With the addition of new machinery and two doctors, Toledo-area stroke patients now have access to a less invasive procedure for treating blood clots in the brain.
“Patients that qualify for this kind of treatment, they did not used to stay here. They’d have to be transferred to other care centers that can be as far as two hours away,” said Dr. Mouhammad Jumaa, who is responsible for the procedure at ProMedica Toledo Hospital and University of Toledo Medical Center, along with Dr. Syed Zaidi.
The neuro-interventionalists moved to the area in mid-July after practicing at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. They were welcomed at a reception and unveiling of a new suite at ProMedica Toledo Hospital on July 18.
The procedure is similar to cardiac catheterization, Zaidi said.
“[Patients] present to us with a ruptured aneurysm or an aneurysm, which has not yet ruptured, but needs treatment. This treatment, this endovascular treatment, provides them the opportunity to be treated in a minimally invasive fashion as opposed to open brain surgery. Typically, the way we treat these patients is go through their groin with a small catheter tube all the way to the arteries and the brain, wherever the disease is, and treat it,” he said.
The biplanar thoracoscopy machinery is available at UTMC and Toledo Hospital. But, it’s not the only part of the procedure.
“In addition to purchasing this very expensive machine, we actually had to assemble a team of very experienced nurses and technologists and physicians,” Jumaa said. Usually, the procedure is performed by the two doctors, two nurses, two technologists and an anesthesiologist team. It typically takes one to four hours.
Jumaa said he expects the team to treat 100-150 patients per year. Depending on the condition of a patient, recovery time can be shorter than for open-brain surgery. However, the treatment is not necessarily meant to replace surgery.
“This treatment is complementary to surgery. It’s not a competitor,” Zaidi said. “It’s an asset.”
He added that post-procedure care is very important, something that the Toledo Hospital is well-equipped to do.
In May, Toledo Hospital opened its new “telehealth” stroke center, allowing patients and doctors to interact whether the physician is in or out of the hospital.
Toledo Hospital and UTMC are both comprehensive stroke networks. In ProMedica’s model, Toledo Hospital acts as a “hub” or access center with its other hospitals being the spokes, said Kelley Joseph, stroke-care coordinator and registered nurse. The access center is in charge of tracking patients’ transport, whether it be air or mobile.
“They can initiate the team and also coordinate where the bed is available and how to get the patient where they’re gonna go,” Joseph said.
Joseph added that community education on strokes is vital.
“The change is now people realize stroke is an emergency,” she said.
It’s also crucial that anyone who suspects he or she may have had a stroke get in touch with a doctor sooner rather than later.
“When someone has a stroke, they don’t have pain. They just assume they slept wrong, ate wrong and they’re gonna get better. What happens then is they don’t and they wait and they wait and they wait. And by the time they come to us, it’s really too late for us to help them,” Joseph said.
The City of Toledo wants to start collecting taxes on the gambling winnings of nonresidents the same way it already does with residents.
City Council will vote on the proposed addition to the Toledo Municipal Code during its Aug. 14 meeting. Nonresidents would be taxed at 2.25 percent, the same rate as residents. The revenue would go into the city’s general fund.
Taxable gambling winnings include more than just Hollywood Casino Toledo 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.
City of Toledo Law Director Adam Loukx said the legislation would make 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, would fall under the realm of what other cities already do and, certainly because of the change in the state law, is one that’s workable as well.”
House Bill 386, which was enacted in June, requires casinos in Ohio to withhold local tax on all winnings of $1,200 or more.
“At that point, if you’re a resident, we would keep it, but for nonresidents we would have to refund it if a return is filed,” Loukx said. “Right now we have no legal authority to tax nonresidents.”
Councilman George Sarantou, chairman of the finance committee, said the legislation would bring Toledo in line with other Ohio cities, including Columbus and Cincinnati.
“It’s well within the rights of the city,” Sarantou said. “Columbus just enacted this.”
Under legislation passed July 30, Columbus will begin taxing residents and nonresidents on gambling winnings at 2.5 percent. Previously Columbus had taxed only earned income, said Melinda Frank, of the City of Columbus income tax division administration. The tax will be retroactive to June 1 once it passes its 30-day referendum period.
Cincinnati taxes both residents and nonresidents 2.1 percent for gambling winnings. Cleveland taxes residents on gambling winnings at a rate of 2 percent, but does not tax nonresidents.
Detroit taxes residents at 2.5 percent and nonresidents at 1.25 percent.
Horseshoe Casino Cleveland 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 in spring 2013.
Toledo began taxing residents on gambling winnings around 2004.
“In those days we didn’t have the casino and nonresident taxation was not really that much of an issue,” Loukx said. “We did have the horse track, but we were content to just go with resident income for all those years. Then, of course, this year the casino opened and has been doing very well and, with the enactment by the State of Ohio of House Bill 386 that provides for the withholding of gambling winnings at a certain threshold, it would be consistent with the cities of Cincinnati and Columbus and prudent as well.”
It’s still too early to predict how much additional revenue the City of Toledo would 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.”
Penn National Gaming, which operates Hollywood Casino Toledo, declined to comment.
City Council’s next meeting is 4 p.m. Aug. 14 in City Council Chambers at One Government Center.
Edity Noveskey and Richard Sebring are housemates in Adrian, Mich., in a Veterans Affairs program. Toledo Free Press photo by Joseph Herr.
Edith Noveskey laughs as she recalls the first time she tried to serve her housemate Richard Sebring spinach.
And salmon? She’ll never try that again either.
Sebring, sunken into his recliner, shrugs and tilts his head to grin at Noveskey. After months of sharing the same roof, she’s figured out what he likes. She’s also figured out how to regulate his medication schedule, how to bathe, shave and dress him.
When Sebring hoists himself out of his chair onto his walker, Noveskey is there to tug on his belt loop to keep his pants from sagging.
When Sebring creeps toward the front porch to wait for the bus, Noveskey is there to prop open the door.
Noveskey, 74, is 67-year-old Sebring’s caregiver. And they’re not in a nursing home. The two are part of the Medical Foster Home Program that the Veterans Affairs (VA) launched in 2000. Since then, 424 caregivers in 36 states have opened their homes to veterans.
Richard Sebring
The VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, which covers the Toledo area, started looking for applicants in 2010. Noveskey is the first to try it out in this system.
“It’s a nice way to get to know people,” Noveskey said.
Noveskey started taking care of people in her home after her spouse, John, died about nine years ago. She cared for one woman for about four years so her house was mostly equipped with the necessary elements that the VA requires.
To prepare her home for caregiving, Noveskey had to gut her bathroom, redo her ceilings, install special fire alarms and lighting and place a ramp between her family room and dining room.
The cost came out of her own pockets.
“My credit cards are all maxed out,” she said.
But Noveskey is passionate for caregiving, she said. Plus, it’s not as though she does this for free. Veterans who enroll in the program directly pay their caregivers $1,500 to $3,000 a month, depending on their needs. The average cost for a semi-private room in a nursing home is about $6,235 per month. A home health aide costs about $21 per hour on average, according to www.longtermcare.gov.
Like a home health aide situation, veterans in medical foster care homes receive visits from hospital staff. This is covered by typical VA benefits, said April Bartlett, the medical foster home coordinator for the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. A nurse and a physical therapist visit Sebring once a month, for example.
“The program is meant to provide veterans with an alternate longterm care option in a safe and home-like environment and just to be able to offer vets the choice to remain living in a community, family home setting if they are faced with the need to move into a nursing home or a more institutionalized setting,” Bartlett said. “The tagline for the program is ‘Where heroes meet angels.’”
Finding those “angels” is a rigorous process.
Noveskey had to open her home for inspection by a social worker, a dietitian, registered nurse and physical therapist. She also had to undergo interviews and background checks. She and anyone else who lives in or moves into her house must be fingerprinted and pass health tests that check for tuberculosis. This also includes any help that she hires.
It has been about two years since she began the application process and Sebring moved in during March.
Noveskey is one of three approved Medical Foster Homes in the Ann Arbor system. Hosts in Camden, Mich., have been approved and are awaiting residents. Tami Brockway, a Toledo resident, has also been approved and is waiting for someone to move in.
Brockway’s two sons grew up with two couples: Their own parents and an older married couple whom the Brockways have fostered.
Applying for the VA program was a natural fit for a family of caregivers, she said.
“I like the challenge; I love new people coming into my home and you just feel good about yourself that you’re helping out someone who’s served our country,” Brockway said. “You don’t realize what they’ve been through unless you’ve been through it yourself, so it’ll be a new experience for me.”
An added bonus is the fact that the VA allows its caregivers to take 30 days off each year, during which a VA professional steps in to take over, she said.
The VA plans to expand the program to 102 sites in 46 states this year, Bartlett said.
As Sebring continues to adjust to his new home, he said he couldn’t be any happier with the program. He had previously been living with his niece, but she had little time to stay home with him as it became more difficult to care for himself.
Sebring, Noveskey and her dog Kasper have become quite the family. He shares with Noveskey his Vietnam War era memories from the months he spent on Navy ships and she makes sure he’s content and healthy.
“She does everything. She gives me baths, fixes my lunches, gives me suppers,” Sebring said. “She does it all.”
In the past month, corn futures hit an all-time high of over $800/bushel due to a lackluster growing season. The Midwest droughts have caused some farmers to mow down the crop to salvage it for silage and livestock feed.
While the exact percentage of foods that contain corn and corn byproducts is unknown, it is a guarantee that any time consumers purchase goods from the supermarket, a majority of those goods contain corn in some state. According to the Great Smokies Medical Center of Asheville, N.C., the following foods contain corn, cornstarch or corn syrup: baby foods, bakery items, beer, soda, cereals, condiments, gum, baking powder, flour mixes, gravies, sauces, canned fruits, soups, frostings and icings, tortillas, ice cream, candy, peanut butter and margarine just to name a few. Even meat that we eat from the local deli was once fed grain containing corn.
Corn is used in adhesives, stamps, talcum powder, paper cups, toothpaste, medicines and chalk. We are exposed to corn in some state every single day of our lives.
In the past two decades, ethanol research has begun to take maize off of the grocery shelves and put it into automobile fuel tanks. According to The Guardian, 25 percent of U.S.-grown corn goes into ethanol research instead of food. This explains the dramatic increase in the price of corn, up to $800/bushel from $200/bushel in January 2006.
Consumers have been curious for quite some time now why their grocery bills have steadily increased in recent months and years; corn prices are the reason. Combine a crop which increased 300 percent in price in under a decade with fuel costs which have increased 50 percent in the same time (fuel that is used not only to harvest but transport the crop) and you have dramatically higher prices.
Many would argue that these high prices are the result of inflation but that is not the case. As we have previously mentioned, inflation may perhaps be a long-term issue, but it’s not a cause for concern yet. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, corn was at its most expensive back in 1983.
With the growing season coming to a close, there is little that farmers can do at this point to increase corn supply. Supermarket prices will likely remain high until next summer, at which point farmers will hope for a more profitable season. There are things that could be done. If the U.S. were to put ethanol research on hold, prices would likely decline. Another option would be for researchers to find alternatives to corn syrup and cornstarch in the goods mentioned earlier. However, until we can increase corn supply by reducing ethanol, recording a phenomenal growing season or by researching alternatives to corn byproducts, expect to see your grocery bill on the rise until next summer.
Ben Treece is a 2009 Graduate from the University of Miami (FL), BBA international finance and marketing. He is a partner with Treece Investment Advisory Corp. (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and a stockbroker licensed with FINRA, working for Treece Financial Services Corp.
The above information is the express opinion of Ben Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.
2012 is proving to be another hot and brutal summer in and around Toledo, as domestic violence has claimed the lives of five more area women in the past few weeks. As I researched the lives and deaths of the sisters killed by one sister’s ex-boyfriend in Blissfield and the murder of an ex-girlfriend in Perrysburg, another report came in — a mother and daughter shot by an estranged husband in Lima. It never ends. The cycle of family violence continues throughout Toledo and Ohio and America every day.
The timing couldn’t be worse to take a break from advocating for victims and survivors of domestic violence in Toledo, but after five years of attempting to hold the local courts accountable for dismissing 80 percent of domestic violence cases annually through Independent Advocates, I needed a break. I am an advocate and an activist and will never forfeit those titles. But I needed to step back from the day-to-day answering of crisis calls, attending frustrating court hearings and generally feeling the immense weight of the local domestic violence crisis.
I needed a break because domestic violence had begun to make me sad again, instead of angry, a sure sign of burnout. When I first began learning in college about violence against women, it made me sad. I was overwhelmed by the reality of 1 in 4 women being a victim of intimate partner violence in her lifetime. I was devastated by the stories I heard at Take Back the Night events and I felt helpless to do anything about it. I knew it was my purpose to work toward an end to violence against women, but for a while I had no idea how.
Finally, I found anger. Anger is good; anger I can work with, unlike sadness. Sadness is debilitating. Anger is what allowed me to leave a good-paying job “in the field” and start Independent Advocates, a grassroots nonprofit that puts the needs of survivors above grant funding or political correctness.
Anger is what engaged me in the local court system and spurred me to take on the seemingly impossible task of developing a dedicated domestic violence court to replace the ineffective nightmare of court process that currently greets — or rather, chases off — victims by the hundreds.
Well, two months into my self-imposed break (everything is self-imposed when you work by yourself), my sadness has once again given way to action-oriented anger. There is no time to be debilitated when women are being murdered and need an advocate, need someone to tell the community that the number of murders in such a short time is no coincidence, it is the pattern of abuse spinning out of control. Don’t be put off by all the anger talk; I am not a person who uses violence to retaliate for what I see as unjust in this world.
I aim to challenge the cultural acceptance of violence against women and promote a more outspoken societal response to abuse in relationships. I seek to promote positive social change and pick up where Independent Advocates left off in the conversation about our responsibility to stop domestic violence.
My first challenge is to shift that responsibility from victims to abusers. In the days following each of the recent domestic violence murders, I was contacted by various media outlets looking for victim resources. I’m not sure why they would need this again, considering they collect the same information every time a woman is murdered in Toledo. The number to the shelter hasn’t changed, the services themselves haven’t changed and our depth of understanding this complex issue obviously has not changed. When will we stop reacting to murders as if the victims were the only ones able to prevent them?
Each of the recent murders was precipitated by the end of a relationship, but still people respond to the deaths by asking why someone would stay with an abusive partner. News reporters want to know: “What can victims do to stay safe?” Carlin Glenn was safe in her Lima home, sleeping soundly at 4 a.m. when her estranged husband broke in and savagely killed her daughter before chasing her across the street and gunning her down in a neighbor’s driveway. After all of that, the best we can come up with is “What could the victims have done better?”
We desperately need to reframe the problem, because when victims bear the responsibility, abusers can get away with murder.
Health Care REIT Inc. (NYSE:HCN) announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering of 12 million shares of common stock at $58.75 per share on Aug. 8. The offer was increased in size from 11 million shares announced this week.
The Toledo-based real estate investment trust (REIT) estimates that the gross proceeds from this offering will be approximately $705 million or $811 million if the underwriters’ option is exercised in full. The company granted underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1.8 million shares during the next 30 days.
The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay advances under its unsecured lines of credit, to pay other outstanding indebtedness and for general corporate purposes, including investing in health care and seniors housing properties, according to the information announced on the Business Wire Aug. 8.
“Health Care REIT continues to differentiate itself through the consistency of its relationship investment program, as evidenced by $602 million of second quarter investments from existing relationships. Total investments of $1.1 billion during the quarter brings our total year-to-date investments of $1.9 billion and drives a three-cent increase in our 2012 earnings expectations,” stated George Chapman, chairman, CEO and president of Health Care REIT.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, Barclays Capital, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint block-running managers for the current public offering by Health Care REIT.
“Our ability to source high-quality investments in the seniors housing and (medical office building) sectors has significantly strengthened the quality of our portfolio and increased our private pay percentage. As we move into the second half of 2012, our investment pipeline remains strong as we continue to execute our business plan,” Chapman stated.
Health Care REIT announced Aug. 6 that it anticipates acquiring $925 million of seniors housing and medical office properties in the third quarter of 2012. The estimate is based on acquisitions closed so far in the third quarter and potential acquisitions for which the company has signed a letter of intent or other customary preliminary documentation.
The company believes that the potential acquisitions will include properties that, collectively, generate 97 percent of their revenues from private pay sources.
The anticipated acquisitions are expected to include approximately $583 million of senior housing triple-net lease properties, approximately $271 million of senior housing operating properties where the company is the majority owner, and approximately $71 million of medical office properties.
Approximately 81 percent of the potential acquisitions are expected to involve existing portfolio partners, consistent with its relationship investment strategy. The aggregate acquisition amount includes approximately $134 million of debt that the company expects to assume at an average interest rate of 5.6 percent.
The stock offering is being used to raise capital for investments already made and new investments, taking advantage of the positive environment in the senior housing and medical office building markets, according to Jeff Miller, executive vice president of operations at Health Care REIT.
The company believes that premier senior housing operators and health care systems choose to develop long-term business partnerships with Health Care REIT because of its reputation as a trusted capital partner with unique and sophisticated structures that meet the operators’ capital and operational needs.
Health Care REIT’s capital programs, combined with its comprehensive planning, development and property management services, make it a single-source solution for acquiring and developing real estate assets that include senior living communities, medical office buildings, inpatient and outpatient medical centers, and life science facilities.
All amounts reported by the company are estimates that are subject to change. The company’s anticipated acquisitions are in various stages of development and some or all transactions may not be completed on currently anticipated terms or within expected time frames, or at all.
On Aug. 6, the company announced operating results for its second quarter ending June 30, 2012. As previously announced, the board of directors declared a cash dividend of 74 cents per share for the quarter, compared to 71.5 cents per share for the same period in 2011, representing a 3.5 percent increase.
The cash dividend, scheduled to be paid Aug. 20, will be the company’s 165th consecutive quarterly dividend payment.
During the recent recession, the company generated one-year and five-year cumulative total returns of 21.1 percent and 71.3 percent, respectively. During the past 41 years, its investment strategy has generated a 16 percent average annual return for its shareholders, according to its 2011 annual report.
Health Care REIT Inc., a Standard & Poors 500 company with headquarters in Toledo, is a real estate investment trust that invests across the full spectrum of senior housing and health care real estate. The company’s diversified $15.8 billion portfolio consisted of 1,010 properties in 46 states and Canada, according to its website.
The company relocated its home offices into in the former headquarters of Dana Corp. at 4500 Dorr St. in September 2010. At that time, it employed about 95 people, Miller said.
He reported that the company has added positions as its portfolio has grown. It now employs a total of 365 employees across the country with about 140 of them based in Toledo.
The Senior Living Group and Medical Facilities Group are located in Toledo.
The firm’s Management Services Group is based in Jupiter, Fla. The company operates regional offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Newport Beach, Calif., and Brentwood, Tenn.
Wednesday, Aug. 1 was the unofficial “ Appreciation Day” . This “Appreciation Day ” was created by Former Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee and with no official support from the restaurant chain itself. Huckabee’s Facebook campaign came in response to Chick-Fil-A’s CEO Dan Cathy’s comments on running a Christian Business and believing in a “Traditional Marriage”. The media firestorm that followed put a chicken restaurant chain at the center of a political and religious debate. Over 500,000 people “liked” the Huckabee ‘Facebook movement and apparently all showed up to a local Chick-Fil-A in support.
When I was 15 years old, a man took a chance on me and gave me my first job…the man’s name is Michael Herrick and the job was at Chick-Fil-A. I worked at Franklin Park Mall’s Chick-Fil-A for two years, before the mall expanded, changed ownership and was renamed. Chick-Fil-A was located across from McDonald’s and next to Arthur Treacher’s. Mr. Herrick was the perfect boss for a 15-year-old kid from the West End. I watched in amazement at Mike’s work ethic and dedication. He worked from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, without any vacations the entire time of my employ. He had three young kids at the time and a dedicated wife who also worked there.
My neighborhood was predominately white and Catholic. Working at Chick-Fil-A was my first real experience, not just working but interacting with those different from me. That diversity made me want to show up for work.
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I have maintained my relationship with Mike for the last 22 years, though I admit, it is based on delicious chicken. He has always kept tabs on me and I have always appreciated our conversations. We have discussed everything from the ups and downs of business in Toledo to our families.
“Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” made me happy for the Herricks, but also broke my heart.
My sister and I were both raised in a loving Catholic home, both raised to be “straight” sexually, but God designed her different from me; my sister is gay. Somehow we are not seen as equals under the law as I am allowed to marry and share benefits with my wife, but she cannot. My sister does not have the same civil rights as I do and we are from the same parents in the same house.
People waiting in line for three hours for Chick-Fil-A made sense to me; the chicken is worth every minute. People waiting three hours in a line to express their “freedom of speech” in support of “traditional marriage” reminded me of those I read about, who lined the streets to protest racial integration in Mississippi schools some 50 years ago. The phrase “traditional marriage” is so beautifully offensive and clever, no one could ever see the hate behind it.
Conservative talk show hosts used Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day as a rallying point, a demonstration of “freedom of speech”, to show the “mainstream media” that everybody was not OK with gay marriage. You could hear the brainwashed talking points in every TV interview of those who “appreciated” Chick-Fil-A, they all sounded exactly the same. They were proud of standing up for their “moral beliefs” and their “right” to say it. Everyone has a right to believe what they want, they have a right to express those very same beliefs, but just because it is a “right” doesn’t make what you say all right.
Those Mississippians in the 1950s who were morally against the integration of blacks into public schools, used phrases like “pro-white” and “separate But equal”. How do we feel about those people 50 years later? If you held those very same beliefs today, and attended an organized event with those who carried the same morals, society calls those gatherings a demonstration of “hate speech”, that’s how we see it today.
Fifty years from now, the legalization of gay marriage will be a distant memory. The images and interviews of those who supported “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” will haunt our culture the same way the Mississippi integration has.
For those of you in Toledo who waited the three hours to show your support against gay marriage, I hold only the greatest of love in my heart for you… you just have to share the love with my gay sister.
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” —– 1 John 2:9-11
Toledo City Council reversed its decision to deny the Nexus Academy of Toledo a special use permit to locate Downtown.
Council voted 10-2 in favor of the school during a special meeting Aug. 7.
The college preparatory program, which will blend classroom and online work, will be on the fourth floor of One Lake Erie Center at 600 Jefferson St.
Last week, Council members Lindsay Webb, Phil Copeland, Steve Steel and Adam Martinez voted against issuing the permit, with Steel citing concerns about the proximity of the school to convenience stores.
But County Plan Commission Director Tom Lemon told Council members that typical spacing requirements regarding schools and convenience stores do not apply in the Downtown entertainment district, where Nexus Academy of Toledo seeks to locate.
Council reconsidered last week’s vote because Councilman Tyrone Riley abstained, which violated a Council rule that prohibits abstentions unless the Council member has a conflict of interest. Riley originally told Toledo Free Press he thought he had a conflict of interest because he had prior business arrangements with a client in an adjacent building.
He later called back to say he had made a mistake and that he had not understood the Council rule. He said he thought at the time of the vote that both sides had compelling arguments.
After this realization, he wanted the chance to vote on the subject.
His vote in favor helped to turn the decision around, along with votes of approval from Paula Hicks-Hudson, Phil Copeland and Adam Martinez. Martinez said he approved the permit this time after meeting with school officials and learning that they decided to appoint supervisors in the student parking lot, as well as to and from the TARTA station. Originally, there was no supervision plan, Martinez said. Hicks-Hudson was not present during last week’s vote.
Steel again voted no and addressed comments that Councilman Tom Waniewski made last week about Council “vilifying” carryouts.
“This isn’t Steve Steel vilifying convenience stores and saying schools shouldn’t be by them,” Steel said. “This is municipal code saying that.”
Steel cited a portion of municipal code that states: “In reviewing and making decisions on proposed special uses, review and decision making bodies must consider at least the following factors: whether the proposed use is compatible with adjacent uses in terms of scale, site design and operating characteristics (hours of operation, traffic generation, lighting, noise, odor, dust and other impacts associated with the uses operation).”
“In considering that, it isn’t Steve Steel that says that there’s an incompatibility between convenience stores and schools… it’s Toledo Municipal Code and the spacing requirements that Council put into code that would indicate that there is incompatibility,” Steel said.
Typical spacing requirements prohibit convenience stores from locating within 1,000 feet of “schools, parks, libraries, licensed day cares or children oriented uses.” In 2009, Council made an exception for community entertainment districts, which includes the area where Nexus Academy of Toledo plans to open.
Addressing the exemption, Steel said the rule was intended to concentrate some of the “adult-oriented venues.”
Steel, a former Toledo Public Schools Board of Education president, also dismissed any assumptions that his decision had anything to do with opinions about charter schools. Councilman Rob Ludeman told Toledo Free Press last week that, “Some Council members used their vote to express their disdain for charter schools in general and to me that’s just wrong.”
Steel has voted in favor of special use permits for other charter schools.
The school, which is slated to open in the fall, will take between 250 and 300 students and employ a school leader, four full-time teachers, three full-time “success coaches,” a part-time special education teacher, a guidance counselor, a secretary and a personal trainer.
Editorial cartoon by Don Lee for the Toledo Free Press
As he sits with his four brothers and one sister reminiscing about his 44 years as Frank Venner’s youngest son, Dave Venner can clearly hear his father’s “booming voice.”
“It was different when you heard it on TV versus where you heard it when it was in-house, but it was still the same,” Dave said. “Despite being a public figure in Toledo, [the job] never came home with him. It was always just Dad when he was home.”
Dave’s dad, Frank Courtney Venner III, 85, died Aug. 3 in the family’s Old Orchard home after a three-month battle with lung cancer.
Venner hosted broadcast news, weather, commentary and a quiz show for high school students on WSPD-TV Channel 13 (now WTVG) from 1948 to 1988 and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives (9th District) seat against the then-two-year incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur in 1984.
Venner began his 40-year broadcast career with WSPD Radio immediately following two years of military service from 1946-47, in the Army Air Forces. Within months of his arrival, WSPD Radio launched its TV station on July 21, 1948. WSPD-TV became WTVG-TV in the late ’70s.
Venner loved the challenge of those early years in TV, and he spoke about that time in his life in a WTVG 45-minute broadcast that originally aired April 21, 2008.
“Channel 13, for 10 years, had no competition, so, obviously, we won the race,” Venner said. “But in 1958, when our second channel hit the town, WTOL, then, of course, it was dog-eat-dog, and then the ratings became extremely important.”
Venner said he believed his notoriety in those early years as the “man-on-the-sidewalk” weatherman became his lasting legacy.
“‘Weather in the Weather’ was on for 10 years, from 1959 to 1969, and was probably the program that I became most identified with during my career,” Venner said. “But the interesting aspect is that I wasn’t the one who started that program. It was Jim Rudes.”
Weather forecasters in those early years didn’t have the computer simulation today’s meteorologists enjoy. Back then, it was maps and Magic Markers.
“They would hand me a microphone,” Venner said. “I would walk behind the board which had the map of the United States on it. And then one of the fascinations is that I would write backwards because I had to, so people at home could see what I was doing. So I learned to write backwards.”
Venner said viewers back then were no different than the fans who attend professional football games today.
“I can remember one night it was about 15 below zero at about 11 o’clock at night,” Venner said. “And a car pulled up with a bunch of college kids, and they had no shirts on. And they had to be absolutely hospital cases because it was so cold. And to add to the glamour, if you want to call it that, they were eating ice cream cones.”
Venner enjoyed what his son Dave called “three distinct careers.”
“First, he did ‘Weather in the Weather’,” Dave Venner said. “Then he did the news (‘Venner-Ward Report’) and ‘High School Quiz’ as moderator.
Venner hosted the quiz show for 25 years, taking three years off to run for Congress. He was replaced by Bill Spencer for 1983-84 and Gordon Ward for 1984-85.
“The third part of his career was doing editorials, which was totally different because that wasn’t about just telling just facts of the news,” Dave said. “That was about providing commentary on the news, and that was a big shift for him.”
Frank Venner
By 1988, the year he retired, Venner had worked at the same broadcast station as a radio news reporter, weatherman, roving reporter, television news anchor, game show moderator, pundit and the station’s news director and editorial director.
“He loved Toledo,” Dave said. “He absolutely loved Toledo. He’s lived in the same family home for more than 50 years, and he couldn’t think of being anywhere else in his life.”
Venner, the only child of Frank C. Venner II and Virginia Grunder Venner, was born March 8, 1927. He came to Toledo in 1940 when his father accepted a transfer from Baltimore to run Toledo’s IBM office.
He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1944 and University of Notre Dame in 1949 with a degree in communications.
“When he was at Notre Dame, he worked on the student radio station, and it just appealed to him a great deal,” Dave said. “Both his father and his grandfather had been career IBMers. He could have pursued that, but he chose to stay true to the broadcasting, had an opportunity with WSPD and never turned back.”
After college, the military and four years at WSPD, Frank married Ruth Blank on June 21, 1952. They enjoyed a 44-year marriage until Ruth died Aug. 28, 1996.
The Venners are survived by their six children: Michael, 59; Daniel, 58; Lisa Soeters, 56; Martin, 51; Jonathan, 50; and David, 44. Venner also leaves behind 11 grandchildren: Erin, Heidi and Todd Soeters and Andrew, Bailey, Bethany, Brittany, Emily, Laura, Rebecca and Reid Venner.
“Certainly his children were a big part of his life,” Dave said. “From a professional standpoint, [his life was about] staying very true to his journalistic training. He was very much about expressing to the public the facts of any situation and allowing them to draw their own conclusion from the facts. That was the principle he lived by.
“He took that position, that role, very seriously. He looked at himself as an individual that people were counting on to provide them with pertinent information. And he tried to make that come alive every day. He had great respect for the profession of journalism versus just being a TV figure.”
Late in his broadcast career, Venner was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Findlay College (now University of Findlay).
Family visitation is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 6 at Walker Funeral Home, 5155 W. Sylvania Ave.
A funeral mass is scheduled at 11 a.m. Aug. 7 at Gesu Catholic Church, 2049 Parkside Blvd. Burial services will be private.
Venner’s children suggest that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Hospice of Northwest Ohio or the Toledo Animal Shelter in his name.
Jerry Anderson, co-anchor for ToledoNewsNow’s news broadcasts on WTOL-11 and Fox 36, credited Frank Venner and his contemporaries with what Anderson called the high standard of Northwest Ohio broadcast journalism.
“I’m very much aware that these guys built the foundation,” Anderson said in WTVG’s broadcast that aired April 21, 2008. “They were there when television first went on the air. We’re just carriers of the torch. They built the foundation. They put Channel 13 and Channel 11 on the map in this town. And we’re just here, in my opinion, to try to uphold the standards.”
WTGE broadcast that originally aired April 21, 2008:
This month Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke before a House panel about the current state of the economy. He pledged the central bank stands ready to act and do what is necessary to work towards reducing unemployment and keeping the economy moving. Mr. Bernanke also detailed the steps the central bank has taken so far to keep our economy from falling off a cliff. Yet, investors need to pay attention to what Bernanke said on his second day of testimony, “The way the current law is set up, we are going to have a very, very sharp contraction in the fiscal situation, increased taxes and cuts [in] spending that are very dramatic and that occur almost simultaneously on January 1 of 2013.” This is the “Fiscal Cliff” that Investors need to be prepared for.
• The 2% point tax reduction on payroll tax goes away. This will impact roughly 160 million works.
• The debt ceiling limit will be hit again. We are already at $16,000,000,000,000 and growing fast. (www.usdebtclock.org)
• The tax cuts under former President Bush in 2001 and 2003 then extended by President Obama are scheduled to expire.
• Federal Budget cuts that were part of the agreement reached during the 2011 Debt Ceiling agreement are set to take effect.
This combination of higher taxes and less spending could put our economy over the “Fiscal Cliff” as Mr. Bernanke pointed out. Stephen Fuller, from George Mason University, said “The unemployment rate will climb above 9%, pushing the economy towards recession and reducing projected growth in 2013 by two-thirds.”
The debates will only continue to heat up this year. Yet, in our opinion we are unlikely to see any real action taken until after the election. That will give our politicians less than two months to implement solutions. We can’t control what they get done, but here are three action items you can control.
#1. Income Tax Planning For Retirement Accounts:
A traditional retirement account grows tax-deferred and then the account owner pays income taxes in the future when withdrawals are made. If you think your individual tax rates will be higher in the future, you should have a Roth Conversion Triple Split Analysis done right now. This could allow an investor to potentially pay lower income tax rates now, and in the future. To qualify for the tax-free and penalty-free withdrawal of earnings, a Roth IRA must be in place for at least five tax years, and the distribution must take place after age 59 ½ or due to death, disability, or a first-time home purchase ($10,000 lifetime maximum). Depending on state law, Roth IRA distributions may be subject to state taxes. As a backup plan, if tax rates do not change or the strategy does not work as planned, the Roth recharacterization rules allow an investor to undo the conversion next year.
#2. Income Tax Planning for Regular Investment Accounts:
The stock market has significantly increased in price over the past four years. If the current Bush Era tax cuts expire, capital gain rates would increase from 15% up to 20%. Investors who own stock in a taxable account should consider locking in gains while capital gains rates are at historic lows. Next, investors receive dividends could be in for a shock next year. If the current dividend rate expires, rates would change from 15% to ordinary income rates. Thus an investor in the 25% tax bracket would see a 40% reduction in income due to higher taxes. To avoid a major reduction in income, retiree’s and investors should consider having Plan B in place.
#3. The new estate tax:
Remember that company stock that Dad and Mom have held onto all these years? Currently if they pass that stock on to you as a beneficiary all profits are forgiven in what is known as “stepped up basis.” If this law expires, it makes heirs extremely vulnerable to capital gains taxes on what could be highly appreciated stock. Plus, does anyone know what Mom or Dad paid for that stock years ago? Thus, the new rules would make record keeping a big nightmare. A solution is to help Mom or Dad take an inventory of their assets and get cost basis information as soon as possible.
A year from now, the focus may shift on the problems overseas to the problems right here at home. The “fiscal cliff” could turn out to a financial disaster here in the United States. Or maybe at the end of the year after the election results are in, our politicians can come together and quickly implement solutions to avoid the U.S. going back into a major recession. The “fiscal cliff” may turn out to be as much as a hoax as Y2K was. If an investor develops a plan this year on the three ways to be prepared for the “fiscal cliff” the bottom line is they will have a plan in place no matter what happens.
For more information about The Retirement Guys, tune in every Saturday at 1 PM on 1370 WSPD or visit www.retirementguysnetwork.com. Securities and Investment Advisory Services are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC. NEXT Financial Group, Inc. does not provide tax or legal advice. The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. The office is at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537. 419-842-0550
