonville Rd Loveland, Ohio 45140 Contact Debbie Lewis Westheimer, 348-4276 or e-mail. Donations accepted-…
What: A holiday luncheon followed by a short presentation on the history of the nativity.When: December 9 -12, December 15 -17, Noon-2:30 PMCost: $15.00 per person for the meal, children 10 and under $10.00. Reservations required.Con…
LOVELAND, OHIO – Grailville has announced its 2007 International Crèche Exhibit and Luncheon Series. Grailville is a retreat and program center located on 300 acres of woodlands, pastures and organic gardens near Loveland, Ohio. Each ye…
Homegrown Permaculture: Simple sustainable systems in your own home or yard LOVELAND, OHIO – The Permaculture Workshop at Grailville on January 19 is designed to provide: Answers to design questions by trained local Permaculturists. L…
By Heidi Bright ParalesLOVELAND, OHIO – Fifty-six share members of a Grailville-based cooperative program received 22,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce during this year’s growing season.The Earth-Shares community-supported agricultu…
Grailville news LOVELAND, OHIO NEWS – The workshop with the Center for Personal and Spiritual Growth on Compassionate Communication, postponed due to snow, has been rescheduled for Saturday, March 29, 2008, 10 AM-5 PM. A limited number …
Grailville Retreat and Program Center will celebrate All Saints Day and the 91st birthday of The Grail with an All Saints & All Souls Potluck & Celebration on Friday, November 2 at 6 PM. They will begin with a potluck Supper in the…
LOVELAND, OHIO – A Zen Retreat program at Grailville in September features Zen Master AMA Samy. Zen Master AMA Samy was born in Burma to Christian parents and educated in a Buddhist environment. In 1972 he was ordained a Catholic prie…
Grailville Retreat and Program Center invites you to attend A Reading by Appalachian Poets George Ella Lyon and Frank X Walker on Sunday, May 16, at 2 PM. This event is part of Grailville’s new Third Sunday Poetry Series, offering monthl…
Part of Grailville’s new Third Sunday Poetry Series Grailville Retreat and Program Center just outside of Loveland invites you to attend Greenville Poets Reading and Workshop on Sunday, October 17, 2010, at 2:00 pm. This award-winnin…
Dear Loveland Magazine Readers,Men and women are invited to spend a morning at GrailvilleRetreat and Program Center in Loveland Ohio on Saturday, June 5 from 10:00 am- 1:00 pm for a Labyrinth Workshop, exploring Labyrinth walking as a s…
This Zen mediation retreat led by Zen Master Ama Samy, S.J., has been an annual Grailvilleevent for more than a decade, with both new and experienced meditators traveling from throughout the country to experience an extraordinary teache…
Does cabin fever have your family climbing the walls? You can put that energy to good use at Grailville Retreat and Program Center’s Breadmaking for the Family on Sunday, January 16, from 1:30- 4:30 pm. Adults with children aged six thro…
Come and celebrate Easter in an uniquely Grailville way! Grailville’s observance of Easter begins on Holy Thursday and continues till Easter Sunday. Rich in song, ritual and prayer that have long been central to Grailville’s community…
A Reading By Cincinnati Writers Project Grailville Retreat and Program Center near Loveland invites you to attend Cincinnati Writes: A Reading By Cincinnati Writers Project and Greater Cincinnati Writers League Poets on Sunday, Septemb…
You can join the Grailville community as they mark the season of Advent with Song, viewing their Crèche exhibit, readings, visiting, and enjoying something hot to drink. In this darkest season of the year we celebrate the season of …
A Grailville Weekly Workshop For Girls Who Love to Write The Grailville Retreat and Program Center invites teen girls to join a weekly workshop. Beth Murphy said, “That encourages their passion for writing and inspires and challenges th…
A day spent recognizing the green grass in our backyards This is a Loveland Magazine file photo from last year’s LocalFest at the 315 acre Grailville retreat. Those intimately familiar with Grailville already know they wil…
Local Fest was held at Grailville on May 25 featuring the artwork of local artisans and their wares; bites and light fare from local food vendors; and music by local musicians.
Ohio Medicaid director Maureen Corcoran often stresses the importance of transparency in delivering $35 billion worth of health care each year to Ohio’s poor and disabled. But in response to an open-records request, the department last week refused to provide copies of key, federally required reports meant to ensure that its biggest contractors aren’t gouging taxpayers.
The department’s lawyers said they were refusing to provide the records at the behest of the contractors, which the reports are meant to help keep accountable.
The companies — each of which is getting more than $1 billion a year from taxpayers — said the watchdog reports contain trade secrets. The claim seems questionable, however, because some other states’ Medicaid departments, including Arizona, post their federally required reports on their websites.
The Ohio department provided summaries of the reports, but a prominent health care think tank says that the underlying numbers are even more important and the public should be allowed to see them.
The summaries of the watchdog reports are “really important, but it’s the data elements that provide a more detailed view of how the (contractor) is applying its Medicaid revenues,” said an article posted earlier this month by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families.
Those data might be of particular interest in Ohio, where serious questions arose late last year about whether all profits collected by pharmacy middlemen are being properly accounted for. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost won’t comment on the investigation, but his office last month requested data from the Medicaid contractors that would shed light on how their pharmacy subcontractors are reporting millions in profits and expenses.
Simple concept
On Dec. 10, the Capital Journal filed an open-records request with the Medicaid department for “medical loss ratio” reports filed by the state’s five managed-care contractors in 2019 and 2020.
As with most rules regarding government health programs, those for determining medical-loss ratio can be arcane and laden with jargon — including the acronym for “medical-loss ratio,” MLR. But the concept is simple: It requires private-sector contractors to report how much taxpayer money they’re using to pay for health care, and how much they’re pocketing in the form of profits and administrative costs.
In Ohio, the minimum medical-loss ratio a managed care company can have is 85%. That means a company must spend at least 85% of the money it gets from the Medicaid department on patient care, quality improvement and fraud prevention.
The number also is a tool that can be used to evaluate companies participating in the Medicaid managed-care system, which attempts to incorporate market efficiencies into a government health care program. The requirement to report MLR “is intended to allow comparisons of plan performance among the major healthcare programs and across states,” the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan congressional agency, wrote in a January issue brief.
Despite its claims of transparency, the Ohio Medicaid department didn’t directly answer earlier this month when asked why it took three months to respond to a request for reports that presumably are readily available.
In supplying summaries — but not the full MLR reports — the department’s legal staff wrote, “Please note that the managed care organizations have identified that the reports are proprietary information and trade secrets under ORC 1333.61. As such, we are denying your request.”
The law the email referred to defines trade secrets as business information the secrecy of which has “independent economic value, actual or potential …” But the Ohio Department of Medicaid has been burned in the past by allowing secrecy among its contractors and subcontractors.
In 2018, it was under pressure from investigations by The Columbus Dispatch and then-Auditor Dave Yost. The agency commissioned an analysis that determined — unbeknownst to the department — that drug middlemen hired by the managed-care contractors in 2017 collected almost a quarter-billion dollars more for prescription drugs than they paid the pharmacies that dispensed them. That was at least three times the going rate, the Medicaid department’s own analysis said.
The Medicaid department was asked earlier this month, after it denied the request for MLR reports, whether it was allowing its contractors to determine what were and were not trade secrets. Spokeswoman Lisa Lawless responded by saying the department’s original denial of the records request answered that question.
Trade secrets, or just secrecy?
It might be a little hard to see what information in the medical-loss ratio reports would lose its “independent economic value” if it were publicly reported. If you want to really geek out, scroll down to Section (k) of the passage from the Code of Federal Regulations that sets out the 13 requirements for an MLR report.
All require aggregate numbers such as “total incurred claims,” “premium revenue” and “taxes, licensing and regulatory fees.” In other words, none of the requirements appears to call for things such as pricing or individual claims data that are specific enough that they would be commonly considered proprietary information.
Indeed, Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families reports that some other states’ Medicaid departments post their managed-care companies’ MLRs online.
Here, for example, is a link to the audited report by Arizona Complete Health for the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2020. It’s a spreadsheet with rows listing what part of the federal code the information refers to, quarterly amounts and notes about them.
Lawless was asked to explain specifically how the data required for the reports amounted to trade secrets. She responded by saying the department’s email denying the reports answered that question and she referred to the care companies’ contracts with her agency.
And then Lawless again touted what she said was her agency’s emphasis on transparency.
“Since 2019, Ohio Medicaid has worked to improve the (managed-care organization) provider agreements to maximize transparency and minimize proprietary designations to the extent permitted by law,” Lawless wrote.
To some others, it’s a no-brainer. Federally required reports intended to make sure huge contractors aren’t ripping off health care funds intended for the poor should be available to the public, they say.
“Since this is a publicly mandated report about the expenditure of public funds on behalf of public program beneficiaries, there is a compelling rationale for disclosure—without redaction,” the Georgetown report said.
If the gun lobby gets its way, more than half the country will have permitless carry laws in place by the end of 2022.
Just in the past week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey sided with the gun lobby and signed new permitless carry bills into law, ignoring widespread opposition from law enforcement, community leaders, and their constituents.
These laws are dangerous, and for obvious reasons. Permitless carry laws allow people to carry concealed handguns in public without a permit, without training, and without a background check. Even far-right extremists and white supremacists.
Give to Everytown and Help Defeat the Gun Lobby’s Extremism
Nervous about donating blood? There are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there, let’s dispel some of those rumors with a quick fact check!
The Critical Need
Hoxworth Blood Center is in need of Type A and O blood, and platelet donors! If you are eligible to give, please schedule your next donation as soon as possible by calling us at (513) 451-0910 or visiting the Hoxworth HomePage
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) released the below statement following Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to the U.S. Congress.
“Today President Zelenskyy made it clear that Ukraine needs more resources to defend itself and its freedom, and that’s what the U.S. is providing. President Biden is announcing dramatic new military assistance for Ukraine today, and I will continue working with the president to ensure Ukrainians are armed with effective military tools – including those designed to strengthen their air defenses – and are supported by strong sanctions, without needlessly escalating Putin’s war. I also share President Zelenskyy’s call for corporations to join this fight – no one should be profiting off of this invasion, from Big Oil to corporations that continue to do business in Putin’s backyard. President Zelenskyy and his people are fighting for the values Americans all share – freedom, democracy, the right to determine their own destiny – and we must all continue to stand united with them.”
Ukrainian President Zelensky Addresses Congress
In a virtual address to Congress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for the U.S. to support a no-fly zone over his country. President Zelensky also asked the U.S. to provide fighter jets, anti-aircraft weapons, and other military aid to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion. He played a graphic video of civilians killed and injured by Russian bombs and artillery barrages during his remarks. U.S. lawmakers gave him a standing ovation at the end of his address.
Loveland, Ohio – Dress for Success Cincinnati has announced that The Care Center of Loveland is their new satellite location for the StyleHER program.
For the past 15 years, the Care Center has been assisting families by helping them remove the barriers and build the resources needed to thrive in life. Located at 11020 South Lebanon Road in Loveland, The Care Center will now be offering DFSC styling services to residents of the Loveland and neighboring communities.
According to Data USA, the largest demographic living in poverty in Loveland is currently women ages 25-34. The hope is that through this partnership, they will be able to tend to that community of women living at or below the poverty line and offer them services that will nurture their employment mobility and help them to thrive.
A strong supporter of this mission is Greg Knake, Executive Director of The Care Center, who recognized the opportunity for Dress for Success Cincinnati and The Care Center to help more women through a partnership early on.
“Our mission is about helping people thrive in life, and one critical way we do that is by helping them reenter the workforce,” Knake said. “We also have a high value for not trying to recreate the wheel, and we instantly identified that Dress for Success Cincinnati already had a model that was successful. It is a perfect fit to incorporate Dress for Success Cincinnati’s services in what we do.”
Through this act of ‘not trying to recreate the wheel’ they have formed a partnership that can utilize the successes of both organizations to further benefit women. The Care Center of Loveland is a state-of-the-art resource center offering beneficial services such as childcare and transportation that help to eliminate major barriers that stand in the way of women receiving this support.
As childcare is a service that is not currently offered by Dress for Success Cincinnati, they can now offer it to their clients at The Care Center’s location. Not only have they expanded the range of women they are able to serve but have expanded the accessibility for women to utilize the services as well.
“We want to be a resource for people who want to take advantage of Dress for Success Cincinnati’s resource but may not have the reliable transportation to access the Norwood location,” Knake said. “We are excited to offer Dress for Success Cincinnati’s resources in areas like Milford, Goshen, and Loveland.”
In addition to offering DFSC styling services at The Care Center, the new satellite location will also offer similar career assistance to that of Dress for Success Cincinnati’s Norwood office. Just as the DFSC office has partnered with Cincinnati Works to provide help with resume building, job searching, and more via an on-site Cincinnati Works representative, The Care Center will offer the same opportunity for clients.
“We also offer career development resources through Cincinnati works and even work with the same Cincinnati works representative,” Knake said. “So, clients will have that same opportunity when they come here to be styled.”
Dress for Success Cincinnati said that they are thrilled to launch this new satellite location and to be working with Knake and his team at The Care Center to offer their services, along with the added benefits that come from this new location to more women in surrounding areas.
To learn more about The Care Center or schedule your styling appointment, visit The Care Center’s website here.
Loveland, Ohio – In this LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV video which is sponsored by the Move2Team.com you can watch the swearing-in of two new city employees at the March 8 City Council meeting.
Shaun Tringelof joins the City of Loveland’s Public Works department as a Maintenance Worker. He has eight years of experience in the construction industry and is a graduate of Loveland High School.
Angela Walls joins City Hall staff as the Assistant Finance Director. She previously worked for Loveland City Schools, among other finance positions. She has been a resident of Loveland for the past 15 years.
You can now order 4 additional COVID-19 tests from COVIDTests.gov. Households are eligible for an additional 4 free COVID-19 tests from www.COVIDTests.gov.
f you need additional support to place an order, call 1-800-232-0233 or TTY 1-888-720-7489. Help available 8 AM-12 AM, 7 days a week.
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