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Miller: What the world needs now

By
Michael Miller
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I have read enough John Irving novels to know it is impossible to construct a figurative protective dome around one’s family.

As our sons, Evan, 5, and Sean, 3, experience more of the world and its many wonders, I struggle with the balance between letting them explore and stumble or being a “helicopter parent,” hovering, removing obstacles and trying to stay one step ahead with an endless roll of Bubble Wrap, which hides the world even as it softens it.

Evan is rounding the corner toward the end of kindergarten, and it has been thrilling to watch his exponential growth. Hearing him count to 100 and watching him read his way through beginner’s books, sounding out unfamiliar words until they click, are among my life’s great joys.

I did not grow up in a particularly warm or loving household, which was great training for being a journalist. But I had some tremendous role models in friends’ families, and married a woman from a large, close and loving family, so I understand the importance of expressing love to family and friends.

If Evan and Sean know nothing else about life, they know they are loved. Their mom and I tell them openly and freely, not from habit, but from overwhelmed hearts filled with gratitude for their health and very existence. The boys hear “I love you” from their parents, their grandparents, their many aunts and uncles, their extended family and the groups of friends in our lives.

We are teaching them that, in addition to all the love they are blessed to have in their lives, there is an even greater love promised to them through their creator and heavenly host. The Cleavers, Waltons, Huxtables, Barones, Hecks and Dunphys got nothin’ on us.

But outside the protective parameters of home and family, Evan is learning some tough lessons about love and expression. He recently told a friend on the bus “I love you,” and the friend reacted by calling him weird and pushing him away. This hurt Evan’s feelings and led to a dinner table discussion about what love means to different people and the reality that not everyone shares their feelings the same way, or is open to having other’s feelings shared with them.

It broke my heart to have to add conditions to Evan’s idea of unconditional love. How sad for the world that by 5 years old, some kids are already growing cynical and adverse to expressing or receiving love in its most innocent form.

A week after the bus incident, Evan demonstrated some remarkable resilience. He was assigned to fill in a poster about himself for his special week at school, and in the lines for “What makes you special?” he wrote, in his nascent yet confident block letters, “I love everybody in the world.”

Sean, who does everything he can to keep up with his big brother, said, “Me, too!” I know that won’t always be true. But it is for now, and I bless their little hearts for not yet wavering under the peer pressure that may one day pierce their loving outlook, but for now is being kept at bay.

You’ll read this someday, Evan and Sean, long after I am passed to dust, but even then, I want you to know that you were right to love, you are right to love, and that even now, separated as we are, I love you.

Bonus Evan story

Raising two sons, I am particularly sensitive to language and the power of words, and struggle with my vulgar tendencies.

In the first of what will undoubtedly be a long line of parental hypocrisies, I am working to keep them from employing words they may occasionally hear from me (especially in traffic). Recently, winding through a line at Westgate’s Costco, Evan was seated in the shopping cart, happily stuffed with free food samples (he is fascinated by the myriad samples offered at Costco; it could be a piece of bagel, fruit, something freshly cooked or plastic wrap from the floor, and he’s captivated by the offering).

He politely asked for a clerk’s attention and said, “Would you like to hear a funny noise?” “It had better be a polite noise,” I admonished.

The clerk agreed and Evan blew a benign raspberry on the back of his hand.

“That could have been worse,” I thought to myself.

“That was funny,” the clerk indulged, smiling at Evan’s halo of innocence.

“Yes, it sounded like a fart!” Evan said, smiling ear to ear, halo shattered as if by one of his beloved Angry Birds.

“Evan!” I chided. “That’s potty talk. Apologize.”

The clerk, who was understandably cracking up but trying not to encourage the boy, motioned that it was OK, but I was trying to look stern.

Evan apologized and looked contrite, but I still felt compelled to emphasize the rudeness of his mistake, so I played the nuclear option: “Son, you know how Nana would react if she heard you talking that way.”

That got his attention and drained the humor from the situation.

As we pushed the cart toward the door, I kept the “daddy eyes” trained on him to show I meant business about the potty talk, taking my eyes off the large container of apples in the cart, which split and tumbled, apples rolling away as if fleeing from their gastronomical fate.

“Damn it!” I said.

“Daddy,” Evan said, smiling. “Am I going to have to talk to Nana?”

I gave him an apple, leaned in close and blew a raspberry at him.

Kuron: The Tomahawk – a striking work of art

By
Toledo Free Press
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Hatchet plus art equals tomahawk, which held much ceremonial importance to the Native American

You know that classic scolding and have probably caught yourself repeating it to your own kids: “Don’t run around with those scissors, or somebody’s gonna get hurt!” I wonder if any Native American moms similarly admonished their warrior sons. Those boys grew into men who ran into battles with their favorite weapon in hand, the tomahawk, and usually somebody did get hurt.

By 1812, the Native Americans had already been trading for years with the white man to gain better weaponry. They still used the bow and arrow and knives, and were now accumulating their share of muskets; but they always had a special fondness for the tomahawk, or uh, the hatchet.

I can’t be the only one who mixes up those two terms. Are they interchangeable? Well, a few people throughout history have loosely used either name to describe any number of similar-appearing instruments. Today, when referring to a hatchet, it’s the one always having a slightly curved handle that is no more than a foot long. It sports a wedge-shaped metal head with a blade on one side and often a hammer head on the other. Many simply have a ring (or poll) that slips over the wooden shaft. The Native Americans and some frontiersmen used the hatchet more often as a tool than a weapon, but it was both.

The tomahawk design took the hatchet concept to the next level. I mean, there are bicycles and then there are Harleys, right? The name alone, tomahawk, has become synonymous with awesomeness. Even our most sophisticated cruise missiles, the ones that could target a squirrel from hundreds of miles away, carry the same appellation because in the right hands they are a precision weapon — with a ton of swagger.

The combination of a long, straight wooden handle and a weighted head made the Native American tomahawk a device that could strike an enemy swiftly and accurately. It was still the preferred weapon for close combat during the War of 1812 battles, as is historically evident in numerous paintings.

Tomahawks were not just constructed, however; they were crafted. The Native Americans embellished the wooden handles with exquisite carvings and ornamentation. They traded for the forged heads, which blacksmiths often beautifully engraved in meticulous detail. The side of the head opposing the blade took many shapes, such as a spike or hammer, but a pipe bowl was most popular — making these tomahawks not only instruments of war, but of peace.

Deliberations between white men and Native Americans were often concluded with the pipe/tomahawk being passed amongst them. The handle actually had a hole drilled its entire length and the inhaling end was variously tapered. Though stories abound, it would be wrong to assume that anything more robust than tobacco was lit in these pipes on formal occasions such as treaty signings. The pipe-smoking ceremony was actually religious in nature and tobacco was a sacred element. The smoke symbolized prayers wafting up to the Great Spirit, not unlike the Catholic practice of lighting candles. The use of hallucinogens in these situations would have been profane.

Some tomahawks were created strictly as grand gifts. Col. Henry Proctor, leader of the British forces throughout our Northwest Territory, presented the great Tecumseh, for his allegiance to the crown, a beautiful pipe/tomahawk engraved along the blade, “To Chief Tecumseh, From Col. Proctor, MDCCCXII.”

Tecumseh was known to reciprocate this gift-giving toward his white friends. In 1807, he presented then governor of Ohio, Thomas Worthington, a magnificent tomahawk which is still on display at Worthington’s Adena mansion, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Closer to home, John Waggoner, one of the first settlers of Fremont, Ohio, and the fourth great-grandfather of current Toledo resident Mr. Jay Waggoner, also received a Tecumseh tomahawk before the war broke out. John Waggoner served with the American forces at Fort Meigs in 1813 against his friend, but that gift has survived 200 years and was recently donated by the family to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont. Adena and the Hayes Center are two great, history-laden day trips.

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

[email protected]

Bugle Call: Upcoming events

 

  • The Wolcott House Museum Guild continues sponsoring free history lectures about our region at 10 a.m. Thursdays through March at the Maumee Branch Library Auditorium, 501 River Road.
  • The Western Lake Erie Region during the War of 1812 will be the focus of the annual Friends of Pearson March Sunday Series, at 2 p.m. each week in Macomber Lodge at Pearson Metropark. Upcoming sessions include: March 18, when Daniel Downing, education and operations chief at the River Raisin National Battlefield, will discuss the famous battle at the Monroe battlefield; and March 25, when local historian and author Larry Michaels will conclude the series with a session about Northwest Ohio’s best-known explorer, Peter Navarre, who played a role in the war.

Biden in Toledo: “America is coming back”

By
Toledo Free Press
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Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the UAW Local 12 hall in Toledo March 15, 2012. Toledo Free Press photo

The United Auto Workers Local 12 Union hall on Ashland Avenue rang with rowdy hoots and hollers from hundreds of people gathering to see Vice President Joe Biden the morning of March 15.

Young children bearing broad grins perched on their parents’ shoulders, squirming and craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the stage. Middle-aged and elderly people alike waved signs and chanted “Obama’s for the people; we are the people!” in anticipation of Biden’s arrival. Packed between rails separating them from the stage, their energy sounded electrically charged.

Many of them were autoworkers themselves, present to hear Biden celebrate the industry’s revival.

Deborah McGaughey, a 57-year-old employee for the Chrysler Jeep plant,  has worked in the industry for 29 years. She said she is personally thankful for Obama’s actions.

“He walked into a mess,” she said. “But he saved my job.”

Biden stressed this point to the crowds, sharing a story from his own childhood about his father making the long walk to his bedroom to tell him that he was going to move 156 miles away to look for a job.

Trapped in a city where jobs had dried up, Biden said, his father explained that once he found a job he’d move Biden and his mother there.

“A lot of you have made that long walk to your kids’ bedrooms,” Biden said. “Because of the actions of the president, things have changed today. Hundreds of thousands of workers are replacing the longest walks with a journey — it’s a journey that ends with workers who are able to go home and say, ‘I’ve got a job.’”

Biden criticized Republican opponents Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich for discrediting the success of the auto rescue. He called out Romney for his past prediction that Obama’s plan would make “GM the living dead” and for his 2008 statement that the country should “let Detroit go bankrupt.”

The crowd bellowed “Boo.”

Biden highlighted the fact that Jeep and Chrysler have started hiring thousands of employees and that plants are expanding. He said that the Republicans can’t deny that good jobs are being created so they’re trying various flawed arguments. Republicans have said that the private sector would have stepped in to save the industry, that the plan was just a “giveaway to union bosses” and that Ford Motor Co. would have filled the void if GM and Chrysler failed, he said.

But even Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally has said that had the companies failed, they would have pulled down the whole industry, Biden reminded his listeners.

The Obama administration faced a great deal of criticism before the auto rescue plan was implemented and still does today. Critics say it is unfair for some businesses to go through the  bankruptcy process when the government extends aid to others.

Biden said now, though, the rise of the two companies are showing the opponents are “dead wrong” and what Obama did was right.

“This is a man with steel in his spine; he knew that resurrecting the industry wasn’t going to be popular and he knew he was taking a chance. But he believed,” Biden said. “He wasn’t going to give up on a million jobs in the iconic industry that America invented.”

After the speech, Rich DeVore, President of UAW Local 1435, stood outside on the lawn with some of his fellow auto workers. The union supports Biden because Obama supported them “when they were in a pinch,” DeVore said.

DeVore works at Chrysler in Perrysburg and said he sees evidence of the industry perking up first hand. He’s seen 35 new workers get hired within the past two weeks. About 13 others who left town for work elsewhere have been recalled recently, he said.

McGaughey, too, experiences the effect of government policy first hand. She said she liked how Biden called out the Republicans for their actions.

“They don’t care about the middle class,” she said. “Mitt Romney already said he doesn’t care about the poor.”

JEDZ: Regional cooperation ‘open for business’

By
Toledo Free Press
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Boundaries and, as of March 2012, vacancies in the Maumee-Monclova joint economic development zone. Map by Feller, Finch & Associates Inc.

The city of Toledo had carried on like a “300-pound gorilla” up until the past 10 years.

At least, that’s Deputy Mayor Tom Crothers’ take on the city’s history of quietly buying up chunks of farmland in Monclova Township, taking care to purchase narrow strips of land to connect newly annexed property to the rest of the city. For example, Toledo owns two holes of Brandywine Golf Course for that reason.

Monclova Township wasn’t happy about it.

“Nobody liked it,” Crothers said. “Under the Bell administration we have a decidedly different approach, and that’s regional cooperation.”

Solid cooperation between the city and the township began in 2003, when Monclova Township voters approved the two entities partnering with Maumee to form a joint economic development zone (JEDZ). The area stretches along I-475 and extends to Strayer Road between Salisbury Road and the City of Maumee limit line.

A JEDZ is an agreement between municipalities and townships that allows townships to collect income tax on businesses and people working within its boundaries. Law does not permit townships to collect income taxes so they must rely on property taxes to bring in the bulk of their revenues. But when the housing market dives and the state government tightens its financial support for local governments, townships can easily run into trouble.

The entities involved in the JEDZ form a board and its members divide certain portions of the tax revenue that results. Then, some of the money is pooled and used to attract businesses to the area by, for example, offering tax rebates later.

This particular JEDZ splits the income tax revenue evenly between Maumee, Monclova and Toledo. Collections based on the 1.5 percent income tax totaled more than $778,500 in 2011.

The agreement benefits townships by filling budget holes caused by falling property tax revenue. It can benefit the cities involved by attracting more businesses and filling out the entire metropolitan region. And it can benefit a new or expanding business. After a business operates for a year, the board will select businesses located in the zone for tax rebates of up to $20,000 a year for up to 10 years. The formula is based on payroll and number of employees, said Chuck Hoecherl, Monclova Township trustee.

But, if you’re a business owner operating within the zone prior to the agreement and you don’t plan to hire more employees or expand, you’re out 1.5 percent of your earnings. If you’re an employee working and living in a township where you previously were not paying income tax, you’re out of luck, too.

That’s what happened to some employees at Jann’s Netcraft, a fishing supply company, when the JEDZ formed in 2004.

“The people who work here basically got a 1.5 percent reduction in their income,” said owner David Jankowski.

He and one of his employees, Robert Barnhart, took the JEDZ board to court through a series of filings that reached the Sixth District Court of Appeals. They tried to take the case to the Ohio Supreme Court when the lower court ruled the JEDZ lawful but the high court refused to hear the case.

Jankowski said he chose his location on Briarfield Road because it was close to I-475 and that the new income tax never threatened to run him out of business. However, his biggest objection to the JEDZ is that the area selected was already developed before the zone was declared.

In theory, JEDZ are helpful for economic development when they are designated in places that have little to no business or are in particularly depressed areas, said Jerry Miller, vice president of Miller Diversified Properties.

Say, for example, a company wants to build on a chunk of land but is discouraged from settling because there is no convenient water line. The JEDZ board, having raised money through the income tax deal, should be able to afford to construct a water line so the business could move in, he said.

Jankowski said he’s not seeing any benefits where his business sits.

“I am a small government kind of person,” he said. “I feel that you can drive economic development without government oversight. If there’s a market there, it’ll happen.”

Hoecherl said Monclova was able to afford new fire equipment that the township otherwise wouldn’t have been able to purchase. Collections also helped to keep the township serviced by sheriff’s deputies when the county could no longer afford to patrol the area without charge, Hoecherl said. Residents have since voted in favor of a levy that covers policing costs.

Maumee used the funds to complete intersection improvements on U.S. 23 and on Jerome and Monclova roads. Toledo has used its share for road and utility improvements.

But the ultimate goal is to pull new businesses in and develop the zone further.

Savage-McVicker Insurance and Service Spring Corp. are the first businesses the board has awarded with the tax rebate grant. They will feel the effects in 2013, Hoecherl said.

Construction on the stretch of U.S. 23 near the Salisbury Road exit has completed, the Jerome Road connector to Fallen Timbers is done and the area has a lot of shovel-ready, open land. Add in easy access to the turnpike, proximity to I-75 and U.S. 23 and the area is very marketable, Hoecherl said.

The Bell administration has been traveling across the world to attract business people to the region. The JEDZ is one tool that the city can use to help attract successful, foreign business. Also, the region is developing an EB-5 Visa Center, which invites foreign investors to commit $500,000 to a business endeavor here and create 10 jobs in exchange for a faster track to permanent residency, Crothers said.

“When we go overseas, they discover that [Toledo’s] right in the middle of everything,” he said. “You’ve got this great rail and oh, by the way, one-sixth of the world’s fresh water is right here. That’s the oil of the 21st century.”

The puttin’ o’ the greens (Ireland, but not just golf)

By
Toledo Free Press
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Carrageen Castle in Ireland -- Photo by Judy Pfaffenbarger

For a long time the Emerald Isle eluded me in my travels.

For some reason, most of those who travel with me just seemed to have little interest. So I decided to resort to my husband, who doesn’t really like to travel. Throughout the years I have learned dangling golf as a carrot was about the best way to get him to go anywhere. After tempting him with that, I  thought by going in late April we would encounter spring rains and there wouldn’t be much golf. I was wrong! Only one day was there no golf.

Since neither of us wanted to drive on the “wrong” side, we talked my cousin Rick Hambleton, who can drive a stick shift and also loves golf, into going with us. (Renting a standard shift car anywhere in Europe is much cheaper than going with an automatic.) Since no nonstop flights are available from Detroit to Ireland, we flew via Chicago to Shannon.

Bed and breakfasts are quite plentiful, so we booked only our first and last nights ahead. Double rooms ran between 50 and 75 euros ($1.30 = 1 euro). Although this trip was eight years ago, I checked current prices for some of the places and they were not significantly higher. We also stayed in two hostels where we had a private double room en suite with Rick bunking in the dorm. These were slightly less expensive than the bed and breakfasts.

Our first destination was the town of Cahir, passing through Tipperary — not a long way. We spent the night in Carrigeen Castle, a real treat. The guys played golf while I walked along the river to Swiss Cottage.

The next day we explored Cahir Castle before hitting the road to tour Killarney National Park, and enjoyed a jaunting car (carriage) ride into the Gap of Dunloe. Later I roamed the quaint town of Kenmare while they golfed at the Ring of Kerry Golf Club. Our rooms at the Bay View Farm were simple but adequate and included an extensive Irish breakfast. Note: Only the hostels didn’t include breakfast.

The Ring of Kerry, with its spectacular coastal views, was the next leg of our journey after a morning round of golf at the Parknasilla Hotel. While Rick and my husband golfed, I walked some of the adjacent trails.

Later that afternoon we arrived at Dingletown on the Dingle Peninsula,where we stayed in the Ballingtaggart Hostel with a view of the bay. We had thought about biking the peninsula the next morning, but since the weather was beautiful that afternoon, we drove it to check it out. The road turned out to be narrow, winding and somewhat hilly with considerable traffic so we decided to take our time and savor the views and pass on the bike ride. Back in Dingletown that evening, we enjoyed an evening of Irish music at Murphy’s Pub.

The golf course was too crowded in the morning so we headed north toward the Cliffs of Moher. These are truly spectacular with sunny  but windy weather that day. Our bed and breakfast was at Spanish Point, so named because it was near where the British Fleet defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Doolin, just north of the cliffs, is famous for Irish music but here we found our bargain golf of the trip. Nine holes (par 3) with a great view of the cliffs cost just $5 in an honor system box. From there we went north to Cong and “The Quiet Man” country, visiting some places connected with the movie. We spent the evening strolling the grounds of Ashford Castle, the former home of the Guinness brewing family.

The pretty planned Georgian town of Westport, golf at Clew Bay, the Coffin Ship Memorial to those who didn’t make their destinations during the famine, Croagh Patrick Mountain (where 50,000 pilgrims climb with bare feet in July), and the desolate but picturesque DooLough Valley filled our next day. The Beach House where we stayed provided our best sunset.

The old city of Galway was our next destination. We visited the church where Christopher Columbus prayed before setting out on one of his New World journeys. Earlier, at our balconied bed and breakfast facing Galway Bay, our gracious hosts made a tee time for the guys and  then invited me to attend church with them. The choir was made up of immigrants from Nigeria.

Our last day of driving took us through the Burren with its stone fences, hundreds of stone forts and strange rock formations to our final  bed and breakfast near Bunratty Castle where we would attend a medieval musical feast. We also managed to squeeze in nine more holes. A great ending to eight magical days on the Emerald Isle with “the luck o’ the Irish” giving us such good weather.

Megabus adding Toledo-Ann Arbor route

By
Brigitta Burks
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People in Ann Arbor now have another option for getting to Toledo: discount bus company Megabus.com, which added a stop to the city March 14.

Megabus customers can already get to Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago from Toledo.

“There’s tons of people interested, so I’m hoping that’s going to work well for us,” said Bryony Chamberlain, director of operations for Megabus. “The college students of Ann Arbor have really helped us grow.”

Megabus is known for its $1 fares, available for customers who book early.

The bus company, which started April 2006, is a subsidiary of Coach USA and has transported more than 15 million travelers. Last year, 26,000 passengers traveled from Toledo, Chamberlain said.

Toledo’s Megabus stop is on the south side of Southwyck Boulevard, between Reynolds Road and Cheyenne Boulevard, and the Ann Arbor stop is on the west side of South State Street. The trip between Ann Arbor and Toledo is slated to take about two and a half hours and includes a stop in Detroit. Tickets must be purchased ahead of time at us.megabus.com.

Toledoan Mike Ferner used Megabus 60 times recently when he held a temporary position with St. Louis nonprofit Veterans for Peace. (He traveled from Toledo to Chicago, where he picked up another Megabus route to St. Louis.)

After some misadventures and a few too many trips, he swore he’d never ride Megabus again, but now said he may reconsider.

“Ann Arbor’s a great town. If I was gonna go to Ann Arbor, I’d probably drive, but it depends,” he said. “Ann Arbor is a nice addition to [Megabus’] routes. Ann Arbor is a great town to go up to for the day.”

Despite not booking early enough to score a $1 ticket, Ferner said he chose to travel with Megabus to save costs for the nonprofit he worked for. He also said taking buses helps reduce energy consumption.

“I’d give [Megabus] overall maybe a C-plus or B-minus,” he said, adding the buses were typically clean and the drivers good at what they do.

Customers have a better chance of getting those $1 fares if they book early, according to a news release. Fares increase as the travel date approaches.

The company is proud of its cost-efficiency.

“Megabus.com has rapidly become the travel option of choice for millions of people and today we’re excited to expand our offerings to and from Ann Arbor,” said President and COO Dale Moser in a news release. “As Americans continue to look for ways to stretch their income, we will continue to provide safe, convenient and affordable travel to Ann Arbor-area residents.”

For more information, visit us.megabus.com.

Pounds: Collins on a roll

By
Tom Pounds
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He is not popular in Mayor Mike Bell’s office, nor is he universally adored by his fellow Toledo City Council members, but Councilman D. Michael Collins has been on a major roll lately.

Although he did not get credit for it at first, it was Collins’ persistence that led to the investigation of the Department of Neighborhoods, and has now led to an Environmental Protection Agency mandate for the testing of sludge in the Maumee River and Lake Erie.

As Toledo Free Press Staff Writer Caitlin McGlade wrote in January, “In August, contractors approached Collins with stories of bid rigging and intimidation from the city department. He said he listened and started digging through public records. As word began to spread about his research, calls flooded in with more tips.

“He and his legislative aide, Lisa Renee Ward (a former Toledo Free Press Web editor), compared bids and found that two separate proposals were nearly identical. He found that an accountant group working on a city deal had walked away from a community development corporation, citing the city was not cooperating with required records transfers. He conducted cross-examination interviews with contractors about bid rigging and found that all of the stories mirrored each other.”

The resulting shake-up in the department is still being felt and may not be over, as findings come to light.

This week, McGlade broke the news that “S&L Fertilizer, the company that handles all of the city’s sludge, will have to hire a consultant to determine the impact that the company’s Maumee Bay site might have on the river and Lake Erie.

“The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has mandated ‘meaningful water and soil sampling data’ through computerized models and sampling plans as a result of numerous complaints surrounding the facility.”

Collins has been bombarding the agency with records requests for months regarding S&L and now the EPA is acting.

There are some who say Collins has his eyes on the mayor’s job, and that his work is no more than political grandstanding.

But if these unquestionable community benefits are the results of his political ambitions, perhaps he should be encouraged to run for president.

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

EPA mandates testing of sludge site

By
Caitlin McGlade
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S&L Fertilizer, the company that handles all of the city’s sludge, must hire a consultant to determine the impact the company’s Maumee Bay site might have on the Maumee River and Lake Erie.

As first reported at www.toledofreepress.com on March 12, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has mandated “meaningful water and soil sampling data” through computerized models and sampling plans as a result of numerous complaints surrounding the facility. The company’s consultant would have to hand in results within two years of the contract’s start.

“It’s a legitimate concern; there are good questions being asked,” said Dina Pierce, spokesperson for the Ohio EPA. “Obviously the western basin is a very sensitive area from an ecological standpoint.”

Most complaints have flooded in from N-Viro, the company with which the city contracted prior to switching entirely to S&L.

Councilman D. Michael Collins, who has hammered the agency with records requests for months regarding S&L, shared similar concerns with N-Viro, Pierce said.

S&L has operated under the city’s permit for years but new regulations require that the company apply for its own. The permit is still in the draft stages, and the agency is amending pieces of it based on concerns that emerged during the public comment period, Pierce said. The particular sampling that the EPA will now require of S&L is not standard for all permits of this type, she said.

“The question keeps getting asked over and over and this is an attempt for us to say, ‘Let’s just do it,’” she said.

She pointed out that S&L’s facility takes up only a small portion of the entire island on which it sits. Sampling could also help determine to what extent environmental impact is attributed to the company compared to the entire area, which the Lucas County Port Authority operates. The island has been filled with dredging material for decades, so it is unlikely that any potential problems would be the sole responsibility of the sludge facility, Pierce said.

“We’ve done inspections out there and we see no evidence that there is any run-off getting into the lake from S&L operations,” she said. S&L Fertilizer has leased property on the island for decades, accepting a portion of the city’s waste, mixing it with other materials and sending some remains to the Hoffman Road Landfill. The result is called “Nu Soil.”

Until recently, N-Viro handled Toledo’s bio-waste. The company would take about 50 percent of the waste and mix it with high alkaline products, which raises the temperature and kills E. coli, worms and fecal coliform. The company sent its product to farmers across Northwest Ohio for its fertilizer-like qualities, said Robert Bohmer, vice president of N-Viro.

Terry Perry, the head of S&L, did not return phone calls for comment.

N-Viro produces what is considered a Class A biosolid, while S&L produces a Class B. This means that 98-99 percent of the pathogens have been removed and it is unlikely to spread disease. The city can use Class B material at landfills, but needs an EPA permit to spread it elsewhere.

Once approved, farmers can use it in fields, depending on the crop, as long as the area is restricted from human contact for a designated number of days. Cities can also use the product at places like public parks as long as they fence off the area for a year.

Collins has been researching the stipulations of this rule and trying to verify that all Class B biosolids have been accurately accounted for. A letter from the Department of Public Utilities raised alarm for Collins months ago. It stated that no Class B material from N-Viro or S&L had been delivered anywhere but the landfill. But according to city records, the company made deliveries to Ravine Park in 2007 and 2010.

Pierce said the city filed the appropriate paperwork for the reclamation project to be approved. Other nonlandfill places the mud has gone include the Retirees Golf Course, a private residence and a cemetery.

The city made the deal with S&L on the condition that the company produce at least $200,000 worth of topsoil annually. Collins and council members Lindsay Webb and Rob Ludeman voted against the contract. The city had completed its own testing of the surrounding environment and results came up clean.

Collins insisted that the city ought to employ an independent consultant to test the soil at the facility, but most Council members declined. Council president Joe McNamara, who has called Collins’ investigation into the sludge facility a “crusade,” said he thinks the EPA’s mandate is a relief.  Council had asked an EPA representative to attend council meetings during the decision-making process in the fall, but the agency declined, McNamara said.

McNamara solidly stood by the city’s positive test results and denounced the idea that “testing the mud” for bacteria and phosphorous, as Collins suggested, would prove anything.

“I think that it’s great the EPA has come up with a scientifically sound measure to test if there’s a problem,” McNamara said. “If it discovers something that we didn’t think was happening, we’ll stop. This puts the debate to bed.”

Not for Collins.

“It was in bed and this is now the awakening of the issue. We will now find out what we were afraid to find out if in fact the practice is not safe,” Collins said. “I feel this amplifies a response that council was not willing to do and that was to protect the environment by insisting that a study be done.”

Mercy Field marks firsts for many

By
Caitlin McGlade
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Cleves Delp throws the first pitch at Mercy Field, March 14, 2012. Toledo Free Press photo by Joseph Herr.

Before a backdrop of winter’s bare trees against spring’s azure sky, they stood.

The young men, standing in a semicircle from first to third base, are the ballplayers who get to break in Mercy Field.

Hundreds of parents, baseball fans and school leaders alike gathered to celebrate a number of “firsts” the evening of March 14. This marks the first year that Lourdes University has a baseball team. This is the first year that Central Catholic High School will call a new field home. It is the first time that Mercy has named a sports facility.

Everything about the place is polished. The ground on the field is covered with state-of-the-art turf — the same material The Ohio State University and the Pittsburgh Pirates use. The bleachers, which can handle more than 400 people, have a sleek shine. Walk inside the brick building wrapping around the field and you’ll find a study room equipped with wireless Internet and a spacious locker room.

“It’s sort of unreal to walk out there and say ‘Yeah, this is my home field,’” said Austin Gunn, a junior studying education at Lourdes University.

The ground upon which he stood was planted years ago by a man named Cleves Delp. Delp runs The Delp Company, a consulting firm in Maumee that deals in wealth and risk management and employee benefits.

A couple of years ago, Delp approached Father Dennis Hartigan, president of Central Catholic, and asked him what he thought about building a baseball field for the school. The school’s administration took surveys of the community to determine whether the idea would catch, but Hartigan concluded that the school would have trouble finding enough donors to fund the project, Hartigan said.

Delp decided to pay for it himself.

He rented land on South Holland-Sylvania Road from the Diocese of Toledo, paid to have the facility built and drew in Mercy as a sponsor. Some 100 meetings later, Lourdes University and Central Catholic now rent the field from him.

Delp played baseball for Central Catholic as a teen and continued playing baseball during college. But, he said, this is not about baseball.

“This field is about the extension of the renaissance of Central Catholic High School,” he said. “It really isn’t about baseball; that is just the conduit to the real mission.”

The deed also extends the arms of Lourdes University. Under President Robert Helmer’s watch, who is leaving for Baldwin-Wallace College, the institution has added a men’s baseball team and men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams. Next year, the school will have a softball team, he said.

Delp said he feels close to Central Catholic because it is “uniquely” Catholic. For example, he said the entire tennis team must attend Mass on Fridays. He used to serve on the school’s board and his marketing director, Jesse MacDonald, is the school’s tennis coach.  He also cited the school’s quality of education; it was the first in the area to offer an international baccalaureate diploma.

Delp may have funded most of the operation, but the feat was not something he did alone. He credits his good friend and Central Catholic baseball coach Jeff Mielcarek, who is also the Catholic Youth Organization athletic director, with helping him foster the idea. As kids, he said they both played Little League, but not on the same team. As they grew up, their lives continued to intertwine. They worked for the Mud Hens together at one point. One day, Mielcarek suggested to Delp that the two should dream.

“Little did I know, [Mielcarek] delivered,” he said. “Here we are, a few hundreds of thousands of dollars later.”

The project also united four Catholic institutions that have never worked together on such a scale. Delp did not set out to only work with Catholic entities, but he said he was pleased that it turned out that way.

Hartigan and Helmer both said Wednesday that the deal is all about providing what is best for the students. That means seeing a student as a well-rounded individual in body, soul and mind. Athletic involvement stands for part of this, Hartigan said.

When ethical breaches abound in the national sports arena, such as the New Orleans Saints’ bounty scandal, anchoring sports in some kind of values is vital, Delp said.

“Athletics in the absence of a value-based system, whatever system that may be that you may choose, is dangerous,” he said. “Athletics for the purpose of athletics and not for the purpose of building character is dangerous and it causes people to do silly things. To put certain things like winning above what was really supposed to be happening, and that’s building character.”

Baumhower: How grounding a grown man saved his radio career

By
Jeremy Baumhower
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On Feb. 4, 2011, Wood County Common Pleas Judge Alan Mayberry forbid Andrew Zepeda, aka Andrew Z, from drinking and/or going to any place that sells liquor for the next two years … basically grounding him, but as it turns out, maybe saving his radio career. On March 12, Cumulus Broadcasting announced that Tim and Jeff were leaving Toledo for a syndication deal in Fayetteville, Ark., and that Andrew Z and his “People’s Show” would replace them. I was not shocked by the move as it seems that Andrew Z, like Stella, finally got his groove back.

I will publicly admit I was not a fan of Andrew Z’s show on KISS FM, because there was not much of a show.  I am a radio guy, who makes his living writing and producing radio morning shows across our great country, so I consider myself a sort of morning show purist, almost an obnoxious elitist.

Toledo has an outstanding history of great morning radio shows that have worked here and dominated, like Steve Mason/Diane, Jeff/Mark, Carlson/MacKenzie and Denny Shaffer. Those shows gave Toledoans great content to listen to every morning and it felt at times as if the entire city was listening. The previously mentioned shows also dominated in the ratings.

As I have mentioned before, the FCC changed the game in 1997 with ownership rules and Toledo morning radio really took the hit. What used to be numerous mom and pop stations were sold off to two radio conglomerates (Clear Channel, Cumulus) who were more concerned with cash than content. Although the Toledo radio landscape had changed, Toledoans’ need/desire for a great morning shows had not.

The downfall of Andrew Z’s KISS FM show began when he first announced he was opening his pizzeria. The show slowly transitioned from giving people a reason to listen, to giving constant promotional plugs for his restaurant. Andrew Z then became more focused on his outside business entities than his own radio show, but never once did he seem to realize it.

As his business grew, so did his opportunities; he put together a locally based traveling stand-up comedy show, he opened a restaurant location in Defiance, then another in Downtown Toledo. There are more businesses he opened that I am simply not listing here. With every new business, another portion of his show was dedicated to promoting it.

The last year of his KISS FM show was like a four-hour infomercial for Andrew Zepeda enterprises, yet people still listened. Clear Channel had known for some time that his content was being held hostage, because replacing Andrew Z meant they would have to pick up a corporately owned syndicated morning show, which Clear Channel calls “Premium Choice.”

If Clear Channel Toledo had fired Andrew Z any earlier than they did, Toledo would have lost another local radio morning show for good.

Everyone in Toledo knows that Andrew Z lost it all; they know he was arrested for making poor choices, his businesses were all closed by the banks, and finally he was not renewed with Clear Channel Toledo. Andrew is Toledo’s own VH1 “Behind The Music” story and this was the wake-up call he needed.

Cumulus Broadcasting made a very wise investment when it signed Andrew Z last July.  By signing him at a significantly lower salary and putting him on a nonexistent signal, they put his career in his own hands — put up or shut up.

In July, when Andrew Z launched his “People’s Show” on 100.7 The Vibe, his show sounded refreshingly different. Long gone were all his distractions as there were no businesses to plug. His show’s lineup had changed, as Sarah Hegarty,  Demetrius Nicodemus and Carlos Diaz stayed on with KISS FM, allowing for some dynamic changes.

His new lineup on the show features local musician Calen Savidge, comedians Donny Palicki and Brandon Doriot and Michelle Zepeda, former FOX Toledo reporter and Andrew’s wife. This change and the fact that Andrew Z has nothing else to do with his time due to the two-year “grounding” by Judge Mayberry has drastically improved the quality of the show; it may be his finest yet.

The show’s musical/comedic talents have been able to shine on a daily basis because the clutter of plugs are gone. You combine them and a focused/determined Andrew Z and you get a 60-watt FM station showing up in the ratings. Cumulus had no choice but to make a change.

Andrew Z’s fall from grace was not graceful. It was ugly and many would say deserved.

Although I was not a fan of his show at the end of his KISS run, I am a fan of him as a person. Andrew Z is one of the most genuine people in Toledo radio. He has been incredibly humbled and turned his humiliation into a reborn desire to perform and prove himself. He is a great Dickens character who almost ruined his life with his mistakes, but was given a second chance, like many Toledoans.

If he can continue to improve and grow the show, there will be a ratings shake-up.

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