Middletown was faced with difficult choices in budgeting for 2010, ultimately making more than $1 million in cuts that included laying off seven employees and allowing four other positions to go unfilled for 2010.
2 The Middletown High School football team ended a 19-year playoff drought by earning the program’s first 10-win season since 1934. The team had not made a playoff appearance since 1990. The Middies had wins over Princeton, East St. Louis (Ill.) and Moeller, but eventually fell 41-20 at the hands of undefeated Anderson in the Division I, Region 4 semifinals.
3 Election Day 2009 was monumental for Middletown, with myriad changes that will impact City Council for years to come. In addition to electing two of the youngest councilmen in Middletown’s history (A.J. Smith, 20, and Josh Laubach, 27), the election saw voters pass a charter amendment doing away with the ward system and reducing the size of City Council from seven to five. All members will be elected at-large beginning in 2013.
4 Monroe’s 400,000-square-foot outlet center opened its doors Aug. 6 to thousands of customers clamoring for deals. The 100-store complex houses an extensive inventory of well-known brands, including Coach, Nike, Michael Kors and The North Face. Many stores offered gift cards or free merchandise on opening day, causing tremendous traffic snarls and congestion outside of the mall itself. Eager shoppers mobbed the facility following its opening despite an ongoing economic recession.
5 The murder trial of Ryan Widmer took several twists and turns in 2009. Widmer was convicted in April of killing his wife, Sarah, by drowning her in the bathtub of their Hamilton Twp. home in August 2008. Prosecutors allege Widmer tried to cover up the crime by telling authorities his wife, an Edgewood High School graduate, had fallen asleep and drowned in the bathtub.
Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson ordered a new trial after allegations of juror misconduct surfaced. The second trial is expected to begin March 15. The case managed to garner national attention, with a piece airing on “Dateline NBC” in September.
6 A 68-year-old Middletown woman dubbed the “granny robber” was sentenced in February to a total of nine years in prison for stealing thousands of dollars to support her adopted son.
Barbara Joly pleaded guilty in February to four robberies that occurred March 11, 2008, at Community National Bank in Middletown; May 29, 2008, at People’s First Savings Bank in Mason; Sept. 24, 2008, at US Bank in Lebanon; and Nov. 21, 2008, at Huntington Bank in Franklin.
Prosecutors said Joly, a former bank teller, stole a total of $8,168 from the three Warren County banks and $1,000 from the Middletown bank on Breiel Boulevard.
Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage sentenced Joly on Feb. 11, 2009, to three years in prison for the Community National Bank holdup. On Feb. 18, she was sentenced to six more years in prison by Warren County Common Pleas Judge James Flannery for the holdups in Franklin, Lebanon and Mason.
Now 69, Joly is incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.
7Two veteran grooms and 45 horses were killed in a barn fire at Lebanon Raceway on Dec. 5. A ruling on a cause of the fire has not been made, but Lebanon Fire Chief Mike Hannigan said he expects it to be ruled accidental and undetermined.
The football field-length barn suffered damages estimated at more than $100,000 for the structure alone. Firefighters from 10 area departments fought the fire for hours, after a nearby resident first reported the blaze at 4:50 a.m.
8 Longtime Butler County politician Michael Fox and was hit with an eight-count federal indictment alleging “public corruption” for allegedly conspiring to improperly benefit from a $2.75 million fiber optics contract. The indictment alleged Fox and co-defendant Robert C. Schuler, owner of the fiber optics firm NORMAP, profited from the deal and failed to report the income properly. Schuler allegedly wired Fox $460,000 while his company profited off a contract with the county.
Fox, a former state lawmaker, county commissioner and Children Services director, is accused of not properly reporting income he was receiving from other companies doing business with the county. The initial trial date of Dec. 22 was pushed back to June 14, with Fox’s defensive team arguing the case involves “novel and unusual questions of law.”
9 The alarm surrounding the swine flu outbreak was in many ways tempered by relatively few major incidents in Butler County. Perhaps most hit by the H1N1 outbreak was Oxford, where the disease was suspected, but later ruled out, as the cause of the deaths of a Miami University student and a recent graduate.
Vaccine clinics held at the Butler County fairgrounds in Hamilton and throughout Middletown saw thousands of people turn out for vaccination. Middletown officials estimated they had administered nearly 7,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine through the end of November. The Butler County Health Department’s clinic at the fairgrounds attracted between 5,000 to 6,000 for the first of a two-day event, at one point forcing officials to shut down the venue to new arrivals.
10 The city of Monroe forced a delay in the construction of a $340 million SunCoke Energy coke plant amid concerns regarding the federal Clean Air Act.
Monroe officials filed a lawsuit in January against Middletown Coke Co., alleging violations of the federal standards in connection with the construction of the coke plant. SunCoke had decided to pursue a second air emissions permit for the facility in July, but has yet to hear back from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The proposed coke oven facility would supply raw materials and electricity to AK Steel Corp.’s Middletown Works plant.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or rgauthier@coxohio.com.
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