Crawford-seneca Anti-wind plans three more informational meetings
BUCYRUS – County residents will have three more opportunities to hear what wind power opponents have to say about the proposed Honey Creek Wind Farm.
“The community needs to understand what’s being planned,” said Kimberly Groth, who presents information during the Crawford-seneca Anti-wind meetings. “It needs to have a substantive voice in whether or not they think it’s a good fit for their community.”
Apex Clean Energy is the parent company of Honey Creek Wind Farm, which company officials have said could bring millions of dollars in taxes and fees into the county over its 30-year lifespan.
Drew Christensen, public engagement manager for Apex, has said the company plans a 360-megawatt wind project, enough to power about 102,000 homes every year. That’s expected to mean roughly 75 turbines, each between 400 and 600 feet tall, he said.
Both Apex and the anti-wind group offered a series of informational meetings in May. Crawford-seneca Antiwind has announced additional meetings:
h 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Holmes Township Volunteer Fire Department, 4381 Holmes Center Road
h 6:30 p.m. June 24 at Aumiller Park, 500 Aumiller Park Drive
h 6:30 p.m. July 1 at Liberty Township Volunteer Fire Department, 4628 Liberty St., Sulphur Springs.
Groth, who lives in Bloom Township in southern Seneca County, said regional planners make plans for their communities based on “what they value about their community, what they want to promote and protect within their community.”
Groth: Project would transform Crawford County
Part of the goal is to keep the community an attractive place to live; to encourage young people to stay and raise their own families, and to draw in new families, she said.
“Something that would be so transformative as a giant industrial wind farm should be part of that conversation,” she said.
“This project would completely transform half of Crawford County, and it would impact the entire county,” she said.
While the turbines would be constructed in the northern half of the county, they’d be visible from south of Bucyrus, Groth said. If all of the proposed wind farm projects go forward, someone driving north on Ohio 4 to get to Lake Erie would see turbines from south of Bucyrus all the way to the lake.
Neighbor: It’s an industrial project
Lykens Township resident Kay Weisenauer, who lives about two miles south of the county line, said landowners and residents need to have more information in order to “make good decisions and hopefully have a voice.”
Several landowners in her neighborhood have signed leases with Apex, she said.
“It’s going to affect not just the people that signs leases; it’s going to affect all neighbors,” Weisenauer said. “It’s going to affect everyone . ... They’re going to find out that it’s going to affect property value, the landscape, wildlife and our health.”
“We’re an agriculture area, and this ... is an industrial project,” she said. “We just want to keep our land.”
Specific information about wind turbine placement, size and number won’t be available until relatively late in the process, Groth noted; and that’s the information that “makes it real.”
“By the time the developer gives that information, it’s like a ball that’s already rolling downhill,” Groth said. “The community really should be at the table earlier in the process. That’s what these meetings are attempting to do; to help people understand what’s being planned in their community, give them another side of the story and see if they think it’s a good fit for their community.”
Attendance has been good at previous meetings, she said, with more than 70 people attending the most recent.
“We have information to hand out and we’ll answer questions,” Weisenauer said. “We’d appreciate having people there. That’s what we’re about: Getting that information out.” ggoble@gannett.com 419-521-7263
Here is a 21st-century-minted category of Columbus restaurants that I didn’t see coming: unconventional pizzerias that set up shop inside of other businesses, specialize in Sicilian-influenced pies, and evoke the Wizard of Oz. Members of this improbable club include Wizard of Za (which I wrote about last week) and a Yellow Brick Pizza spinoff, and the subject of this review, Pie of the Tiger.
Maybe two eateries translate into a pretty small restaurant category? Well, considering that the buzzy but unrelated pizzerias popped up only recently and are making a big splash with thick-crust pies, would it be shocking if more like them soon bubbled up? Put another way, is anything shocking these days?
Rather than philosophize on this curious cultural moment and the pandemic’s impact on dining, I’ll just say that if these eccentric pizzerias signal
the emergence of a new restaurant trend, I’m good with that.
Especially since Pie of the Tiger, which resides in Short North Tavern, allows me to write: Visiting a leading contender for Columbus’ best new pizzeria also means visiting a classic old watering hole whose founding — and ambience — predate the drastic makeover of its gentrified neighborhood.
With its light-colored wood, dart boards, decorative old radios, friendly staff and prices (Bulleit rye is $4.75; pints of Ohio-brewed beers are $4.50 to $4.75), 40-year-old Short North Tavern is a rarity in its neighborhood: an actual neighborhood bar. It’s a separate business from Pie of the Tiger, but food service is provided to customers seated at the wooden-bench-style tables and booths or bellying up to the vintage wooden bar.
Pie of the Tiger operates under the aegis of Yellow Brick Pizza, but it’s a distinct entity. This is strongly reflected in Tiger’s mostly terrific, not-slow-to-beprepared food.
For example, all pizzas are rectangular four-slicers that feature a focacciaesque, extra-thick, Detroit-meets-sicily crust that’s delightfully crunchy and wonderfully enhanced by heat-crisped cheese on multiple surfaces, but is springy and puffy in the middle.
Among pre-designed pies (designyour-own pizzas start at $10), the humbly titled Just Cheese Please was hardly humble — except for its price ($11). Each garlicky, herb-kissed slab arrived with a large pocket of ricotta and feta covered with lots of pleasantly tart, thick tomato sauce surrounded by oven-browned provolone.
The equally delicious Just Pepperoni pizza ($11) was another modestly titled bargain with immodest amounts of sauce and oven-toasted cheese. Its justly applied meat arrived via crisp pepperoni — Tiger understands the appeal of crispy food —that were thin, wide and zesty.
No thoughts of moderation went into the creation of The Big Cat ($14). This “supreme”-style pizza with pepperoni and fennel-seed sausage tasted pretty great, but its crust wasn’t as crispy, perhaps due to moisture-leaking veggies (peppers, onions, fresh mushrooms, canned black olives).
My favorite over-the-top pizzas here were two nutty-sounding, but triumphant pies: Tiny Panther ($15) — a mustard-drizzled eye-widener with bacon, ham, sausage, cheddar and provolone that conjured pizza hybridized with a
deli sandwich and a hot dog; and Dill Thrill ($12) — a tangy, zippy and garlicky party in my mouth whose cheesy richness played off pickle chips, Old Bay hot sauce and ranch dressing.
Pickles reappear in battered-andfried spears — encased in spiced and crackly sheaths, naturally — in the addictive pickle fries ($9), a huge serving of fun pub snacks presented with “Tiger Sauce” (think buffalo-ranch).
I also sampled two of the four subs offered on toasted good rolls from local Auddino’s Italian Bakery. The uncharacteristically paltry chicken Parmesan grinder ($12) was a fine-tasting minor misfire made, oddly, with chopped poultry. The stacked-high-with-tastymeats Italian sub ($12, with chips) was more true to form — the kind of big, distinct and delicious sandwich you’d expect from one of the best Columbus pizzerias to open in 2021.
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