Loveland, Ohio – East Kemper Road will be closed for two (2) hours on Thursday to accommodate concrete trucks at the project site where road repairs are being made. The time frame will be from Noon to 2 PM according to City Manager Dave Kennedy.
Detour signs will be installed to re-direct traffic.
Due to the need to make emergency road repairs along near 278 East Kemper Road and the corporation limits, the roadway was reduced to one lane on Monday, June 25th. The complete construction job will last approximately two weeks.
The roadway has failed because of erosion on the bank of the Little Miami River.
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland Athletic Boosters, via President Jeff Williams has verbally agreed to fund $12,200.00 for the painting of the school logo on the elevated water storage tanks located in the Loveland Commerce Park and the White Pillars subdivision. The proposal is on the Tuesday, June 26 Council meeting agenda.
The City of Loveland logo
The tanks at the Commerce Park and White Pillars will soon undergo routine maintenance and an exterior overcoat. As part of the project, the new City logo may be painted on one side of each tank with the Loveland City School District logo on the opposite side.
RP Diamond is the exclusive retailer of LOVELAND HIGH SCHOOL SPIRIT WEAR Welcome to RP Diamond Printing & Embroidery located at 370 Loveland Madeira Road.
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland Board of Education has hired Susanne Quigley as the district’s new Chief Information Officer. Quigley, lives in the Loveland community and has students in the district.
Heather Higdon has been hired as the director of communications for Indian Hill.
Quigley brings 20 years of communications experience to the role, most recently serving as a communications specialist for Frost Brown Todd LLC where she has worked since 2014. In addition to her work as a communications specialist, Quigley has also served as a marketing director, content director and editor, copyeditor, and translator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from the University of Göteborg, Sweden, and a master’s degree in international economics and international relations from Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.
Quigley replaces Heather Higdon who is leaving the district to take a position as the director of communications for the Indian Hill Exempted Village School District.
Loveland, Ohio –The Loveland City School District has announced that Kevin Hawley will be the new treasurer/chief financial officer (CFO). In a unanimous vote, the Loveland Board of Education approved a contract for Hawley at the June 21 business meeting.
In a press release, Board President Art Jarvis said:
“Trustworthy and thorough – Kevin Hawley brings a remarkable combination of solid experience and genuine enthusiasm to the senior leadership team. These are the qualities we were searching for as the district is engaged in Building Tiger Nation – our year-long commitment to the assessment of our academic and facility needs; Mr. Hawley is the perfect leader to navigate the financial management of these game-changing conversations Superintendent Dr. Amy Crouse is directing. These two leaders will be a fantastic professional complement to each other.”
Hawley joins the district after serving three years as the treasurer at North College Hill City Schools where he earned the Ohio Auditor of State Award for exemplary financial reporting (2016 and 2017). Prior to that Hawley served as the school accountant/licensed treasurer for the Warren County Educational Service Center (2013-2015), and he worked in financial planning with Fidelity Investments (2007-2013). Hawley earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Miami University, and in addition to his Ohio School Treasurer’s Licensure, Hawley is also a Certified Financial Planner.
Hawley’s contract will begin August 1, 2018; he replaces former Treasurer/CFO Brett Griffith who announced his retirement in January 2018.
Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate voted on June 20 against an effort to pass the so-called “rescission package,” which would have slashed the fund that is supposed to pay for construction of Cincinnati’s new NIOSH facility by half. The rescission package would have taken back federal dollars intended for a wide range of projects and programs – including Cincinnati’s NIOSH construction – in order to pay for the $1 trillion deficit created by Republican tax cuts. With U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) opposition, the package failed on the floor by a vote of 48-50.
“We made a commitment to Cincinnati, and we shouldn’t be putting southwest Ohio jobs and economic development at risk to pay for tax cuts that benefit companies shipping American jobs overseas,” said Brown.
In May, Brown called on the Administration to tell Ohio how it will keep its commitment to move forward with the NIOSH project after the fund is cut.
In 2015, Brown helped secure $110 million in federal funds to advance construction and site consolidation for NIOSH’s new facility in Cincinnati.That money is supposed to come from the nonrecurring expense fund (NEF) at the Department of Health and Human Services, which currently has about $500 million for NIOSH and other projects.
Brown’s office said he had worked to protect that fund from cuts for years in order to ensure the NIOSH construction continues moving forward. And up until now, the project had been proceeding on schedule. In fact, the CDC recently solicited bids for a design-build contract. The Administration’s rescission package would take $220 million away from the nonrecurring expense fund – cutting he fund by about half and threatening the future of the project, according to a statement issued by Brown.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) voted for the rescission package.
As part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NIOSH is responsible for conducting research and making recommendations to prevent work-related injury and illness. The NIOSH facilities in Cincinnati employ more than 500.
The new construction project is intended to consolidate NIOSH’s Cincinnati facilities into one central location to improve and enhance scientific collaboration, as employees conduct research and make recommendations to prevent work-related injury and illness. The funding will also ensure that there are appropriate and adequate research facilities for NIOSH’s scientific program and will reduce operating costs by consolidating multiple campuses.
Loveland, Ohio – Loveland High School (LHS) and the Loveland Athletic Boosters joined Tiger Nation in celebrating the success of the Tigers State Champion Soccer Team with a State Championship Ring Ceremony Friday, May 4, in the LHS Gym. The Loveland Athletic Boosters purchased the championship rings for the entire team and coaches.
Athletic Director Brian Conatser
“We are proud to celebrate our 2017 Lady Tigers State Champion Soccer Team and their historic accomplishments,” said Athletic Director Brian Conatser. “This season is a product of competing with excellence every day, overcoming adversity and countless hours of hard work. The Loveland community is remarkably proud of the way these student-athletes represent themselves with Respect, Responsibility, Integrity and Pride. It was an honor and privilege to recognize these student-athletes and their achievements! Go Tigers!”
Batavia, Ohio – OhioMeansJobs/Clermont County will open at a new location at the Clermont County Family Support Center, 2400 Clermont Center Drive, Batavia, on Monday, July 2. Its last day at its current location at756 Cincinnati-Batavia Pike,behind Eastgate Mall, is Monday, June 25.
OhioMeansJobs/Clermont, which provides services to both job seekers and employers, will reinvest the money it will be saving in overhead costs, such as leasing the current location, toward services for its customers, said Ted Groman, Assistant Director, Clermont County Job & Family Services. It has been at the Batavia Pike location for 15 years.
During the move, staff members can still be reached through the general phone number, 513.943.3000.
OhioMeanJobs/Clermont’s partners will also be moving. These include Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, Easter Seals Tristate, Vantage, Clermont County Probation, and Ohio Department of Job & Family Services.
Off-site partnerships include the University of Cincinnati-Clermont, Grant Vocational, Great Oaks, Adult Basic Literacy Education, the Literacy Council of Clermont and Brown County, and the Clermont County Chamber of Commerce.
“We look forward to serving customers in our new location,” Groman said. OMJ’s hours will be 8 AM – 4:30 PM Monday-Friday. Its office is on the 2ndfloor.
Six Loveland students selected for government leadership conference
Loveland, Ohio – Six Loveland High School (LHS) students were selected to attend the American Legion Buckeye Girls and Boys State conferences this year.
Emily Hamm, Eileen Wassel, Sarah Stevens, Aimee Ignacio Madrigal, Kyle Faessler and Jacob Danner
The students attending include: Emily Hamm, Eileen Wassel, Sarah Stevens, Aimee Ignacio Madrigal, Kyle Faessler and Jacob Danner.
Participants are exposed to the rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities of a franchised citizen; the training is objective, practical and non-partisan, with city, county and state government operated by students elected to the various presentations, assemblies, a band, and recreation.
“This is an incredible course in government operations offered by the American Legion, and we are thrilled for the students who earned the opportunity to attend,” said LHS Principal Peggy Johnson.
Kim Hicks receives the OMLA 2018 Support Staff Award
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland City School District Education Aide Kim Hicks has been named the Ohio Middle Level Association (OMLA) 2018 Support Staff recipient. Hicks works to support students at both Loveland Middle School (LMS) and Loveland Intermediate School (LIS). OMLA will formally recognize her at their annual conference in October.
“Kim Hicks builds relationships and uses them to provide opportunities for those who would otherwise not have any or very few,” said LMS Principal Chuck Ogdan. “Kim actively researches intervention models that work for each student she serves – no matter how difficult the challenge – and she inspires other staff members to never give up on any of our students. She is a valuable member of our team; we are lucky to have her.”
Hicks also volunteers at the NEST after-school program, helping to provide nutrition and academic support for the economically disadvantaged youth and families within the school district. She is part of the Loveland Educating Against Alcohol and Drugs task force. She helped organize the LMS Breakfast Club where she volunteers before school serving breakfast to economically disadvantaged students. She is a cofounder and organizer of Club Healthy Habits – forming new relationships among students and teachers at LMS.
“Kim has long been a champion for students and families; this is evidenced not only in her vast community involvement, but also her high level of success in providing supports for students struggling with behavioral and/or mental-health needs,” said Loveland Director of Student Services Eric Dool. “Kim has a gift for building rapport, recognizing signs of anxiety, working to calm and deescalate, and striving to instill resilience and self-efficacy in others. She is very deserving of this recognition.”
June 20th is the 10-year anniversary of Hope Restored Counseling Services
Loveland, Ohio – Maggie Gehler and Tonya Schaeffer met at graduate school while attending Xavier University. Their first location for Hope Restored Counseling Services was at 420 West Loveland Avenue in the historic church building where they worked out of one room. They both had other jobs at that time at other agencies and in different private-practices. Even though it was during the recession, Schaeffer said they had the idea and decided to run with it – “Why don’t we give it a shot? It really was like we’re going to give this a shot and see what happens.”
Schaeffer said that she was maintaining at least two other jobs; two different jobs at the Children’s Home of Cincinnati doing in-home counseling and going to different school districts such as Sycamore. “I had multiple jobs and Maggie was working full-time at Child Focus at that at that time,” she said.
Tonya Schaeffer, M.Ed., LPCC Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
New moms said let’s do it!
Schaeffer said, “Maggie had three children and I had two – so we were new moms – but we said let’s do it. We did, and we look back and it’s funny. We are therapist, we know therapy we know counseling but we weren’t sure about business.” They contacted SCORE, a group of expert business mentors that advise start-ups, and met with them briefly to come up with the business plan. They also met with an accountant they knew.
The new businesswomen shared that office in the old church for about two years and then moved to Julie Swain’s building just down the street where they had two separate offices. “At that point, we said OK we’re doing well let’s bring on another therapist and see how that works.” That is when they brought on Clinical Counselor, Beata Bartler to help with their caseload and expand the business.
“We ultimately ended up moving to their present location at 600 West Loveland Avenue, again for more space and have added several other therapists,” said Schaeffer. Clinical Counselor, Elizabeth Greller has been with Restored Hope about 5 years. Licensed Independent Social Workers, Dana Hurd, and Catrina Spicer have also been added to the team. They have been in the West Loveland Historic District amongst other professional businesses since they started.
“We all have kind of our own niche. Maggie works a lot with children who have ADHD or on the autism spectrum. Same with Liz. She does a lot of work with families and children on the spectrum. Beata works a lot with the more mature population and does a lot of couples work. Dana and I work with adolescent teenagers and their families.”
Hope Restored counsels individuals with ADHD or autism, but they also work closely with the family. Schaeffer said, “All of us handle ADHD and what’s interesting is that a lot of times people will come in, and a lot of times adults, or let’s say teenagers, that have made it through school one way or another without being diagnosed and I’m sitting here like – you definitely have ADHD. You have all the markers for it.” Schaeffer said that sometimes they need to be convinced and so they need some more scientific information. “We can use a DSM to diagnose, but sometimes if we want more information we will refer out to have them psychologically evaluated. She said the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is their bible. “We were trained in testing at Xavier, but that’s not something we want to do. I think that’s better for psychology.”
Maggie Gehler, M.A., LPCC Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
They’ve been able to serve hundreds of people struggling with depression, anxiety, divorce, autism and so much more. “My particular passion is working with families and individuals with autism other special needs. There can be a deficit of resources and services for those families and it is extremely gratifying to be able to help,” said Gehler.
For a lot of families and their children on how to best handle divorce, Schaeffer does grief work as well. “We do get a lot of families who are here to avoid divorce or who want to handle it, hopefully, the best way possible. But we also have clients that come to us over death and loss, as well,” she said.
Families who have lost people to a drug overdose
One thing Schaeffer said she found that she didn’t expect, is that over the last three-years the practice is dealing with a lot of families who have lost people to a drug overdose. She lamented, “It’s obviously an epidemic and it’s all over the place and it seems to be happening more and more. I’m finding almost everyone is affected.” She says that a lot of people will come in who have had someone significant that has died from an overdose. “And it’s a lot of different ages, yes a lot.”
Hope Restored does counseling for dependency and has in the past seen clients who have been referred through a court order for drug and alcohol assessments. “But we don’t do a ton of that where we’re looking to grow,” said Schaeffer.
Beata Bartler, M.A., LPCC Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
What’s in the Future?
“Where we’re looking to grow is, I want Hope Restored to work with people who are transgender and we are looking at exploring their world. Educating parents and relatives on the terminology that’s used and what a person might be going through,” said Schaeffer. “That’s where we’re definitely looking to expand. We’re getting ready to bring somebody on, so I’m excited about that.”
“We’re just super proud to be celebrating 10 years. We just didn’t know. We just said okay let’s give it a shot,” said Schaeffer. “We’d love to have more clients probably the people that have called me in the last 24 hours are thinking why hasn’t she called me back yet, and it’s because we’re super busy.”
Schaeffer would love to be able to hire more therapist that are independently licensed and have the ability to work with more individuals and families and eventually hopes to find a larger space. “However we don’t want to become ginormous by any means.”
On being a school resource
“Almost 50-percent of the local schools know who we are, but some of the schools don’t and we’re just right down the road,”said Schaeffer. She would like their name on the list of resources available that the school puts out for children with special needs. “They list out all of the bigger agencies and places but we are never included, which I don’t get that – so I’m working so folks know we’re right down the road. We’ve introduced ourselves. We have kids in the district. We have kids in the community. We live in the community and we are Loveland.”
Hope Restored recently had a booth at the Loveland School-sponsored, “Right Under Your Nose” event and are part of the task force.
“You can walk in here and get an appointment and you can’t always do that with the bigger agencies.”
Elizabeth Greller, M.A., LPCC Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
inspirational people along the 10-year journey
Schaeffer said that there were two people who gave her the confidence to go into business and to go out on her own.
“The first person is my grandma who has passed away. Her name was Birdie and that’s why you see little birds all over my office. I opened up the doors on June 20th which is her birthday so she was definitely the first person. She gave me life lessons in general. She had nine kids and lived on the farm and she just sent me the message that I could do anything and that nothing could stop me. Which, was an amazing message. She was a strong woman.”
Dana Hurd, MSW, LISW Licensed Independent Social Worker
She also mentioned her high school guidance counselor at Franklin Monroe High School in Pitsburg, Ohio, Mr. Phipps, who she remains friends with. He led her to understand what her strengths were when she was considering journalism or counseling.
“Maggie’s dad, Mr. Gehler who just passed last year deserves a lot of credit for our success. He was in our field of private practice but he was also a professor in Chicago. He was definitely someone that Maggie would call often and ask business questions. He was a huge guidance. He was a big influence for her.”
Catrina Spicer, LISW-S
Maggie Gehler added, “I’ve always felt driven to help others, inspired by my dad who was a clinical counselor and director of a community mental health agency outside of Chicago. My dad was passionate about developing new programs that would benefit at-risk individuals.”
Just stay home and make a pie?
Early on, Schaeffer remembers contacting a preacher at her church and asking if he had any names so she could get some business advice. “The man I then contacted said to me that I should not do this and that Maggie and I should not pursue this because we were young mothers and it would be very difficult,” said Schaeffer starting to laugh. Though more laughter she said, “And that just pushed me more. (laughing more) Yep, I’m like, ‘Oh, no way.”
She said she thinks he truly thought that he was being helpful. “He said, I should just stay home and make a pie. He thought it was because we were young mothers that we wouldn’t be able to do this, and we still have young ones, ten years later at our anniversary. I’ll never forget that phone call because the message for me was you can do whatever you want to do if you put your mind to do it and if you work hard you can have kids and have a business.”
Professionals building rapport because they are real people
Schaeffer said, “Our work is interesting because the most important thing, in my opinion, is building rapport with a client of any age. I think it’s why we’ve been doing this for so long.”
She said everyone in the office is real people. “You can’t connect with someone if you are seeming above them. We have problems too and I think we try to connect with our clients. We’re genuine. We have empathy.”
Schaeffer believes there are a lot of “Fly by Night” things popping up all over, people doing different things that look like they’re counseling, “But they’re not and that’s scary for us because we deal with a lot of very serious situations such as daily suicidal clients, weekly suicidal ideation, and you have to know how to deal with that and what steps need to be taken.” She worries about people who are not qualified, yet counseling.”
Friends as business partners and risk-takers
“Some people say, don’t go into business with your friends. But I mean it’s not to say we haven’t had our struggles early on adjusting, figuring out what each of us is better at doing. Maggie’s definitely the numbers person and I’m more going out promoting the business and handling all of our referrals,” said Schaeffer.
“We are looking forward to further expanding our services. We are adding groups to meet the needs of our community and have hired more clinical staff to provide even more individual services,” said Gehler.
“I think we just want people to know that we’re here in the community that you know. We really do provide a lot of different services and if we can’t we definitely will find someone that can, said Schaeffer. “It’s hard to believe it goes fast. It was scary in the beginning, but we just took that leap.”
600 West Loveland Ave, Suite 2A • Loveland, OH 45142
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been up-dated with important follow-up information:
