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Pedestrian Struck, Killed

2013-05-20T10:16:35-04:00

ST. MARYS — A Cridersville man was struck and killed by a vehicle along U.S. 33 early Sunday morning.

According to a crash report from the Wapakoneta Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, at approximately 1:33 a.m. Sunday, Joshua J. Wingate, 32, of Cridersville, was walking or standing in the right lane of westbound traffic along U.S. 33, near mile post 7, just west of Townline-Kossuth Road, when he was struck by a westbound 2009 Ford Flex driven Rebecca Macwhinney, 34, of St. Marys.

Trooper Brian Mull told The Evening Leader Macwhinney told troopers she never saw Wingate. He also noted two other vehicles nearly hit Wingate before the crash. Mull said Wingate was pronounced dead at the scene by a representative from the Auglaize County Coroner’s Office.

In addition to troopers, the St. Marys Police Department, St. Marys Fire Department and Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene. No citations will be issued and the crash remains under investigation.

Anglers Catch Record-Haul

2013-05-20T13:04:39-04:00

ST. MARYS — The third annual “Get the Carp Outta Here” Carp Derby was once again successful in its goal of removing as many of the bottom feeders as possible.

Two years ago, there were 8,142 pounds of carp caught by participants over the two-day event. Last year, the number was 12,831 pounds, and this year, participants caught 15,541 pounds.

Grand Lake St. Marys has been shown to have an imbalance in the number of carp that can be found in the lake compared to the number of other species of fish. Carp also add to the unwanted phosphorus in the lake. The fish feed off the sediment at the bottom of the lake, and when they die, their bodies leave behind more of the chemical than was present before.

The Lake Improvement Association and the Auglaize and Mercer Counties Convention and Visitors Bureau created the carp derby to help decrease the number of carp in the lake.

“It’s a neat community event — it’s been fun,” said Dan Manning, owner of the Outdoorsmen.

“People come from all over. I know there was somebody here from Tennessee yesterday. I know there’s a group of people from around our state that (does) this. They’ll travel from lake to lake to do this kind of thing.”

Manning and his wife, Brenda, were one of the many sponsors in the tournament.

Participants had from 4 p.m. Friday until noon Sunday to catch as many carp as possible and present the fish to the volunteers working the various weigh-in stations scattered across the lake, from St. Marys to Celina.

Greg Schumm, with the Lake Restoration Commission, was one of the volunteers helping count participants’ carp as they were tossed into round, orange barrels Sunday.

“I’ve helped with this for two years, and it’s enjoyable,” he said, noting that the biggest plus is that it brings people in numbers to the lake.

One group of anglers made the drive from Dayton to participate in the derby. Danielle Holley and friend Daniel Campbell caught 32 fish over the weekend.

“This was our first time,” Holley said. “(We) just thought it would be something fun, something different. Right now (the carp) are spawning and they’re all right by the banks so I think the only way to catch them is with a bow.”

Manning noted carp are fun fish to try to catch.

“They’re powerful, so when you hook one, it’s a blast, but the majority of the population fishes for other types of species,” he said.

“There’s no natural selection of harvest for them ... so we’re trying to create it with this event. Creating an event like this to weed them out helps. This may be a small attempt to help, but it’s at least creating an event and it’s getting people into the sport.”

Fishing for carp is growing as a sport nationwide, he said, and may have stemmed from this derby.

Awards were given out in two different categories: the highest number of carp caught and the heaviest-weighing carp.

For anyone still wishing to be a part of the carp-catching, there have been 25 carp marked with orange tags. Each one is represented by a sponsor and the individuals who catch them will be awarded $100 each.

One of these tagged carp was caught during the derby, but the rest are still fair game until July 4.

Roughrider Swims His Way To Success

2013-05-18T10:14:36-04:00

ST. MARYS — Matt Hollman’s senior year at Memorial High School has been all about swimming. The 19-year-old participates in many activities for the Roughriders, including varsity football, student council and FCA, but swimming is where he shines the brightest.

Hollman, whose brothers are both swimmers, too, started swimming at the age of 3.

He said he started minis at the St. Marys Seahawks when he was 3.

“We all do the summer swim,” he said.

It wasn’t until he started swimming at the local YMCA that he became a serious and competitive swimmer. The sport is about exercise and socialization for Hollman.

“It keeps me in shape. And the meets are all around the area, so I meet a lot of people.”

Hollman swims competitively both at the YMCA and for Memorial High School, where he has done very well. He went to the national competition twice with his team at the Y, and was on the relay team for the Roughriders that recently competed at the state competition in Canton.

“We did right around our best time,” he said of the state competition. “I think we got 22nd or 21st…Just making it to state was awesome.”

A relay race in swimming, he said, is when the first person on the team starts by doing either a 50 or a 100, either two or four lengths of the pool. As soon as that swimmer touches the wall on his last length, the next team member starts, and so on, until all team members have completed their laps.

Relays are not Hollman’s only forte. He also broke the school record in the breaststroke with a time of 1:03:56.

“My sophomore year I was close (to breaking it) the whole year,” he said, “And then…another kid on the team was swimming it at the same time and right before I broke it, he broke it better. And he beat me. So it changed right before I got it. So the next year when I got it, it was like, finally.”

Though Hollman enjoys swimming and spending time with his friends on the team, the time commitment of being in such a competitive and demanding sport has been difficult, he said.

“A lot of the meets are over weekends, so it takes a lot of time,” he said. “All the practices and going out for meets and stuff.”

He plans to attend ONU in the fall, and is still debating whether to join the swim team there. Regardless, he plans to keep swimming - even if it’s just him.

Hollman is excited to start life on his own and do his own thing. He plans to study mechanical engineering.

“I did (mechanical) engineering because I like fixing problems, really,” he said. “I was hoping to co-op while I was there. While you’re in college, you go work for a company. It’s like interning but you’ll get paid. So you get to go learn about what you’re going to do. And a lot of times…you have a good chance of getting a job there.”

National Nursing Home Week Spotlights Programs

2013-05-18T08:14:04-04:00

ST. MARYS — In the last few years, baby boomers have started retiring, said Golden Living Valley representative Russ Duvall, meaning that in next 5-10 years nursing homes will see more numbers of retirees needing full-time care.

During National Nursing Home Week, which wrapped up Friday, local nursing homes aimed to show the best of what they offer residents as well as getting the community involved in the day-to-day lives of residents.

Marge Luedeke, who works for St. Marys Living Center, said the residents had celebrated all week with activities including having the St. Marys High School Brass ensemble performed, residents planted a tree in honor of maintenance man who had passed, as well as hosting events themed around the 1950s and flowers.

Golden Living Valley celebrated by inviting celebrity bingo caller Miss Ohio to come and visit with residents, as well as having cookouts, staff dress up days and a balloon launch.

Duvall said the programs highlight how the nursing home industry has changed over the last few years.

“Nursing homes aren’t what they used to be,” said Duvall. “There’s a lot more activities, more respite and rehab...Rather than set meal times we have windows. Residents choose when they’re able to rise and go to bed, so if they want to watch the late, late news, they can do that. It’s a less institutional feel. It’s a lot more homey for the residents.”

Often, he said, talking about a nursing home can seem very taboo for family members, but the problem that creates is that then, when something happen to change the situation, like a caregiver needs break, or family can’t provide care needs anymore, or an injury in the winter the situation is made more stressful because the topic is introduced for the first time.

“From a conversation standpoint, sometimes easier to have the conversation earlier...It takes the taboo out of it.”

He said a person may not have bad associations or may want to go to a home they remember visiting a relative in, because the relative was happy.

“The more you talk the less stressful it is,” he said.

Luedeke said that the public can support nursing homes by visiting and volunteering their talents.

“Volunteering is a huge thing. Come in to read to a resident, share your talent.

Play a harmonica, sing one song, arrange flowers. It’s vast, it’s endless,” she said. “It’s so wide open what you could do. It’s just important to have the human touch.”

She said nursing home residents have had interesting lives to share as well.

“When I interview them, I ask about the top 5 things they have ever done in their life,” she said. “There’s everything...painters, readers, some enjoy getting out of building seeing sights they haven’t seen.”

Artists Collages Local Landscapes

2013-05-17T18:11:29-04:00

ST. MARY — Jane Dippold sees this part of Ohio as beautiful country, and tonight, when her art exhibition opens at Arts Center in St. Marys, she will invite others to see the familiar countryside through her eyes.

Roughly two years ago Dippold started capturing specific places in Auglaize and Mercer counties and collaging them.

“I’m not interested in creating imagined places. I want to represent a particular place,” she said.

Dippold had done some collaging before she started the landscapes.

“I was thinking of how pretty the landscape would look in collage, with all the textures. There’s grass, the barn, the way sky sometimes looks like torn paper, you know,” she said.

Dippold is a professional illustrator and artist with children’s books, greeting cards, and a host of other credits to her name; she lived in Cincinnati and returned to the area after having children.

She likes to drive around the area taking pictures to capture specific places in a specific moment or season or light.

“The landscape around here is just beautiful, well, except in dead of winter. Maybe someday I will think ‘oh I want to do an Italian landscape’ but not now. There’s variety when the seasons change.” she said.

Dippold studied Graphic Design at Miami University, and in her career as a freelance artist she said she’s always looking for a new direction, to try something different.

The nature of freelance work is that the workload fluctuates, so over the last few years, she said she has created the collage paintings in her downtime.

What’s nice, she said, is that she’s worked as commission illustrator so long, it’s been fun to explore the part of creating art that is about what inspires her personally.

“With commissions, you’re asked to solve a problem,” she said. “Actually illustrating is a little more pressure because (the customers) have to like it. At end of a project or assignment, they have to like it. I don’t create a painting and wonder if someone’s going to like it. I create what I want, and if they all stay at my house, I’m still happy with that.”

Not worrying about a customer isn’t the usual way Dippold approaches her business however.

“I think a lot of people think of art as a hobby, but I approach it as a job. Every day I work at it. I work every day marketing, trying to find new clients, thinking about what will I be doing next year,” she said.

Many people think of arts careers as something to do part of the time, encouraging students to work a “regular” job because of the perception there aren’t jobs in the arts, but Dippold said that’s not what is true for her.

“My experience is, if you want to go into arts and treat as job, inevitably you will get better at it. But if you go in as a hobby, it will stay on the back burner. You need to commit yourself as a person, completely, like anything,” she said.

One of the big challenges with the internet, she said, is there’s a wealth of art a click away for anyone. She has her own website JaneDippold.com, in fact, and said there’s a lot of competition thanks to the internet.

“But good art still stands out. With technology, you just have to maybe, from here on out, not shy away from that. That’s not to say someone who paints in oils and paints pretty flowers can’t still be successful. Just like the people who make wood furniture the old way. But you have to say ‘this is what I’m going to do,’” she said.

Business Picks Up After Pups

2013-05-17T15:09:22-04:00

ST. MARYS — For those pet owners whose least favorite chore is cleaning up their dogs’ messes outside, there is a new area business whose business is just that. Matt and Tiffany Jones of St. Marys started “Doggie Doolittles” in March 2013. The couple cleans the dog poop from people’s yards and kennels.

“It’s not the most glamorous job but it’s, so far, been pretty interesting,” Tiffany Jones said.

“My husband and I, we both work part-time and we do a lot of volunteer work, so we’re always trying to find jobs that can help…support us,” she said. “It was actually an idea my husband had about a year ago and I didn’t really take him very seriously.”

Six months ago she reconsidered the idea, and found that in bigger cities the pooper scooper business is big.

“So, I thought, you know, there’s nothing like that in St. Marys or Celina, so we thought we’d give it a try,” she said.

The best part, Tiffany Jones said, is meeting a wide variety of people and their dogs and learning why people choose the names they do for their pets.

“My husband and I have always loved people and animals, so it’s just kind of a fun thing.”

An added benefit to being in this business that the couple had not known before, Tiffany noted, is that removing animal waste from people’s yards does a small part to help better the quality of Grand Lake St. Marys.

People can call to set up a time for the Jones’ to meet with them, get acquainted with their dog, and get a cleaning schedule set.

“After that they don’t have to be home if they don’t want to be…We can go and clean their yard for them and it’s clean by the time they get home,” Tiffany said.

They are willing to come once, every week, or every other week depending on peoples’ needs, and clean up yards and kennels of any size.

“I think it’s actually something that will go pretty good,” she said. “Right now people just don’t realize that there are these kind of services in our area.”

For pricing information visit DDoolittles.com or call 419-210-5187 for more information or to set up an appointment to meet with the Jones’.

Students Learn Healthy Lifestyle

2013-05-16T10:58:53-04:00

NEW KNOXVILLE — Fourth through seventh graders learned about healthy eating, sleep and exercise from Joint Township District Memorial Hospital representative Joanne Winget Wednesday during a school health fair program.

Winget helped students plan a day of healthy eating.

“What do you’d think you’d want for a healthy breakfast?” she asked, teaching the students that bacon should be counted as a fat serving along with the butter on toast.

She showed the healthy plate model of eating, which recently replaced the food pyramid model.

A healthy plate, she explained, would be half-filled with fruits and vegetables.

After the students planned their eggs, bacon, apple, toast and milk breakfast, she talked about the importance of eating right before tests and moved on to asking about the amount and types of exercises students engaged in.

She suggested students exercise an hour every day. Students said their favorite exercises were the elliptical, lifting weights, and running.

She tried to lead students to discover the third and final component of healthy lifestyle on their own.

“Can you think of one more thing you can’t live without, besides food and exercise?” she asked.

“Rainbows,” said one student.

Sleep, she told him, was the third component, and students learned that nine hours per night was a good amount of time to sleep. They also learned about people, like nurses and police, whose sleep schedules are disrupted by work.

She invited them to think of the consequences for a worker who was sleepy, advising that it could lead to unclear thinking or decision-making. Those effects apply to students who miss their sleep as well, she said.

Cricketers From Down Under

2013-05-16T10:54:30-04:00

ST. MARYS — The closest most Americans get to Australia is Keith Urban, kangaroos, and a steakhouse named for the Outback. It is rarely described in history books or featured on the nightly news.

St. Marys residents Jay and Dee Fledderjohann, however, have not only been to Australia, some of their dearest friends are from the land down under.

Yvonne and John Moore, of Melbourne, have been staying with the Fledderjohann’s for the last 10 days. How the couples met is kind of a funny story.

The Moores have three daughters — Catherine, the oldest, and twins Simone and Tiana. The girls are grown now, but the story starts in the early 1980s.

“Back in 1984, the twins had pen friends and Catherine didn’t have a pen friend,” John Moore said. “So we put an advertisement in the American Brown Swiss Magazine wanting a pen friend for a 12-year-old girl. She got four answers from girls her own age,” he said, and one from Jay Fledderjohann asking if John would be interested in corresponding.

The couples had something in common — they both farmed a very specific type of cow, the Brown Swiss. They connected over this shared interest and livelihood, and have been corresponding through letters (and now email) for the past 30 years.

Soon after that, Australia lifted its quarantine restrictions, and the Moores were able to import some Brown Swiss Embryos.

“Then in 1992 we came over to see what sort of animals that we bought embryos from,” John Moore said. “And this was our first time to the U.S.”

This current trip will be their third 16-hour plane ride to Los Angeles. The reason for the trip: John Moore is a member of an over 60s cricket league and has played games all over the United States in the past month.

“We played four games in Los Angeles and we were to play a game in Las Vegas but the team that we were to play couldn’t get enough players to play,” he said. “But we went to the Grand Canyon over there. It happened to be Anzac day when we were at the Grand Canyon. Anzac day is your equivalent of Memorial Day. It stands for Australian-New Zealand Army Corps,” he said.

“And it’s in memory of the soldiers that fought and fell in the first World War. Well, we use it for all wars now,” his wife, Yvonne Moore, said.

“On the tour there were 18 cricketers and 10 WAGS - wives and girlfriends,” John Moore said. “A lot of us talked about our grandparents…that fought in the war. (It was) just very emotional at a very emotional spot — the Grand Canyon…It was one of the highlights of our trip.”

When the couple visited the Fledderjohanns in 1991, they spoke to third graders at the New Knoxville elementary school and found that though the children had many questions, the overall consensus was that they did not know much about Australia. The Moores went back to the high school on their second trip to talk to those same students and found that their knowledge of Australia had expanded.

Aside from Americans’ slim knowledge of their home, other first impressions of the United States were that we have a lot of drive-thrus.

“Well, we’ve got McDonalds and KFC…and we’ve got drive-thru alcohol-selling places, whereas you’ve got drive-thru banks, you have drive-thru pharmacy, prescriptions,” John Moore said.

Has also noticed over the last 20 years both here and in Australia that the average population is getting bigger, and not in numbers.

“They’re eating more junk food and such,” he said. “And probably more so in the US — more so in the cities.”

“What floors me is every day I get in my car and I’ve got to get in the wrong side,” Yvonne Moore said.”

Their friends, the Fledderjohanns, are what keep them coming back, they said.

“We’ve got a good friendship we’ve developed over the years. Initially it was just through writing letters, now…it’s the email…and skype’s available. It’s just brought the world that much closer,” John Moore said.

Since their retirement from dairy farming in 2005, the Moores have made it a goal to plan one big trip every year. They have visited 22 states in the U.S. and 52 countries.

They have been on a safari in Africa, to Egypt Syria, Jordan. They plan to visit Ireland with their daughter in November and will do a cruise in New Guinea soon.

They leave Ohio today to fly to Chicago. From there, they will take a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles and then will head back home.

They pursue traveling with vigor and as if each trip may be their last, not taking anything for granted. John Moore had triple bypass surgery recently, and realized that life is short and decided to make the most of it.

“We’re not getting any younger,” he said.

NK Rate Study Finds $70K Shortfall

2013-05-16T10:36:36-04:00

NEW KNOXVILLE — New Knoxville village council heard the results of an electric rate study Wednesday that showed an 8 percent overall difference between what the city is collecting and the overall costs of providing electric.

The study, presented by John Courtney of Courtney and Associates, suggested a $1.91 increase on the flat rate for residential customers inside city limits, plus an approximate 1 cent increase on the cost per kwh, all through 2014 to 2016.

For residential customers, the average usage in the village is 825 kwh, so an adjustment of approximately a penny would increase the cost to an average customer by $8.25 before adding the increased base rate.

That 825 kwh usage can be lower or higher depending on what heater a customer has and to what extent they air condition, Courtney said.

Customers outside the corporate limits would see a similar increase, though their rates are already higher.

Those numbers, said Courtney, came from calculating the cost per month to provide energy for residential, commercial and industrial customers, and comparing it to what customers are currently paying for power, then projecting the actual costs associated with maintaining service.

Actually the recommendation is for a gradual increase in cost, compared to what the rates for residential customers would actually need to be in the long run, he said.

While the 8 percent increase is an average that factors in the industrial and commercial customers, residential customers are the most expensive to serve, and are paying about 12 percent below what will eventually be needed.

“We project it will cost more than they’re currently charging to provide the service,” said Courtney. “If they continue the same rates, the fund balance would decrease by about $70,000 per year.”

The study aimed to balance revenue from the service with the cost of the service. If the change were not gradually implemented the cost to customers would increase by about $15 he said.

“They’re not going to be able to get there overnight because that’s a big effect on small customers,” he said.

While serving residential customers is more expensive in terms of meter reading and billing, he said that cost is relatively small compared to the cost passed to customers to cover the power itself and the infrastructure and getting the power from St. Marys to New Knoxville, and when it’s in New Knoxville to the customer. Those costs include the wages of people who maintain the systems and the cost of materials.

The number of customers were assumed in the study to stay the same over the next few years.

There is a per kilowatt hour tax, but that tax is set at the state level and simply passed on to the customer, so it was not factored into the rate study.

This rate study is the first full cost-of-service calculation done in approximately 10 years, Courtney said.

Councilors took the study under advisement. If they decide to take action on the proposed increase, there will be three public hearings prior to passing the new rates.

Miss Ohio Entertains Residents

2013-05-16T10:29:32-04:00

ST. MARYS — The current Miss Ohio, Elissa McCracken, spoke to residents, played piano and was the celebrity bingo caller at Golden Living Valley in St. Marys Tuesday to honor National Nursing Home week.

“It’s really a way just to give back. This year for me, as Miss Ohio, has been all about service. If I can bring a smile to their face by visiting and listening to their story, then absolutely. Everyone should do it...it’s important to take the time to do that.”

McCracken won Miss Ohio in June, and competed in the Miss America competition in January. She won more than $30,000 in scholarships to support her six year program in pharmacy studies at Ohio Northern University.

Her personal platform that she brings to the role is a stance against cyber-bullying.

“I myself was cyber-bullied,” she said. Now she talks to students about the harmfulness of negative internet communications while she travels as the pageant’s representative in a full-time job around the state. She had to take a year off of schooling to take on the role of Miss Ohio, and will return next fall as a fourth-year student.

When she meets young people, she said, they ask her if she grew up like the girls in the popular reality television series, “Toddlers in Tiaras,” but she explained that her own experience was very different.

She didn’t begin competing in pageants until middle school and high school. Competing, she said, helped her overcome a natural shyness, and brought her out of her shell.

“I just love the growth that I’ve seen in myself,” she said. “I try to break that stereotype that pageant girls are stuck up, or just a pretty-pretty princess by just being myself and trying to tell them what we do. We don’t just prance around in high heels. It’s a big job, working for this organization for a year. I’ve learned a lot.”