Hancock County Dog license registration has been extended due to the ongoing pandemic.

Dog Warden Dana Berger says dog owners now have until July 1st to purchase their dog licenses without incurring a late fee.

Licenses can be purchased online through the Auditor’s office or by appointment at the Humane Society by calling 419-423-1664.

Dog tag registrations may also be dropped off at the courthouse security entrance for no additional cost or mailed to the Auditor’s office as usual.

The cost of a dog license is $20 per tag with a 75 cent processing fee at the Humane Society.

The cost is $20 per tag with a $2.50 online fee through the Auditor’s office.

The Hancock County Auditor’s Office in December said dog tags will not be sold in person at their office due to the pandemic.

The picture above is from Dog-Pawlooza at Riverside Park in Findlay in 2019.

(ONN) – The Super Bowl began with a one-of-a-kind flyover during the National Anthem, and the pilot leading it was an Ohio native who is getting lots of praise back home and around the nation.

The University of Dayton tweeted a picture of Captain Sarah Kociuba who graduated from the school’s Air Force ROTC program in 2012.

According to the university, Kociuba has had more than 90 combat missions and has over 1,700 flying hours.

She was piloting one of the three global strike command bombers that zipped over Raymond James Stadium during the National Anthem, performing a first-of-its-kind flyover.

Some Findlay High School students took part in the first ever live streaming tour of the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.

Science teacher Mark Shively reached out the museum last fall about a virtual tour and was surprised to learn that they had never done one before, but they were willing to if Findlay High School would be the test subjects.

He says the museum went all out to make it seem like they were actually there.

“They actually had a crew that was following the docent around, a lighting guy, a sound guy, a camera guy, a laptop guy, they upgraded their Wi-Fi in all their buildings so they could do this.”

Shively says the students watched the virtual tour on the big movie screen in the auditorium so they could get a sense of size so they could appreciate how big things were inside the museum.

He says the folks at the museum have really taken this seriously as a springboard to reach other schools during the pandemic and in the future.

“It was pretty groundbreaking because they have not done this before, and we were just proud and honored to be a part of it.”

There was a fire inside the Blanchard Township Fire Station/Township Hall in Benton Ridge on Friday afternoon.

One of the assistant chiefs for Blanchard Township arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the building.

The Liberty Township Fire Department, Southwestern Hancock Joint Fire District and McComb Fire Department all responded to assist.

The fire was knocked down, but not before it destroyed a grass truck and caused heat and smoke damage in a section of the building.

We spoke with Liberty Township Fire Chief Brian Young at the scene.

He says the area chiefs asked him to head up the investigation into the fire.

He said Liberty Township will house Blanchard’s trucks and area departments will cover Blanchard Township’s area until they’re up and running again.

The City of Findlay will be holding a virtual public meeting about a proposed Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA).

A Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) is a specific area in which alcoholic beverages may be sold by licensed liquor establishments for outdoor consumption.

The city says a DORA is designed to make it easier to social distance, stroll within the district and support local restaurants and bars.

In a DORA you CAN:

Purchase a drink at an authorized location and walk around the DORA using an official DORA Cup. Take a purchased drink into a non-liquor serving establishment if the owner allows.

You CAN NOT:

Bring your own drinks into the DORA.  Walk around with a purchased drink not in a designated DORA plastic container (no cans, no glass, no outside drinks are permitted). Take a beverage purchased at one liquor serving establishment into another liquor establishment.

Click here for the boundaries of the DORA, and other information.

The meeting will be on Monday, February 8th at 5:30.

People can attend the virtual meeting by clicking on the link available on the city’s website or by dialing in to 1-301-715-8592, Meeting ID 891-0206-3382, Passcode 167655#.

A recording of the public meeting will be available for view on the city’s website following the meeting.

The application for the DORA is also available on the city’s website for public review and in the Mayor’s Office at 318 Dorney Plaza, Room 310, Findlay, OH 45840.

Younger Ohioans will have to wait even longer to get their COVID vaccination.

Governor DeWine said that, after next week, he will stop making new groups of people eligible to get vaccinated until they get through Phase 1-B.

Next week, people ages 65 and older will be able to start getting vaccinated, which is the last group in Phase 1-B.

DeWine says nobody new will be added to the list for at least two weeks to give everyone 65 and older a chance to get the vaccine.

Some good news is, both Pfizer and Moderna are reporting they will increase the amount of doses Ohio will get starting at the end of this month.

Ohio’s vaccination dashboard shows around 8 percent of the population has been vaccinated.

Findlay High School went into a Level 2 lockdown on Friday morning.

High School Principal Ryan Imke says the lockdown was for precautionary reasons to investigate a concern.

He said the concern was investigated and determined to not be a threat and the lockdown was lifted.

The lockdown was in place for about a half hour, from 11:15 to 11:45 a.m.

A Level 2 lockdown calls for the doors to the school to be locked and for no one to leave the building or the classroom they are in.

The school returned to a normal two-hour delay schedule for the rest of the day.

The Humane Society & SPCA of Hancock County is reminding people to look out for their pets during this cold snap.

Hancock County Dog Warden Dana Berger says outside pets need to have food, water and shelter that they can access.

And he says, with as cold as the wind chills are expected to be the next few days, you should even consider bringing in outdoor pets.

People who have a dog staying in a dog house should consider moving the dog house into a garage or barn.

Horses should be given blankets and have a spot out of the wind.

Friday’s forecast is calling for mostly cloudy skies and a high of 23, but the wind chill value will be around zero.

Friday night will be mostly cloudy with a low of 12, and a wind chill of -2.

Saturday, sunny with a high of 18 and a wind chill of -3.

Saturday night, mostly cloudy and a low around 10.

Sunday, partly sunny with a high of 15.

Sunday night, mostly cloudy and a low of 9.

Hancock County was placed under a Level 1 Road Alert on Thursday night.

Dr. Amy Acton is exploring a political run.

The face of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ohio early on, Acton left her post as the head of the Ohio Department of Health in favor of a job with a nonprofit.

In a statement, Acton announced she has stepped down from that position to “carefully consider how I can best be of service at this crucial time” running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.

Dr. Acton appeared alongside Governor DeWine as the public face of the health department in the early days of the pandemic, but stepped down from that position in June after receiving threats against her and her family.

A Findlay man was sentenced to prison after previously being found guilty of child pornography and other charges.

In November, Joshua M. Rebarchek, 41, pleaded no contest to four counts of child pornography (2 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor), a charge of domestic violence and a charge of assaulting a police officer.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 9 to 12 1/2 years in prison.

He is being sent to Orient Correctional Facility to serve his sentence.

He will be listed as a Tier II sex offender and must register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

We spoke with the victim’s mother last summer at a rally for survivors of childhood sexual abuse outside the Hancock County Courthouse.

The person Tabitha was referring to was Rebarchek, her ex-boyfriend.

She says she was shocked by what she found on his phone earlier in the year.

Tabitha (below on the left) said her daughter is a really strong girl and she’s really proud of her.

People at the rally were chanting “No more 1 in 4” referring to the statistic that 1 in 4 women were sexually abused by the time they turned 18-years-old.