Freedom Festival Provides Fun For All
The annual Freedom Festival at Community Homecoming Park in Holland on Sunday kicked off the area’s Fourth of July festivities with a car show, live entertainment and activities for all ages before fireworks capped off the evening. Above, Adonay Eyob, 5, gets his face painted. The festival had many activities for children including face painting, balloon making and inflatables.
Holland To Resubmit Request For Quiet Zone Designation
BY KELLY J. KACZALA — MIRROR REPORTER
Holland Village Council will resubmit an application in an effort to get a quiet zone designation for a railroad crossing on Holloway Road.
Charlie Dodge, of Peterman and Associates, an engineering and architectural firm from Findlay, gave an update on the quiet zone designation at a council meeting on June 17.
In June 2006, a federal law was passed that allows communities to qualify for quiet zones where trains are not required to sound horns as they approach railroad crossings. The zones are intended to reduce the noise pollution for nearby neighborhoods.
A quiet zone must be at least one-half mile in length along railroad tracks.
The installation of supplemental safety measures, deemed to be as effective as a train’s horn, are required at quiet zones. The measures are supposed to block traffic from using opposing lanes to get around the tracks and avoid collisions.
The village had earlier submitted applications for quiet zone designations at railroad crossings at McCord and Holloway roads, but only Holloway Road is eligible.
“McCord qualifies, but there’s some technology that the railroad does not have in place at that crossing, so we’re not able to go forward at that location,” Mayor Mike Yunker said.
Among the prerequisites the Norfolk Southern railroad crossing on McCord needs, which Holloway has, is an early warning device, Yunker said.
“The railroad company would have to agree to upgrade the crossing at McCord, but it probably won’t, even if the village was willing to contribute,” Yunker said. “If they upgrade that in the future, then we’ll go ahead and reapply for the McCord Road crossing.”
Norfolk Southern will have 60 days to respond when the village files its notice on its plans to resubmit the request for the quiet zone.
“Since the intersection is within the village, we don’t have to provide notification to other people we had to before, such as Lucas County,” Yunker said.
The village agreed to pay a $2,800 administrative fee to reapply.
It will also spend $25,000 to install a “power out” indicator at the railroad crossing that would warn a train’s engineer approaching the crossing to sound the horn if the gates and lights are not working when the electricity is out.
The village will also have to install signage, striping and a concrete median or island near the crossing so that vehicles cannot drive around the crossing when a train approaches. The estimated cost, plus engineering, is $44,000.
Depending on what kind of engineering the village requests, the costs could go higher.
Council voted to have a supplemental appropriation in place for the next council meeting on July 15 that would allow for the $2,800 administrative fee and $3,750 in engineering costs to survey the tracks and for design of the median.
Yunker said the costs are reasonable because the quiet zone designation is a “quality of life” issue.
“Those train horns can be heard all throughout the village,” Yunker said. “We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the streets to improve quality of life, and those are just infrastructure improvements. This is going to be a noise improvement. I think it’s going to be money well spent.”
Holland so far is the only community in Ohio that is moving ahead with a quiet zone designation, according to Yunker.
“We’re charting new waters,” he said. “Fostoria has given up on its efforts because it’s cost-prohibitive. It’s a significant cost, but the village is in a position where the village can afford to do that. We’re looking forward to it.”
As of last year, only 265 communities in the country had approved quiet zones.
Also at the meeting, council members:
• Approved a health insurance opt-out bonus for one eligible employee.
• Hired Chad Eppard as the new village maintenance employee.
• Approved a pay increase for maintenance employee George Gibson effective on his one-year anniversary on June 17.
• Authorized the purchase of 525 recycle bins for residential use at a cost of $4,803.75 from Rehrig Pacific.
• Approved a contract with the Ohio Department of Transportation for road salt this winter.
• Approved a new five-year contract with Buckeye CableSystem for phone service.
Incoming Kindergartners Learn About Safety
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
The Class of 2021 learned all they needed to know about safety – before they even entered kindergarten – during Safety Town at Crissey Elementary June 16-27.
The free program gave youngsters an up-close look at police and fire equipment.
Through hands-on activities, guest speakers, books and songs, the children also learned about railroad, electrical, water, medical, animal and bus safety.
A miniature model outline of a small city with painted streets, sidewalks and buildings gave kids a chance to learn how to stop and look both ways while crossing the street, as well as watching out for trains.
While pedaling trikes through town was fun, the children also got a kick out of trying on uniforms, crawling through the smoke house and spraying the fire hose.
With help from Dave Bennett, captain of fire prevention for Springfield Township, Reese Shull and Molly Yeager donned child-sized firefighter uniforms. While Reese excitedly hopped around and proclaimed that he’d like to be a firefighter, Molly frowned under the hood and heavy helmet.
Abby Sowinksi didn’t mind trying on the collar used by paramedics to stabilize patients, but she didn’t want to lie down on the backboard – she left that up to fellow student Madyson Wood.
And Daniel Geiger wanted an extra turn at spraying trees and grass with the fire hose, until firefighter Jeff Merrill coaxed him into letting other kids have a turn.
All Safety Town students gathered on June 27 for a graduation ceremony at Springfield High School. In addition to free helmets and T-shirts, they gained invaluable safety knowledge.
“It’s been very helpful for the kids,” said Joe Bodnar, Holland police officer. “A lot of times this is the first time they’ve been away from mom or dad.”
Coordinated by fire office manager Nellie Hutchinson, the program was presented by the Springfield Township Fire Department and Holland Police Department with assistance from the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office.
These are a few articles that ran in The Mirror Newspaper.
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