Kerscher Family Helps Preserve Monclova History
BY NANCY GAGNET — MIRROR REPORTER
Retired physician Dr. Duane Kerscher remembers walking into the old Monclova Post Office as a child and seeing longtime postmistress Claire Metzger in the little rural building.
“When I was a kid I used to go there,” he said. “Claire was very efficient and very busy all the time.”
Growing up in the township, Kerscher attended Monclova High School, which now houses the community center. A 1948 graduate, he served as valedictorian in a class of 15 students.
While building a successful medical practice in Maumee, he and his wife Winnie maintained a close connection with the township where they raised their family.
In the early 1970s, they purchased the Metzger property – two homes and the old post office – on a three-acre parcel next to the current Old Town Hall on Monclova Road.
Local firefighters burned the homes, but the post office building remained and eventually fell into ruin.
With a firmly held belief that the township should preserve its unique historic buildings, the Kerschers offered the old post office to the Monclova Historical Foundation.
“We wanted to see something that was built in Monclova stay in Monclova since so many buildings were either torn down or moved somewhere else,” Duane said.
“A lot of people in this area used that post office,” he said.
After a huge volunteer effort to save the building and a lengthy restoration process, which included moving it to the grounds of the community center, it is now used as a museum to teach local history.
“We love it. It came out very nice,” Winnie said.
Their son David said his parents turned down a $10,000 offer from another historical foundation in order to keep the old post office in Monclova.
“My parents were elated to find out that the Monclova Historical Foundation was indeed interested in moving the structure, keeping it in the township and better yet, locating it almost directly across the street from its originally built location,” he said.
The Kerschers hope to develop the old Metzger property.
“I’d like to see something built there – a sandwich shop or an ice cream store and professional offices or maybe a general store,” Duane said.
Winnie agreed: “There’s not a store around here.”
David, who owns Ridgewater Real Estate, has begun the process of obtaining the necessary sanitary lines needed for commercial building use.
Anthony Wayne Schools Outline Plans To Reduce Spending Should Levies Fail
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Unless both of the school district’s levies pass on August 5, Anthony Wayne Local Schools students will pay to participate in athletics and extracurricular activities, bussing within two miles would be eliminated, and several teachers and staff members would lose their positions, Superintendent Dr. John Granger told the school board during a June 30 meeting.
Granger outlined his reduction plan in the event that both a 3.3-mill renewal levy and 3.3-mill emergency fail. The district needs the $6 million those levies would raise in order to maintain status quo, he said.
These reductions would result in an $1.9 million in savings. In the past year, the district has cut $1.6 million, Granger said.
“I don’t believe in any of this,” Granger told the board as he reviewed the proposed cuts. “I hate it all. It gets you sick in the stomach to read this. But if we can’t get the revenue, we’re going to have to reduce our spending.”
If both levies fail, athletes and musicians could pay $265 per sport or musical activity, and academic club members would pay $160 per activity, based on recommendations from a committee of parents, students and administrators.
“The consensus is that when fees are implemented, there’s a significant reduction in participation in activities, and some clubs end up being eliminated,” said parent Ron Donnal, a parent who presented the committee’s findings.
Anthony Wayne currently has 2,000 participants in junior high and high school clubs, sports and bands. Supplemental pay for 124 positions to lead those extracurricular activities costs the district $479,000, he said.
The proposal also includes eliminating bussing for students living within two miles of school, which is the limit permissible by Ohio Revised Code, and closing the primary and middle school buildings at the end of each school day.
Although the district has saved through attrition – not hiring replacements for departing teachers and staff members – Granger suggested eliminating several employees. Those would include four teachers, a counselor, six secretaries, five custodians, two nurses, several bus drivers and the school resource officer with the Whitehouse police.
If one or both levies pass, the only immediate action would be to continue taking advantage of attrition, which already accounts for 15 teaching and five other staff reductions.
If one levy passes, the board would still need to look at putting a levy back on the ballot, Granger said.
“This just puts a Band-Aid on the problem if we don’t pass both,” he said.
The levy campaign committee, led by Jim Hutchinson, has been going door-to-door in an attempt to reach voters in each of the district’s 9,500 residences.
The committee has over 100 volunteers but needs more, Hutchinson said. For more information on the campaign, go to www.aw4kids.com
The next regular Anthony Wayne board of education meeting is Monday, August 11 at 1:00 p.m. the district’s central office, 9565 Bucher Rd., Whitehouse. In the event that both levies fail, a special meeting will be held on Thursday, August 7 at 8:00 a.m.
Anthony Wayne Girl Scouts Travel To Savannah, Georgia
Girl Scouts from Troop 509 at Anthony Wayne Junior High School were able to learn more about the heritage and history of scouting on a trip to Savannah, Ga.
After two years of planning and fund-raising, 13 scouts and six parents left on June 8 to visit the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts.
Low started the Girl Scouts in 1911 with 18 Savannah-area girls after returning from England, where she experienced outdoor education led by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.
The Girl Scouts have grown to involve more than 3.7 million girls in the United States.
Low’s birthplace, built in 1821, now serves as a pilgrimage site and national gathering place for Girl Scouts. The home was Savannah’s first National Historic Landmark and has been restored to reflect the 19th century.
During their five-day trip, members of Troop 509 also enjoyed visiting the Andrew Low home, St. John the Baptist Cathedral, the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church and Ascension Lutheran Church.
Visiting the Savannah squares was also a highlight of the trip, most notably Chippewa Square, the site of the bus scenes in Forrest Gump.
Shopping on River Street and a trolley tour of the area also marked the completion of badge and patchwork while in Savannah. The fun continued at Tybee Island with a tour of Fort Pulaski, a beach picnic, swimming and a dolphin cruise.
Troop 509 is led by LeAnn Schoenfelt.
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