ThisWeek reports on Bexley’s scanning of city documents:

For the past two years, Bexley city staff has been scanning current and historic documents to create a digital library that dates back to 1908.

“I had a passion and vision for it when I began working for the city two-and-a-half years ago,” said Bill Minckler, technology director [who’s also running for mayor].

To date, 7,500 current and past documents have been digitally scanned into the system….

The ordinances from the early 1900s cannot respond to word searches, said Minckler. When they are scanned, the information is processed as a photo rather than as text, but Minckler said they are adding key words to those files that will aid in searches.

Kind of cool. I think they can do better than just keywords though. Google, for instance, sells an appliance that can index all of an organizations documents Google-style. If you just OCR the docs in addition to scanning them, you can make all of the words searchable. But that’s just armchair indexing on my part.

Bexley’s site is at www.bexley.org.

Columbus ought to spend a few bucks on this themselves.

Hmm. Bad review for Bag of Nails at the new Fine dining guide to Columbus, Ohio blog, which apparently has some relationship with the also new the 270 blog. From the review:

I would say that this place appeals to heavy drinkers of hard alcohol who, regardless of their experience, will inevitably need something starchy and greasy to combat the burning sensation that the alcohol is creating in their stomach…save for the one client who was falling off her barstool (a perplexing scene amidst the otherwise pricey district of Worthington).

Whoa. Tell us how you really feel!

But I don’t care what anyone says. The Old Bag of Nails is my favorite local chain- it is not fine dining however. Maybe the reviewer had the wrong idea going in. Note to newbies: get the fish’n'chips. They’re also famous (or infamous) for their fried beer-battered pickles.

Here’s their website, which informs that Bexley will be getting a reopening its Bag of Nails soon.

Details from the Eastside Messenger:

Now that Bexley City Council has settled on a location for a new police station, their next decision will be how to pay for it and whether to seek voter approval or act on their own initiative.

“Where does the money keep coming from?” for this and other pressing needs, Council President Mark Masser questioned July 20 as the safety committee looked at plans for constructing the station at the north end of the city lot.

Replacing the 55-year-old station with a modern facility would cost around $4.4 million, estimated architects from Horne and King, who are completing construction drawings.

The new station would be built next to the current station, which would then be used for “council chambers, public meetings and other city uses.”

There’s a lot plan graphic at the link, but no artist’s rendering. I think they should make the station all cool and futuristic like on CSI: Miami, but that’s probably not Bexleyish enough.

Blue Bexley blogger Bonobo reveals his secret identity. See item 5. Accusations are made; reputations are ruined.

From the Dispatch:

Bexley Mayor David Madison has announced that he will step down at the end of his term in December, ending a 32-year run as the city’s leader.

Madison, who served on the Bexley City Council for eight years before becoming mayor, said he will not seek re-election in November. “We just need some young people in here,” he said. “It’s time.”

Four people have announced their candidacies. Here’s some analysis on the candidates and the race from Blue Bexley.

In what I’m planning to make a regular weekly feature at Columbuser.com, here’s BlogWeek. It’ll be a review of the most interesting or important stories and blog posts in Columbus and Ohio over the last week.

Possibly the biggest news story of the week was Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s victory over Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett on Wednesday in her move to remove him from the Cuyahoga County Boaord of Elections. Here are reactions from the Cleveland Plain Dealer Openers blog, Right Angle Blog, and Buckeye State Blog.

In a related story, Right Angle Blog went after Brunner’s son, which initiated a major kerfuffle in Ohio blogs. Psychobilly Democrat has a good round-up.

Governor Strickland made a bunch of appointments this week. He also created the new Office of Urban Development and Infrastructure.

In other dry political news, here’s ThisWeeks’s story on Columbus City Council applicants.

Columbus and the state had some real crime drama Monday when a prisoner escaped from a Youngstown hospital, carjacked his way to Columbus, robbed a couple of banks, and took a hostage in Hilliard before giving himself up to police.

Local food blog Restaurant Widow is desperately in search of Columbus’s best burger. How about Thurman’s?

Blue Bexley has a big post On Partisanship spurred on by “mild disapproval” from me in this post.

Finally, here’s an Easter Letter from blogging pastor Mark Daniels.

Happy Easter!

[Note: This post originally referred to Elizabeth Brunner. The Secretary’s first name is Jennifer.]

The Blue Bexley blog, which I like, has a post up saying that Bexley, which is dominated by Democrats, should have a Democratic mayor. I don’t live in Bexley- though I’ve been to its Graeter’s too many times- but I doubt that it’s in a city’s interest to forgo the competition that two viable parties provide. As New York had its Giuliani, the occasional switcheroo is generally a good thing I think- if for no other reason than that it discourages the majority party from becoming non-responsive to voters. It may cut down on corruption a bit too.

Bonobo, as the blogger calls him- or herself, writes:

As per my usual policy, if I take sides in a race, it will be the side of the Democrat. If I don’t want to support a particular Democrat, I’ll keep my mouth (predominantly) shut.

As with my Giuliani example, a Republican who wins in a Democratic stronghold is going to be pretty liberal on many issues, so I don’t see what the big deal is. Maybe I just don’t get that level of partisanship.

The Blue Bexley post was prompted by Bexley City Republican Councilman Matt Lampke’s announcement that he’s running for mayor.

UPDATE: Bonobo responds with what could have been called the Blue Bexley manifesto.