A Hazardous Proclamation
TOLEDO – Two of the three indie-folk band members of Oliver Hazard were present at the Lucas County Commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday to receive the official proclamation declaring August 16th Oliver Hazard Day.
This day coincides with the music festival the band helped start in Waterville, where the band officially hails from.
“We tested out our first living room in Ottawa Hills, Ohio,” said Michael Belazis, the band’s frontrunner, as he gave a quick recap of Oliver Hazard’s first show. Belazis explained the band’s success as an organic growth caused by their fans’ initiative. “That one fan would turn into 35 fans,” Belazis said inside the Commissioners’ Hearing Room.
The band who paid for their first guitar with an electric plug-in with an Accelerator Grant from the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, since then has taken off. Initially they played in living rooms, local venues and eventually worked their way to Bonnaroo, as they carved a niche in the space of soft, breathy folk music.
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerkin thanked the two members who were present, Belazis and Devin East, for remaining in the area after their success.
Oliver Hazard is short for Oliver Hazard Perry, also known as Commodore Perry. Perry was the Navy officer who led American forces at the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, and he is also the namesake of Perrysburg. The band was happy to receive support from local government, while admitting this was the first time they had interfaced in person with county officials.
More information on Oliver Hazard Day music festival can be found here.
Election Security
Lucas County then accepted a $10,000 grant from the Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, called the “2025 Elections Security Grant Award for Critical Infrastructure.”
Deputy Director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, Tim Monaco, was on hand to answer questions from the commissioners, but Gerkin seemed bothered by Monaco’s caginess.
“I can’t get into too much of the specifics,” Monaco said when Gerkin asked what the grant would be used for. “It would be in violation of the security directive if I get into the specifics on what is in the security directive in a public meeting.” Monaco said he could tell the commissioners what the funding is used for during an executive session, but not in public.
After a short while Gerkin relented.
“I’m always curious when we take money, and we don’t really know where it goes due to security and privacy,” Gerkin said, especially since, he said, the “Secretary of State said there’s little to no voter fraud in Ohio.”
All Monaco would say in a public space was that it was for “physical security” and “cybersecurity” updates dealing with things like voter registration and the physical security of the office of the Board of Elections itself.
Other items
The rest of the Commissioners’ meeting passed without particular note, adjourning after about an hour, and then the next meeting began at 2 p.m.
Early in the afternoon, only two of the Lucas County Commissioners, Lisa Sobecki and Anita Lopez, were present, and presided two agenda items, which were quickly finished.
Lucas County Engineer, Mike Pniewski, briefly told the remaining commissioners that there no longer needed to be a vehicle weight limit on Gibbs Road Bridge No. 5, because the bridge, over Ten Mile Creek, was being torn down.
Then Commissioners approved a private agreement for Private Sanitary Sewer and Private Water Supply for Otterbein Sunset Village Phase V in Sylvania Township and adjourned.
Scouts
Both meetings were attended by special visitors led by Bob Neubert, scoutmaster for Troop 66.
24 scouts were present on Tuesday to earn their citizenship in the community merit badge.
“I bring about 20 scouts in every June, and 20 scouts in every August,” Neubert said.
“I do it at a Commissioners’ meeting,” he said. “Because I am a Lucas County employee. I work for the Lucas County Engineer.”
Part of earning the badge is an eight-hour service project. Neubert said, “We are going to be storm drain stenciling tomorrow, where they spray paint the catch basins that say dump no waste.”
