Southern Ohio Brewing debuts in Beavercreek
The Dayton area’s newest craft brewery, Southern Ohio Brewing, opened Saturday in Beavercreek.
The brewery had been in the works for more than a year at 818 Factory Road, along the Miami Valley Bike Trails Creekside path just north of U.S. 35. Co-founder James Williams and members of his family were busy putting the finishing touches on the brewery’s tap room late last week.
The building and surrounding two-acre parcel previously housed Banjara Banquet Center and All In One Banquet Center, as well as a Factory Lighting Outlet store. It opened in the 1970s as the Beaver Valley Golf Center, with miniature golf, a driving range, batting cages and a game room.
Southern Ohio Brewing’s hours for now will be 4-8 p.m. Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday, and noon-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Reservations are recommended and can be made on the brewery’s website; walk-up customers will be accommodated if there is room. Space will be limited because of social distancing.
Long-term plans call for adding guest taps for other local craft breweries, as well as offering wine and cocktails.
Kings Island opens with new rules
Kings Island is implementing an array of safety precautions aimed at protecting the health of guests and staffers when the Warren County amusement park opened for the 2020 season Thursday.
Buying a ticket requires a reservation and a completed health screening questionnaire within 24 hours of the visit, and a temperature check will be done outside the park’s main entrance.
The park is opening to season pass-holders, but the general public can make reservations starting July 12. The percentage of Kings Island’s capacity will change based on the time of the year, and the new reservation system will help the park avoid going over capacity.
Those who pass the screening are required to wear a mask and will find 600 hand sanitizer stations located throughout the park, including entrances, exits, food stands, restaurants and restrooms.
A park official said the best place to view the park’s plan is at visitkingsisland.com, which allows guests to download a guide showing them what the park experience will be like.
The park’s rides, including the new $31 million gigacoaster Orion, also will be regularly sanitized.
Several local restaurant workers sick from virus
The 416 Diner in Dayton’s Oregon District became the third Dayton-area restaurant in recent days to announce a temporary shutdown because one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The employee does not have symptoms and has not worked at the diner since June 27, but the owner of 416 Diner says he plans to keep the diner closed through July 8 out of an abundance of caution. All other 416 Diner employees were scheduled to be tested this weekend.
The reopening date of July 9 is 12 days after the employee last had contact with other employees, which allows for a minimum of three days after all employees are tested, and is contingent on all employees returning negative results, Guy Fragmin, the owner of 416 Diner, wrote on the 416 Diner Facebook page Wednesday night.
Fragmin directed those customers who visited the diner June 27 or after and who have concerns to a free COVID-19 testing site at a Walgreens in Centerville that offers free testing with an appointment.
Local health officials are also doing contact-tracing for two other local restaurants after positive employee COVID-19 tests. The Roosters in Miami Twp. is shut down temporarily after five employees tested positive, and Elsa’s Corner Cantina in Sugarcreek Twp. shut down last week, and is now serving carryout-only during dinner hours, after one of its employees tested positive for COVID19.
DLM named among top regional supermarkets
Food & Wine magazine has named Dorothy Lane Market one of “The 20 Best Regional Supermarket Chains of All Time.”
And it wasn’t the only Ohio grocery chain to make the list. Heinen’s, in the Cleveland area, also was singled out.
Business owner Norman Mayne said he was “totally surprised” at the Food & Wine recognition.”This just proves what a great group of people I get to work with every day,” Mayne said.
It is not the first national recognition for the local grocery chain. In 2013, Norman Mayne received the Robert B. Wegman national award for entrepreneurial excellence from the Food Marketing Institute.
Defense contractor to lay off 72 at Wright-Patterson
A Danvers, Massachusetts-based defense contractor will lay off more than 70 workers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base by the end of August, the company has told Ohio government.
The company anticipates laying off 72 employees on or about August 31, 2020, Angela Cauley, Sumaria Systems Inc.’s human resources director, said in a letter to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
These employees are supervised though Sumaria’s Fairborn office at 3164 Presidential Drive but physically work at Wright-Patterson at 2530 Loop Road West, building 560, Cauley’s letter said. The department received the undated letter Monday.
On May 1, the company said it had a won a place on a team of firms that had been awarded a five-year $75 million-plus contract to support the Air Force ISR Sensors and FMS — Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Sensors and Foreign Military Sales — division at Wright-Patterson and at units
Ohio AG to GM: Pay back $60 million in tax credits
Ohio’s attorney general is seeking to claw back $60 million in economic development incentive tax credits from the nation’s largest automaker.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a brief to the Ohio Tax Credit Authority that General Motors (GM) “should have to pay back every last penny of the $60 million the company took in state tax credits after breaking its promise to the state and the Mahoning Valley.”
The Ohio Development Services Agency oversees Ohio economic incentive programs, and the Tax Credit Authority votes on proposed tax credits for projects.
In January 2009, GM began receiving tax credits from the state for the automaker’s Lordstown plant operations. In March last year, the last GM-made car produced in Lordstown — a Chevrolet Cruze LS — came off the assembly line in the 6.2-million-square foot plant. Left without jobs were 1,500 still-remaining workers at the time.
“If the state were to claw back $60 million, that would be one of the biggest clawback events in U.S. history,” Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, told ProPublica earlier this month. “This is very significant, very interesting that it would come from a Rust Belt state from a very pro-business administration.”
Yost contended in his brief and an accompanying press release that GM promised it would maintain operations at its Lordstown plant through 2028 and retain 3,700 jobs through 2040.