Friday, November 17th, 2017

Stores weather closings

St. Marys managers confident

By Sydney Albert
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Shoppers have been filling the parking lot in front of the Kmart in St. Marys Square hoping to get a good deal during the store's liquidation. Most other business managers in the mall expect little impact from the loss of traffic after the closure.

ST. MARYS - Despite the closing of big-box stores Kmart and JCPenney, managers of other businesses in St. Marys Square are mostly confident the loss of foot traffic brought in by those chains won't affect them.
Alyssa Ruppert is a manager at Maurices, a women's clothing chain that neighbors the now-empty space that once housed JCPenney. She said she hasn't noticed any change in business since the department store left earlier this year, and she doesn't expect the closure of Kmart on the other side of the square to affect the store either.
Managers of businesses that offer unique goods or services that neither JCPenney or Kmart offered, such as K9to5 Doggy Daycare or Epic Vapes, were unperturbed, saying customers would continue to seek them out as always.
K9to5 manager Kylee Walterbusch said the shop's patrons tended to find the business online or in other ways and weren't just drawn in as foot traffic drawn by the larger businesses. She believed other businesses might feel a difference once Kmart is gone but thought customers would still be drawn to the area without the department store.
"I think it (limits) the amount of traffic in the parking lot, but you still have all these restaurants around that are still bringing people over this way," Walterbusch said.
Austin Howe, manager of Epic Vapes, said while fewer new customers may notice them when they are initially drawn in, he doesn't expect a noticeable change overall.
"The stuff we sell here, they don't really sell it over at Kmart or JCPenney," Howe said.
Hallmark manager Cathy Miars, however, is worried.
"With Penneys gone, that was a big store at one end, and now with Kmart gone, I think it's going to have a pretty hard effect on us. There's not going to be that much to bring the people out to this location anymore," she said. "As far as us, I just don't know how it's going to affect us. I know it's going to affect us, but as far as how much, I don't know."
Foot traffic from larger stores can offer free advertising for stores such as Hallmark that aren't a destination by themselves.
"It just helps bring traffic in. You know, like people come to the lake in the summer and they run out, and even if they're not real familiar with the area they run out to the plaza. They run in at Kmart for pop, paper plates, stuff like that, they see Hallmark and say 'Oh, I'll stop in here.' But those options aren't going to be open anymore."
Mike Herzfeld from Reisenfeld and Co. is handling the marketing of the empty spaces at St. Marys Square. He said he has reached out to several retailers about filling the storefronts, but nothing concrete has been settled.
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FORT RECOVERY - Deanna Knapke has become assistant treasurer, a new position, at Fort Recovery Local Schools.
Board of education members approved a motion to hire Knapke after a Thursday morning executive session.
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Schoenleins gain SWCD cooperator honors
Andy Schwieterman, Celina, was re-elected to a third term on the Mercer County Soil and Water Conservation District board of supervisors, and Rogers Albers, Celina, also was elected during the district's 73rd annual meeting on Thursday.
ST. HENRY - Police officers conducting a routine drug search at St. Henry High School on Wednesday afternoon located "very minor paraphernalia," a department spokesperson said.
CELINA - A Lima woman with an outstanding warrant was arrested on Thursday as she was leaving a local store.
Deputies arrested Danielle C. Ames, 32
All-Northwest District Football Selections
The Grand Lake area was well represented as the Northwest District Media Board released its All-District football selections on Thursday night.
Cel
CELINA - New Celina swimming coach Dawn Schwieterman knows most of her team very well. Schwieterman was involved in the YMCA swimming program at the Augalize-Mercer Family Y. Several Bulldogs have competed at top level meets as Y members.
COLDWATER - The Coldwater swimming program will have a familiar face at the controls this season as Matt May makes the move from Celina to Coldwater. May's daughter, Macy, is in the Cavalier program.
FORT RECOVERY - Eleven girls and two boys make up the Fort Recovery swim team roster.
Several of those girls swam their way into the district tournament a season ago.
MARIA STEIN - The core boys return for the Flyers.
And numbers are the highest they've ever been for the Marion Local swimming team.
Thirty eight swimmers are out for the Blue and Gold (11 boys, 27 girls), which gives head coach Scott Smith high hopes as his team prepares to dive right in.
MINSTER - When the 2018 swim season fires up in the next few weeks, Minster head coach Kelly Schulze will welcome back 20 swimmers, including five seniors, for the winter campaign.
NEW BREMEN - New Bremen had many district qualifiers last winter.
Many of them return this season and are ready to improve upon what they did a year ago.
ST. MARYS - As she enters her third year in command of the St. Marys swim team, head coach Katie Szymczak has the daunting task of replacing two stat
CELINA - The only thing keeping James Miracle from having a spring in his step these days is a bad disc in his back.
The Celina wrestling coach has
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ROCKFORD - Kevin Browning can't help beaming this time of year.
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ST. MARYS - The St. Marys wrestling team had to wait a few days before getting the full team into practice after another successful football season.
Last season, Larry Gruber's squad finished in the middle of the pack in the WBL at 4-5 and finished sixth in the league tournament.
Bulldog girls hit hard by graduation
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Eight letterwinners are back for the boys.
Returning starters include Cole Cisco, Parker Maurer, Nate Langenkamp and Kolyn Wiehe.
COLDWATER - The Coldwater Cavaliers have been state contenders year after year.
Don't expect that to change in 2017-18, as the boys' and girls' teams return plenty of experienced players.
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The Flyers do have some returnees in the lanes - most notably,
MINSTER - The boys' team lost two second team all-conference performers to graduation, which leaves senior Seth Reeves as the only returning full-time starter. A pair of other seniors, Jared Heitkamp and Chance Goubeaux, join Reeves as the lone upperclassmen.
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Eight starters return for the New Bremen boys, among them Tyler Leichliter, Jarod Keller, Darion Cook, Ian Frey, Spencer Alig, Will Olberding and Mitchell Moeller from a team that went 5-4 in conference play and 5-6 overall.
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With a long list of returning bowlers, the Roughriders should have a good chance come tournament time.