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Students, PRO team to construct accessible home

By
Brigitta Burks
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Professional remodelers and her fellow Southview students would get together to build Val Taylor and her family a house more accessible to her wheelchair. Photo courtesy Melissa Clark.

Seventeen-year-old Val Taylor lives in a little green house on Cason Avenue. The only door that Val’s 400-pound wheelchair fits through in her little green house is the front door. 

Her parents must carry her if she needs to leave the front room. The driveway that leads up to the house is unpaved and Val’s chair sometimes gets stuck in the muck. When Southview High School students observed their fellow classmate and her parents having difficulty getting her out the door and on the bus, they decided to do something about it. 

“I thought how cool that kids would even think about such a thing and notice a need in someone,” said Veronica, Val’s mom, a paraeducator. Val has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, asthma, glaucoma and other disorders.  

Southview students decided to use their annual fundraiser Dance for a Chance (D4AC) to help make the home more accessible for the Taylors. D4AC was started in 2004 and has raised more than $150,000 since then. Every year, students identify an issue in society and work to raise awareness for that cause through their fundraiser, where students are divided into four teams, compete in various contests and must be on their feet for 12 hours. On March 31, 300 students raised more than $30,000 for what they dubbed Project Haven (Home Accessibility for Val’s Exceptional Needs). 

But, the student body realized it couldn’t stop there and got the Professional Remodelers Organization (PRO) on board. The group, the largest, independent remodelers organization in the country, decided to help through its President’s Project, which connects remodelers to community projects. The President’s Project began in 2010 and PRO has been around for more than 40 years. 

“Originally, our plans were to add an addition to previous home,” said Rick Morel, PRO’s executive director. However, the group realized that wouldn’t work with the house’s poorly aged structure. 

“What we did was make a conscious decision that the best way of doing this was to knock down the existing structure and just build a new one,” Morel said. 

He added, “I don’t know how [the Taylor family does] it. I really don’t. I just don’t know how they’ve done it all these years. They don’t complain … they just keep getting after it. Those are the kind of people that you like to help.” 

A crowd gathered Sept. 5 at the Taylor house for a groundbreaking ceremony. Despite the rain, high school band members, baton-twirlers and cheerleaders showed up to support Val, who is known for her school spirit. 

Catie Sack and Logan Griesinger, both seniors, are part of the school’s ambassador committee involved with D4AC. Through the project, they got to know Val and realized she has many of the same interests as other teenage girls — Katy Perry, Britney Spears and nail polish. 

“Most of all, [the project] taught me even though there’s road bumps, there’s always a way to get around them,” Sack said after the ceremony. 

Some of those bumps included dealing with a mortgage on the property, Morel said. Metamora State Bank was able to lend a hand in that department and several other community groups have also come on board. Still, more material and cash donations are needed. Depending on materials provided, the new house could have a garage and deck for Val to watch the birds on. 

“People in Northwestern Ohio, generally speaking, have always been known as generous and we need a little bit more involvement to complete this project the way we’d like to,” Morel said. 

More labor is also needed. “Anybody that can pound a nail straight, I think we’d be open to that,” Morel said. 

PRO has some help from the construction class at Southview. “It’s very much hands on and that’s what they need. We’re acting as mentors and laborers at the same time,” Morel said. 

The new house will be 1,553 square feet up from 540 square feet. It will have an open layout, two bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. 

Currently, Veronica and her husband Tom have to carry their daughter to the bathtub, which has become more difficult as Val has grown. The new bathroom will be ADA-compliant and eliminate the fear of dropping Val. 

“It will be the most wonderful thing that could happen,” Veronica said of the new bathroom. 

“We appreciate everything people have done and appreciate anything people could do. It would be a great opportunity to enrich our daughter’s life and improve her quality of life,” she added. 

The value of the project, with materials, temporary hotel housing and more, will exceed $150,000. The house is the largest President’s Project yet, said Milissa Clark, PRO’s marketing consultant. The project is set to take four to five weeks once construction begins. 

“It’s just been a very long road, but we will see this thing to the end. That’s what we do,” Clark said. 

The school also remains behind the Taylor family. 

“Val is one of our most deserving students at Southview High School,” said Principal David McMurray at the ceremony, adding that he is very proud of his students. 

To learn more, visit http://www.hireaprotoday.com/ or call (419) 471-0101. Donations can be made to the Professional Remodelers Organization Project Haven account at Metamora State Bank locations. 

Owens chosen for program to train baby boomers for jobs 

By
Toledo Free Press
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Owens Community College was among 10 academic institutions across the country selected to participate in the national Plus 50 Encore Completion Program designed to train baby boomers for new jobs over the next three years.  

The program, offered by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in cooperation with its members, will eventually include 100 colleges offering special training programs for students age 50 and older. Owens was the only institution in Ohio selected for a grant to fund its participation in the preliminary phase of the program.  

“Owens is honored to be chosen as one of the few community colleges in the country to participate in the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program,” said Michael Bankey, vice president of Workforce and Community Services at Owens.  

“We are expecting the official paperwork for the grant soon, but we already formed an advisory committee and are developing a timeline for the program,” he said. 

Bankey said Owens will begin formal planning for the program in September and expects to begin offering it to age 50-plus students next spring.  

“Education opens doors to endless career possibilities. The college looks forward to working with the American Association of Community Colleges and local organizations in developing an education program that meets the needs of baby boomers throughout the Northwest Ohio region,” Bankey said. 

Baby boomers have increasingly turned to community colleges for training for new careers. Since 2007, adults age 50 and older have struggled in a job market with record unemployment. Many find they must reinvent their careers and update their skills if they are going to get hired, according to the AACC. 

Careers in education, health care and social services appeal to baby boomers, who often show interest in civic engagement. 

Mary Sue Vickers, director for the Plus 50 Initiative at AACC, said the program expects to add an additional 89 colleges in 2012 and early 2013 that will help reach 10,000 baby boomer students by 2015.  

“Baby boomers are not like traditional college students. We find that colleges need to adapt how they operate to support their job training needs and educational success,” Vickers stated in a press release about the program.  

An independent evaluation of the Plus 50 Initiative found 89 percent of students agreed that college workforce training helped them acquire new job skills and 72 percent attributed finding a job to such training, according to the AACC. 

Since 2008, the Plus 50 Initiative has focused its efforts on training programs to get unemployed older adults back on the job. The AACC expects the 100 colleges will use the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program to build on the success of the initiative, Vickers said.   

In addition to grant funds, the participating colleges will have access to thousands of dollars in marketing materials such as tool kits and training webinars designed to make reaching out to age 50-plus students much easier.   

Bankey said Owens will benefit from the advice of other community colleges that have implemented programs for older students and understand their unique needs.  

The Plus 50 Encore Completion Program is funded with a $3.2 million grant to the AACC provided by Deerbrook Charitable Trust. The AACC is a national organization representing nearly 1,200 community, junior, and technical colleges in the U.S. 

The other institutions chosen for the first phase include Arapahoe Community College in Colorado, Black River Technical College in Arkansas, Broome Community College in New York, Lansing Community College in Michigan, Pitt Community College in North Carolina, San Jacinto Community College in Texas, Southside Virginia Community College, West Virginia University, John Wood Community College and Waubonsee Community College in Illinois.  

More information about the program at Owens will be available at a later date or interested seniors can visit http://plus50.aacc.nche.edu. 

 

Obama says Romney plan for economy ‘won’t work’

By
Brigitta Burks
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President Obama addresses the crowd on Labor Day 2012 at Scott High School in Toledo. Toledo Free Press photo by Joseph Herr.

President Barack Obama spent his Labor Day on Sept. 3 praising the auto rescue and union workers during a speech at Scott High School. 

About 3,100 people gathered to watch the president speak at the rally, which was part of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Labor Day Celebration. 

“I wanted to stop here in Toledo to spend this day with you. A day that belongs to the working men and women of America, teachers and factory workers, construction workers and students and families and small business owners and I know we’ve got some proud autoworkers in the house,” Obama told the cheering crowd. Obama has been to Ohio 11 times this year and visited Maumee in July. 

In a 30-minute speech, Obama played off remarks his opponent Mitt Romney made in Cincinnati on Sept. 1. “If you have a coach that is 0-23 million (unemployed or underemployed Americans), it’s time to get a new coach,” Romney had said. 

Obama said of Romney’s plans for the economy, which include tax cuts for millionaires, “Punt it away. It won’t work. It won’t win the game. You don’t need that coach. That’s a losing season.” 

In response to Obama’s Toledo stop, Amanda Henneberg, Romney Campaign spokesperson said in a statement, “Over 23 million people are struggling for work this Labor Day, and President Obama once again offered no new ideas for getting our economy back on track.  President Obama has a record of zero and 23 million, and it’s time to get a new coach.” 

Obama also spent time on the recent Republican National Convention (RNC). “I have to say it was something to see. Despite all the challenges that we face in this new century, we saw three straight days of an agenda out of the last century,” he said. 

The president addressed Gov. John Kasich’s speech at the RNC where Kasich touted Ohio’s job creation rate. 

“I guess that the theory was it’s all the governor’s doing, but I think we need to refresh his memory because a lot of those jobs are autoworker jobs,” Obama said. 

Without Obama’s auto rescue, GM and Chrysler would no longer exist, he said. Obama also reminded the crowd of Romney’s “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” stance, which would have lost 1 million jobs, he said. 

“In communities across the Midwest, it would have been another Great Depression,” he said. 

The president praised “working people” for helping create the cornerstones of the middle class like the 40-hour workweek, pensions, minimum wage and health care. 

“You made sacrifices, which is why I don’t understand why these folks have the nerve to talk about you like you’re some greedy special inertest that needs to be beaten down,” Obama said. 

Obama also briefly addressed making college more affordable, providing health care, creating renewable energy sources and bringing troops home from overseas. He noted Romney did not address the troops overseas during the RNC. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown, whom Obama called one of the best senators in the country, kicked off the rally. 

“You’re gonna hear a lot of things on this campaign,” said Brown, who faces Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel in November. “You’re gonna hear actors who talk to chairs” 

Brown said from 2000-2010, five million manufacturing jobs were lost. After 2010 and the auto rescue, 500,000 more manufacturing jobs were added, he said. 

“Now my opponent and President Obama’s opponent didn’t think we should do the auto rescue,” he said. 

After Brown, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who faces Sam Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber this fall, spoke to the exuberant group. Obama also called Kaptur one of the best members of Congress. 

“We are all so very grateful and proud, proud to be here today, to be voices for the working men and women of our country and world who demand expression, expression of their way of life, expression in the law of their rights as workers, to dignity in the law wherever they live in this country or on earth. It is an intergenerational struggle,” she said. 

She also praised Obama for the auto rescue, saying the auto industry is in the area’s DNA. 

Kaptur later compared voting Republican to putting your car in “R” or reverse while saying that “D” stands for drive and Democrat. 

Bob King, president of UAW, and Richard Trumka, president of AFL-CIO, also spoke. Both encouraged voters to actively support Obama. 

“We remember on Labor Day who has stood behind us, who has supported us,” King said. 

“Just tell the truth about Mitt Romney and we’ll be alright,” Trumka added 

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis told the crowd, full of union workers, that they were the backbone of the country. 

“[Obama] will never give up on you and I hope you don’t give up on him,” she said. 

Kenyetta Jones, who has worked at the GM Powertrain Plant for nearly 30 years, introduced the president. Jones was laid off in 2009, but returned to work 13 months later. 

During those months, she trained others so they would be prepared when jobs returned, she said, adding that she knew Obama would bring those jobs back. 

“We don’t sit around expecting handouts, but we expect our leaders to fight for us, and that’s exactly President Obama did,” Jones said. 

After the rally, Sue Paulus of Paulding, Ohio said her favorite part was Obama telling the crowd “don’t boo, vote” when the group decried the RNC. 

“It’s telling us not to sit on own hands,” she said. 

Sean Mack, a human resources worker out of Maumee, compared the RNC to Comedy Central. He has seen Obama speak several times and praised him, Kaptur and Brown. 

“Ohio’s not complete without them, that trio,” he said. 

Artist and student Remi Harrington came from Michigan to see the president speak. She accompanied her aunt, a UAW worker. Though Harrington said she understands why the speech was aimed at workers, she would have liked to see the president discuss more concerns that affect single black mothers, like herself. 

“Single motherhood is something that needs to be addressed,” she said. 

In a statement after the rally, Christopher Maloney, the Ohio spokesperson for the Romney for President campaign, said, “President Obama dubbed this trip the ‘Road to Charlotte’ but his policies have taken us on a road to declining incomes, higher unemployment and more uncertainty for Ohio middle class families. And in the face of a record of failure, President Obama and his surrogates refuse to offer no new solutions, just misleading attacks. Mitt Romney has the plan to do what President Obama can’t — create 12 million new jobs, increase take-home pay, and bring relief to the struggling middle class.” 

Before the rally, the president ate with three autoworkers at Rick’s City Diner and stayed at the Toledo Hilton the night before. After the rally, he visited Louisiana and was slated to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte on Sept. 6. 

At the end of his speech, he told the group, “If we win Toledo, we will win Ohio. If we win Ohio, we’ll win this election. If we win this election, we will finish what we started.” 

Letter to the editor, Sept. 9. 2012

By
Dock David Treece
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Remember Green Party’s Jill Stein

To the editor

In the excitement of President Barack Obama’s Labor Day weekend visit, a Labor Day message from another presidential candidate may have been overlooked.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein sent America’s unions a Labor Day message endorsing the AFL-CIO’s campaign for “an Economic Bill of Rights,” originally proposed by President Roosevelt in 1944. Her platform includes the following economic reforms:

— 25 million new green and public service jobs in federally supported, community controlled cooperatives and public work projects.

— Living wage.

—  Repeal of the Taft Hartley Act and laws against permanent striker replacements.

—  A constitutional right to vote and accurate vote counting.

—  Student debt forgiveness and tuition-free public education from preschool through graduate school.

The Green Party has always opposed trade deals like NAFTA and would only support trade agreements with strong workers’ rights protections. They also support union representation on company boards; labor buyouts of companies that are for sale and pensions for all workers. The Green Party takes no corporate money.

More can be found at www.jillstein.org and www.gp.org.

Taft-Hartley was passed by a Democratic Congress, and Democratic Congresses have defeated several pro-labor reforms since then. The Democrats take the labor vote for granted, knowing that working people usually want to vote against a Republican even if they don’t necessarily want to vote for the Democrat. Do we really like what the Democrats are delivering or are we supporting them out of fear?

When the media treats all candidates except the Democrat and Republican as if they don’t count, it is easy for voters to fall into this trap too. But as Stein points out, during the last 40 years, labor has spent more than $15 billion on the Democrats.

What if that $15 billion had been spent on a pro-labor third party or independent labor movement?

Jessica Weinberg

Toledo

Veterans Matter gets boost from ZZ Top

By
Brigitta Burks
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ZZ Top is throwing its clout and long beards behind Veterans Matter, a local nonprofit that aids unhoused veterans.

Veterans Matter provides rent deposits for veterans who are screened and aided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs Supported Housing Program (HUD-VASH). Most unhoused veterans don’t have the means to pay the deposit or first month’s rent upon moving into new homes, something required for HUD-VASH housing programs.

“This is such a beautiful, pure perfect program with 100 percent going to help people,” said Ken Leslie, founder of Veterans Matter and 1Matters.org, which also helps the unhoused.

ZZ Top will help with the nonprofit’s “60,000 Soldiers Housed” campaign, raising awareness for unhoused veterans. The campaign is named for the 60,000 unhoused veterans in the United States.

The group heard about the campaign through its publicist Bob Merlis, Leslie said.

“They happened to be in the area and things just evolved from there,” he added.

Merlis has known Leslie for a while and was eager to help when he was approached, he said.

“People who are in the armed forces risk their lives and they come back and are treated like dirt,” Merlis said.

Dusty Hill, who plays bass and sings for ZZ Top, made a video to support the “60,000 Soldiers Housed” campaign when the group was at a Michigan tour stop.

“It’s really disturbing that nowadays it has somehow become acceptable for American soldiers damaged by the physical or mental trauma of war to be abandoned, forgotten, and left homeless on the streets of our nation,” Hill said in a news release.

The band, known for hits like “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs,” will spread the word about unhoused veterans when it tours, Leslie said. He hopes this will inspire other cities to start programs like Veterans Matter.

The program started in February after a conversation between Leslie and Shawn Dowling, the coordinator of Healthcare for Homeless Veterans of the Ann Arbor VA Health System, about what was missing from housing programs. Leslie approached ProMedica for support and was granted $26,250 from the health care system’s Advocacy Fund.

Just 11 days after the project’s conception, a couple was able to move out of a shelter and into a home. Since February, Leslie said the nonprofit has helped 20 military families in 11 cities across the area.

“When we heard about [the program] we were most impressed. We appreciate that this program is not one of those feel-good virtual-fundraising-under-veterans’-names programs. They get in, get the job done and leave,” said Billy Gibbons, singer and guitarist for ZZ Top, in a news release. His band is set to release a new album, “La Futura,” in September.

“The entire band is behind this,” Leslie said of ZZ Top. “We view ourselves as a black ops mission helping soldiers down behind enemy lines.”

Visit www.veteransmatter.org.

Rathbun: One small step

By
Gary Rathbun
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I was saddened to read of the death of Neil Armstrong this past weekend. To me this man epitomized the very essence of America. He was a true American and exemplified the ideals that built this country and made us great.

Not long ago, my wife and I visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I was flooded with emotions actually seeing the rockets and capsules that I had models of as a kid in the ’60s. I remember fantasizing about space travel and wondering what it would be like to see the rings of Saturn or live on Mars. (To be honest, there are some days where I would rather live on Mars and I know there are days where other people wish I lived on Mars.)

I remember vividly when Armstrong stepped on the moon. My dad thought it was important for me to see that, so he allowed me to stay up on a school night to watch it.

The longer the day went on at the Kennedy Space Center, the more those heart-warming emotions that I associated with those memories faded, to be replaced with frustration and disappointment.

Where had the emotions of unlimited opportunity and greatness gone? We were canceling the space shuttle program as well as the big Ares rockets that would have taken astronauts back to the moon, as well as Mars and beyond.

Was I disappointed because I no longer had a chance of being an astronaut in my life, or was it because America had changed and being great and leading the world was no longer in our national character?

Unfortunately, I came to think that it was the latter. We have not had a man or woman on the moon since 1972! President Obama canceled the funding for the 2020 moon mission and has directed NASA to study global climate issues from space. I fail to see how this will  make America great.

Armstrong at the time, in an open letter to the president regarding this policy, said this is “devastating” and condemned the United States to “a long downhill slide to mediocrity.”

I tend to agree but on a much broader scale.

This attitude reflects the most basic problems we have in our country today. It is honorable to be poor and not achieve anything. Capitalism is a dirty word, as is producing something for a profit. It is evil to want to be an individual and create a better life for oneself instead of being part of the 99 percent and being mediocre and average.

Where is the attitude that we want to accomplish things “not because they are easy but because they are hard,” as President Kennedy said? When was the last time you were inspired by any of our leaders challenging us with a great task? Our leaders today challenge us with sacrificing ourselves for the sake of equality and fairness.

Greatness is being redefined. The word greatness is now associated with words like greed, egotism, and undeserved superiority. The “right stuff” is being replaced with the “same stuff.” 192 men volunteered to be part of the Apollo space program knowing they could be blown to bits on the launch pad, or left floating in space forever or maybe burned up trying to come back home. This was greatness; this was inspiring to me at age 10 and is still inspiring to me now.

Going into space to study global warming does nothing to inspire me or make me feel America is great. I personally don’t care if the rest of the world likes us or not, I do care if they respect us and are inspired by us. We all remember the kid in school whose goal it was to be liked by everybody and was liked by nobody. If we work to be great, the rest of the world will respect us; a few may be inspired by us to become great themselves.

Neil Armstrong was a true American hero and what he did to inspire many of us from that era is immeasurable. He will be missed; I hope that his greatness and, consequently, America’s greatness will not be forgotten.

Gary L. Rathbun is the president and CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, LTD.

Szyperski: Marriage, Part II: Our story

By
Shannon Szyperski
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I can define why my marriage works by relaying two instances. The first happened when I met my husband, Mike. I told him that I took care of children for a living, wondering if, as the academic type, he might think my occupation to be less than intellectually challenging. He instead replied that he believed a caregiver of children to be one of the more difficult positions in life, assuming one does it right.

I literally decided to marry him that first day based almost solely on that one sentiment. Not being able to eat, sleep or think about anything but him for the next three days also led me to believe that he might be “the one.” After three years of ups and downs and lots of convincing Mike that he also wanted to marry me, we got hitched.

The second defining incident of our marriage was 13 years in the making but occurred only recently. Although I couldn’t wait for us to adopt a dog, those first years of apartment living led me to compromise and become the cat person I never wanted to be. I somehow learned to love life with cats, but 12 years, two cats, three kids and two houses (with fenced-in backyards) later we still didn’t have a family dog.

The fact that we never adopted the dog we had agreed to eventually culminated into the biggest fight we have ever had as a married couple. That’s right — not money, not kids, not a job — a dog. I was bound and determined to finally get my dog and my husband was bound and determined to convince me that a dog would end up costing us thousands of dollars. Long story short, I won the argument, but my husband was right. Within a few months our $70 dog actually ended up costing us thousands of dollars (not including the $72 per bag prescription dog food he will now need for the rest of his life).

For as much of a fight as he put up to not have a dog and for as much as he was absolutely right about the money, Mike has never said a word about having told me so. He loves our dog. He loves me. That’s marriage.

I may not have been able to remain quite so subdued had I been the one in the right. In fact, I likely would have even made a graph or two depicting just how wrong he had been. That is the interesting part of marrying someone not because they compliment you, but because they complement you. My spouse is not just my knight in shining armor, he is my constant shining example of ways I can be better. I never fully understood what “better half” meant until I had one.

Don’t get me wrong, if I wanted to I could make a list of ways he has been wrong and/or flat-out upset me over the years so long it would make even the most accepting of people ask, “What in the world are you doing with that guy?” The problem is that he could make an unflattering list about me that would be just as long and likely much, much longer. Truth be told, such a list could be made about any one of us if someone had reason to try.

After 13 years, I’ve found that the single most important thing I can do as an individual in a marriage is to concentrate on the list of my better half’s better qualities and better moments whenever I start allowing the list of negatives to get too long. Reminding myself of the long list of my own worst qualities and worst moments also tends to put things in perspective. There is not a perfect person nor a perfect marriage among us, but marriage lends us an incredible opportunity to create a system of checks and balances that allows two people to bring out the best in one another.

Our marriage worked in the beginning because Mike and I went into it with a mutual appreciation for one another, a willingness to compromise and the realization that neither of us has it all figured out. It continues to work because we are also both willing to accept and work through the mistakes and missteps each of us makes on a regular basis. Marriage is less about always doing things right in the first place and more about figuring out how to set things right and then move on when things go wrong. It is about each person doing his or her best to do the right thing while the other one has the decency to not only notice but also take notes.

 

Shannon and her husband, Michael, are raising three children in Sylvania. Email her at [email protected].

Pounds: A week in the life

By
Tom Pounds
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A few thoughts as summer winds down:

Navy Week: Major kudos should be offered to the success of Navy Week. Five ships and more than 500 service men and women docked in Toledo from Aug. 20-27, offering ship tours, musical performances by military bands and opportunities to interact with servicemembers, who could be seen in their dress whites walking through Downtown, cheering at Mud Hens games and soaking up the city’s appreciation for their sacrifices.

It was a tremendous sight, seeing people waiting in line to visit the USS De Wert and the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Ville de Québec at Maritime Plaza while the USS Hurricane, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mobile Bay and the historic U.S. Brig Niagara, a replica of the War of 1812 flagship, docked at International Park near the SS Col. James M. Schoonmaker.

Toledo reportedly drew bigger crowds for the event than even Chicago and Milwaukee. It would be a wonderful benefit to the region to host Navy Week again in 2013.

Glass City: Libbey Inc. signed a 15-year lease to keep its global headquarters at Edison Plaza in Downtown Toledo. The State of Ohio will give Libbey a $1 million grant for capital improvements and a $200,000 grant for workforce training.

Libbey has also extended its lease with Toledo for its Libbey Glass Factory Outlet store at the Erie Street Market and its lease for the Libbey Glass Showroom at 335 N. St. Clair St.

This is a strong commitment from the State of Ohio to Libbey, and from Libbey to the City of Toledo. Libbey is one of those companies closely linked to Toledo, so it is exciting to see that its relationship with the Glass City will continue.

Steel grandstands: Toledo City Councilman and critical thinker Steve Steel may have thought he was putting a box around Mayor Mike Bell when he arrogantly demanded the mayor sign an ethics pledge (in the wake of proposed staff wage raises) promising to not accept campaign donations from employees. He must have been surprised by the mayor’s response, which fired back the idea of not only banning donations from employees, but calling for all elected city officials to also decline donations from unions.

Steel had the legs cut out from under his grandstanding gesture by the Bell administration’s response, and it was not surprising to see his red-faced reaction at the Aug. 28 Council meeting, nor was it surprising that Council chose to not act, but passed the issue to an unscheduled committee.

Why Steel chose to throw his stone at the glass house he also lives in is amusing and puzzling, but it earned a quick slap back from Bell and his team. Toledo City Council has no right to dictate to people who they choose to support with their cash; with so many bigger issues facing the city, Steel’s proposal was the true red herring of the week.

Leading Edge: If you’re looking for insightful commentary from local newsmakers, tune in to Jerry Anderson’s WTOL-11 television show “Leading Edge,” Sundays at 11 a.m.

 

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at [email protected].

Health care for veterans to expand at new clinic

By
Jeff
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A large central atrium called the Resource and Activities Center is the centerpiece of Toledo's new VA Clinic, Toledo Free Press photo by Sarah Ottney.

Area veterans will gain expanded local access to health care services on Sept. 19 when Toledo’s VA clinic opens in its new building.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community-Based Outpatient Clinic will move to a 66,000-square-foot facility at 1200 S. Detroit Ave. The space is more than twice the size of the current clinic on Glendale Avenue.

The new building is a “state-of-the-art healing facility” that will expand on services currently offered in Toledo as well as introduce new services, including occupational therapy and mental health exams for compensation and pension, said Robert McDivitt, director of the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, which oversees the Toledo clinic.

“There are more services available in the current clinic than there were a year ago or two years ago and there will be many more services available to veterans in this new clinic,” McDivitt said during a tour of the new facility Aug. 29. “Our job is to honor America’s veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being … and we feel very privileged to do that. We’ve been here in Toledo since 1978 and this will be a new and exciting chapter in the history of Toledo veterans.”

The Glendale Avenue clinic will be closed for three days, Sept. 14, 17 and 18, while the move occurs, although phone lines will be open and bus service to Ann Arbor will continue. Starting Sept. 19, buses will leave from the new building.

An official ribbon-cutting is planned for noon Nov. 9, which is Veterans Day weekend.

About 12,000 area veterans utilize the Toledo clinic, generating about 120,000 visits per year, said Dr. Leo Greenstone, associate chief of staff of ambulatory care. Patients will still need to go to Ann Arbor for certain services, including infusion treatments for cancer.

Telemedicine

Virtual care has helped boost services available, linking patients in Toledo with doctors in Ann Arbor via video conferencing or secure messaging saving a few trips north, Greenstone said.

“We’ve really expanded virtual care over the past couple years and now we have even more capacity to expand those services in this building,” he said.

Veterans can also access My HealtheVet, a Web-based portal used to access personal medical records and lab results, reorder medications and utilize the secure messaging system.

“We estimate 40 percent of our veterans this year will communicate with their health care provider using secure messaging,” McDivitt said.

Click 2 Benefits is another online tool, allowing veterans to talk with benefits specialists in Cleveland. The service started last year and has saved veterans at least 100 trips to Cleveland, McDivitt said.

Mental health

The current clinic has 110 employees; the new clinic will employ about 120. Among the added staff members will be several dedicated to mental health services.

“That’s an area where we’ve expanded a lot in Toledo over the last several years,” McDivitt said.

The new building features 25 mental health provider offices and four large group rooms. The Toledo clinic will be one of the first in the country to offer tele-sessions for post traumatic stress disorder sessions, McDivitt said.

Patient-friendly

The building was designed with input from local veterans to be patient-friendly, said Building Project Manager Amy Murbach. When veterans arrive, they will be met by a greeter. Most frequently visited areas, such as the pharmacy and Click 2 Benefits, are located near the front along with a coffee shop.

One new feature will be a centralized check-in, where veterans can check into multiple appointments at once. The check-in and check-out desks are close together so staff can easily communicate, Murbach said.

A spacious central atrium, called the Resource and Activities Center, was designed more as a community space than a waiting room. It will offer lounge seating, tables, cable televisions, computer terminals, wireless Internet access and a veterans resource center. Decor includes flags from each branch of service, patriotic-themed murals and inspirational quotes.

The occupational therapy room features a kitchen and bathroom to help injured veterans learn to maneuver at home. The physical therapy room includes private treatment alcoves and exercise equipment, including an underwater treadmill, said Clinical Director Dr. Thomas Gross.

“Not a lot of places have access to water aquatherapy,” Gross said. “This is unique. This is very, very special.  This is state of the art.”

Audiology will expand from one booth for hearing tests to a suite with two booths and two hearing aid fitting rooms. The number of phlebotomy, or blood-drawing, stations will increase from two to four. The dental unit added two chairs to make six.

A community room with attached kitchen and seating for up to 100 people will be available to community groups, both during the day and after hours.

The four wings are differentiated by color and patients will always be treated by the same Patient-Aligned Care (PAC) team of care providers.

The building was designed with flexibility and future growth in mind.

“Everything here is modular, so as our needs change we can easily move everything around,” Murbach said. “Not only is that convenient for us, but it also saves taxpayer dollars.”

‘Faces of Heroes’

Local photos are being sought for an art project called “Faces of Heroes,” planned for a wall on the second floor. The 40-foot-long installation will feature 1,500 glass tiles each displaying a photo of a local veteran.

Photos can be taken to the clinic at 3333 Glendale Ave. The veteran or active duty servicemember should be wearing a military uniform. For more information, visit toledofacesofheroes.org.

“It’s going to be a wonderful project,” McDivitt said. “It reinforces the theme of honoring America’s veterans that we want every veteran that comes through the doors here to feel.”

The Toledo clinic is the second largest, in terms of patients treated and number of employees, in its four-state region, which includes nearly 30 clinics in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, McDivitt said. Grand Rapids has the largest.

Ground was broken for the new building in March 2011. The building is being leased from  Cleveland-based Carnegie Management and Development Corporation. The Glendale Avenue building was leased from the University of Toledo, which plans to redevelop the space for clinical use with UTMC.

For more information, visit www.annarbor.va.gov.

Ottney named Toledo Free Press Managing Editor

By
Dock David Treece
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0

Whether documenting a tense ballgame, chasing down elusive sources or crafting flowing narratives, journalism is not just a job — it is a way of life.

Toledo Free Press writers Sarah Ottney, Brigitta Burks and Caitlin McGlade and Sports Editor Zach Davis know all about that. Ottney and Burks are being promoted to managing editor and news editor, respectively. Gina Fielding has been named Social Networking Editor. McGlade and Davis are leaving the state for new opportunities.

Sarah Ottney

Sarah Ottney

Ottney, 28, is an Oak Harbor native. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2006 with dual degrees in English and journalism. Ottney then moved to South Dakota for a reporting and copy editing job at the Aberdeen American News. For three years, Ottney wrote about a variety of topics, including outdoors, agriculture and features. She also designed news pages for print, including covers and sports.

She moved back to Northwest Ohio in 2009 to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.

Since taking her special sections editor job with Toledo Free Press in 2011, Ottney has organized sections small and large, covering topics ranging from weddings to Mud Hens Opening Day, from dining guides to the military.

“I like the challenge of finding a new angle to sections we do every year. It really lets me be creative. And every week it’s something different so I never get bored,” Ottney said.

She said she loves compiling the 90-page-plus print monster that is the annual Mud Hens Opening Day issue.

“The enthusiasm is contagious,” Ottney said. “Everyone is really excited about baseball starting again and there are so many facets to the Mud Hens that people may not have thought about before. Everyone involved with the Mud Hens is really passionate about what they do. I’m not really a baseball fan myself, but they won me over.”

As Ottney continues at Toledo Free Press, she looks forward to documenting Toledo’s growth.

“I’m enjoying watching Toledo come back from the recession,” she said. “I moved back here right in the middle of it and worked for AmeriCorps so I saw Toledo and its problems at their worst firsthand. I was able to put faces on a lot of our most difficult issues and it’s been neat to see how that experience has translated to make me a better journalist.”

Michael S. Miller, Toledo Free Press editor in chief, said Ottney is already a valuable staff member and her promotion will provide more opportunities for her to practice her craft.

“Sarah writes compelling, clean copy and has a deft hand editing others’ contributions,” Miller said. “Her new leadership role here will have a dramatic impact on our news coverage and social networking plans.”

Brigitta Burks

Brigitta Burks

Burks, 25, comes to Toledo from the Cincinnati area. She graduated from Mount Notre Dame High School in 2006 and then attended Ohio University. After endless hours editing and writing at the student-run newspaper, The Post, Burks graduated from OU with a degree in journalism and specializations in history and women’s studies. She also interned at the Hamilton Journal News.

From there, she took a job with the American Bankruptcy Institute in Alexandria, Va., as the nonprofit’s communication/administrative assistant. She moved to Toledo about a year ago and landed a job with Toledo Free Press.

“My favorite part about being a journalist is the opportunity to help people in a way,” Burks said. “Whether you’re writing about a political figure and you’re educating the public and helping people make more informed decisions, or if you’re writing about charities — I’m really passionate about community-driven journalism.”

“Brigitta is an insightful reporter and talented editor,” Miller said. “Readers will see great strides in our reporting and the scope of our investigative projects.”

Gina Fielding

A graduate of Genoa High School, and an education major at the University of Toledo, Social Networking Editor Gina Fielding is CEO of digital marketing business Gabella Media and editor in chief of www.damngina.net.

She is a radio personality who serves as social media director for “Andrew Z in the Morning” on Star 105.5.

“Gina has dynamic ideas for our website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Issuu services,” Miller said. “As the industry evolves with technology, all media must not only keep up but lead the way, and Gina will help us with that mission. Our goal is be as accessible and interactive as possible.”

Caitlin McGlade

Caitlin McGlade

McGlade, 24, is leaving Toledo Free Press for an internship at Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., where she will cover Congress.

“As a political science major, I’m interested in watching the political machine work,” McGlade said. “I’ve covered city and county government and now I’m interested in seeing how the federal government works. I’ve written stories about federal legislation, but I’ve never been to the place where they are making it happen.”

McGlade came to Toledo Free Press as an intern in 2009 and was hired as a staff writer in December after graduating from Ohio University, where she majored in journalism and political science.

McGlade covered city and county government, boards of elections, political campaigns, business, environment and art for Toledo Free Press.

“I’ve learned a lot at Toledo Free Press. I haven’t been able to cover everything because we are a small staff, but what I have been able to cover I have been able to devote time and attention to make the stories truly well-rounded, researched, in-depth and written in a way that I might not get to anywhere else,” McGlade said.

“Toledo not only has a compassionate community, but a growing arts scene and I think I’ll miss watching that develop.”

McGlade grew up in Dayton and graduated from Bowling Green High School in 2007. She also interned at The Columbus Dispatch, The Arizona Republic and The Athens (Ohio) Messenger and worked with Burks at OU’s student newspaper, The Post.

“I worked in Washington, D.C., and I am excited for the opportunities Caitlin is pursuing,” Miller said. “Her leadership and determination will be missed, but she will find great success in The District.”

Zach Davis

Zach Davis

Davis, 24, is leaving Toledo Free Press for a job at the Laredo Morning Times in Texas. He will join the newspaper’s sports writing staff.

Davis grew up in Heath, Ohio, and graduated from Heath High School. He graduated from the University of Toledo with a degree in communication with a concentration in journalism. Before coming to Toledo Free Press in 2011, Davis worked at FOX Sports Ohio and interned with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was also an active writer with UT’s student newspaper, The Independent Collegian, and was sports editor in 2010.

“My roots come from Toledo; this is where I’ve learned my skills. It’s been an exciting time in Toledo and I’m excited to see what else is out there,” Davis said. “I’ll miss the people here.”

“Zach lives sports, and Texas is fertile ground for sports journalism,” Miller said. “We wish him well and know he will thrive there.”

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