The party is the beginning of three days of open houses, special activities, sales and prizes at various area merchants, Thursday November 12 through Saturday November 14. Businesses participating include Bruning’s Clock Shop, Home Accents Store & Wine Cellar, Cake Craft, Central Carpet and Interiors, MVP Video Creations, Piano Preparatory School, Pinnacle Home Care, Puzzles Plus, Travelplex and The UPS Store.

In conjunction with the open houses, merchants are hosting a “Basic Necessities” drive to benefit the United Way of Greene County. Each participating business is a drop off point and is collecting donated “shelter” items such as blankets, sheets, coats, hats, mittens and gloves. Additional drop-off points include Barney’s hardware and The Color Wheel.

The party and subsequent events are sponsored by the Retail Merchants of the Beavercreek Chamber of Commerce.

Source: 2009 Holiday Kickoff Party, Open Houses… Buy Beavercreek Campaign and the Beavercreek Chamber of Commerce.

Below: The flyer being distributed to advertise the 2009 Holiday Kickoff Party and Open Houses.

The old Huntington Bank building across the street from the Beavercreek Post Office on Dayton-Xenia Road had stood empty for years. But passers-by have noticed a welcome change to the once vacant property. The building is the new home to the St. Luke Parish Federal Credit Union.

The credit union purchased the 17,690 square foot building in August of 2008 for $399,000. This year the sign went up and renovations on the building were completed. The building passed final inspection September 1, 2009.

The credit union’s new building rests on .406 acres of land located at 3562 Dayton-Xenia Road in Beavercreek and features two drive-up tellers and a drive-up ATM. The property is across from the Beavercreek Post Office and sits next to the Greene County Library. The building, built in 1973, has been home to a number of banks over the years including Gem Savings, First National and Huntington National Bank.

The new location is the fourth for the credit union that was formed in 1958 to serve the Parish of St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Beavercreek. Since that time the credit union has extended it’s service to 9 other churches in Montgomery and Greene Counties including St. Brigid Parish in Xenia, St. Augustine in Jamestown, St. Paul in Yellow Springs and Queen of Apostles in Beavercreek. The credit union also serves St. Anthony, Holy Angels, Corpus Christi, Queen of Martyrs, Our Lady of Mercy and Mary Queen of Peace School in Dayton.

Sources: New location… St. Luke Parish Credit Union, Property details…Greene County Property Records, Building Passes Inspection…Green County Inspector’s Report St. Luke Credit Union History…St. Luke Parish Credit Union.

ATT’s press release announcing the arrival of U-verse in the Miami Valley did list Beavercreek as one of the included cities, but as we found out, for many the service is not yet available. U-verse is ATT’s new video over ip service which promises to offer a new alternative to cable or satellite TV by delivering high quality and HD video over ATT’s vast network of fiber optic phone lines.

When we went to the company’s website to check for availability, we couldn’t find any area of Beavercreek where the service was available. We used ATT’s special web page customers use to check for U-verse availability. The page instructs users to type in a phone number. We typed in 10 different phone numbers from different parts of Beavercreek and all returned the message “At this time, AT&T U-verse service is not available for this address or phone number”.

To further confuse things, last week ATT sent out a mailer to residents in Beavercreek offering bundled phone, internet and video service that uses DISH Network for video, not U-verse. The mailer’s fine print says that the promotional prices for DISH Network service are subject to the customer terms at DISH Network’s website. Those terms include a 2 year service agreement.

Customer pays a $49.99 Activation Fee. The $49.99 Activation Fee will be waived for a customer who agrees to a 24-month commitment. If qualifying service is terminated prior to end of 24 months, a cancellation fee equal to the lesser of $240 or $10 per month for each cancelled month of service will apply.

— DISH Network New Customer Terms, July 2008

This could mean that ATT customers who choose ATT’s bundle with video from DISH Network may have to wait 2 years before switching to U-verse unless they are willing to pay the termination fees.

While the press release heralding the arrival of U-verse in the Miami Valley is still good news, for residents of Beavercreek it could be more accurately said that the service will probably now be available sooner rather than later.

Sources: ATT Press Release – http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=25925 , ATT Check U-verse Availability – https://uverse1.att.com/un/launchAMSS.do?GUID=0FDB944C-9350-45A9-95C1-1E87A9DE08DE&target_action=serviceabilityCheck , DISH Network New Customer Terms – http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/about_us/new_customer_terms/index.shtml