Picture it: Keb’ Mo’ playing steel drums and upright bass in a calypso band. Not exactly what comes to mind when thinking of the dapper bluesman. But it was an early gig.
“It was the Young Calatino Steel Band,” Mo’ said. “I started when I was about 11 years old [and played] until I was 18.”
Growing up in Compton, Calif., he also picked up a guitar about the same time.
“I started when I was 12 and the guitar was literally put into my hands. Uncle Herman, my mother’s brother, said, ‘Here,’ I’ll show you how to play guitar.’ They wanted to give me something to do because they thought I was going to turn out to be a little hoodlum,” Mo’ said and laughed.
The singer-songwriter became a three-time Grammy Award winner, taking home the honor for Best Contemporary Blues Album for “Just Like You” in 1997, “Slow Down” in 1999
and “Keep It Simple” in 2005.
“I heard the blues all my life,” Mo’ said during a call from his Nashville home. “It took a long time to get drawn to it — early to mid-’80s, from maybe ’83 until now.”
Kevin Moore became Keb’ Mo’ with his self-titled 1994 debut.
“You can’t escape the blues,” he said. “You can talk about anything in the blues. No one’s left out. All subject matter is fair game … It’s the truth; it’s real; it’s life.”
On his 2011 disc, “The Reflection,” Mo’ teamed up with India.Arie, Vince Gill and saxophonist Dave Koz. The guitarist is working on a new CD.
“I’ve got several tunes, and right now I’m really working on creating the sonic landscape of
the record,” he said.
Mo’ has written and co-written some great songs, including “Life Is Beautiful,” “The Whole Enchilada” and “I See Love,” which is featured as the theme song of the TV show “Mike
& Molly.”
Asked about the art of songwriting, the thoughtful artist replied, “The first thing is the melody, and then the song and the chord structure should go together well; if that’s
good, the tempo can vary greatly.
It should be able to be played like a ballad or up-tempo and it should still work. That’s all I know so far.
“And when you sing it, try to sing it good,” Mo’ added with a laugh.
His talents are in demand.
“I’m collaborating with and possibly producing the Carolina Chocolate Drops record; I’m working on a record with Sweet Pea Atkinson; and I’m going to LA to record with Joe
Walsh on his new project,” he said.
Mo’ also will play a sold-out show at 8 p.m. March 22 at The Ark in Ann Arbor.
“I hope [my music] becomes a refuge. I have records that are a refuge for me; I can go and get lost in a record. It’s a kind of destination. And then when I’m there, I go into
my special place that makes me feel good, and I hope that I can supply that for others.”
Bluesman Keb’ Mo’ to play sold-out show in Ann Arbor
Long brings sales edge to TFP job
Toledo Free Press Sales Manager Brent Long’s love of sports will serve him well in his new position.
“I’m a jock and I’ve always treated sales as a sport. I have a competitive urge. That’s
where I excel,” said the hockey and fishing enthusiast.
Long received his master’s degree from Ohio University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario. He is a native of London, Ontario and has lived in Northwest Ohio for 13 years.
“I’ll hear people knock Toledo, but it’s a really nice place and it’s full of good people. The people of Toledo should be proud,” said the father of two boys, ages 7 and 9.
Long, who has 20 years of sales experience, including at Reach magazine and ValPak, said he came to Toledo Free Press because of its goal of serving the community.
“I was drawn to Toledo Free Press because of its mission to be a positive piece for the community,” he said.
Toledo Free Press Publisher Tom Pounds said, “Brent is a true sales professional. We are very happy to have him on our team.”
Long joins senior sales representative Renee Bergmooser and sales representatives Casey Fischer and Chick Reid. Email him at [email protected].
Walmart installs solar panels at 12 stores in Ohio
The Walmart store on West Central Avenue in Sylvania Township was one of 12 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Ohio to receive rooftop solar installations as part of the company’s goal to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy.
Walmart announced March 4 that it has installed solar panels at 12 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Ohio. Those solar installations will add approximately 6 million kilowatt hours of generation production to supply from 5 percent to 20 percent of each store’s overall electricity use, according to Walmart.
“Solar power makes sense for Walmart and it makes sense for Ohio,” said David Ozment, senior director of energy at Walmart, in the company’s announcement to the media.
Walmart now has solar installations operating at 200 stores, clubs and distribution centers in the U.S. and it plans to continue expanding its use of solar and other renewable energies.
“It’s another step toward meeting the company’s goal of being powered 100 percent by renewable energy,” Ozment told Toledo Free Press.
Ozment reported that Walmart uses a power purchase agreement with its solar partners, SolarCity in Ohio, which owns and operate the solar systems at the retailer’s facilities. Walmart then buys the power from the solar partner at established prices over a period of years.
It provides Walmart with the opportunity “to lock in the price of power over a number of years so the company can take control of its energy costs,” Ozment said.
The more than 4.7 megawatts of generation capacity at the 12 Ohio locations would make the retailer the largest user of solar power in the state, according to Walmart. That represents almost one-tenth of all solar currently installed in Ohio, according to Green Energy Ohio, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally and economically sustainable energy policies and practices.
“Walmart’s installation of solar on 12 store rooftops is the largest solar commitment ever made by retail business in Ohio,” said Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio. “Walmart’s solar arrays will eliminate 5,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions or the equivalent of taking the emissions of 1,152 cars off the road each year.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership program ranks Walmart as the largest on-site green power generator in the U.S. Renewable energy credits available in states such as Ohio encourage companies to install solar and reduce their overall energy costs, according to solar industry sources.
“Walmart continues to forge new ground as the No. 1 corporate solar user in America,” said Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity.
The new installations are expected to increase the state’s overall solar generation capacity by more than 10 percent, according to Rive. Solar panels were installed by SolarCity at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores located in Austintown, Franklin, Greenville, Loveland, Mason, Middletown, Milford, Toledo, Youngstown, Xenia and two locations in Cincinnati.
The project was also the first solar installation for SolarCity in the state of Ohio, Rive said. The company serves thousands of commercial and residential solar customers in 14 states through 31 operations centers.
SolarCity does not disclose its supplier relationships as a matter of policy.The particular project usually drives considerations about the type of panels it uses, according to a company spokesperson.
Walmart operates more than 10,700 stores with more than 2.2 million employees in 27 countries with sales of approximately $444 billion in fiscal year.
For more information, see http://corporate.walmart.com.
Leadership Toledo seeks far-reaching impact
From its flagship adult program to the ever-expanding network of area high schools participating in its three youth programs, local nonprofit Leadership Toledo has a far-reaching impact on the region.
“Anyone who cares about our community and wants to be a person of impact should participate in Leadership Toledo,” said board member Sara Best, who graduated from the program in 2009. “[Class members gain] just a better sense of the community as a whole and how all the key elements are interrelated and must be collaborative. It’s a chance to see a bigger picture and you recognize, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so much good going on in Toledo.’”
The program is also great for networking, said Best, who is director of the Board Catalyst Institute at Aly Sterling Philanthropy.
“It’s great exposure for companies,” Best said. “I got to meet a lot of really cool people. It created a great learning environment.”
Leadership Toledo’s annual fundraising breakfast, set for March 15, is expected to draw more than 600 community leaders. Best will speak along with Executive Director Dave Schlaudecker, Director of Community Impact Kristina White and Notre Dame Academy student Jenny Kim.
“Because we charge no tuition for any of the youth programs, it’s imperative we raise the funds necessary to offer the students in every one of our high schools in the Northwest Ohio area the opportunity to participate,” Schlaudecker said.
A portion of funds raised by Restaurant Week Toledo, held Feb. 2 through March 2, was donated to Leadership Toledo’s youth programs.
Best’s 15-year-old son, Noah, a sophomore at St. Francis de Sales High School, is part of this year’s Youth Leadership Toledo class.
“Like a lot of the kids in the program, he’s a high achiever, gets good grades, is good at sports and a natural leader, but I can tell he is being pushed outside of his comfort zone quite a bit,” Best said.
“They are really learning how their life fits inside of a much bigger picture and how to maximize it. I see him chewing on this stuff and applying it where he’s never thought of applying it before and that’s a good thing.”
Leadership Toledo offers four programs: one adult program and three youth programs.
Students in Action
Students in Action (SIA), a component of the national Jefferson Awards for Public Service, recognizes area students for community volunteer work.
Since starting in four local schools as a pilot program in 2008, the program has expanded into 31 schools. Participating students have logged 213,000 service hours this school year.
“One of the things I think is really neat is a group of our Students in Action school leaders formed a council to get together about once a month to talk about what they’re doing and share ideas,” Schlaudecker said.
“That was their idea, their initiative and it was new this year. It’s not about competition amongst schools. It’s about all the schools getting together to do the best they can to serve their communities.”
Lake High School senior Trevor Walsh and Maumee High School senior Grant Buehrer came up with the idea for the advisory board after talking with White.
“For its first year, it’s definitely been a big step forward,” Walsh said. “It’s a growing process. It has its flaws, but every meeting we’re bringing up something new and eventually we’ll have a strong board that’s meeting on a regular basis that will create a bigger impact on SIA and at those different schools.”
Walsh, who is helping organize Lake’s first schoolwide service project in April, got connected with local nonprofit Food for Thought through SIA and now serves weekly.
“When I first started the program I knew I wanted to volunteer. I just didn’t know how,” Walsh said. “If there’s any school that doesn’t have SIA, I think they need to get it. It really is a great program and it really is getting kids involved.”
St. Ursula was recently chosen to represent the Toledo region in Washington, D.C., at this year’s national Jefferson Awards. Springfield High School represented the region last year, finishing third. The year before that it was Lake.
“I was totally blown away. It’s a huge honor,” said Kevin Shannon, St. Ursula’s director of campus ministries. “Service has always been a part of our school. It’s who we are; it’s what we do. Like Leadership Toledo, we believe very strongly it’s key that young people have leadership roles in doing service. To be recognized for something that is so important to us, on a national level, is amazing.”
St. Ursula senior Marla Kumor said her favorite part of serving is “seeing the looks on people’s faces when you help them out.”
“A little act for them can change their whole week,” Kumor said. “You don’t always know the impact you’re having on them, but it’s something.”
“[Helping people] gives you a feeling that you actually did something with your time as opposed to just sitting at home or hanging out with friends,” added St. Ursula freshman Colleen Matthews. “It’s more of a lasting feeling.”
SIA schools often see a “culture shift” occur, with service becoming something students want to do rather than have to do or introduces them to service for the first time, Schlaudecker said.
Students in Action/Youth Jefferson Awards expanded into Toledo Public Schools in 2011. Waite High School principal David Yenrick said Waite has always been a community service-oriented school.
“We’ve always tried to instill giving back to the community,” Yenrick said. “I was always raised that it’s better to give than to receive and I think it gives students a good feeling of self-esteem when they do something good. We’re celebrating our 100th anniversary next year and the theme is “100 Years of Loyalty, Tradition and Service,” so we think highly enough of service that it’s included as one of the three words to describe our school.”
The drive to serve stays with students after they graduate, said St. Ursula President Mary Werner.
“It’s laying the groundwork of what these girls will do in the rest of their lives,” Werner said.
Youth program
Youth Leadership Toledo (YLT) is a nine-month program for select high school sophomores that focuses on developing leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills with an emphasis on exploring and resolving issues faced by the local community. This year’s class includes 53 students from 32 regional high schools working on eight service projects. Since 1998, 697 students have participated.
“What we see is a tremendous amount of individual personal growth,” Schlaudecker said. “They come to understand and appreciate their talents to be leaders.”
Kim, a 2012 YLT graduate, said she gained confidence and met a group of diverse but like-minded students through YLT.
“It was an amazing opportunity to meet more people from other schools who were passionate about the things I’m passionate about, like helping others,” Kim said. “That was what really drew me in. They’ve pushed me to be better at what I do and inspired me a lot.
“Not every single leader is going to be the same. Leaders can be outspoken or soft-spoken,” Kim said. “YLT pushed me to strive for bigger leadership positions in school rather than settling for the safe route.”
Schuyler Stupica, a sophomore at Notre Dame and member of this year’s YLT class, said she enjoyed the program from the start.
“I realized that I am a part of a very unique and empowered group of teenagers,” Stupica wrote in an email. “The first meeting was so enjoyable that the minute it ended, I already started looking forward to the next one. It was really refreshing to see so many teenagers energized to make a difference in their community, and I know I am going to learn a lot from my YLT class. I know this is going to be an amazing and unique experience, and I can’t wait to see how my leadership skills improve because of YLT.”
Kurt Elfering, a sophomore at St. Francis de Sales, said he’s learned etiquette and job interview and public speaking skills through YLT as well as met new friends.
“Everyone who has the opportunity to do it should definitely do it because it’s an awesome experience,” Elfering said.
YIPEE
Youth in Philanthropy Encouraging Excellence (YIPEE) is a program for high school juniors and seniors who are graduates of YLT. Twenty-seven students from 17 schools have spent the school year identifying issues and raising money to donate to local nonprofits. Last year, the program raised $17,500; this year’s goal is $20,000.
YIPEE offers a chance to apply skills learned in YLT, Kim said.
“It seems kind of impossible that the fundraisers we planned have as much impact, but they do. The small things kind of pile up. It’s been an eye-opening experience,” Kim said. “It’s rekindled the love and passion I have. It’s neat to see how much it’s going to impact other people and these few hours we give every other week will change so many people’s lives. It’s just so powerful.”
Adult program
The adult program is a nine-month curriculum that hones leadership skills with an emphasis on exploring and resolving local issues. This year’s class has 45 participants representing 39 organizations and working on projects with seven local nonprofits. Since 1980, 1,351 adults have participated in the program.
Kimberly Minke, a professor of psychology at Owens Community College and a member of this year’s class, said the program is a perfect complement to her role as director of Owens’ Leadership Academy.
“There’s a lot of parallels between the two programs,” Minke said. “Ideas have gone both ways. I’ve been able to bring things from the Leadership Academy to Leadership Toledo and things I’ve learned in Leadership Toledo I’ve been able to take back to the Leadership Academy.
“It’s been absolutely amazing,” Minke said. “It seems that each meeting we’ve had just exposed one new treasure in Toledo after another. Leadership Toledo is learning about all the jewels we have in our community.
“It’s a lot of time and involvement, but it’s been so worth it,” Minke said.
Applications to join the 2014 Leadership Toledo class are now being accepted. The form can be completed at www.leadershiptoledo.org or by calling the office at (419) 241-7371.
For more information, visit www.leadershiptoledo.org.
Maumee installs two-way electronic water meters
When one of your longtime suppliers tells you they are halting production of key components used in your city’s water distribution system, a mechanical infrastructure that requires on average 40 to 50 replacement meters per year, what are you supposed to do?
If you are Joe Camp, Maumee’s director of public service, you and your team put out a request for proposals for a new metering system — and you snatch up enough of those last replacement parts to see you through the transition.
That request went out in 2012. Today, licensed and bonded subcontractors are crisscrossing Maumee’s 11.2 square miles, installing new two-way electronic water meters in homes and businesses. Those new meters, from North Carolina-based Mueller Systems, use a radio frequency transmitter to send data via an external system of “repeaters” and “collectors” mounted on city property to a secure, central computer hosted by the manufacturer.
At his office beneath the landmark water tower on Dussel Drive, Camp is able to pull up on his desktop computer hourly data from daily readings transmitted from the nearly 1,000 newly installed and functioning meters.
That up-to-date data has obvious advantages. Assistant Water Superintendent Todd Walborn related how the computerized system alerted him one morning in early March to a residence where 20-gallon-an-hour spikes in water usage had been recorded the night before. Walborn contacted the homeowner and arranged a visit. On site he found a toilet in the home’s basement that had an internal leak. With the old system, based on quarterly meter readings for residences, that leak, if undetected over three months, could have amounted to as much as 45,000 gallons of water wasted, city officials calculated, not to mention a whopping water bill for the unsuspecting homeowner.
The price paid by the City of Maumee for the new system was $2.6 million, of which $1.3 million came from the sanitary sewer account, Camp said. Maumee is in the process of issuing 10-year bonds to cover the balance. In addition, the city will pay Mueller Systems $19,000 annually for hosting the meter data at a secure facility and Mueller Systems will also operate the computerized system that Maumee officials say will improve their ability to manage the municipal water infrastructure while at the same time allowing customers to budget and conserve water through its Web portal. According to Camp, the annual fee “is a very good deal for us.”
Camp said the installation of the new meters — 6,500 in total — is expected to be complete sometime this fall. At that time the customer Web portal will be activated. That feature allows customers to use their computers, smartphones or other device to monitor their water usage as a way to spot leaks and help conserve water in general. For example, Camp suggested, the system can alert a customer if water is being used in their absence, which could mean a leaky toilet or a sneaky neighbor stealing water from an outdoor spigot.
The Mueller metering system now being installed represents an upgrade that effectively leapfrogged other technological improvements in use around the country, Walborn said, including handheld electronic meter readers and so-called “drive-by” systems, both of which still require labor. Maume’s new system will put an end to water meter readers in the city. Still, no employees will lose their jobs, Camp emphasized — just a part of their job descriptions.
When asked whether there were any health concerns associated with the automated system, which uses 900 megahertz radio frequency signals once a day to transmit data from the installed devices, Camp said city officials looked into the matter and are confident no risks are involved. He referred a reporter to a World Health Organization fact sheet issued in 2006 that concludes: “Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects.”
Maumee’s new system is “the best way to go,” agreed Don Moline, Toledo’s commissioner of the Department of Public Utilities. Moline, whose department sells Maumee its water — more than 745 million gallons last year — said Toledo also has switched about one-fifth of its 100,000 water meters to the “radio read” type.
While Toledo also serves a number of outlying districts as far afield as Wood and Fulton counties, and Monroe, Mich., Moline said Maumee is one of the city’s biggest water customers. “We have a longterm and good relationship with the City of Maumee,” Moline told Toledo Free Press. Indeed, Moline confirmed Maumee is in the second half of a 40-year contract with Toledo for bulk water. Long contracts are the norm in a sector requiring such extensive infrastructure, Moline said.
In today’s era of advancing technologies, Maumee’s now state-of-the-art system has another built-in advantage: It is upgradable. Mueller Systems Vice President Matt Thomas said his firm, which has been in the water metering business since 1859 and has been making electronic metering systems since the 1990s, is already developing add-on features such as acoustic network leak detection and pressure management.
Thomas has spent more than three decades in the sector. He said Mueller Systems supplies utilities in some 500 cities across America and counts among its customers American Water, the largest publicly traded water company in the United States.
With this single technological upgrade, Maumee’s water meter readings will go from hen scratchings in meter reader notebooks to a mainframe in a secure facility in Atlanta, serviced by multiple powergrids and “mirrored,” or backed up, by a second facility in San Francisco. “Utilities take security very seriously,” Thomas said.
Maintenance of the Mueller equipment in Maumee will be done by Camp’s team. The meters come with a 10-year, “bumper-to-bumper” warranty and an additional 10-year pro-rated warranty, Thomas said.
Camp, who likes to say he works with 2 million gallons of water sitting above his head, said Maumee currently only bills for 90 percent of the water it purchases, meaning that 10 percent of the water is lost to leaks or “slow” meters. While Camp said the 90 percent figure has been deemed acceptable in the industry, he expects the new system to boost that to 99 percent. Camp allowed some residents may end up with a bigger water bill but only because with the new meters they will be paying for all the water they are using. When mechanical meters get old they tend to slow down, that is, allow more water flow than they register. Camp said it is only fair to pay for what you use. The new system offers customers ways to monitor that usage and help them conserve by alerting them in a timely fashion of usage spikes.
Local family to appear on HGTV’s ‘House Hunters’
A local family in the market for a new home decided to call on a reality television series for assistance.
Jordan and Allie Darr had been renting a home in Sylvania before deciding it was time to buy. Facing some difficulties in finding the right house, they turned to the Home and Garden Television (HGTV) network’s “House Hunters” to guide them through the process.
“We signed up online to be on the show, then we did a phone interview and a video interview, and then they picked us,” Allie said. “They asked about what we were each looking for in a house.”
Finding a home suitable for all of the couple’s needs was indeed a challenge. The Darrs are parents to three boys, all under the age of 3. Additionally, both Allie and Jordan do a significant amount of their work at home — Jordan is in sales and Allie is a photographer.
Darr Family
“Jordan and I disagreed on the size of the house, and it was very hard to find a house that fit our needs for a home office for Jordan, a photography studio for me and then also room for our three boys to homeschool,” Allie said.
Kathy Willis, a Realtor with the Danberry Company, was hired by the Darrs as a buyer’s agent. Willis was eager to assist them in their effort to be accepted on the show, despite some initial anxiety.
“When Allie first asked me to be on ‘House Hunters,’ I was in shock and so excited,” Willis said. “Then panic set in as we had to do an audition tape.”
Willis realized that appearing on the show with the Darrs would be a valuable experience.
“Being a real estate agent and being asked to be on the No. 1 real estate show is pretty exciting. It was fun to see how they put a show together,” she said.
After the Darrs were accepted, filming began. The entire process of auditioning, house hunting and filming took about two or three months, Allie said.
The couple, originally from Columbus, focused on the Perrysburg area during their search.
“We like the atmosphere there,” Allie, one of the WNWO Moms on the Go, said. “We like how cute the downtown area is.”
During the process, the couple focused on a few houses that would potentially suit their needs.
“Our Realtor worked within our budget to meet our criteria,” Allie said. “I like old and vintage, and my husband likes something more functional. He likes smaller; I like bigger. He likes simple; I am looking for something more unique and unusual.”
Willis added that the filming of the show did not distract them too much from the task at hand.
“The camera wasn’t ever in the way,” she said. “Sometimes we would have to do things over a couple times, just to get the right shot of things as we went through the houses.”
The end result of the Darrs’ search cannot be revealed until after the show’s airing, sometime toward the end of March, but Allie hinted that they may be back for another appearance on HGTV.
“They do a ‘where are they now’ episode. They come back and see where the house hunters are, because sometimes [the show] leaves the viewers hanging. Right now, we’re in the process of getting on that show.”
For more information, visit the Web site www.hgtv.com/house-hunters/show/index.html.
Local cupcake business featured in children’s book
A local cupcake shop is once again being thrust into the national spotlight. In 2011, Lori Jacobs and Dana Iliev, co-owners of Cake in a Cup in Sylvania Township, were featured on “Cupcake Wars” on the Food Network and won their episode. Now the duo and their treats are the subject of a children’s book with a positive message.
“I love it because cupcakes are so happy, so if they can go beyond making someone happy and give them a message of feeling great just the way you are, it’s a bonus,” Jacobs said.
She said a random call to the shop by authors Nick Rokicki and Joseph Kelley has turned into an amazing partnership.
From left, Nick Rokicki, Lori Jacobs, Dana Iliev and Joe Kelley. Toledo Free Press photo by Michelle Zepeda.“We knew we wanted to team up with a local business because it is a way for businesses to get involved with literacy and get their own name out in schools,” Rokicki said.
Rokicki, a Toledo native, and Kelley, who is from Detroit, knew their next children’s book would be set in a cupcake shop. So they searched bakeries and cupcake shops in their hometowns and landed on Cake in a Cup.
“We researched a lot of cupcake shops and found out that Cake in a Cup do a lot for the community and are heavily involved,” Kelley said. “We knew we wanted to have a cupcake shop in my hometown or his hometown.”
“Casey and Callie Cupcake” — a frosted fable about being fantastic just the way you are — is completely centered in Cake in a Cup.
“Our flavors, our storefront, the inside of our store and our exact cupcakes are featured. They gave them cute little names,” Jacobs said.
“We are super lucky to be asked to join up with them. The book captures the business and us,” Iliev added.
The book, set to be released on Amazon on March 15, sports illustrations of the shop, its logo and even Jacobs and Iliev.
“I asked them to make me thinner and they did, which I love, and Dana asked to be taller,” Jacobs joked.
“Casey and Callie Cupcake” touches on the topic of being the best you can be.
“It’s a story about two cupcakes trying to be better than the other one,” Kelley said. “Kids sometimes do that too much and that does lead to bullying.”
The main characters in the book, Casey and Callie, break down that lesson in a fun way.
“It’s Letting kids know they are fine the way they are and you don’t have to be better than anyone, you just have to be the best you can be,” Kelley said. That is a message Jacobs and Iliev are eager to spread.
“It should be fun going around to the schools and being involved in their reading programs,” Iliev said.
Jacobs added, “I love that we are part of promoting reading.”
For the authors, promoting reading is just as important as writing a children’s book with a message.
“A lot of kids we have noticed are not up to par on reading,” Rokicki said. The pair travels to schools in our area for free, sharing their books and getting kids excited about reading.
Rokicki and Kelley are best known for their first children’s book, “Pete The Popcorn.” They then teamed up on another children’s read, “Clipper Comet,” as well as a book that is part biography, “P.E.T.E — Pursuing Excellence Through Encouragement.” All of their books have a message.
“The easiest way to write is to find your message first and write around it,” Rokicki said.
A book signing will take place from 4-7 p.m. March 28 at Cake in a Cup, 6801 W Central Ave.
“Nick and Joe will be here signing books and we will be selling cupcakes,” Jacobs said.
“And we will be featuring Casey and Callie cupcakes on the book signing day,” Iliev added.
The book will also be available for purchase at Cake in a Cup.
If you are interested in having the authors or the girls from Cake in a Cup stop by your school for a visit and read to your students, visit www.PeteThePopcorn.com to send a request.
Treece: Bailing out Bernanke
It pains me to say, but interest rates likely aren’t headed higher for quite a while. This is unfortunate, as they undoubtedly should be. As I’ve written numerous times before, rising interest rates would spur economic growth, mostly by encouraging borrowing.
Right now, people — potential homeowners, small business owners, etc. — have no reason to borrow today; they know that money will still be cheap tomorrow. Rising interest rates would give them an impetus to borrow now, because the cost of borrowing would be more expensive later.
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But, as stated above, rates won’t rise — not if Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve have anything to say about it. The reason why may surprise you: The Fed is trying to save its own skin.
Not many Americans realize that the Fed is not an agency of the federal government.
To borrow a popular phrase, “the Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express.” But, on the other hand, the U.S. central bank isn’t exactly a private company, either.
Technically, after the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Fed was organized by a group of large banks that owned the shares issued in their new venture. However, every year the Federal Reserve forwards any revenue left after paying its operating expenses to the U.S. Treasury.
Normally, this isn’t such a bad deal for the Treasury (or, by extension, the American taxpayer). The Federal Reserve sets, manages and executes U.S. monetary policy, basically on a pro bono basis. Granted, Americans may not always agree with the decisions made by the Fed or its chairman, but before the central bank came into being the United States averaged a major recession about every seven years. Since its creation, they’ve become significantly less frequent.
The structure of the Fed has also caused problems, some of which are potentially severe and presently percolating just beneath the bank’s limestone façade, ready to boil over.
For instance, due to the Fed forwarding all profits to the U.S. Treasury each year, the Bank of Bernanke has no war chest to fall back on if it starts to lose money because it hasn’t built up reserves over the years. If the Fed loses money, instead of dipping into savings it is forced to borrow from the Treasury to make up for its shortfalls. Obviously, this would not be a very popular move, politically speaking — especially given the current political climate.
The question at this point is why any of this is at all important. Rest assured — it is.
The U.S. Federal Reserve holds a massive bond portfolio, comprised mostly of U.S. Treasury debt. A good portion of this portfolio exists because during the financial calamity of 2008, tremendous amounts of debt were transferred from the private sector to the government. This is how the bailouts of big banks, insurance companies like AIG and automakers were accomplished.
Bond-based investments by the Fed aren’t exactly done by choice — it’s not as though Ben Bernanke can order the Fed to reallocate a portion of its portfolio to Apple stock. No, the Fed owns bonds, currency swaps and other instruments that allow it to help guide monetary policy.
The underlying problem here is that if interest rates begin to rise, and especially if they do so quickly, the Federal Reserve will sustain large losses on its bond portfolio.
Frequent readers will surely recall as a common subject in my columns the threat that bonds currently represent for investors, because as interest rates rise from the all-time lows where they are presently, the value of bonds outstanding will necessarily fall. (This is one of the very few facts of finance that can be reduced to a formula, and is always true.)
To bring this full circle, if interest rates begin to rise quickly and the value of bonds within the Fed’s portfolio begins to fall, the Federal Reserve may sustain losses (as opposed to profits). Because the Fed has been sending its profits to the Treasury, it has no reserves to fall back on to make up any such losses. This, in turn, could leave the Federal Reserve technically insolvent and in need of a bridge loan from the U.S. Treasury, which it would not likely receive in today’s political environment.
Dock David Treece is a partner with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and is licensed with FINRA through Treece Financial Services Corp. He provides expert content to numerous media outlets. The above information is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.
Baumhower: The Shorties: The search for the next Katie Holmes
Most households with children have specific rules and expectations that are unique to that family. For example, some households require a certain amount of reading for the children, balanced with television watching and/or video gaming. In the Baumhower house, my children are required to provide daily “content.” They can draw, sing, take photographs, create movies, write stories or scripts and of course they can read out loud or silently as long as they give a report of some sort. They are spoiled with technology from iPods to computers but instead of them wasting time playing apps or games, I encourage them to use the devices to their fullest educational capabilities.
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Recently I was invited by some members of the Sylvania Community Arts Commission (SCAC) to offer my thoughts on its upcoming Tree City Film Festival. Just imagine me, a 6-foot-5-inch man with zero social filters, wearing one of my trusted hoodies and a full scraggily beard, as I am “Lenting it Grow” once again, walking into one of Sylvania’s nicest restaurants to sit down with some of the cultural elite in our area. It was strange, to say the least. I had never been to a meeting that kept minutes or had a treasurer and a specific agenda. It was a weird feeling, like I was peeking into a grown-up’s world. After witnessing numerous discussions about the upcoming film festival, the reason for my appearance was revealed. I had an idea I wanted to share: The Shorties.
My pitch began with me holding up my iPhone.
“With the evolution of technology, this device has become our primary camera and has also replaced the dreaded camcorder. This small black rectangular gizmo is often the No. 1 requested item on children’s Christmas lists. Why don’t we encourage kids to use it as more than an Angry Birds player and experience making art in a newer way? Let’s host a 3-5 minute film festival for grades eight and lower and give kids a taste of competition in something other than sports.”
To my surprise, the idea was warmly received, and to my further surprise, I found myself leading the charge. The next day, while playing with my T-Pain microphone, the title “Shorties” was created. And yes, I say it like T-Pain every time: “The Shorties: A Celebration of Film and Technology for Kids.”
If you are looking for an exciting new challenge for your family or think your child is the next Katie Holmes or Adam Sandler, consider submitting a 3- to 5-minute film to The Shorties. The film can be anything from a scripted movie to your child singing in the dining room. The concept of The Shorties is for it to be a family project, like the Cub Scouts’ Pinewood Derby, where the children are supposed to do the majority of the work, but we all know moms and dads tend to help out a lot!
The Shorties will debut April 12, with celebrity judges and a grand prize of an iPod Touch, courtesy of the MacCafé on Talmadge Road. It will be a great gala and a unique opportunity for your child to participate in something other than the norm. The atmosphere will be festive, entertaining and different and will serve as the kickoff the weekendlong celebration of the Tree City Film Festival.
The Shorties are designed to make your child think outside the box, to create content and then share his or her vision with the world, or at least Northwest Ohio. With Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, many kids already feel they are mini-celebrities, so why not push their creativity in a Hollywood-style competition? They of course can’t do it alone and this hopefully will create lasting memories within your family. Who knows? Maybe we will find the next Katie, Bonnie Turner or Jamie Farr.
The true winner of that night will be the arts, but let’s not go and ruin it by telling the kids.
For more information about The Shorties, email [email protected]. For more information about the Tree City Film Festival, visit www.sylvaniaarts.org.
To friend one of Northwest Ohio’s Cultural Elite, search “Jeremy Baumhower” on Facebook and Twitter.
North Toledo housing projects reinvigorate residents
Although LoRece Morehead grew up on Franklin Street, near Downtown Toledo, her heart is in the North End. Two years after their September 1966 wedding, Morehead and her husband Robert Ingram, who had just returned from Vietnam, moved to Chase Street to set up their household. It was there that they raised their son and daughter, sending the children to the former Chase School, half a block away from their house.
Today, 45 years later, Morehead’s life has come full circle. Her new home is immediately across the street from her daughter’s house on Adrian Street inside of Cranes Landing, a 40-unit apartment complex for residents 55 and older built on the site of the elementary school her children once attended.
And Morehead is adamant that her two-bedroom, 884-square-foot apartment will be her home for the next 50 years “if God lets me live that long. I told my daughter already, ‘This is it. This is my last move. I’m not moving nowhere else. I’m tired of moving now.’”
Cranes Landing was dedicated on Feb. 27. Toledo Free Press photo by Sarah Ottney.Civic pride
Cranes Landing, 3315 Mayo St., is the most recent housing project of United North, a community development agency that promotes housing and business opportunities in the Olde North End (ONE) Village, more commonly known as North Toledo’s Polish Village. United North is the result of the 2009 merger of two former community development agencies — Lagrange Development and NorthRiver Development corporations.
As United North’s chief executive officer, Terry Glazer leads a 14-member administrative staff in overseeing the programs and services offered to ONE Village’s residents and businesses.
Glazer said the success of Cranes Landing, which was formally dedicated Feb. 27, will soon be followed up with another 55-and-older housing project that will see the renovation of the former St. Hedwig’s Elementary School, 225 Dexter St., off Lagrange St. just east of Cherry Street.
Roman Catholic Bishop Leonard P. Blair closed the school after the 2005 academic year and the parish church on Sept. 1. The school building is architecturally solid, Glazer said, and if the funding proposals are approved and United North is able to purchase the property, it will renovate the former school building into another 55-and-older apartment complex for less than the $7 million it took to build Cranes Landing.
Divine intervention
Twenty percent of the 40-unit Cranes Landing had been leased when United North dedicated the building and held an open house Feb. 27. Two other residents who attended the open house were just as enthusiastic about their new apartments as Morehead.
Jacqueline Pearson, 55, and her mother, Rose Spears, 74, credit providence for their finding Cranes Landing.
“Actually, this place found us,” Pearson said. “By the grace of God, it just dropped in my hands. I had been struggling for almost 10 years after losing my grandmother, my mother’s husband and her sisters. So it’s been nothing but me, my mother and her brother.
“I’ve been the care provider, running between the both of them, and it was like just, a year and a half ago or so, I thought I was having a heart attack. And the doctor put me in the hospital and said, ‘You can’t do any more.’
“And I’m like, ‘I can’t stop. She has no other way.’ She’s my life. That’s my best friend. Whatever she wants, I’m going to do it. I gave up everything for her, everything to make her happy, to see her laugh every single day.”
Before the move to Cranes Landing, Pearson lived with and cared for her disabled mother in her mother’s home on Melody Lane. However, since her stepfather’s death six years ago, Pearson said she and Spears have faced financial hardships that were only getting worse with time.
“Living at home … shoveling the snow … paying somebody to maintain the grass. And we had a pool in the backyard. Tearing down trees … taking care of meds … and then trying to pay the utilities. It was not happening for us. It was not happening at all,” Pearson said. “And to own a house where you can’t pay the taxes on it. I found myself choosing between my mother’s life, meds and living.”
Spears was equally frustrated. Her sole source of income is Social Security, and she didn’t have enough income to pay her property taxes.
“I had problems keeping up with all the bills and things on Melody Lane,” Spears said. “I couldn’t pay the taxes. That’s what got me. I had to pay $1000 every six months. I didn’t have that kind of money.”
An affordable option
Affordability is one of the beauties of Cranes Landing, said Tiffanie McNair, Cranes Landing property/asset manager.
Apartments are leased following HUD (Housing and Urban Development) criteria. Applicants must earn less than 60 percent of the median gross income for all Lucas County residents to be approved as potential residents. For a family of four, that’s approximately $29,000 a year, to qualify McNair said. For a family of one, it’s about $25,000.
Once applicants meet the income eligibility requirements, they can sign the lease. A one-bedroom apartment (approximately 684 square feet) rents for $479. A two-bedroom apartment rents for $583. Prices are 60 percent of HUD’s affordable market rate. These are subsidized by LMHA.
‘A blessing from God’
Like Pearson, Morehead credits divine intervention for her new home.
“I call it a blessing from God,” Morehead, 65, said. “That’s all I can say. I’ve been blessed and I am still being blessed.”
Morehead said she is grateful for the open design of her apartment.
“I like it because it’s not congested and crowded,” Morehead said. “I know there’s other people that live here, but it’s still a lot of room. I like the convenience of there being a library here. I just wish they’d get some books up in there because I’m an avid reader.
“And the space. I like the space.
“I love just sitting here in the middle of the room in this one chair. My daughter wants to take me to get my furniture and other stuff, and I told her, ‘I’m in no hurry. I love this space.’
“I love my bedroom closet. I have a closet that I can walk into and my clothes are not screaming, ‘Get me out of here. I’m crowded.’ I’ve got plenty of room. My clothes are not squashed up. I just love it. And I like the walk-in shower. Just walk in to take a shower and walk out. It would be almost impossible to trip.”
“It’s terrific. I get up in the morning with a smile on my face and I go to bed with a smile on my face.”
‘I’m better off here’
Spears said she enjoys her new home because it has helped her regain some independence.
“I love the way this place is made,” Spears said. “My daughter’s on that end, and I’m on this end. So I feel free.
“And when she comes down here, I ask her, ‘What do you want?’” After a little laughter, Spears said, “And after she gets what she came for, I tell her, ‘OK. You can go home now.’”
The laughter flows more easily than it has in years, Spears admits.
“And she says, ‘Mama, you don’t never want me down here.’
“I say, ‘Not really.’”
And although it took Morehead almost five years to persuade her mother, Spears said giving up her home of 41 years was the right thing to do.
“I thank God that Jackie had me move,” Spears said. “I’m better off than I was in the house on Melody Lane.”
