Mount Vernon honored its Volunteers of the Year at the First Friday event over the holiday weekend.
Joe Rinehart and Guy Hager were picked for their work with the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival and a Neighborhood Watch program, respectively.
Rinehart was named a Volunteer of the Year for his role as chairman of the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival, Mayor Matt Starr told the Mount Vernon News.
“But he also does a great deal of other volunteer and other civic activities, but particularly for the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival work,” he said. “That is one of the reasons why he was nominated and selected."
Guy Hager was honored for his leadership in the creation and execution of a Neighborhood Watch program.
“Over the past couple of years, it's grown to 60 volunteers,” Starr said.
Rinehart is the Communication Department chair and director of broadcasting at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. He also is a member of the Food for the Hungry board of directors. He directs and co-produces a live stream for the event. Residents may have heard him announcing the Mount Vernon Memorial Day Parade this year.
He and his wife, Marcy, have called Mount Vernon their home for 31 years. Their daughter, Rachel, is a Mount Vernon High and Mount Vernon Nazarene University graduate. She lives and works in Florida.
Hager also has served as an Honor Guard member to provide military honors at funerals in and around Knox County. He served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor operator on submarines from 1977 to 1983.
A mechanical engineer, he is the training manager for Trillium Energy, a nationwide company for natural gas and hydrogen-fueled vehicles.
He is a trustee at Gay Street United Methodist Church.
Utilities crews work on water main breaks
Several water main breaks in the past weeks required underground utility crews to make emergency water line repairs. Starr said the work involved a lot of heavy excavation and complicated repairs, with some lines located as deep as 12 feet below the ground.
Tom Marshall, the Public Utilities director, said his department accounted for 1.8 million gallons of water consumption in June.
“We're currently beginning an engineering study at the wastewater treatment plant that is going to address the Ohio EPA requirements for the city to control the amount of phosphorus we're discharging,” Starr said.
The city’s lime lagoon cleaning project continues, Starr said, with approximately one-third of the material moved.
After getting the go-ahead from City Council, the city successfully navigated the permitting process from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The city is contacting local farmers to develop its project plan for distributing the lime to them.
Engineering works on parking garage, punch list
The parking garage shoring installation has begun by Custom Cutters.
“They're making some pretty good, progress but I'm hesitant to say when just when it will be done,” Starr said. “Because just like I said, we never know until we start digging or getting into it.”
Layton Excavation is wrapping up a punch item list in the Clintonville project. Responding to local residents’ questions, Starr said it makes the most economic sense to complete paving at the same time as the city’s 2022, paving, and curb and gutter project. That should start sometime before the school year starts.
“If we only have to bring the paving company here once rather than twice, it saves us a lot of money,” he said.
Knox Cattle Dam meetings this week
Public involvement meetings for the Knox Cattle Dam are scheduled Wednesday at 4 p.m. and Thursday at 6 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the Woodward at 7 South Main St., Starr said.
