Cincinnati State to make first local hire
About 50 applications received for marketing position at Middletown branch campus.
By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer 12:01 AM Sunday, February 12, 2012

    MIDDLETOWN — Although Cincinnati State Technical & Community College doesn’t yet have a signed contract to open its proposed downtown branch campus, the school is looking to hire its first branch employee.
    About 50 resumes have been received for a marketing and community outreach specialist, and school staff began reviewing resumes Friday, said Cincinnati State spokeswoman Jean Manning.
    “Basically, you want to have an advance team marketing and getting the word out,” she said. “(The job) is for a grass-roots marketer to get the word out in the region.”
    Manning said the goal is to have someone chosen in the next two to three weeks, and after acclimating that person to the school, have them in place by March 15.
    “It’s one of many good signs,” said Middletown’s acting Economic Development Director Denise Hamet. “This is just one step in that.”
    She said Cincinnati State is actively sending teams to look at the former CG&E building at the corner of Central Avenue and Main Street, which Manning said school officials had met with the building’s designers on Thursday.
     “They are actively moving ahead to plan their new programs to be offered in the fall and to recruit students,” Hamet said.
     A Cincinnati State Middletown branch campus has been years in the making. The city had purchased several buildings, including the Manchester Inn and the CG&E building, in anticipation that the school will bring a campus to downtown. The college’s board of trustees approved the deal to expand into Middletown this past November.
    Once Cincinnati State begins to hold classes in the former CG&E building, Miami University economics professor Thomas Hall said that will be “a good thing for Middletown.”
    “It’s good for the residents of Middletown and good for the businesses of Middletown,” he said. “It increases the skills and education level of Middletown and makes the students more attractive for employers.”
    Cincinnati State is working on a contract for its new campus with Higher Education Partners.
    As a state school, any contract with Cincinnati State for the proposed campus must be reviewed by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. A review is “still in progress,” said AG spokeswoman Lisa Hackley.
    Manning said she isn’t concerned, stating the process is “just a formality.”
    Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or michael.pitman@coxinc.com

Well gentlemen it seems that the “Downtown Dream” has been downsized again. Now we will not have the Bakery School as part of this deal to draw local citizens to visit and shop downtown. My last sliver of hope for this deal has now been dashed. I just can’t wait to see the enrollment numbers this fall…   

    Manning said the old senior center “is of interest as well for the future” in addition to the other buildings, but that would be determined by enrollment growth.
    The former senior center, which was built with federal community development block grant money, could be donated to the project.

Contract close for Cincinnati State downtown campus
By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer 10:14 PM Saturday, January 21, 2012

    MIDDLETOWN — The reality of Cincinnati State having a campus is downtown is getting closer.
    The Attorney General’s Office is reviewing the final contract that would bring Cincinnati State Technical & Community College to the city, and it’s anticipated to be signed in one to two weeks, said college spokeswoman Jean Manning.
    “We’re moving forward. We’ve got all the internal teams working to get the programs planned when we open this fall,” she said.
    Manning said the review of the contract for the public college are mostly formalities.
    The deal is the one that was approved in November according to Manning.
    “It’s more of a formality at this point. The decision’s been made,” she said. “We are coming to Middletown.”
    A signed contract not only means students and faculty will be in downtown Middletown on a consistent basis, Mayor Larry Mulligan said.

“We have faith in this project, and there’s a lot of work that went into it from the city staff and Cincinnati State,” Mulligan said.
    “It’s another step along the path we’ve been working towards,” he said. “It’s going to be a positive shot in the arm with activities downtown.”
    The college’s move to bring a branch campus to the city is a public-private partnership between Cincinnati State and Massachusetts-based Higher Education Partners. HEP officials were in Middletown last week to interview general contractors in anticipation of a spring construction start, according to a memo to City Manager Judy Gilleland from Bill Luster, Higher Education Partners’s vice president for Real Estate.
    Dayton-based Woolpert LLP has already been hired for architecture and engineering services, and the design process will begin “very shortly,” according to the memo.
    The city has invested thousands of dollars into downtown when it purchased several buildings. Mulligan said, however, the building purchases were done so the city could “control the future destiny of some of the important areas of downtown.”
    Having Cincinnati State in downtown Middletown was part of that destiny, he said.
    Only one of the buildings the city bought — the former CG&E building — will be used when classes are expected to start this fall. The city also purchased the former Bank One, First National Bank and Masonic Lodge buildings, and the former Manchester Inn & Conference Center.
    Manning said the old senior center “is of interest as well for the future” in addition to the other buildings, but that would be determined by enrollment growth.
    The former senior center, which was built with federal community development block grant money, could be donated to the project.
    City Council could have a purchase and sale agreement from Higher Education Parnters at one of its two February meetings, according to Luster’s memo.
    Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or michael.pitman@coxinc.com. Follow at twitter.com/mdpitman.

Uh…you would notice, if you drove up and down I-75, thatmost communities do NOT regulate signs “much more stringently than Middletown”.  (You can actually SEE the signs of mostbusinesses in these other communities from the interstate!!!)

And…uh…you did notice that Franklin, in order “to be business-friendly” and “to help our industries along I-75 and let others know thatFranklin is open for business” is allowing more and even highersigns???

HURRAH for Franklin!!!  I wonder if Franklin City Manager Sonny Lewiswould consider a job change???