By Liz Winhover - Springfield News-Sun Staff Writer
Kiser Lake State Park in Champaign County is set to receive new rustic log cabins by early spring of 2018.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources recently requested funds from the Controlling Board in order to purchase construction materials to construct and install wooden cabins in several state parks, including Kiser Lake.

“The addition will improve attendance to the lake,” Alyssa Beaty, campground attendant, said, adding that the cabins will be able to hold bigger families.

The two cabins will come about through a partnership between the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The cabins are made from hardwood cut from Ohio state forests and are assembled by state prisoners.

The partnership between the two departments began last year.

They’re called Sherman Cabins after Camp Sherman, an Ohio Army National Guard training site near a Chillicothe prison.

Kiser Lake currently has two cabins and during the summer they see turn over every week, Beaty said.
Sites 3 and 4 at the lake will be closed beginning late October or early November to begin construction.

Beaty is excited for the addition because the two cabins they currently have are a hot commodity and suggests calling to rent a cabin three to four weeks in advance because they’re so popular.

The two new Sherman Cabins are expected to be available to the public by May 2018.

The state will install the log cabins in eight other state parks — Alum Creek located in Delaware County; Barkcamp in Belmont County; Beaver Creek in Columbiana County; East Harbor in Ottawa County; Hocking Hills in Hocking County; Kelleys Island in Ottawa County; Mohican in Ashland County; and Tarr Hollow in Ross County.

While many high school students are spending their summers trying to forget school, Kyle Taylor will be doing the opposite. He’ll be on the other side of the classroom, helping teach.
The Nightingale Montessori senior will spend four weeks this summer in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University as a teaching assistant in its Engineering Innovation program, helping instruct his peers.
RELATED: Clark State offering unique high school engineering program
Having been through the program at Clark State in its first year here in 2015 and worked as a teaching assistant there last year, Taylor hopes this will be another step in his eventual goal — to attend Johns Hopkins as an electrical engineering student.
Read more about Taylor from contributing writer Brett Turner in the Springfield News-Sun.

Employers from Champaign and four neighboring counties are encouraged to complete an online employee benefits survey June 5-24. The survey is part of a wage and benefit study that will help employers in the participating counties benchmark their wages and benefits against county and regional averages. The study also will provide useful data to promote economic development.
Employers who complete the survey will be the first to receive a summary of the final study report in September, Marcia Bailey, director of the Champaign Economic Partnership, said. The report also will include wage data for Champaign, Clark, Logan, Madison and Union Counties. The Dayton Development Coalition will provide the wage data, which is collected regularly by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc., a consulting firm that supports workforce and economic development efforts.
Employers that do not complete the survey will not have access to the final report until January 2018.
​Read more about the survey in the Urbana Daily Citizen.