GOP lawmakers want to remove ex-speaker’s name from building

COLUMBUS — A group of mostly Republican lawmakers wants to remove the longest-serving Democratic House speaker’s name from a state office building and replace it with a deceased apprentice pipefitter’s instead.

House Bill 228 would rename the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts across from the Ohio Statehouse as the Tawnya Salyer Memorial Center for Government and the Arts.

The downtown Columbus tower houses offices for members of the Ohio House of Representatives and Gov. Mike Dewine.

Riffe, of New Boston, led the House for nearly 20 years back when Democrats consistently controlled the chamber and before term limits were imposed in 1992. Riffe, who died in 1997, was known for establishing Shawnee State University and Ohio 32 through southern Ohio.

Salyer, 27, died while working on the building in 1988. She lost her footing while working on the top of a large air handling unit on the 15th floor, according to a request to back the bill from Reps. Mark Johnson, R-chillicothe, and Phil Plummer, R-dayton.

“Tawnya Salyer represented the very best of Ohio, it is only right and fitting for us to honor the person who gave their life for this building by changing the building name in her memory,” wrote Johnson, who knew Salyer personally.

The bill is backed by 16 Republican lawmakers and one Democratic legislator, Rep. Munira Abdullahi, of Columbus. Plummer said the proposal isn’t politically motivated: “We should acknowledge hard-working Ohioans, not politicians.” The bill allows the Riffe statue to remain in its current spot between the first and third floors.

But Sen. Bill Demora, D-columbus, blasted the idea on Twitter, writing: “This is ridiculous! These right-wing nut jobs have nothing better to do!! Guess what, I will be introducing a bill to rename the Rhodes Tower in the names of the four Kent State students killed on May 4, 1970!”