profile

By KaTY SMITH
+ Photos by rob hardin

Kim Maggard
Mayor
City of Whitehall
Age: 62

Mayor since: 2012

Previous: Whitehall city auditor 2003-11;

Whitehall Board of Education 1996-
2003. Clerk, Columbus Metropolitan
Library, 1986-89; library assistant
1997-2000; circulation manager of the
Whetstone branch, 2000-03.
Education: Bachelor of Science, Eastern
Kentucky University; secondary
teaching certificate, Morehead State
University; graduate study in library
science, Kent State University and
University Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Personal: Husband Alex “Rusty”
Maggard, married 40 years. Whitehall
resident since 1981. Four children—
Anabelle, 39; Cory, 37; Zachary, 29; and
Kaeley, 28. Two dogs, Pup and Oscar;
one cat, Kit the Cat.

Whitehall
rebound
With moxy and determi-
nation, Kim Maggard and
her team have made the
struggling suburb a more Kim Maggard
desirable place to be.

W
hen Kim Maggard
moved to Whitehall in
1981, its population
had tipped into what
would be four decades of decline
from a high of more than 25,000 in
1970. During the ’50s, it had been
one of the fastest growing cities in the
nation, with neat rows of mid-cen-
tury ranches and the distinguishing
characteristic of sporting one of the
nation’s first strip shopping plazas,
Town & Country on East Broad Street.
Maggard was 24 with a young daugh-
ter, having moved to Columbus from
Ashland, Kentucky, the year before
so her husband could take a job at the
Defense Supply Center Columbus, a
530-acre military logistics complex.
DSCC, as it is known, during WWII
was the largest military supply instal-
lation in the world, employing more
than 10,000 at its peak and housing
the spare parts and myriad supplies
that kept the American war machine
running. Today, the hulking pres-
ence off East Broad Street remains as
integral to the city of Whitehall—and
its $50 million annual budget funded
in large part by income taxes—as it is
to Kim Maggard’s life.
Maggard was accustomed to
military life, having grown up in a
family that came from Kentucky but
moved frequently to accommodate
her father’s Air Force career, which

14 ColumbusCEO l September 2019


I will say I had a
completely different
vision than former
mayors.
took them to Italy at one point. When
they returned, the U.S. housing short-
age led them to buy a trailer, squeez-
ing parents and four children into 500
square feet on a lot in Kansas. At one
point, Maggard’s father went off to
Vietnam for a year.
“My mom was very resourceful. She
could cook like crazy, and she was
very good with handling money, and
she made those paychecks stretch,”
Maggard says. “And when they
couldn’t, then she would go to work. I
remember her working at Dairy Queen
for $1 an hour. She made our clothes.
She made my prom dresses. She made
my younger sister’s wedding dress,
and it’s gorgeous.”
For her family, that determination
and education were prized weapons
against scarcity, the shadow of which
stuck around like it did for many
families who lived through terrible
economic times the generation before.
“My dad came from a family of 11
children, and he many times talked
to me about going hungry,” Maggard
says. “His parents were so busy raising
11 children that sometimes, my dad
would go in the summer and ride the
trains and be gone for five, six days
and they didn’t even realize it.”
In high school, Maggard’s father
played basketball, and her mother was
a cheerleader. “He told me if it wasn’t
for basketball, he probably wouldn’t
have graduated from high school,” she
says. “He didn’t have socks to wear
underneath his tennis shoes, and he
would take worn-out socks people
threw away and he would cut off the
bottoms [leaving the rings that go
around the ankle, which he would put
on to give the appearance of wearing
socks], so nobody would know. And
he didn’t have towels when they took
a shower. So he would wait ’till every-
body was done and use their towels.”
Maggard’s mother told him if you
date me, you have to graduate from
high school. He did. Later, their four
children all were expected to go to
college, a prospect that did not excite
their daughter Kim, who was gifted in
mathematics.
“OK, first of all, I didn’t like any-
body telling me what to do,” Mag-
gard says.
Is it any wonder she went on to be-
come the mayor of the quintessential
American suburb, Whitehall?
•••
Maggard did go to college and earn a
bachelor’s degree, but not in account-
ing or library science, careers her
mother encouraged her to pursue. She
thought they sounded boring and in-
stead majored in law enforcement and
sociology, planning to go into criminal
justice. But her life didn’t turn out that
way—the man she would marry, Alex
“Rusty” Maggard, didn’t like the idea
of his wife in such a dangerous occu-
pation, and she instead became a his-
tory teacher and stay-at-home mother
for a time. That didn’t stick, either.
What did Maggard end up doing?
She entered public service as a mem-
ber of the Whitehall Board of Educa-
tion after chairing a successful levy
campaign (an initial levy failed), and
she became a clerk and circulation
manager at the Columbus Metropoli-
tan Library, studying library science.
Next, she was appointed Whitehall
city auditor and found herself excel-
ling at accounting 101 and 102, which
she took concurrently at Columbus
State Community College.
Her mother would have been tickled
to know how right she’d been, but
she didn’t get the chance to gloat, or
revel in her daughter’s rise to the top
of civic life in her adopted home-
town. She suffered a massive heart
attack and died quickly at the age of
63, when Maggard was 40. The night
before, they’d had a long talk Maggard
will cherish for the rest of her life.
“I remember sitting down with her
and just telling her, thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you for expect-
ing that I would go to college and
making sure that I got there. And I
didn’t have to go into debt for it. And
that my brother and my two sisters
also went to college. Thank you for
everything you did for us.”
•••
The Whitehall of 2019, population
19,000, is quite different from the
one Mayor Kim Maggard moved to
decades ago. For one, the Town &
Country Big Bear is now owned by ri-
val Kroger, after the giant supermarket
sat empty for more than a decade. The
city has struggled with a lack of inter-
est from businesses in general, hous-
ing values have not kept pace with
Franklin County’s, and crumbling,
crime-ridden apartment complexes
have marred Whitehall’s reputation.
Lois and Paul Kolada paid little
heed to those things when they
decided to retrofit the old Bill Swad
Chevrolet dealership on South Hamil-
ton Road for the offices of their in-
dustrial design firm, Priority Designs.
They’d bought a vision from Mayor
Maggard and the city’s new economic
development director, Zachary Wood-
ruff, an energetic, intense young man
who easily could be mistaken for a
mayor himself. Across the street from
September 2019 l ColumbusCEO 15

Kim Maggard at Whitehall Senior Center
the Koladas’ potential new offices
was the troubled Commons at Royal
Landing apartments.
“It was our dream that one of these
days, those apartments would be gone,
that we could have a multifaceted
development going in right there,”
Maggard says. “We said to the Kola-
das, don’t look over there. We’re going
to take care of that.”
It was 2014, and the city, through
its new community improvement
corporation, would not close on its $5
million purchase of the Commons at
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Royal Landing for another two years.
The city had bought the Bill Swad
property, too, hoping to attract higher-
paying jobs—and more city income
taxes—than an auto dealership.
“This building was in pretty bad
shape, but the spaces really lend
themselves well to what we do and
what we wanted,” says Lois Kolada,
whose company needed workshop
and studio space. “And so the vision
was pretty easy to grasp. I would say
some of our staff was a little leery
[about moving to Whitehall]. And they
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voiced it. But on the whole, it’s really
worked out great.”
That the Koladas took the deal and
were happy with their choice repre-
sented a turning point for Whitehall,
which under Maggard’s leadership has
aggressively courted new business and
economic development projects.
“A lot of our capital investment
goes back to the Koladas and their
team, who got the mayor’s vision of
where we were going,” Woodruff says.
“We can point to all the other projects
we were able to [secure] and say, we
brought them [to Priority Designs] and
showed them what it was going to be.
And they said, ‘Well, there is some-
thing going on in Whitehall in 2014.’ ”
Despite the misgivings of some of
his board members, Scott McComb
saw the Whitehall vision, too. In 2017
the CEO of Heartland Bank brought its
headquarters, 130 employees and $11
million in investment to a section of
Whitehall Community Park off Ham-
ilton Road. From the back windows of
Heartland’s new home, a calm, stately
view unfolds: mature trees on acres
of well-kept lawn, prairie gardens
beyond, and Big Walnut Creek runs
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through in the distance. The city is
planning upgrades to the park that
will give visitors the ability to go kaya-
king and canoeing.
Facing the window of McComb’s
office, construction of Whitehall Com-
munity Park YMCA is under way. The
project, funded by the city with the
facility to be run by the Y, received a
$50,000 gift from Heartland.
“My board was like, what? We’re
going to go to Whitehall?’ ” McComb
says. “Because you know the [repu-
tation] of Whitehall in the last sev-
eral years, maybe the last decade or
two, has not been as good as it once
was. But I kind of fell in love with
the fact that we have a great lady
in Mayor Maggard that gets things
done. She and Zach [who recruited
McComb to Whitehall] have really
turned the city around.”
Indeed, dozens of businesses have
set up shop in the city since develop-
ment efforts at City Hall ramped up
in earnest, including the Wasserstrom
Co. bringing its headquarters and 225
employees from the Brewery District.
The city is turning its attention
next to the vacant 317-unit Woodcliff
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Condominiums, which it bought for
$9 million after having the complex
declared a nuisance by Franklin
County Environmental Court over the
protestations of some owners.
Frank Kass saw opportunity in
Whitehall when his Continental Real
Estate Cos. bought the Commons at
Royal Landing from the city for Nor-
ton Crossing, a $55 million develop-
ment under construction at Broad and
Hamilton that will involve 360 one-
and two-bedroom apartments, medical
offices and more—a much better view
from the windows of Priority Designs.
“I grew up on the east side and have
watched Whitehall over the years,
I really want to
prepare our citizens for
the population growth
that’s going on ... We
need to upgrade our
housing in Whitehall.
and sometime during the last decade,
the profile of the city as a tired, older
city changed considerably,” Kass says.
“And I would attribute that in part to
Mayor Maggard and Zach Woodruff
and a more aggressive city council.”
Still, Kass says he would not have
undertaken the project had it been on
Main Street or in the center of White-
hall. “This is a major intersection of
two state highways,” he says. “I-270 is
1 mile in either direction and there are
20,000 jobs in a 1.5-mile radius.”
•••
Standing on a stage set up behind the
Yearling Road Dairy Queen on a sun-
ny Saturday morning in July, Maggard
welcomed people to the Whitehall
Food Truck Festival, which has grown
to 35 trucks and more than 25,000
visitors in just a few years. She’s ap-
proaching a third term as Whitehall’s
mayor—she’ll run unopposed this fall,
after voters in 2018 approved extend-
ing the maximum terms an elected of-
ficial may serve from two to three. She
appreciates the vote of confidence.
Maggard feels she’s just getting
started.
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September 2019 l ColumbusCEO 17
 Kim Maggard is approaching a third term as Whitehall’s About Whitehall
mayor—she’s running unopposed this fall—and serves as chair Whitehall Franklin County
of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Regional
Q&A
Median home value
Policy Roundtable. She spoke with Columbus CEO about
making sure the community is prepared for the regional $82,100 $158,400
changes ahead—population increasing by 50 percent, increasing Owner-occupied housing rate
traffic congestion and affordable housing concerns.
35% 54%
Median household income
What are you going to I’m going to be working really have to be aggres-
be out talking to people on getting that message sive in getting new busi- $37,864 $56,319
about this fall? out. We need to be more nesses into Whitehall in
People need to under- welcoming of those types order to make up for the Diversity
stand what’s happening of housing opportuni- shortfall that the state 14% 1% 5.7%
to our region because ties. At the same time, we took from us in reduced 5.7%
it affects us—we can no need to aggressively go Local Government Fund
longer be insular. And after business. dollars and for the money 35% 24%
that’s what we used to be. lost from remote workers. 50% 67%
Before I became mayor, The Defense Supply That takes money away
there was a thought that, Center Columbus, from infrastructure, it n White n Hispanic n White n Hispanic
n Black n Other n Black n Asian
well, we don’t care what’s with 8,000 employ- takes money away from
going on around us ... ees, represents a huge the police and fire depart- Population with bachelor’s degree
that stuff is not going portion of Whitehall’s ments. How are we going
to come into Whitehall. income tax receipts, to take care of improve- 12.8% 39%
Well, that didn’t work so which were $27 million ments? And how are we
well. We did not prepare last year. So when the going to make sure that
Poverty rate
ourselves for the future. employer began letting we fund our parks and 23.5% 16%
[Previous Whitehall ad- employees work from recreation adequately?
ministrations thought] if home, it meant the city So when our residents Population without health insurance
a business wants to come of Whitehall was on the see that all these busi-
here, they’ll come here, hook to pay increasing nesses are coming in,
16% 8.2%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
and I don’t have to go out income tax refunds. Kim they need to understand
and move them. Maggard has watched that we’re trying to make “I feel like sometimes two terms
When you have that the numbers for 16 years: up for all the shortfalls isn’t enough to get progress going and
attitude, you miss out When I first became that have happened. get people used to progress. Actually,
on way too much. So for auditor in 2003, our an- for a new mayor coming in, your first
my next four years, I re- nual income tax refunds On affordable housing: four years is basically making sure you
ally want to prepare our were approximately It’s very difficult now have people in the right positions to
citizens for the popula- $250,000 to $300,000 to get a rental here or see your vision.
tion growth that’s going a year. When I became anywhere. And to tell you “And I will say I had a completely
on—they’re beginning to mayor in 2013, they went the truth, our rentals are different vision than former mayors.
see it. We still have some up to $500,000. Now, too expensive for what Once I got my team in place, bam, my
residents who are anti- we’re probably going to they provide. We need to second term, we really were making
apartment, and they’ll do between $1.4 million focus on more affordable all kinds of progress. So I think people
probably always be to $1.7 million this year. housing options—qual- want that progress to continue.”
anti-apartment, anti-mul- And that is because ity affordable hous- Poverty and affordable housing are
tifamily. But just because DSCC is letting their ing. That’s one reason issues to tackle next, she says.
we’re building more people do telework. why I’m working with “I’ve been married over 40 years,
apartments, it doesn’t So when they’re work- MORPC. We’re definitely but I always knew that if something
mean we’re getting rid ing at home and not in going to need a higher would happen to my husband, I
of single-family homes. Whitehall, that means density of housing. And would be OK. Because I had an educa-
We need to upgrade our they don’t have to pay we cannot be afraid to tion and I had resources. And that’s
housing in Whitehall to income tax to Whitehall. rezone for apartments huge—most people don’t have that. So
attract millennials and Now they are paying and multifamily. We only we’ve got to provide the opportunities.
also for our empty nest- it, but then they ask for have a finite number of And you got to start when people are
ers to want to stay here refunds. We have to give dollars to support infra- young. You have to have people to tell
in Whitehall. We need to that money back to them, structure. We really need you when you’re young that you’re
have more options. And meaning less income to change the way we worth something.”
so for the next four years, tax for Whitehall. So we think about housing.
Katy Smith is the editor.

18 ColumbusCEO l September 2019