I2 Sunday, March 27, 2016 | The Repository | CantonRep.

com

WHY LOUISVILLE
IS SO SPECIAL

A
s chairwoman of the Lou-
isville High School Alumni
Association, our newsletter
Spotlight on Alumni, pub-
lished quarterly, highlights alumni and
their personal stories. Our association
is relatively new. We currently have 193
members from across 19 states and 43
graduating classes. We are working to
build our scholarship fund available to
graduates and their descendants. The
scholarship fund is also being made
available to those graduates who are
alumni association members who must
update skills to remain competitive
REPOSITORY FILE RAY STEWART
in the work force. I would be remiss
n Drilling pipe is stored at Washita Valley Enterprise on Energy Drive.
if I failed to recognize Louisville High

WAITING FOR THE BOOM

By Shane Hoover future.
Repository staff writer I think that were two,
two-and-a-half years out from
generated income taxes of
$282,000. Thats 6.6 percent of
the $4.3 million the city col-
grant, obtained in 2010, to build
a road and a 440-foot bridge
over the East Branch of the
School alumni members Steve Coon and
Dennis Biery. Both serve the community
of Louisville, but their good will and
deeds go way beyond our city limits.
Carolyn Hess
The date was Oct. 19, 1956. Two high
school seniors (a boy, and a girl) met
accidentally downtown after the foot-

T
LOUISVILLE
he city seemed to
score a major coup
when Chesapeake
Energy decided
three years ago to put its
Utica Shale field office
here. The countys sec-
ond-smallest city would
get a shiny, five-story office
building and hundreds of
workers generating millions
of tax dollars.
Chesapeake moved into the
Beck Industrial Park last year,
but is employing about a fifth
of the expected 500 workers,
according to city estimates.
Reasons include the slump in
oil and natural gas prices and
changes in Chesapeakes corpo-
rate structure.
But city officials say the oil
and gas industry has diversi-
fied the local economy, and the
apparent lull in activity is giving
the city time to plan for the
where were going to see the big
boom people were expecting,
said Vincent Marion, city plan-
ning director.
CORE COMPANIES
Louisville splits a cluster of
oil and gas companies with
Nimishillen Township on the
citys southwest edge.
Chesapeake, Seventy Seven
Energy and Washita Valley
Enterprises are on Energy Drive.
Pilot Thomas Logistics
(Maxum), Tilley Pressure Test,
and Performance Technologies
are at Tulane Avenue and Kath-
ryn Street NE.
Total Service Supply and
McCarty Equipment are on Lou-
isville Road NE in the township.
NALCO is nearby on Jeffries
Circle NE.
The list includes a major Utica
driller, an operator of rigs and
fracking equipment, and com-
panies that do safety testing and
supply chemicals, tools, hoses
and pipe.
From June 2014 to July of this
year, oil and gas companies
lected during those 12 months.
I think thats a significant
player, Marion said.
CHESAPEAKE KEY
Chesapeake is a major reason
the industry is in Louisville.
Chesapeake has drilled more
Utica wells in Ohio than any
other company, 672, and has
plans for another 128, according
to state figures.
In 2012, Chesapeake pur-
chased 290 acres in the Beck
Industrial Park on the citys
south-side. Plans called for the
main office building, a 1,000-
foot rail spur and a secondary
building.
Once Chesapeake said, This
is where we are going, then
everybody else jumped and said,
This is where well be, said
Bill Jeffries, a partner in Groffre
Investments.
Groffre Investments devel-
oped the business park and is
landlord for several oil and gas
companies.
The Chesapeake project was
helped by a $3.5 million state
Nimishillen Creek, connecting
the property to state Route 44.
Chesapeake and the city also
agreed to a 10-year, 25-percent
income tax abatement if the
company created at least 100
full-time jobs with a payroll of
$4 million by the end of 2017.
The city wont review how close
Chesapeake is to meeting the
threshold until next May, said
Finance Director Jina Turowksi.
CHANGED PLANS
But before Chesapeake moved
into its new home, the company
cut dozens of local of workers,
and spun off Nomac Drilling,
Performance Technologies and
Great Plain Oilfield Rental as
Seventy Seven Energy.
At the same time, wells in the
oil-rich shale beneath Stark and
Tuscarawas counties didnt pan
out, and drilling concentrated in
counties to the east and south.
The rail spur and secondary
building were never built.
Although no longer part
SEE BOOM, I3
ball game. They knew each other to see
and say hi, but were not friends. For
some unknown
reason, no one
else was there yet
from the game, so
they just walked
around town and
chatted. As they
were going to her
friends car to get
a ride home, they
took a short cut
through an alley
to the municipal
parking lot by the GEORGE AND BEV RODAK
police station. As
they were midway
through the alley,(Penny Alley.
which The Repository covered this
month) they stopped by a lighted door-
way and shared their first kiss together.
The rest of the story is: When we saw
that article we went to that alley and
had another kiss. We were married
after we graduated from Louisville High
School in 1957. We saw all six of our
children graduate from Louisville High
School and have many happy memories
of this beloved community. We still
reside in Louisville and have just cel-
ebrated our 58th wedding anniversary,
TOGETHER.
Sincerely, George and Bev Rodak

Living in Stark County, one can

not help but to look forward to crisp,
autumn Friday nights. As I think back to
my introduction to what may be the best
place in Ohio to enjoy high school foot-
ball, I would be remiss to leave out the
Friday nights spent watching Louisville
Leopard football .
Growing up in Plain Township, you
may wonder how an Oakwood Raider
became a Louisville Leopard fan. Blame
my mother, Patricia McDougal, who
taught elementary school in the Lou-
isville school system for more than 30
years. You see, my mother secured
season tickets to all Leopard home
games ... the ones when Paul Starkey
coached Louisville, Fairless was a Fed-
eral League team and kids still sat with
their parents at the game.
So I graduated from GlenOak, watched
my sons play football for Perry, but will
never forget the Friday nights learning
football. In these parts thats spiritual,
and for good reason. Thanks Mom!
Brian McDougal, Perry Township
COURTESY OF ADAM HERRON
Pride in Louisville, Ohio is shown
n An aerial view of Louisville High Schools campus. The school is supported very well by the community.
every Friday night in the fall, when the

HOW LOUISVILLE BECAME KNOWN

football stands are filled with fans. The
support is amazing! It is the place to be!
Spirit and support is evident in the blue
and white, and leopard attire!

AS THE CONSTITUTION TOWN

By Robert Wang Sunday in May as I Am An American Day,
Repository staff writer or Citizenship Day, a day to recognize those
who had becomes American citizens.
auditorium supported by a committee
For the Preservation of the Constitu-
tion, which became todays Constitution
Visit Metzger Park on South Nickel-
plate in Louisville and see the number of
people walking or bike riding. The soccer
fields are in full use with either practices
or games. The huge playground is a kid
magnet. Metzger Park is a hidden gem.
Joan Aljancic

T
LOUISVILLE A February 1952 joint congressional
resolution and presidential proclamation
ype Constitution and
changed Citizenship Day to Sept. 17th, the
city into Google, and the anniversary of the Constitutions signing.
top result will be the website
WE THE PEOPLE
for the city of Louisville.
Stark Countys fifth largest city, which But it was the efforts of Louisville
resident Olga T. Weber, who made a con-
has fewer than 10,000 people, calls itself
the Constitution Town. tribution to persuading Louisville council,
the Ohio General Assembly and Congress to
Its not clear if any other city in the nation
as much as Louisville has tied its identity to officially observe the Sept. 17th anniversary
as Constitution Day.
the United States premier founding docu-
ment, which lays the basis for its system According to a history compiled by
Louisvilles Constitution Committee and
of laws and enumerates Americans basic
freedoms. the 2010 book Women: Americas Last
Best Hope, by Kimberly Fletcher, Weber
Every year, Louisville not only celebrates
Constitution Day, which is Sept. 17th, it in 1951 decided to promote education about
the U.S. Constitution. She was concerned
celebrates Constitution Week, a Congres-
sionally recognized observance. that the members of the public had become
complacent about their constitutional
ANNIVERSARY freedoms.
Sept. 17th is the anniversary of the date in She gave out copies of the Constitution
and other materials to students at schools,
1787 when delegates to the Constitutional
Convention in Philadelphia signed the U.S. parishioners at churches and patrons at
libraries and other members of the public.
Constitution, which they had just drafted
and submitted to the states for ratification. The citys website said Weber persuaded
then-Mayor Gerald A. Romary to issue a
Research indicates there may have been
sporadic observances of Constitution Day proclamation that declared Sept. 17, 1952
the citys first Constitution Day.
before 1952. According to the Library of
Congress website, Congress first passed According to the Louisville Area Chamber
a resolution in 1940 designating the third of Commerces website, Weber organized
a program at the Louisville High Schools
Committee. The guest speaker was Stark
Countys then-Congressman Frank T.
Bowe.
The Constitution Committees website
indicates in 1953, due to Webers efforts,
then-state representatives Karl Baurer
and John Lehmann introduced a resolu-
tion in the Ohio House proclaiming Sept. 17
Constitution Day. Gov. Frank Lausche also
signed a similar proclamation.
According to Anna Jule Whitmer, 92,
a longtime member of the Constitution
Committee, Bowe helped Weber pushed for
federal recognition of Constitution Day as a
day to learn about the Constitution.
According to the Georgetown Law School
website, in 1956 Congress passed a joint
resolution declaring Sept. 17 through Sept.
23 as Constitution Week.
By 1958, historical markers at the towns
four main entrances called Louisville, the
Constitution Town.
In 2004, due to then-West Virginia
Senator Robert Byrds backing, Congress
approved legislation designating Sept. 17 as
both Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
The head of each federal agency is sup-
posed to give federal employees educational
materials about the Constitution every
Sept. 17. Any school receiving federal funds
SEE TOWN, I3
Though small, the Louisville Public
Library is doing big things. With an
emphasis on STEAM (Science Tech-
nology Engineering Art and Math)
education in addition to traditional
library services, the library applied for
and was awarded a grant in 2014 by
the state to enhance the communitys
digital literacy. With that money, the
library purchased three 3-D printers, a
laser engraver, a vinyl cutter and other
equipment to create the Library Lab. The
Library Lab, the only one of its kind in
Stark County, is based on the concept of
a makerspace. The Library Lab combines
manufacturing equipment and librarians
to create a place where the community
can learn, design and create manufac-
tured works using equipment that is not
commonly available to most individuals.
Due to the success of The Library Lab,
the state awarded the library another
grant in August 2015 to create The
Little Library Lab. The Little Library
Lab, once completed, will be the Chil-
drens Department version of the Library
Lab.
Jason J Buydos,
Director Louisville Public Library
SEE SPECIAL, I3