The Hilliard Beacon Podcast

We’re joined in studio by interim director of the the new city Operations Department, Andrew Beare. Andrew came to Hilliard’s city services after 10 years working in similar capacities in neighboring Grove City. It was great to have Andrew in for an informative chat about the city’s new “operations” department, some of his more memorable wildlife encounters, what it means to look after the city’s...

We reconvene in the early days of the New Year to preview - review - and clue you in. * Kevin previews the latest installment of his ongoing coverage of local Fire services - including some of the dramatic cost increases to necessary, backbone equipment like engines and ambulances. We discuss the evolving state of negotiations and share some insight from our own lives. * We discuss the main areas...

In an effort to recap and provide an overview of our first year as the Hilliard Beacon we’re aggregating our top stories of the year as measured by your interest and readership. This post will be fully public and shareable so that you can pass these pieces to friends and neighbors - helping us find more residents of our community to share with and build through. And to those paid subscribers and s...

With our interview guest out with an illness (rescheduling for the new year) the guys convene to discuss: * The theft of 10000 donuts in the land down under * The latest updates regarding the city’s massive recreation campus building project known as “The Well” * We check in with the final council meeting of the year and share some thoughts on our first year as the Hilliard Beacon Next show we’ll...

The guys are back from Thanksgiving with some thoughts to share regarding the large scale developments in so called “artificial intelligence” or large language models. Then we talk through the city’s recent decision to make a direct investment in acquiring 120 acres of land right in the heart of Hilliard. We’ll be giving you a double shot of insight into this big move from the city this week with...

Dr. Mark Partridge and PhD candidate Nick Messenger visit our studio to help us understand the nature and burdens of Tax Increment Financing. We discuss their ongoing 3 year project supporting Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano’s Tax Incentive Review Council in attempting to understand the impact of these complex financial mechanisms on our local county services, overall level of taxation a...

0:00 - 26:05 The hosts take the first segment to reflect on the election, the campaigns and the inaugural efforts of the Hilliard Beacon. They close with their hopes for some near term developments regarding formal community organizing in an ongoing way. 26:05 - 36:00 Kevin leads us through the ongoing fire and emergency services contract negotiations between NTFD and Brown Township for services....

Michelle Stayrook joins us as our first write-in candidate (Brown Township Trustee) to provide a capstone to our first cycle of election coverage. Michelle offers some of the motivations behind this initial run for office including a desire to see Brown grow into a new era of political representation and engagement with residents. Jordan asks how the township situation has changed over the last co...

Kevin checks in and runs point on this episode of our continuing election coverage. We welcome Pam Sayre - incumbent candidate for Brown Township Trustee to talk about this year’s issues and cycle. Kevin talks briefly about Pam’s history in office. A Trustee for Brown Township since 1988(!) Pam has seen a great deal of transformation to the traditional five acre lots and farm families she first ca...

We open the conversation by asking Mike to talk about the decision to run for this office and the experiences he brings to office. He first highlights his personal business acumen and then expands that a belief in the understanding for (and necessity of) compromise among responsible office holders and candidates should be a bedrock of any administration. We move the discussion to entrenched politi...

Cynthia Vermillion is welcomed back into the podcast to discuss her second bid for city council. We introduce Cynthia to our general concept via Tim’s traditional opening and then we get right into things with Kevin’s opening question: “What are some of the more important things you learned over your first term on Council?” Cynthia responds that growing a procedural understanding alongside the new...

We interviewed candidate for Norwich Township Fiscal Officer James Friel on Thursday October 19th and today we share it with you!  To kick things off and get right to it Jordan asks Jim to fill the people in on his experiences in and around Hilliard. Growing up in Grandview, seeing the scale and pace of change in everything from population size to the embrace of highway car travel, Jim takes the o...

We welcome first time candidate for City Council Emily Cole to the podcast. We open with Tim’s summary of our goals for the interview series and Kevin kicks us into gear with a question about the nature of Emily’s candidacy and what drove her specifically to seek a council seat in this challenging election. Emily centers her answer on the inherent responsibilities of the office and how those tie i...

Any references to military experience or veteran status, within this interview, neither constitute nor imply endorsement by the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the National Guard, or any other U.S. Government agency. After a quick school update Kevin starts us off by asking; “What inspired you to seek a city council position?” Greg reminds us he first jumped into the August spec...

We sat down with 1st time candidate for Hilliard City Council JT Ysseldyke last week. At twenty-three JT may be the youngest candidate this cycle but that doesn’t mean he lacks meaningful experience in government service. We ask about the candidate’s upbringing here in Hilliard and education through the public schools locally. JT then talks a bit about his experiences at Bowling Green (Bachelor’s...

We are altering our publishing schedule to accommodate the volume of candidate interviews we need to deliver before election day. Monday - Wednesday - Friday For our 4th installment we’re joined by candidate for City Council re-election Pete Marsh! Pete has been on Council for two stints - first as an appointee and then again for a full term. This would be his second elected term and he joined us...

We are altering our publishing schedule to accommodate the volume of candidate interviews we need to deliver before election day. On this installment we welcome in candidate for re-election to school board - labor lawyer Brian Perry. Brian fills us in on his long pursuit of the school board seat he’s occupied since 2019 and how his intentions to serve started as far back as his High School days he...

We were happy to host candidate Kelley Arnold for a lengthy discussion last week and we are bringing it to you now as our first School Board feature of the election season. https://kelleyarnoldforhilliardschools.com/ Kelley's Campaign Issues Page Kevin jumps right into the action and opens the interview by asking about Kelley’s shared appreciation of Peter Gabriel. Once we’ve all had our say on th...

Welcome! This series of interviews builds off years of personal and professional experience in and around Hilliard politics and hopes to provide local voters with expanded perspective on important local issues and voting choices. Our first interview subject is long-time city council person Les Carrier as he seeks a new position within local government - Township Trustee. Up top and in brief, we co...

We check in via some reporting in The Rooster with former Speaker Larry Householder as he acclimates to life in Jordan’s hometown of Lisbon, Ohio as a new inmate in Elkton FCI…(trigger warnings re: discussions of incarceration and suicide) We then discuss Mill Run Gardens - the scheduled “Luxury, market-rate” apartment redevelopment of the Fishinger Road property in Columbus - around the former si...

(editor's note - a previous version of this post included Councilperson Vermillion on the author line. That has been corrected.) We were happy to welcome in Dan Ralley and Cynthia Vermillion for a wide ranging conversation across a Beacon record FIVE microphones! Kudos to Tim for the studio engineering on this one. After a brief introduction we get right into the city’s electric aggregation progra...

Kevin, Jordan, and Tim discuss the recent approval of the Pedestrian Bridge project across I-270 and how availability of public funds and city planning made this a “yes” today despite present perception of demand for this infrastructure being low. We then move into Kevin’s ongoing election coverage and how the final candidate selection process played out. Look for pieces forthcoming on candidates...

Good Day and Welcome to HBAC #20 (0:00 - 32:32) We start off discussing the case of Porcha Woodruff - a black woman in Detroit falsely arrested and accused of robbery and carjacking. Ms. Woodruff is one of a multiplying number of individuals incorrectly identified through the use of facial recognition cameras and associated technology. It took over a month to clear her name. Innocent pregnant woma...

Pay no mind to Jordan’s dodgy numbering - We take almost a whole hour to welcome Paul Lambert to the Hilliard Beacon podcast family. Paul’s perspective and experience through his years in local government are shared across a wide range of topics. * How government works for and through local people * The call to engage local democracy and obstacles * How different levels of government overlap and i...

Within the first two minutes Jordan completely eats the intro - Tim refuses to edit out those mistakes - and Kevin references an obscure Paul Hardcastle record. Par for the course. We catch up after an interval and on family summer break time * We talk through the cancellation of Old HilliardFest and hopes for the future * Our concept of “Community News” and how Kevin brings the pieces together *...