Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn has been elected to the Ohio Mayors Alliance Board.

Details are in the following news release from the city.

At the Ohio Mayors Alliance Winter Meeting, Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn was elected by her peers to serve on the Ohio Mayors Alliance Board. The organization also approved its policy priorities for next year and released its annual report for 2019.

“We’re thrilled to have Mayor Muryn represent northwest Ohio on the Ohio Mayors Alliance Board of Directors,” said Lima Mayor David Berger who nominated Muryn. “The mayor has been a great advocate for her community and for all of Ohio cities through her work with this bipartisan coalition of mayors.”

“I am honored to have the opportunity to represent the views of the City of Findlay and Northwest Ohio on the Ohio Mayors Alliance Board. This is a great opportunity to ensure that the citizens of Findlay continue to have representation in various organizations across the state,” Mayor Christina Muryn

Muryn was elected as Findlay Mayor in November after being appointed to the position in early 2019 to fill a vacancy. She will join the bipartisan Ohio Mayors Alliance Board, which also includes Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, Kettering Mayor Don Patterson, Lancaster Mayor David Scheffler, and Parma Mayor Tim DeGeeter.

Additionally, the mayors approved the organization’s public policy agenda for 2020, which includes 1) prioritizing community reinvestment and local economic development; 2) protecting home rule authority for Ohio’s local communities; 3) supporting Ohio’s 21st Century infrastructure needs; 4) continuing to confront Ohio’s addiction crisis; 5)keeping our communities safe and addressing gun violence; 6) improving educational opportunities and supporting a strong workforce; 7) strengthening our democracy and supporting the 2020 Census; 8) advancing clean energy solutions and sustainability; and 9) supporting safe, accessible, and affordable housing.

At the Winter Meeting, the Ohio Mayors Alliance also released their 2019 Annual Report. The report shows all that the mayors have accomplished over the past year, including the gas tax increase in the transportation budget, the mayors education advocacy grants, and the Move with the Mayor/Step It Up! Challenge.

The Ohio Mayors Alliance is a bipartisan of mayors in Ohio’s largest cities. It has been working to strengthen the partnership between state and local leaders since its formation in 2016. For more information on the group’s policy priorities and its members, please visit: www.OhioMayorsAlliance.org.

(ONN) – The president of Owens Community College has started a national campaign to dispel the stigma that many have about community colleges.

Through its president Steve Robinson, Owens has released a video that features students, faculty and staff from 18 of Ohio’s 23 community colleges, praising the schools.

“We want to make sure people value two-year colleges, without having these knee-jerk pre-conceived notions about them not being of high-quality, because they are very high-quality,” Robinson said.

Learn more about the campaign here.

Owens Community College has campuses in Findlay and Toledo.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has signed a bill that includes a comprehensive learning network to support young children.

House Bill 12 establishes the Ohio Children’s Behavioral Health Prevention Network stakeholder group.

The group will coordinate a plan and comprehensive learning network designed to help support young children in social, emotional and behavioral development.

The group will conduct research for 18 months before delivering a comprehensive report to legislators.

According to statistics, one in five children in the state has mental health or behavioral issues.

The Ohio Department of Transportation’s highway message boards are reminding drivers to slow down, buckle up and to not drive distracted over the Christmas holiday.

“The vast majority of traffic deaths in Ohio are completely preventable,” said ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks.

“While we engineer roads to be as safe as possible, the one thing we cannot control is driver behavior. We’re urging drivers to put down the phone, buckle up, drive sober, and obey the speed limit.”

Monday’s message mentions the 260,357 crashes recorded in the state so far this year and reminds drivers that life is “fra-gee-lay,” a reference to the popular holiday movie “A Christmas Story.”

On Christmas Eve, drivers will be reminded to stay to the right unless passing slower traffic because “Santa needs the left lane tonight.”

Driving slow in the left lane is a common trigger for road rage and aggressive driving behaviors that can lead to crashes.

Christmas Day travelers will see a message targeted at impaired driving based on the 1989 movie “Christmas Vacation.”

“While the subject is very serious, we have found that the public responds better to messages that are humorous or relate to pop-culture,” said Marchbanks.

So far this year, 1,119 people have been killed on Ohio roads, an 8 percent increase over last year.

Click here for a schedule of the safety messages, and if you have a good idea submit it here.

Hancock County Republicans will vote for the next sheriff and Republican nominees for two county commissioner seats.

The Hancock County Board of Elections shows that three Republicans filed to run for county sheriff.

Incumbent Sheriff Michael Heldman is going up against Verl Warnimont and Tim Saltzman for the position.

Since no democratic, independent, or write-in candidates have filed, the winner of the March Primary will run unopposed in November.

Commissioners Brian Robertson and Mark Gazarek have decided not to run for re-election.

Republicans Mike Pebble and Brody Yingling are seeking Robertson’s open seat and will face Democrat Bruce Workman in November.

For Gazarek’s seat, Republicans Will Bateson, Miranda Lobdell, and Michael Recker are seeking votes in the March Primary.

The winner of that race will go up against Democrat Ronald DeCooman.

The Liberty Benton vs. Van Buren basketball game tonight is accepting canned food for the price of admission.

Van Buren Mayor Ed May said he brought the idea to Van Buren High School as a way to help out despite the two High Schools’ relationship.

May said it will cost students 4 cans and adults 6 cans to get in.

He added that the cans will be distributed to the Salvation Army and the Van Buren Food Bank to help as many people as possible.

The game is at Van Buren tonight starting at 7:30 pm.

The board of the Seneca County General Health District has approved Sunny Farms Landfill’s 2020 operator license.

At a meeting Thursday night the board voted unanimously to approve the landfill’s license, but their approval comes with several conditions which include additional odor monitoring and reporting, and additional sulfur dioxide reporting.

In August, the landfill in Fostoria was finally granted its 2019 license after making improvements, paying fines and coming to a consent agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Recently the landfill has come under scrutiny again for reportedly exceeding safe limits in the release of sulfur dioxide into the air.

LICENSE CONDITIONS

1. ADDITIONAL ODOR MONITORING AND REPORTING

Within 60 Days of the effective date of the 2020 License, Sunny Farms Landfill LLC (Sunny Farms) shall submit to SCGHD for review, comment and approval a plan to develop and implement a supplemental odor monitoring and reporting system for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) consisting of the following:

a. Installation of two (2) additional permanent Jerome meters within 90 days of SCGHD approval. The Jerome meters shall be calibrated and maintained in accordance with manufacturer’s specifications. The Jerome meters shall be programmed to record H2S readings every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

b. The Jerome meters will be sited at locations identified by Sunny Farms and approved by the Board with one on the east side of the Facility along or south of County Road 108 and one on the west side of the Facility along or south of County Road 108.

c. After the date of installation of the Jerome meters installed pursuant to Paragraph 1, Sunny Farms shall establish an internet portal by which SCGHD staff can access electronic real-time data and all historical data available for the meters.

d. Sunny Farms shall submit to SCGHD a monthly report (by the 5th business day of the succeeding month) that provides, at a minimum, the date, time, location, and amount of H2S detected for each Jerome meter reading during the preceding month.

e. With respect to the Jerome meters installed pursuant to Paragraph 1, Sunny Farms shall follow the operation, maintenance and reporting frequency requirements applicable under Section V. Paragraph 16.A. of the Partial Consent Order and Final Judgment Entry, entered on July 26, 2019 by the Seneca County Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 19-CV-0224 (the Consent Order).

2. ADDITIONAL SULFUR DIOXIDE REPORTING

a. Sunny Farms shall provide SCGHD with a copy of the air dispersion modeling report submitted to Ohio EPA that demonstrates no sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations exceeding SO2 national ambient air quality standards at off-site residential receptors in the vicinity of the Sunny Farms Landfill.

b. Sunny Farms shall provide SCGHD with the monthly report (submitted by the 20th day of the month for the prior month) demonstrating compliance with the SO2 interim emission limit in accordance with the requirements of the Consent Order.

c. Sunny Farms shall formally request that Ohio EPA provide SCGHD all data from the SO2 monitor to be installed pursuant to Section V. Paragraph 15.A.j. of the Consent Order.

3. ADDITIONAL COMPLIANCE REPORTING

a. Sunny Farms shall comply with the Consent Order and provide SCGHD with copies of all submittals required by the Consent Order.

b. Sunny Farms shall provide SCGHD with a monthly report by the 20th business day of the month (for the previous month) documenting Sunny Farms’ compliance with the requirements of Section V. of the Consent Order.

c. Sunny Farms shall meet monthly with staff for the SCGHD and their consultant to review compliance with the Consent Order and responses and investigations regarding odor complaints.

Republican State Speaker of the House Larry Householder says his majority caucus is discussing the future of the death penalty in Ohio.

Householder spoke to reporters at the statehouse on and told them that the law that allows for capital punishment may no longer be able to be carried out effectively.

The state currently only uses lethal injection for executions, but the drugs used to administer that method are becoming harder to obtain.

Currently, 21 states have abolished the death penalty, with another four placing formal moratoriums on executions.

The Athens County School Board has decided to rename the football stadium at Athens High School in honor of Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow.

At a meeting, the board voted unanimously to rename the facility after the Athens native who just completed a record-breaking season with the LSU Tigers.

Burrow was voted Mr. Football in Ohio in 2015 while leading Athens High School to the state championship game and then attended Ohio State before heading to LSU as a graduate transfer.

During his acceptance speech last week, Burrow spoke out the struggles of his hometown, which prompted more than $450,000 in donations from across the country to the Athens County Food Bank.

The Ohio Department of Health is offering two new programs aimed at helping people quit smoking.

Governor Mike DeWine and other state health officials revealed the new programs, which will be free of charge and catered separately to either adults or teens.

Director of Health Dr. Amy Acton said the programs would provide eight-weeks of nicotine replacement therapy along with coaching and counseling.

Governor DeWine says Medicaid will help cover costs for screenings and other treatment, which can be accessed by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW.