NEWS

Heath shows off pride in celebrating 50 years as city

Kent Mallett
Reporter
  • The event at Heath Municipal Building recognized 50 years since Heath became a city April 28%2C 1965.
  • City council members recognized the landmark occasion with a special resolution.

HEATH – A few hundred Heath residents celebrated, reminisced and showed their city pride Saturday at Heath's 50th anniversary party.

The event at the Heath Municipal Building recognized 50 years since Heath became a city on April 28, 1965.

The Heath High School choir and country-pop musician Gene Perrine performed, children enjoyed horse-pulled wagon rides, older adults inspected antique tractors, students received art certificates and city council members recognized the landmark occasion with a special resolution.

Two 1965 Heath council members attending the celebration remembered the significance of becoming a city a little differently.

Jerry Graft, a village councilman from 1958 to 1964 and a city councilman from 1965 to 1967, said the community was changing in the mid-1960s as factories attracted more residents.

"It was a big deal," Graft said. "We knew what was happening. People were starting to come in, and it brought a lot of problems with it.

"The factories needed water and sewer, and it's a farming community that can't come up with the money right away."

John Markham, the city's first zoning inspector, first fire inspector and a councilman in 1965, said the change from village to city did not seem like a big deal then. Heath became a village in 1952.

"Not really; it was the same old, same old," Markham said. "I'd been here since 1958."

Markham, 82, a former bricklayer who helped build the city building, commended the celebration but deflected praise of his contributions to the city.

"A lot of other guys did a lot too," Markham said.

John Groff, the current zoning chief, said current officials should thank their predecessors.

"They gave us a good foundation to build the city on," Groff said.

Visitors stepped back in time in the city building lobby, where historical displays showed the city in its infancy.

Ron Krueger, a former councilman and dentist in Heath, said getting their own ZIP code was a big issue.

"We fought a lot for the ZIP code, which showed your identity away from Newark," Krueger said.

Part of the reason for becoming a village and then a city, Graft recalled, was to have more local control instead of being controlled by Newark Township.

Those feelings of independence in the 1960s have survived and become a source of pride, officials said.

"What we have on display today is the kind of community pride the people who live here have," Mayor Mark Johns said. "That was the driving force in Heath becoming a city 50 years ago."

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8545

Twitter: @kmallett1958