Repair Cafe Photos - Worthington Steel Fire - F.A.C.T. Tree Nursery Planting
A lamp with a loose socket was one of many items that found a second chance at Westerville’s Repair Café.
Held Saturday at The Point at Otterbein University, the event brought residents face-to-face with volunteer fixers who worked on everything from lamps and clocks to bicycles, electronics, lawn equipment, and household gadgets.
More than a repair drop-off, the café was built around participation. People sat beside volunteers, asked questions, handled tools, and followed the work as items were opened, tested, sorted, and, in many cases, brought back to life.
The scene was equal parts workshop and neighborhood gathering. At one table, a bike was hoisted for adjustment. At another, small electronics were examined under bright task lights. Nearby, volunteers sorted through screws, tested components, and repaired items piece by piece while visitors watched closely.
That hands-on exchange was the point. The Repair Café gave people a way to keep useful things in service longer, learn something in the process, and think twice before throwing repairable items away.
Volunteer technicians came prepared with their own tools and, in at least one case, a scattering of screws, bolts, nuts, and other fasteners to help match parts and keep repairs moving.
Some repairs ended with a working item and a relieved owner. Others ended with a clear-eyed assessment. In one case, a volunteer inspected a television and told its owner that while it might be repairable, replacing it made more sense. The set was later taken to the café’s electronics recycling truck.
That mix of repair, practical advice, and responsible disposal gave the event its purpose. People did not just drop things off. They sat with volunteers, asked questions, watched parts get tested and sorted, and learned when something could be saved and when it was time to let it go.
Worthington Steel Fire
Westerville Fire Department, assisted by Genoa Township, quickly extinguished a fire on the roof of Worthington Steel on Maxtown Road on Saturday. Fire was first seen coming from a roof exhaust that later spread to the rubber roof.
During the fire, it was noted that the building had a hydrogen gas tank in the southwest corner, but it was far enough away from the fire to pose no danger. Workers temporarily displaced from the building said hydrogen and nitrogen were used to test the integrity of the small tanks the plant makes.
Tree Canopy Plantings
On Sunday, volunteers planted tree seedlings into large buckets as part of a Friends of the Alum Creek Tributary (FACT) program aimed at expanding the city’s tree canopy. Residents agreed to serve as foster gardeners, caring for the young trees at home through the summer so they would be ready for planting in the fall, either in their own yards or through the city’s forestry program.
The group planted about 200 trees in two sessions on Sunday.
The Green Grape Report
Food Review by Gary Gardiner
Fresh Thyme
Price – $3.99 a pound
PLU Code – 3452
The Review
For the last several weeks, green grapes have been ordinary.
In most contexts, that would be faint praise. In the green grape business, it is anything but. Ordinary lately has meant large, sweet, crisp, juicy grapes at prices that do not require a financing plan. Westerville has been on a remarkable run of competent to excellent grapes, and this week kept the streak going.
At the sensible end of the market, Walmart had PLU 4022 green grapes for $1.97 a pound, the lowest price I found. Those are the grapes in the small sprig in the photo. They are not flashy. They are not giant. They are not here to change your life. They are simply very good grapes at a very good price, which is more than enough. Sweet, crisp, juicy, and easy to recommend, they are the sort of grape that restores faith in everyday grocery shopping.
Then there was Fresh Thyme, where I abandoned financial discipline and entered the upper tax bracket of grape buying.
I paid $3.99 a pound for green grapes, the most I have ever paid. These were PLU 3452 grapes from Chile, known to grape insiders as Autumn Crisp. If you are not one of the nation’s leading produce-code enthusiasts, you would never know that from the bag. The packaging offers no useful hint. But the PLU does not lie, and those who know the code know they are dealing with grape royalty.
Autumn Crisp sits right at the top of the green grape pyramid. These were enormous, super crisp, juicy, and deeply sweet, with the kind of texture that makes an ordinary grape seem like it never really applied itself. They had snap. They had presence. They had the smug confidence of a fruit that knows exactly what it is.
The trouble is that greatness has a weight problem.
At $3.99 a pound, each oversized Autumn Crisp grape feels like a small financial event. You get fewer grapes per pound than you do with their smaller cousin, PLU 4022, and the difference is impossible to ignore once the scale gets involved. These grapes were so large that even the PLU 3498 grapes at Market District looked miniature by comparison.
So no, they were not the value choice. Not even close. Walmart’s 4022 grapes remain the people’s champion, the everyday starter, the grape you buy when you want to make a good decision and move on with your life.
Fresh Thyme’s Autumn Crisp grapes are for a different moment. These are not lunchbox grapes. These are not “grab a bag and keep walking” grapes. These are grapes for people willing to pay extra for a better crunch, a sweeter bite, and the fleeting satisfaction of knowing they have reached the summit, however briefly, of what green grapes can be.
That leaves us with two winners, which feels fair. Walmart wins on value, reason, and broad public service. Fresh Thyme wins on excellence, excess, and the thrilling absence of restraint.
Walmart, PLU 4022
Sweetness: 8.0/10
Crispness: 8.0/10
Value: 9/10
Overall: 8.2/10
Fresh Thyme, PLU 3452 Autumn Crisp
Sweetness: 9.4/10
Crispness: 9.7/10
Value: 6.8/10
Overall: 9.3/10
For now, green grapes continue their impressive run in Westerville. At some point the streak will end and we will all be reminded that disappointment still exists in the produce aisle. But not this week. This week, the only real danger was becoming the kind of person who can justify four-dollar grapes.
This Week’s Grape Data
● Weight - 20.9 grams, from an average of 10.
● Size - 39x32mm, again from the average of 10 grapes
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