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Toledo to start collecting taxes on winnings of nonresident gamblers

By
Erin Holden
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Toledo City Council voted unanimously Aug. 14 to start collecting taxes on the gambling winnings of nonresidents as it does with residents.

The tax is effective immediately. Nonresidents will be taxed at 2.25 percent, the same rate as residents. The revenue will go into the city’s general fund.

Taxable gambling winnings include more than just Hollywood Casino jackpots. Lotteries and raffles as well as the fair market value of bonds, cars, houses and other noncash prizes won or earned within Toledo city limits would also be taxable.

Councilman George Sarantou, chairman of the finance committee, said the legislation was mandated by the State of Ohio.

“This proposed legislation is the result of House Bill 386 that passed in June. The Ohio Senate and House of Representatives mandated that where there are casinos, the city has to collect income tax not just from residents but from nonresidents,” Sarantou said. “This legislation is simply to codify what the State of Ohio passed on a bipartisan basis. We’re bringing our regulation in line with state regulation, so there’s no gap, so there’s consistency in the law.”

Sarantou

House Bill 386 requires casinos in Ohio to withhold local tax on all winnings of $1,200 or more and enables municipalities to enact legislation to collect that local tax.

Sarantou also noted that nonresidents make up a large percentage of casino gambling winners.

“We did get our first check from the state, representing Hollywood Casino Toledo, and 84 percent of the people who paid that tax were nonresidents of the City of Toledo,” Sarantou told City Council.

‘Fair thing to do’

City of Toledo Law Director Adam Loukx said the legislation makes Toledo’s tax fairer.

“A lot of people are coming to Toledo from Oregon, Maumee, Perrysburg, let alone people coming from out of state,” Loukx said. “People who live across the street [from Hollywood Casino] in Rossford are not residents. I think it’s a fair thing to do.”

Columbus recently passed legislation enabling the city to tax the gambling winnings of both residents and nonresidents at 2.5 percent. Cincinnati taxes both residents and nonresidents 2.1 percent for gambling winnings. Cleveland taxes residents on gambling winnings at 2 percent, but does not tax nonresidents. Detroit taxes residents at 2.5 percent and nonresidents at 1.25 percent.

Positive for the city

It’s still too early to predict how much additional revenue the City of Toledo will collect from taxing nonresidents, said John Bibish IV, chief of collections for the City of Toledo.

“It’s a very positive piece of legislation for the city. It’s certainly great for the general fund,” Bibish said. “But I don’t think anyone can honestly predict a definite amount. We really don’t know and, until we close the books, we really won’t know. No one is able to do anything but speculate and, when it comes to revenue, it’s not wise to do that.”

Cleveland’s Horseshoe Casino became the first casino in the state when it opened May 14. Hollywood Casino Toledo opened May 29. Hollywood Casino Columbus is set to open this fall while the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati is set to open spring 2013.

Penn National Gaming, which operates Hollywood Casino Toledo, did not respond to a request for comment.

Willard & Kelsey: ‘Our intent is to repay the state’

By
Toledo Free Press
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The Aug. 9 news that the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) was calling in its loan did not take Willard & Kelsey executives by surprise.

“I don’t think this was a real big shock for anybody,” said Mossie Murphy, the solar group’s vice president of sales, marketing, planning and development. “We’ve been communicating with the state on this issue for four months now. Clearly, our intent is to repay the state. I cannot comment as of yet whether we’re able to do that or not. But it’s clearly our intent.”

In a letter sent to Murphy, dated Aug. 6, Diane M. Lease, ODOD’s chief legal counsel and ethics officer, formally notified the Perrysburg solar firm that since “the department has not consistently received your regularly scheduled installment payments since September, 2011,” the state agency was demanding payment in full in the amount of $4,135,855.12 with a per diem interest rate of $204.73.

Cicak

If Willard & Kelsey fails to make full payment by the ODOD’s deadline, Daryl Hennessy, assistant chief of ODOD’s business services division, said the state agency will certify the debt to the Ohio Attorney General’s office, which will then begin the legal process of trying to collect the debt.

Legal consequences

Dan Tierney, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said once his office gets involved in collecting money, Willard & Kelsey’s interest rate on the loan will increase from 2 percent to 14 percent. The attorney general’s office has a standing policy of establishing a 10-percent-of-loan collection fee plus interest, which generally rounds out to about 14 percent, Tierney said. The fee attempts to cover the state’s man-hour and litigation costs while ensuring the state agency owned money receives full repayment of its loan, Tierney said.

“We’d like to think it won’t get to that point,” Murphy said. “But we will continue to make every effort to work toward an equitable arrangement so that we can repay the state money, because we certainly acknowledge we owe them that money.

“I think we’ve made it clear to [ODOD] and we’ve tried to be very up-front with the fact that, as we sit here today, we don’t have the resources to pay the full [$4.1] million, but we clearly want to pay the full [$4.1] million, and we’re trying to work to that end.”

Hennessy said the Ohio DOD works with companies “to make adjustments when we think it’s appropriate and necessary. We know Willard & Kelsey struggled with job creation, but at the end of the day, this is about a loan and it’s not making payments back to the State of Ohio. That’s primarily driving the request for the repayment. We wouldn’t have done a $5 million loan to them if they had not committed to creating 400 jobs.”

Willard & Kelsey was one of three companies that received ODOD demands of full loan repayment during the past two weeks, Hennessy said. The other two firms are located in Columbus and the Greater Cincinnati area.

Collateral damage

Collecting on ODOD’s loan is, “in a conceptual way,” similar to a bank repossessing an automobile when the holder of the auto loan does not make payments in accordance with the loan agreement, Hennessy said.

Willard & Kelsey’s equipment is collateral for the loan, and the state has a lien on that equipment, Hennessy said.

Failure to make full payment could eventually result is the ODOD taking possession of some of Willard & Kelsey’s machinery, including what Michael Cicak, chairman and CEO, said is a $12 million piece of robotic equipment that currently produces 140 solar panels an hour with the potential of producing as many as 240 panels an hour.

“At the end of that day, that could happen,” Hennessy said. “That will all play itself out in terms of whether it gets to the court system or not. But we don’t want the equipment. We want the loan to be repaid.”

Hennessy emphasized that ODOD has worked with Willard & Kelsey for at least two years to develop strategies to succeed.

“It’s not as if one day, we suddenly sent them a letter for failure to pay over the prior four-month period,” Hennessy said. “This loan has been out there for several years now. We’ve had 10 modifications of some sort to their existing loan agreement. We’ve deferred interest payments for them. We’ve tried in many, many ways to help the company succeed because, at the end of the day, we want the company to succeed and we want the jobs to be created.

“Despite all of these efforts over the past few years, the company has not been able to create a viable repayment model or stream of revenue, and we’ve gotten to the point where we just need to call the loan due. Ultimately, we’re responsible to the taxpayers of the State of Ohio,” Hennessy said.

‘Irrelevant to the industry’

Paul Toth acknowledged that media reports on how Willard & Kelsey invests, spends and repays taxpayer money are necessary, but expressed concern with some local coverage of the solar industry. He said coverage is focusing almost exclusively “on one company [Willard & Kelsey] that’s currently irrelevant to the solar industry because they’re still trying to develop their processes. If that’s the only thing you pick up and read about, then there’s a big challenge [for Toledo’s solar industry].”

Toth said he agrees that it appears local media is reporting on the solar industry these past nine months with a focus on job creation, repayment of state loans and the “sexiness” of the idea that there’s something nefarious going on with taxpayer money.

“That’s a big challenge, because it is not sexy to talk about things like suppliers, and 20 jobs getting hired to manufacture a wire for First Solar. It’s much sexier to talk about three guys who [allegedly] stole money from the state loan. It becomes front page news on the daily newspaper. I think there’s a better story to tell out there than what the community really knows.”

‘It’s a travesty’

Richard B. Stansley Jr., a career entrepreneur who currently serves as chairman and director of strategic business development of Innovative Enterprises, located at the University of Toledo’s Clean & Alternative Energy Incubator, agrees with Toth that the local media coverage of the solar industry is too narrow.

“It’s a travesty,” Stansley said. “Here’s what it is: We’re scandal-driven.

“They’ve sensationalized it. Nobody likes scandal and nobody likes somebody talking about what they could or couldn’t do. There are allegations that really have not been proven. That’s the first thing.

“They’re focused on some allegation made by a dead ex-CEO’s girlfriend that comes out of West Virginia, that ended up at Willard & Kelsey because a damn coke plant didn’t go. That’s how that all happened.”

The “dead ex-CEO,” William R. Mitchell, was hired by Willard & Kelsey on the recommendation of then-West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. In the beginning, Willard & Kelsey’s Cicak said Mitchell did an extraordinary job, but over time, that changed. Amid his departure from the firm, Mitchell alleged that the company had violated its loan agreement with the state by using the funds to pay company executives. He was fired in 2009 and died in 2011.

“Things changed,” Stansley said, “and what they did was, they moved to correct it, and as a result they’re living a consequence of allegations that were made.

“I don’t know anything about the allegations for a fact. I say, ‘Prove them.’ If, in fact, they’re true, and they did something wrong, people pay the price for that. But this is not everybody, and it isn’t representative of the solar industry.

“And what’s happening is, we’re passing judgment before we even have all the facts. And the second thing that ends up happening is we demonize an industry that has benefited Northwest Ohio. It makes absolutely no sense to me. I don’t see it. We just don’t need that kind of stuff.”

Reclaiming ownership

Stansley is adamant that Cicak has been, and continues to be, a valuable asset for Toledo.

“Mike Cicak is a man that is committed to this community,” Stansley said. “He has demonstrated it over and over again. I think he will do the right thing always. He has a lot of emotion involved in this, especially if people are making accusations.

“I’ve said to all of them, ‘If you did something wrong, you’re all big guys. Figure it out.’

“‘Own up to it. Get past it because it’s hurting all of us.’ That’s what I tell them. And I think they’re very conscious of it. I honestly don’t believe there’s anything behind what is being written.”

Navy Week to make first visit to Toledo

By
Erin Holden
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Chief Electrician’s Mate Gerson Paul mans the rails aboard the USS Hurricane during Navy Week 2012 in Chicago.

Five ships and more than 500 service men and women will visit Toledo as the city hosts Navy Week from Aug. 20-27.

The week will feature ship tours, musical performances by military bands and opportunities to interact with service members.

Navy leaders will engage with local community leaders and visiting military members, including members of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy, will partner with local organizations on outreach and service projects.

This year is the first time Toledo has been chosen to host Navy Week, said Jen Sorgenfrei, public information officer for the City of Toledo.

“At this point, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Sorgenfrei said. “It’s something we hope will be a return engagement, but it’s certainly a big opportunity for us this year. I think it’s going to look really exciting to see those ships come down the river.”

The Navy Week program started in 2005 as an annual outreach effort into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence. This year’s 15-city tour started in Phoenix in March and will finish in Houston in October. Other cities hosting Navy Weeks are New Orleans; Nashville, Tenn.; Spokane, Wash.; Baltimore; Boston; Sacramento, Calif.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Milwaukee; Chicago; Cleveland; Detroit; and Buffalo, N.Y.

The ceremonial procession of ships into Toledo Harbor is set for 3 p.m. Aug. 23.

USS Hurricane, a Navy patrol ship, was one of the ships that visited Toledo during Navy Week 2012.

The two biggest ships, the frigates USS De Wert and the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Ville de Québec, will dock at Maritime Plaza while the patrol ship 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, will dock at International Park near the SS Col. James M. Schoonmaker.

Niagara will lead the ships down the Maumee River and will exchange cannon fire with the cannon at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg. Niagara’s appearance was arranged through local private fundraising efforts, Sorgenfrei said.

Sorgenfrei recommended International Park as the best place to watch the ships come in.

“We want people to come out, tour the ships and be there to welcome them into Downtown,” Sorgenfrei said. “I think it’s going to be pretty cool.”

Free guided tours will be available noon to 7 p.m. Aug. 24-27.

There haven’t been Navy ships on the Great Lakes since 1999, said Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flesvig, who is helping coordinate Toledo’s events.

“To get all those ships together and be able to tour them and talk to the men and women who serve on them, I think that’s the most special part of this commemoration event,” Flesvig said.

Toledo is one of six  Navy Week stops on the Great Lakes that will also include activities commemorating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

“What makes this year special is it is the beginning of our commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812,” Flesvig said. “1812 really was a watershed moment in American Naval history. The Battle of Lake Erie and ‘Don’t give up the ship’ — all those things came from the War of 1812. For the Navy, it’s very special. At that time, we became a maritime nation and we continue to do that today. Fast-forward 200 years and it’s still the same mission we had in 1812. We’re still maintaining coastlines, keeping steel lines open and keeping trade flowing between nations.”

Although the ships won’t arrive until Aug. 23, community events start Aug. 20. Sailors representing various Navy occupations will give presentations throughout the week at Imagination Station, said Anna Kolin, communications and public relations manager for Imagination Station.

“Everything from pilots to chefs to writers to photographers to medical personnel, we’ll have different sailors here talking to our visitors about the things they do and the wide range of occupations they can do in the Navy,” Kolin said. “We’ll also have activities for kids that exemplify the different occupations.”

Imagination Station visitors will also be able to try a flight simulator and watch the Navy’s silent drill team perform, Kolin said. Toledo police and firefighters will also be on hand with equipment for visitors to try on.

Sailors will also participate in interactive activities with families and children at the Toledo Museum of Art’s Family Center at 10 a.m. Aug. 21.

Among the free musical performances will be lunchtime concerts from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 22 at Levis Square in Downtown Toledo and at the Toledo Museum of Art, a 7 p.m. Aug. 23 performance at Commodore Square in Perrysburg and an 1812 Bicentennial Concert at 7 p.m. Aug. 24 at the University of Toledo Doermann Theatre.

A Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter demonstration is planned for Promenade Park at 1 p.m. Aug. 24.

The Mud Hens’ Veterans Appreciation Night on Aug. 25 will  feature a ceremonial first pitch thrown by a sailor and a band performance.

Among the organizations partnering with the Navy for service projects are Cherry Street Mission, Ability Center of Greater Toledo, Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity, St. Paul Community Center, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Toledo Children’s Hospital and Heroes in Action.

Sorgenfrei said she hopes area residents enjoy the week’s activities.

“First and foremost, we want to welcome them to Toledo and show our appreciation for what they do to help protect our country and to make them feel welcome in our community,” Sorgenfrei said. “It’s also an opportunity for people in Toledo to see Navy ships of this caliber.”

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit www.navyweek.org. For more information on the Navy’s commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, visit www.ourflagwasstillthere.org.

Pounds: Gallagher must resign

By
Tom Pounds
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When it was announced Aug. 13 that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted was intervening in the chaotic and dysfunctional situation at the Lucas County Board of Elections (BOE), a number of people on Facebook offered immediate “thank you” posts.

We join that applause and recognize the difficult decision that Husted was forced into making; now that some control is being established, the next imperative action is for BOE Director Meghan Gallagher to resign.

The Lucas County Board of Elections is a hotbed of inefficiency and unnecessary drama and stands as a clear obstacle to fair and efficient elections in Lucas County. Its inability to make personnel and policy decisions has brought negative attention and embarrassment to Lucas County.

As Husted wrote: “Since becoming Secretary of State, my office has devoted an inordinate amount of time to mediating the personal and political squabbles of the Lucas County Board of Elections. …

“In Lucas County, the internal board culture is dysfunctional. The underlying operational culture is divisive and threatening. Board members and staff refuse to communicate with others resulting in meetings and conversations that dissolve into worse than stalemate. It is clear after several attempts to work constructively with all parties, including my most recent request for cooperation; this board is unable to meet the minimum operational standards we expect as we prepare for a presidential election.

“The voters of Ohio, Lucas County, and I as Secretary of State, will tolerate this dysfunction no longer.”

So, that’s it, then.

By placing the BOE under administrative oversight, Husted can begin to rebuild the credibility and confidence so crucial to the elections process. There is no secret what is at the root of that problem, and Gallagher, as captain of this sinking ship, has a moral and professional obligation to step aside and allow that rebuilding process to begin. Husted has allowed Gallagher to retain her title but has relieved her of all assigned duties. There will never be a more clear invitation to resign.

This era of BOE operation will be remembered as an utter failure, a humiliation on a statewide level and an example of managerial incompetence that lowered an already pitiful standard in Lucas County.

Gallagher is collecting an annual salary in excess of $85,000; what are voters getting for that investment? What leadership or progress has been seen? Gallagher’s epic failure to control the BOE and its most basic functions has resulted in acrimony and an unimaginable situation for the Secretary of State. There is no logical future for her as BOE director and no clear path for true reform until she resigns or is removed from office.

There are other personnel issues for Husted to deal with at the BOE, but the first and clearest action should be to remove the director and fill the position with someone capable of working with Husted to earn the continuing confidence of Lucas County voters.

 

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

Protesters, former employees question validity of BOE

By
Caitlin McGlade
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Protesters outside One Government Center on Aug, 14, 2012. Toledo Free Press photo by SARAH OTTNEY

State-mandated rules have tightened at the Lucas County Board of Elections (BOE) as two “special masters” from the Secretary of State’s office move in to monitor daily operations. At the same time, protesters seeking to toss the whole board are assembling and former employees are starting to talk.

“What occurred (during the primaries) was a disastrous election and we’ve got a presidential election coming up and we’ve seen little to no improvement,” said Ed Feeny, who worked for the board for eight months. “I expect the next one will be worse.”

The primaries left at least 70 voters with the wrong ballots.

Husted

Secretary of State Jon Husted placed the board under administrative oversight this week. According to a letter sent to the board Aug. 13, Husted is assigning a “special master” outside election administrator for each party to oversee daily operations.  The Special Masters will stay until the results of the November election are complete. Additionally, the director and deputy director must now clock in and out with Husted’s human resource director and forward all emails to or from the director and deputy director to the state office. Husted’s regional election Internet technical support liaison will also be on-site at least two days a week. Husted will task a bipartisan election administration with compiling a report analyzing the policies, procedures and recommendations of the BOE by Dec. 31.

Husted reprimanded the board for failing to work together to produce position descriptions and a bipartisan organizational chart. Dan DeAngelis, deputy director of the board, said that the Democrats’ proposed organizational chart had met a tie vote. Husted ordered that the board come to an agreement on the subject and define the director and deputy director roles.

This was one of many tie-votes that Husted has had to address. He has broken at least a dozen ties for the board this year.

“Since becoming Secretary of State, my office has devoted an inordinate amount of time to mediating the personal and political squabbles of the Lucas County Board of Elections,” Husted wrote.

‘Very disturbing’

Ignited by Husted’s words, about a dozen protesters outside One Government Center waved signs and shouted “Reform the board.” on Aug. 14. The group, led by the Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition, attended the BOE meeting that immediately followed.

They were forced to leave.

John McAvoy, a board member of the coalition, planned to read a letter before the board thanking Husted for stepping in.

Ron Rothenbuhler, chair of the board, told McAvoy’s group at the beginning of the meeting to hold public comment until after the board members went into an executive session to discuss pending litigation. The group complied, sat through the public meeting and waited an hour and a half for the board to finish its executive session. But when McAvoy’s group re-entered the room at the end of the executive session, Rothenbuhler said the board could not accept public comments.

Rothenbuhler said he did not allow the public comment period after talking with legal counsel and learning that the board does not have a policy about public commenting.

“This is exactly why the Secretary of State needs to step in,” McAvoy said. “It’s a public entity — why isn’t the public being allowed to speak at a public meeting? It’s very disturbing.”

Protestors outside One Government Center on Aug. 14.

Among the attendees were Dennis Lange and Ida Hartfield, two employees fired by the board within the past year. Lange and Hartfield are suing the board for wrongful termination, joined by two others who have filed suit for wrongful termination within the past year.

“Husted should come up and walk into everyone’s office, advise them they have one hour to clear out their possessions and put them on administrative leave and appoint five new people to head up this organization,” McAvoy said.

A portion of the Ohio Revised Code enables the Secretary of State to remove or suspend any board member, director or deputy director for neglect of duty, malfeasance or any willful violation of election law.

Not the first time

The Lucas County Board of Elections is the only board in the state that Husted has placed under administrative oversight, said Matt McClellan, Husted’s spokesperson.

This is the board’s second time in that position in the past couple of years.

Rothenbuhler said Husted’s latest move was a necessary step to resolve problems that the board has been unable to fix internally.

“There’s so many issues, I have a hard time prioritizing those that are real problems,” he said.

He said the first step toward progress should be to secure an early vote center that is accessible to voters who do not have cars. Board members could not agree on a site during a meeting last week.

He said the next priority should be to find a building where all of the BOE offices can store records.

Voters can depend on fair elections in the fall, McClellan said.

“With everything going on up there, we’re confident that voters will have a good election come November,” McClellan said.

‘Hey, any interest in becoming a Republican?’

Within the past year, a director and two board members resigned, at least three full-time employees quit and four were fired. Since firing the information technology manager, the board has yet to find a replacement. Tim Ide, who worked for the board for almost a year, was not fired. He just stopped going in.

“I could do whatever I wanted,” Ide said. “They referred to me numerous times and to other people: ‘He’s a time bomb, he’s a time bomb. We can’t hire him, we can’t fire him, what do we do with him?’ I wish I had a dollar for every time Jon Stainbrook came to me and said, ‘Don’t f*** me, man.’”

Ide ended up telling his secret. In a letter he sent to the entire board and to media outlets, Ide wrote that Republican BOE member Stainbrook and BOE Director Gallagher took him to lunch at San Marcos Taqueria and asked him to set up a laptop computer in the director’s office to recruit his Facebook friends to join the Stainbrook faction of the Lucas County Republican Party, on county time.

Ide said he said no.

Tim Ide

“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, Jon — what are you doing? Why did you say that? That is a felony right there and now I’ve got to live with this.’ I have to walk around going, ‘I’ve got the goods on felony activity going on’,” Ide said. “Pay you to do Republican party business on the clock — that’s illegal. They wanted to set me up in their office and ask my Facebook friends, ‘Hey, any interest in becoming a Republican?’”

Rothenbuhler forwarded Ide’s letter to the Secretary of State’s office to seek advice on the matter. McClellan said staff from the office visited both former and current board employees, including Ide, to dicuss a gamut of problems. Ide’s letter was one piece of that.

Gallagher declined to comment. Stainbrook did not return several messages seeking comment.

Stainbrook stated at the Aug. 14 meeting that Ide was an employee of Toledo Free Press, but Ide and Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller both said Ide was never employed by Toledo Free Press nor did he ever contribute to the newspaper.

Election Administration Plan

During the course of the year that Ide worked at the BOE, he scrutinized documents and fact-checked data. He found discrepancies in the Election Administration Plan (EAP).

An EAP is a document that includes detailed descriptions of resource allocation, precinct election official recruitment, training and accountability, Election Day contingencies and security among other tasks.

The board must submit the EAP to the League of Women Voters as a result of a settlement in 2008 that dealt with a case in which the league alleged violations of election law.

Both Feeny and Ide said parts of the January EAP are copied and pasted from old ones and include false information. Toledo Free Press verified with DeAngelis that backup discs of data were not stored at a warehouse on Berdan Avenue in January, as the January EAP’s emergency preparedness plan documented. Ide provided the document.

This is a small detail that has been fixed and had no bearing on the primary election, DeAngelis said.

“It was a lot of our first EAP and I’m not saying that’s an excuse,” he said. “Why cry over spilled milk? We have a new EAP that doesn’t have that has been fixed.”

Toledo Free Press requested the latest revised version but had not received the document by press time.

“I would like to make sure that we have a building where all the records can be stored,” Rothenbuhler said. “A lot of our stuff is strung all over the place and it makes it difficult to secure the records, to obtain them when necessary.”

Tom Morgan, another employee who quit, said he couldn’t stand the “partisan atmosphere.” Morgan, Feeny and Ide all said the director told them they were forbidden to talk to DeAngelis. Morgan said he didn’t want to anyway, because he considered DeAngelis a contributor to the partisan attitude.

Ide also pointed out a couple of mis-numbered Ohio Revised Code references in an employee manual.

“I think it does matter if it’s wrong — this is the election,” Ide said. “If it’s wrong, fix it. Every mistake counts.”

Out of a job

Amid the controversy, the reality for Hartfield is constant job hunting.

Hartfield had worked as a clerk since 2008, but was officially fired in July. She was told it was because she didn’t have a high school diploma or a GED certificate.

“It’s hard, being my age that I am, it’s hard to get jobs,” Hartfield said. “Nobody’s trying to hire anybody over 50.”

Steam Train Music Fest honors Toledo’s Americana roots

By
Toledo Free Press
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Old State Line, from left, former member Tom Barden with current lineup Larry Meyer, Cindy Lipman, Ramsey Abu-Absi and Rayna Zacharias. Photo courtesy Larry Meyer.

Six of Northwest Ohio’s most prominent Americana, folk and blues bands are poised to take the stage in honor of Toledo’s old-time music roots later this month.

The Steam Train Roots Music Festival will take place Aug. 25 at The Village Idiot in Maumee. The multiband festival begins at 4:30 p.m. and lasts well into the midnight hour, with each act paying tribute to Toledo’s music history.

“The concept is like the roots of a tree,” said Larry Meyer, co-founder of the event. “It’s what other music stems from. Whether it’s traditional blues, delta blues, folk or string bands, they were the forerunners of modern music.”

Meyer said the goal of the festival is not only to pay tribute to the Americana forefathers like Gram Parsons, Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan, but also to honor the local musicians who keep the historical sounds alive in Northwest Ohio.

“People are a part of this history. It’s not an antiquated music style,” Meyer said. “It’s a niche deal, but people who are already fans of Americana will love it. And anyone who just wants to listen to a collection of good Americana music, boom. Here it is under one roof.”

Meyer’s band, Old State Line, will kick off the concert, followed by Dooley Wilson, Meaghan Roberts, Andrew Ellis and Lucky Lemont, The Blowing Grains and local rock-a-billy favorite, Kentucky Chrome as the closing act at 10 p.m.

Meyer is the drummer and percussionist for Old State Line, an acoustic Americana band that also features  Rayna Zacharias (bass), Cindy Lipman (fiddle, vocals) and Ramsey Abu-Absi (guitar, mandolin and vocals). Heavily inspired by Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show and Townes Van Zandt, Old State Line grew out of a pick-up jam session in Toledo’s historic Old West End.

“We’re too country to be rock and too rock to be country,” Meyer said.

Before the group opens the Steam Train Music Fest, Old State Line with kick off the first set at the Blissfield Bluegrass on the River, just hours before taking the stage in Maumee.

Meyer co-founded the festival with fellow musician and bassist for local bluegrass favorite Blowing Grains, Ben Langlois. Over months of planning, Meyer and Langlois scanned the area looking for the best, most versatile collection of Americana bands in Toledo.

Despite being familiar with numerous folk, blues and bluegrass-influenced groups in the area, Meyer said he and Langlois chose the other groups based on their extensive musical repertoires and past experiences seeing the bands live.

“We realized we know these cats,” Meyer said. “We knew that, with these guys, we’d get great music. We wanted it to be like, if we weren’t playing in the event, we’d want to attend; we’d want to show up and listen.”

Langlois will join Meyer in the festival, plucking the strings on his bass with his band, Blowing Grains. Touring the area with the current lineup for nearly three years, The Blowing Grains is a five to six-person group with a heavy focus on acoustic guitars, banjo, fiddle and an electric bass.

“We’ve always got some guitar, mandolin, fiddle … it’s pretty straight-ahead stuff, traditional bluegrass,” Langlois said. “We’ve got a bunch of talented musicians with a solid repertoire of work. Great players, great instruments, great music, all together.”

The title of the event is a subtle nod to the late Steam Train Maury (Maurice W. Graham), a legendary, five-time “King of the Hobos” who rode the rails during the Great Depression before returning to the Glass City and starting a successful career as a cement mason in the late 1930s.

While gracing the festival with Graham’s name was Meyer’s initial idea, it was Langlois who gave the decision a deeper meaning. As a child, Langlois had the opportunity to meet the legendary “hobo king” during a sobering trip with his father to the bearded old man’s house after his own grandfather’s death.

“He and my grandfather were close. They both belonged to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and Maury had a small plot of land he farmed on my grandfather’s land,” Langlois said. “I was super intimidated and super fascinated by him because he was blind and, like, 90 years older than me, and he was old, crouched over and he had that beard. I remember hearing that he was the ‘King of the Hobos’ and I imagined it as ‘King of the Hobbits’ because my older sisters were reading the Tolkien books at the time.”

Graham died in 2006 at the age of 89. The Steam Train Music Festival serves as a small tribute to “Steam Train Maury” and the life he led as a fabled vagabond.

The Village Idiot is located at 309 Conant St. in Uptown Maumee. Tickets to the event are $5 at the door and each ticket is good for all six sets.

Miller: Friday at The Farr

By
Michael Miller
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As an annual fundraising event evolves into a tradition, it comes to resemble a great white shark — always hungry, predatory by nature and doomed to die if it loses momentum and stops moving forward.

There are a number of regional fundraisers that people still patronize, through belief in the charity and out of social habit; it would be boorish to name one, but I have no doubt that the local people in charge of corporate philanthropy will have at least three examples in their thoughts before they finish reading this sentence.

I do not know what inspired Judd Silverman, executive director of the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic, to broach the idea of Friday at The Farr, but he will look back in five or 10 years and recognize the idea as one that added dimension and excitement to the tournament he has operated since 1984.

At the PGA’s Phoenix Open, the 16th hole serves as a break from the dry decorum that simultaneously makes golf attractive to enthusiasts and as boring to everyone else. At the 16th hole, bleachers form an amphitheater filled with beer-drinking fans who cheer, boo, try to endear themselves to players and generally act like Larry, Curly and Moe at a high-society dinner. It is, in other words, loose and fun, words that rarely apply to golf spectatorship.

 

Silverman pitched the Phoenix concept to a group of young men that included entrepreneurs Stephen Vasquez and Franz Gilis. Vasquez and Gilis recognized the idea’s potential in Toledo, and stepped up to turn the concept into a reality. When they approached Toledo Free Press about being a media sponsor, Publisher Tom Pounds and I were immediately interested and enthusiastic. Firstly, we recognized the long-term possibilities the event offered to the growth of the tournament and our region. Secondly, we love injecting new, irreverent ideas into long-standing, old-school Toledo traditions and institutions, with an attitude mixing James Dean rebellion and Rodney Dangerfield maladroitness.

After some initial conversations, miscommunications and reinterpretations of purpose, the informal partnership was forged and we were off and running. I met with Vasquez and Gilis to pledge ad and editorial support and contribute the idea of a “Miss Klinger’s Club,” a public face for the event to appear in the ads and make TV and radio appearances. We needed someone eloquent, media savvy and cover-girl attractive, and since Vasquez, Gilis and I can collectively only offer two of those three features, we enlisted Toledo Free Press Star fashion columnist Lauren O’Neill, one of those rare women who could inspire a Prince song and a Dennis Miller monologue.

On Aug. 10, I accompanied a scholarly, stately group of friends to the par 3 14th hole at Highland Meadows. We all wore our Klinger’s Club T-shirts (high-quality gear produced by Image Group), crossed the course (the 14th hole was chosen because it was as far from my parked car as it could be and still technically be in North America — on many of the hills my companions could hear me huffing and puffing, “I think I can, I think I can”) and climbed to our seats in the bleachers. After 179 consecutive days of sizzling 200-degree weather, Friday at The Farr was launched on an overcast, drizzly day more suited for Rocket football than golf.

We greeted Vasquez, Gilis and O’Neill and settled in. The event could probably use an official presence to coach the cheering and keep the energy flowing, but the lack of such a presence created an atmosphere of spontaneity and edginess that veered from stretches of silence to wild group laughter. Farr officials later said 400 people filled the bleachers, with scores more hanging around the nearby beer tent — no other hole we observed Aug. 10 attracted as many spectators.

The Klinger’s Club crowd cheered great shots and good-naturedly booed poor shots (until an official admonished Vasquez to make the crowd substitute “ahhhhs” for “boos” — this caused a momentary panic when Vasquez  announced “No more boos!” and some in the stands thought he said “booze”).

Jamie Farr made an appearance, looking up at bleachers dotted with T-shirts bearing his face and leading some cheers. A highlight was when the crowd started chanting “Caddy race! Caddy race!” and some caddies raced down the fairway; not every caddy took the bait, but the ones who did earned great applause. Most of the LPGA golfers smiled at crowd references to their college alma maters, laughed at the pledges of love and lust (“Call me, maybe!” was a popular one) and played along with the spirit of the 14th hole, tossing autographed hats, gloves, club covers and balls to the crowd. One golfer tossed signed boxes of cookies. My favorite moment was when the crowd, watching a golfer searching for a ball that had landed in the rough, began calling out, “warmer … warmer … warmer.”

Michelle Wie threw a ball into the stands, which I, a lineman with fingers like buttered sausages, deftly caught and pocketed. Wie later said she really liked the energy of the 14th hole, and while I doubt every golfer shared her enthusiasm, I hope the majority did.

Friday at The Farr is a smart, fun idea. Toledo Free Press is committed to helping the event grow and congratulates Silverman, Vasquez and Gilis for their vision and the effort they contributed to make it a success.

 

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at [email protected].

Birmingham Ethnic Festival expands to two days

By
Erin Holden
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Little Heart Dancers at the Birmingham Festival.

The Birmingham Ethnic Festival, held annually on Consaul Street in East Toledo’s Birmingham neighborhood, will expand to two days for the first time.

The 38th annual festival will be open noon to 10 p.m. Aug. 18 and noon to 9 p.m. Aug. 19. Admission is free. Proceeds from food and vendor booths will benefit neighborhood organizations, including churches, the VFW and the Hungarian Club.

Organizers decided to expand the event to two days after noticing more and more people showing up Saturday night to watch the Waiters Race, a popular annual event held the night before the festival’s official Sunday opening, said Festival Chairman Imre Bertalan.

“Last year we decided, ‘OK, we’ll open a couple vendors on Saturday and see how attendance is,’” Bertalan said. “We had crowds and that told us, ‘Let’s go for a two-day festival.’ We’re excited about it.”

The festival will kick off with a parade at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 18 led by the Cakewalkin’ Jass Band in honor of the 80th anniversary of Tony Packo’s.

The Waiters Race will follow at 1 p.m. Based on a traditional event in Europe, participants run a relay involving pitchers of beer with the winner based on a combination of speed and spillage.

“There is a fierce rivalry. It is a hotly contested event each year,” Bertalan said.

The second day of the festival will start with a recognition ceremony at noon on the steps of St. Stephen’s Church. Organizers will announce the recipient of the annual Friend of the Birmingham Neighborhood Award, recognize international guests and present the Beer Keg Trophy to the winner of the Waiters Race.

Live entertainment, including musicians and ethnic dance groups, will perform both days on three stages. Vendors will be selling crafts and other items, including honey from the neighborhood’s community garden. There will also be a children’s area.

Of course there will also be food, including chicken paprikas, “Hunkey Turkey” (roasted bacon sandwich), stuffed cabbage, kolbasz (sausage sandwiches), gulyás, palacsinta (crepes), cabbage and noodles, pastries and more.

There will also be a tent displaying historic items and commemorating the Playdium and other historic Birmingham buildings. The Playdium, a 110-year-old neighborhood landmark, was razed in January after sitting vacant for years.

“Not much could be saved, but we are encouraging people to provide us with remembrances. Some folks in our community save everything,” said Lucas County Administrator Peter Ujvagi, a longtime Birmingham resident and member of the festival committee. “The Playdium was the gateway to our neighborhood and the center of culture for 100 years. I died a little that day.”

Thousands attend the festival each year, including people from across the country with ties to the neighborhood.

“It’s like a homecoming,” Ujvagi said. “The spirit of the neighborhood is much broader and bigger than the physical neighborhood. We’ve always found that’s the strength of the community.”

The inaugural festival was held to celebrate the neighborhood’s victory in stopping the construction of a four-lane overpass and widening of Consaul Street, Ujvagi said.

“That would have split the neighborhood and wiped out Packo’s and many other neighborhood businesses,” Ujvagi said. “It was a hard-fought battle for neighborhood preservation. We realized then that many people did not understand what a unique, diverse, multi-ethnic community the Birmingham neighborhood was so a festival that opened the door to the rest of Northwest Ohio was initiated.”

Bertalan, also a longtime Birmingham resident, said his favorite part of the festival is the meaning behind it.

“I love the neighborhood and I just see this event showcasing not only the history of neighborhood, but its present diversity and demonstrating hope and confidence in the future,” Bertalan said.

Ujvagi said he hopes visitors come away with a better understanding of the neighborhood’s culture — but also just have fun.

“We want them to enjoy our food and our cultural dance and music — and to have such a great time that they absolutely have to come back for the 39th Birmingham Ethnic Festival,” Ujvagi said.

Toledo Free Press is a media sponsor of the event. For more information, visit birminghamethnicfestival.wordpress.com.

Baumhower: Let Katie be

By
Jeremy Baumhower
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Attention fellow citizens of Northwest Ohio:

As some of you may have heard, one of Toledo’s most famous alumna just went through a divorce. Not only is she going through one of the more public break-ups in recent memory, she is going through it with her 6-year-old little girl. Katie Holmes and her daughter, Suri, have been spending some time in Toledo, away from the paparazzi, trying to catch a breath and get their feet back underneath her.

I am writing this “Open Letter” to ask my fellow residents to allow Katie and Suri some normalcy while back in Toledo … meaning please just let them be.

Katie, Suri and their family tried to enjoy some shopping at Westfield Franklin Park on Aug. 12. How do I know this gossipy tidbit of information? Because I witnessed Katie and her sister flip though the close-out rack at a clothing store while Suri hung out with her cousins, playing. I mention the close-out rack because while Katie may have been married to one of the most famous men on the planet, there she was, holding Suri’s stuffed animals in her arms, while shuffling through the various clearance items. Katie looked like a woman who’d recently been through a divorce. She looked skinnier than the last time I saw her, and it almost appeared she had forgot how to smile. The gawkers started almost instantly, trying to sneak their phones out to snap a picture. I saw one woman hide in a rack of clothes trying to capture a digital image. I really felt bad for Katie.

.

Anybody who has been through a divorce knows you need your support system; you need comfort and usually you need your family. Katie Holmes is no different from any of us in that aspect. Any Christ the King parishioner knows how strong, close and genuine the Holmes family is. Although very private, especially since Katie’s success, their warmth and compassion has never changed, showing why Katie is still so grounded.

Her family and this town are the perfect ingredients needed for a broken heart.

There is a reason most of us choose to live in Toledo; it’s comfortable. Toledo has little traffic, we have plenty of great food, a close distance to Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago and most of our families are here. Toledoans are mostly kind, warm and neighborly human beings. Katie and her daughter can live a laid-back life here, if we would simply allow them.

Some radio stations sent out Facebook updates asking for Katie “sightings,” encouraging listeners to snap pictures, almost giving it the feel of a manhunt. I am going to ask you to do the opposite. Please, if you see Katie Holmes in public, with or without her daughter Suri, leave her be. She has put the city of Toledo back on the map, and did so in a positive way. She has earned her privacy, especially shopping on a Sunday at the mall. If she chose to move back home or at least spend more time here, it could mean good things for our city.

Katie Holmes is, now more than ever, closer to you or me. She’s a recently divorced single mom, with a bright-eyed 6 year old girl at her side trying to figure out what’s next. She shops with her sisters at Westfield Franklin Park, she enjoys close-out racks, all while carrying her daughter’s stuffed animals, if that’s not Toledo, then I must not be from here.

If you see Katie Holmes out and about, Instead of asking her for a picture, or an autograph, how about you wish her a simple “welcome home.” Let’s treat her as a sister and mom and let’s remind her why her family still chooses to call Toledo home.

If you would like to see more Jeremy Baumhower’s words you can follow him on Twitter @Jeremytheproduc.

Kuron: Building Fort Amherstburg

By
Frank Kuron
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Remember that old song from the musical, Annie Get Your Gun? It reminds me of a friendly competition I had with one of the neighborhood kids of my youth. It started when he got a new bike for his birthday. My next birthday produced a bike too, but a three-speed! You could be sure that if I got a new basketball, he would soon have a new football. It got really ugly when my Detroit Tigers won the World Series in ’68 and his Cleveland Indians, well, didn’t. Even our fathers got in on that rivalry! This one-ups-man-ship attitude is what prompted the building of the British Fort Amherstburg at the mouth of the Detroit River in Canada.  

In 1796, Jay’s Treaty stipulated that the British finally surrender possession of Fort Detroit to the Americans – something they were supposed to have done at the end of the Revolution, thirteen years earlier. The concession stung the British because Detroit was a very lucrative trading center with the Native Americans. Solution – construct a comparable fortress right across the Detroit River, right across from the now American Fort Detroit. It would be named after Jeffery Amherst, a British hero of the French and Indian War. Besides being the first British Governor General in the Canadian territories, Amherst is also notorious for being the first to employ biological warfare.  Are you ready? He actually ordered the distribution of blankets, to unknowing Native Americans, which were infected with the smallpox virus.   

The post became known as Fort Amherstburg, and being just a military stronghold, or just a trading center, simply wouldn’t do. Yes, it was both of those things, but alongside of it a ship-building facility was constructed – the King’s Navy Yard. Here, four of the six ships to do battle with Oliver Perry in 1813 would be built.  

Physically the fort took on the general design of many other British forts. Palisades enclosed the 900- yard rectangular perimeter at a height of ten feet. The four corners had diamond shaped earthworks which hid four cannons each. Inside, buildings housed the supplies and occupants.  

At the onset of war, in August of 1812, it was this fort that US General Hull came within a few miles of attacking before having a change of heart and retreating to Fort Detroit. Here also, Alexander McKee spent many years as a frontier trader with other infamous characters like Simon Girty. Earlier, McKee ran a trading post on the lowlands of the Maumee River just below the current 577 Foundation property in Perrysburg, Ohio.  

It was at Fort Amherstburg that such famous leaders as Tecumseh and General Brock would meet to plan military maneuvers throughout the Northwest Territory. These two giants of military prowess made their first War of 1812 move when they successfully attacked Hull and regained possession of Fort Detroit. Just two months later General Henry Proctor was awarded command of the fort after Brock was killed at Queenston Heights. From this base, Proctor and Tecumseh directed the attack at the Raisin River, and later unsuccessfully led their forces against Fort Stephenson and Fort Meigs.  

The victory of Oliver Perry over the British fleet on September 10, 1813 triggered heated arguments between Tecumseh, who wanted to fight the approaching American force at the fort, and Proctor who wanted to retreat. Proctor won the debate and the withdrawal began, but not before Fort Amherstburg, which had stood for seventeen years, was torched.  

The Americans would catch and defeat their opponent at what is known as the Battle of the Thames and so the smoldering ruins of Fort Amherstburg would temporarily come into their possession, but only until the end of the war in 1815.  

From this time on it was referred to more often as Fort Malden, in the city of Amherstburg. It was only sparsely manned for years and was even used as an insane asylum for a time, until the property was eventually sold off for urban development. Since 1939 the original grounds have been regained and opened to the public. Next time you take a trip to Canada, set aside a day to visit this historic location. You’ll have one up on your friends. 

Frank Kuron is author of the War of 1812 book, “Thus Fell Tecumseh.” Email him at [email protected] 

Bugle Call: Upcoming Events 

Some key websites to learn of upcoming 1812 Bicentennial events: 

www.1812amherstburg.com/event/roots-to-boots  — August 3-5, 2012 — Roots to Boots Weekend Festival in Amherstburg, Ontario. 

www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/on/malden/index.aspx  — Fort Malden National Historic Site of Canada. 

www.warof1812.ohio.gov — Most Ohio events are listed. 

www.opsail.org – Details of the US Navy’s OpSail tour of the eastern seaboard and Great Lakes. The Niagara and ships of today’s military will be in Toledo from August 22-27, 2012. 

www.battleoflakeerie-bicentennial.com – Details of a full re-enactment of the Battle of Lake Erie planned for September of 2013 in which you can participate.  

www.fortmeigs.org – Numerous activities year-round. 

www.riverraisinbattlefield.org – Numerous activities year-round. 

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