Jack Thornborough’s GranvilleBlog

On Friday, William Kraner called and then visited Scot Prebles in the superintendent’s office. Mr. Kraner had another proposal for Granville Schools. But why?

Mr. Kraner convinced former Newark Mayor Bain to provide sewer and water to his 600 acres within Granville Schools without annexation into the city of Newark. 

The Granville School Board failed to make a timely and substantive offer to Newark Schools for the transfer of the land into the Newark School district. 

The Granville School Board was unable to come to an agreement with Mr. Kraner. 

The Newark School Board passed a resolution to sign an agreement with Kraner with a few minor details to be worked out. 

The Newark School Board vowed to never accept a transfer of the land from Granville even if the Granville School Board finally got its act together.

So what is Mr. Kraner up to? He doesn’t need the Granville School Board. He has everything he wants, doesn’t he?

Can you believe it?


The Newark School Board last night traded at least several hundred thousand dollars and maybe as much as a million dollars in yearly tax revenue for 41.76 acres of land it can only use for “educational purposes.” They bought it sight unseen!


Mr. Kraner paid about $200,000 for the land in 2000. It is currently appraised by the county auditor at $233,000. Kraner told the Newark School Board the land is worth $1,000,000 and they believed him.


But, I would argue that it isn’t worth anything to the schools. They can’t sell it. They can’t build houses on it. They would have a lot of difficulty building a school on it because of its steep terrain.


Well, ok, so they put a natural outdoor laboratory for students on it. Of course, the only possible access to it is a narrow country road - how would a school bus get up there?


It seems to me the Newark School Board should have done what any of us would do when contemplating purchasing a property: get an appraisal and make sure the property can be put to some expected use.


And, purchase it they did and it was very costly - far more than the couple of hundred thousand dollars it might be worth. They spent the goodwill of Granville. They spent the lost tax revenues of new houses. And probably, they spent any chance of passing their needed school levy this spring.

It’s January 2008 and we have a new School Board. Well, three members, a majority, are new and that should make a big difference in how business is conducted.

Here are my top five wishes:

1) The new Board will encourage citizens to come to Board meetings and will permit and encourage them to participate in discussions - not just during a fixed “citizens’ comments” period, but as each agenda item is considered.

2) The new Board will appoint various ad hoc committees of citizens with particular expertise to help determine and evaluate alternatives to decisions the Board must make. For example, I think the Board should have a financial advisory committee to help with investment and borrowing decisions. Granville has many residents with years of experience in financial matters and I’m sure most of them would be willing to help out.

3) The new Board will make every effort to transfer the Kraner property to the Newark School System. The time for discussions with Kraner is over. I hope our new Board will approach Newark with a proposal that is good for Newark as well as Granville. I think we should give them the territory and give up our share of the taxes from commercial development of the land as well as our share of taxes from the Ethanol Plant site. All of this would help Newark far more than anything Kraner can promise them and it would relieve pressure on our schools. In effect, we would be “buying” smaller schools with the relinquished tax dollars.

4) The new Board will approach each of the neighboring school district Boards and establish regular, ongoing joint meetings. At these meetings, the neighbors can settle their differences and try to help each other for the benefit of all of our children. There is a common good that we should strive to attain.

5) The new Board will cause all non-confidential materials (reports, proposed contracts, etc.) to be placed on the school website ahead of Board meetings. This will permit residents to prepare for and participate in the meetings.

The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee met in Village Hall last evening and received the latest draft of the updated plan from Poggemeyer Design Group. The comprehensive plan update is a joint effort of the Village of Granville and Granville Township.

During the discussion of the latest draft, Scot Prebles, Granville Schools Superintendent, and member of the committee, ask the Poggemeyer planners how potential sites for new schools are indicated on the maps. Not specific sites, of course, but in general.

The planners responded that rather than indicate school sites, they would place new schools in any of the designated open-space areas. Then, without hesitation, the planners indicated that a new school should be located south of Route 16. That’s where new population growth is occurring and that’s the logical place for the next new school.

I think it’s obvious that our school system will need a new school within a few years. Planning should begin now. Our School Board and we citizens must understand the need for a new school. We must look at enrollment projections, decide what kind of a school we need, and estimate costs for the school. All of this should be done out in the open with as much public involvement as possible.

Perhaps the first order of business is to decide to stop concentrating all of the schools, all of the students, all of the school buses, and all of the teachers’ and parents’ cars in the complex north of the village. It just makes no sense and is already causing serious traffic problems on Pearl Street every morning and afternoon.

But, most importantly, building a huge complex makes no sense from the point of view of what’s best for the children. At least in the elementary grades, experts agree that smaller, neighborhood schools are best (See: Education Resources).

I think it’s time for Granville to have at least two elementary schools with one of them south of Route 16.

Last night while reviewing plans for a 3-store building proposed for the property next to Arby’s, some of the commissioners bemoaned the fact that our Planning and Zoning Code requires new buildings to have roofs with an 8/12 pitch.

At one point in the discussion, the chairman said, “We must get rid of the 8/12 pitch requirement. Now. Now. Now.” He said putting an 8/12 roof on the proposed building would just not work. “The massing would be all wrong.”

Well, yes it would. He’s right. However, he’s missing the point of the law. The property is zoned Planned Commercial District (PCD) and the code for that district requires an 8/12 roof so the building will be styled to fit into the Granville “look.” The drafters of the code intentionally required that, “Building design shall be of traditional American styles, such as: Postmedieval English, Dutch Colonial, French Colonial, Georgian, Adam, Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick, Queen Anne, or Shingle.” The code goes on to require, “Roofs shall have a minimum pitch of 8/12.”

The problem here is that the proposed design is for a flat-roofed, picture-windowed, American strip-mall style. The code doesn’t need to be changed - the design needs to be changed.

The Planning Commission should enforce the law instead of bending over backwards to find ways to let developers build whatever they wish.

The Granville Township Trustees met Wednesday, August 8, 2007, the day after the joint Village - Township Comprehensive Plan meeting. The trustees did not attend the Comprehensive Plan meeting, but at their own meeting on Wednesday they decided to endorse a proposal for development on South Main Street that impacts and should be a part of the comprehensive plan.

The published agenda for the trustees meeting contained two items that might be related, but I’m not sure:

1. Annexation issues/proposed utility assessment

2. Comprehensive Plan

So, not only did they not participate in the public discussion of the comprehensive plan update, but they also did not have much, if any, public input about their own decision to endorse a particular plan.

The South Main Street development affects the entryway to the Village of Granville and I think it is important that we all have input to the decision-making process. I hope the Township Trustees will have a public meeting devoted to discussion of this plan before they make a final decision.

Or, are their minds already made up?

On Tuesday evening, August 7, 2007, the joint committee to revise the Comprehensive Plan for Granville Village and Granville Township presented an update of its work. I attended the presentation along with about 50 other residents.

I was struck by the location of the meeting and by who attended (and who didn’t).

We met in the Intermediate School on Burg Street. Driving up the long entryway through fields of corn and soybeans the low, modern massive building seemed lonely and out of place - wrong, somehow. Who in their right mind would build a school out here, far away from where kids live and play? Inside, it’s a beautiful school, but outside, it’s ridiculous. Inappropriate. A mistake.

All of our Village Council members were present, except Matt McGowan. None of our Granville Township Trustees were there - wasn’t this a joint Village-Township effort?

And, not one School Board member was there although the Superintendent showed up. They’re the ones who put this school in the middle of a corn field. I think they should be participating in the planning process of our community. This time we need to think about where we build our next school.

I just drove by the new Arbys a few minutes ago.


It has the makings of a fine looking building. You’ll remember the Planning Commission spent a lot of time and several meetings with Arbys to arrive at this design. Also, recently, Arbys came before the Planning Commission asking to use white or tan mullions in the windows because the window manufacturer would not give a warranty on the burgundy mullions the Commission had requested.


The Planning Commission relented and permitted Arbys to use the white/tan mullions.


Well, now we have it. The building’s windows are divided into large sections by burgundy frames, but the mullions are white or tan (I can’t really tell which).


And, it looks like Hell.


It looks like the building has no architect and we have no planning commission.


Perhaps we don’t.

According to the Sentinel, Bill Kraner has submitted a development plan for the 99 acres he owns in northeast Granville Township. Apparently he wishes to build 23 high-end houses on 48± acres and dedicate 51± acres to open space. This proposal meets the township’s code and, depending on the value of the homes, should pay enough taxes to Granville Schools for them to break even on the costs to educate the additional children.

This is a far cry from the 110 houses that Ron Sheldon’s scare campaign told us would be built if we didn’t purchase the land.

So far, this is good news for Granville and we saved over $10 million dollars!

Many are concerned that the proposed Cleveland Hall addition will emit too much light within the historic district of Granville.


I read in the Sentinel that according to Richard Metsky, partner in the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle of New York, the designers, the amount of light it would emit “is minimal — less than traditional glass.”


However, according to August 22, 2005 work session minutes, Denison’s architect, told the Planning Commission that the glass building would “show like a beacon.”


So which is it, minimal light or a beacon?