Photos by Jeffery S. Hall Photography
How it Began
If Cathy Boring had to be described in one word, that word would be persistent.
That persistence was obvious when, in the middle of her photo shoot for the cover of this issue, a torrential downpour soaked all of us and she sat on the bench in her backyard, smiling, until our photographer announced he’d gotten the shot. It was obvious when she stopped me after we’d spent hours talking at Vaso in Bridge Park to ask me, “So, this article is going to be about Dublin, not me, right?” It was obvious when she described her 20 years of service on the Dublin City Council with passion, excitement and an air of nostalgia.
Boring was born in Dayton, and moved to Westerville after high school to attend Otterbein University. She wanted to double major in math and business, which was seen as a lofty dream for a woman, to Boring’s surprise. When she floated the idea to her adviser, she was told, “We don’t teach typing here.” She continued instead with a major just in mathematics, and after graduating from Otterbein, she moved jobs in programming until meeting her now-husband, Michael Summers. The pair each had a daughter from their previous marriages, Michelle and Rachel; and would have another child together after marrying, Mark.
After Summers and Boring married 40 years ago, they wanted to raise their children in a small community with good schools. Dublin fit the bill.
Greener in Dublin
When Mark was born Boring began to stay home, becoming a self-proclaimed Dublin groupie. She attended school board meetings the second and fourth Mondays of each month, and city council meetings the first and third. When Dublin began to undergo development, the east side of Dublin – where Boring and Summers lived – didn’t feel well-represented. Boring was involved in city council as a citizen, but this pushed her into a career on Dublin City Council.
She recalls her first campaign, when she ran against former Dublin mayor and Storyteller Marilee Chinnici-Zuercher. On the night before the election, she was knocking on doors, canvassing in the pouring rain. Though she would lose the city council seat to Chinnici-Zuercher, and instead take the east ward representative seat, her efforts didn’t go unnoticed.
“Later, I ran into someone in the store and she came up to me and said, ‘I voted for you,’” says Boring. “She said, ‘You know, when I saw you in the rain and water dripping off your hat, I thought, man, she really must want it.’”
After her first four years on city council, she was reelected four consecutive times. Of the 20 years she spent on council, the most fun she had was when she served on the board of planning and zoning with Chinnici-Zuercher serving as chair.
“The thing about Dublin City Council and planning and zoning is there was tremendous educational opportunity for me,” says Boring. “When you look back on it, you don’t remember the bad things. … You leave the job and you go, ‘Wow.’”
Planning a Community
As councilmember when Dublin was being planned, Boring was afforded the unique opportunity to help decide the type of city it would become. From how Dublin was laid out to the colors of front doors on homes, Boring played a key role in decision making. With council, she traveled to other communities, listened to speakers and researched standards – all to ensure Dublin was a high-quality city.
Boring brings out the 2007 Dublin Community Plan – essentially Dublin’s bible. The nearly 350-page plan, which can be read in its entirety on www.dublinohiousa.gov, lays out everything from land use and community character to transportation and historic preservation. Though Boring doesn’t mince words when discussing how challenging it was to create, she is proud to have been a part of it.
“People really came together and dissected everything – just everything. We had tons of citizens work on this,” says Boring. “This, to me, is probably the greatest thing we could have to implement our standards. You see how thick it is, and it covers everything.”
Though she left council in 2013, Boring is still involved in the city she loves most. She volunteers at the Dublin Food Pantry, is a big supporter of the Dublin Arts Council, and can be spotted around Bridge Park and the Dublin Community Recreation Center. She enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren, and she and Summers attend New Hope Church in Powell.
Of course, Boring’s contributions to Dublin from her time on council will be enjoyed for generations. Among Boring’s passion projects are the Emerald Fields park (which she calls her “Field of Dreams”), requirement of green spaces in Dublin’s neighborhoods and Bridge Park. Bridge Park, she says, posed a particular challenge because, despite council providing many outlets to discuss the project, council fielded comments from citizens who felt they were out of the loop. Now seeing the success of Bridge Park – apparent as we sit in Vaso, which is packed and so loud that I worry my recorder isn’t picking up Boring’s voice – I ask if she feels vindicated.
“There’s no vindication; it’s just really exciting. I hope people remember that I was a part of this; I came from point A to point Z,” she says. “I’m proud of that, it’s personal growth. How could I not be proud?”
Amanda DePerro is an editor. Feedback welcome at adeperro@cityscenemediagroup.com.
