03/29/18 – 4 P.M.
Today is National Vietnam Veterans Day and is a time to thank someone who served in Vietnam. Hancock County Veterans Services Office’s Kyle Frias said that Vietnam vets didn’t get many warm welcomes when they came home.
Kyle Frias added that there are programs to help these veterans.
Frias said that these conditions include type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s Disease. He said that Vietnam vets and vets from Thailand with these disorders can get the VA’s help for treatment.
The Blanchard Valley Center is getting ready to make use of the extra space they have on campus now that BVI has moved to a new facility. Kelli Grisham says they’re better able to organize the campus now…
Audio: Kelli Grisham
Grisham says the renovated space will also include a training facility for around 100 people that they will make available to the public to use.
The BVC is also donating their old greenhouse to Findlay High School. The school lost their greenhouse during the November windstorm.
3/29/18 – 1:35 P.M.
Putnam County members of Citizens United for a Better Blanchard met with the Hancock County Commissioners Thursday to talk about a possible new approach to dealing with flooding. Dan Ellerbrock says their plan calls for reducing pinch points throughout the river among other items…
Audio: Dan Ellerbrock
Ellerbrock says there are around 25 narrow parts of the waterway between Findlay and the Auglaize river. The proposal calls for widening the narrow parts of the Blanchard without getting into the water, which would help with permitting.
The proposal also calls for increased use of cover crops and no-till farming in the watershed. The group says this would lead to healthier soil, which can hold more water than compacted soil. They add it would also reduce runoff into the waterway and into Lake Erie…
Audio: Dan Ellerbrock
Ellerbrock says the plan would likely cost around $80 million to carry out. He says that cost spread out over every acre of land in the Blanchard River Watershed over 20 years amounts to about $8 an acre…
Audio: Dan Ellerbrock
Ellerbrock says the hope is that the commissioners in the watershed or landowners will start a petition process. The group has already talked to the Putnam County Commissioners about the idea.
03/29/18 – 11:38 A.M.
A two-car crash sent a Bradner man to the hospital Tuesday. The crash happened around 12:30 p.m. the intersection of U.S. 224 and Ohio 587. 45-year-old Kipp Saam of Bradner failed to yield at the stop sign on Ohio 587. He was struck by a car driven by 53-year-old James Kingseed of McCutchenville.
Bascom EMS took Saam, who wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, to ProMedica Fostoria Community Hospital. Officers cited him for failure to yield.
3/29/18 – 10:15 A.M.
It won’t be too long until it’s time to mow the lawn. With that in mind, the Hancock County Commissioners approved their annual lawn maintenance contract Thursday. The county will pay the Feasel Group around $46,000 for county lawn maintenance this year.
Commissioner Mark Gazarek says that’s a little more than previous years because the county has more property to maintain. The county has to take care of the properties it buys for flood mitigation purposes.
3/29/18 – 7:19 A.M.
Columbus police officers arrested a Westerville man for his connection to a shooting incident in Tiffin Tuesday. The Tiffin Police Department reports Dylan Descant and Michael Mason were driving to Walmart Tuesday afternoon when a car pulled in front of them on Miami Street. The driver and the passenger stepped out of the car, and the passenger fired a shot at the blocked car. The bullet defelcted off the car’s windshield.
Mason and Descant identified the driver of the other car as John Moyler. Police arrested him in Columbus early Wednesday morning. They haven’t located the passenger yet.
Mason and Descant say that they received a message after the shooting that claimed someone would “finish the job.”
MORE: The Courier
3/29/18 – 6:53 A.M.
The Leadership Seneca County class of 2018 is raising money to provide basic and educational necessities to less fortunate Fostoria students. The Review-Times reports the group is working to buy school supply kits for classrooms and spare campus wear for students who need it. They also are want provide care packages with after-school snacks and basic hygiene products.
The class is hosting a benefit at the Fostoria Burger King on North Countyline Street from 4-8 p.m. tonight. A benefit is also taking place at the Tiffin Burger King at the same time.
The group has set a goal to raise more than $68,000. They are at about 10 percent of that goal at the moment.
MORE: Review-Times
3/29/18 – 5:36 A.M.
A Mount Cory man will spend 180 days in jail for having sexual contact with an 8-year-old. 63-year-old Don Brewster learned his sentence for a gross sexual imposition conviction on Monday. As part of his sentence, he’ll also have to serve five years of intensive community control and register as a Tier II sex offender.
Brewster pleaded guilty to the charge in February. The indictment in the case says he had sexual contact with the child between November 1 of 2015 and May 8 of 2016.
MORE: The Courier
3/29/18 – 5:27 A.M.
One Energy is building another wind turbine in Findlay. The 405-foot structure will provide power to the new Autoliv-Nissin Brake Systems Factory at the corner of Bigelow Avenue and Bright Road. The company expects it will provide more than 80 percent of the power needed by the new facility.
One Energy is building the turbine at a cost of $3.5 million. They’ll own the turbine and Autoliv-Nissin will buy electricity from them.
One Energy is also providing another $5,000 scholarship for a local high school student going into a STEM field as a result of the new project.
MORE: The Courier
3/29/18 – 5:18 A.M.
The effort to fight overdose deaths in Hancock County is getting another funding boost. The Ohio Department of Health recently gave Hancock Public Health more than $14,000 to buy naloxone kits. Naloxone is a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
Hancock Public Health is also getting is also getting 450 naloxone kits from Ohio’s Pharmacy Services Center. The kits have a value of more than $32,000.
The money from the Department of Health is going to Project DAWN. The effort is a community-based program that offers naloxone kits to friends and family members of people addicted to drugs.
MORE: The Courier