The Birds & The Bees Relocates Bridal, Baby Boutique To Maumee
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Babies, brides and best friends benefit from the unique store The Birds & The Bees, recently relocated to uptown Maumee.
The store will hold a grand opening celebration on Saturday, July 12 from noon to 5:00 p.m. With a $50.00 purchase, customers can enter to win a $250 gas card.
Previously located in Perrysburg, the boutique gained a reputation for its extensive selection of bridal items, such as custom wedding invitations, toasting glasses and attendant gifts.
The new shop features many of the same baby and bridal necessities, as well as an expanded gift selection, said Casey Agosti, who co-owns the shop with Karrie Brock.
The Birds & The Bees features local artists, such as the mother-daughter Perrysburg team that makes Ellie’s Essentials – bows with grippers to stay in fine baby hair and toddler headbands with interchangeable bows.
Peanut and Knucklehead, a Toledo family-owned business, creates handmade blankets, bags and totes out of cotton Indian patchwork madras.
Rachel Nixon’s White-house-based business, Pinkies and Piggies, offers kits for parents to preserve little hands and feet forever in glass ornaments so realistic you can feel the fingerprints.
For christenings and baptisms, The Birds & The Bees carries certificate holders, picture frames, gowns and decorative crosses.
For weddings, the shop offers 15 percent off all custom and wedding invitations, gown preservation, brides’ and grooms’ Bibles, and specialty items.
While weddings and babies are the shop’s core focus, it’s the gift selection that has grown, with pottery from Nature Life, frames for every occasion and timeless games for older kids.
The eeBoo Pin the Parrot on the Pirate game, Candy Dominoes and card games such as Old Maid and Go Fish are solidly packaged and designed with a retro feel. Ganz Hug-Alongs and other cuddly animals also draw plenty of hugs.
Brock and Agosti met while in the Chi Omega sorority at The University of Toledo. While Brock started a sign shop, Agosti spend eight years after graduation as a DNA analyst. When her daughter MacKenna was born, she decided to open her own shop so she would have more flexibility – and fun.
“I asked Kerrie if she wanted to run a fun business,” Agosti said.
In 2004, they opened The Birds & The Bees in downtown Perrysburg and collected quite a following.
To increase traffic from throughout the Toledo area, they chose to move to 103 E. Wayne St. in Maumee. The Maumee business community has been very welcoming, Agosti said.
The store is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; Friday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
For more information call (419) 872-3400 or go to www.thebirdsnbees.com.
City Council Supports New Wellness Initiative
BY NANCY GAGNET — MIRROR REPORTER
A fit community – at least one insurance company hopes to accomplish just that with a new initiative called “Healthy Maumee.”
At Monday’s meeting, Maumee City Council voted to support the program sponsored by Medical Mutual of Ohio.
As part of the program, Medical Mutual of Ohio will commit to spend $100,000 per year for three years to implement programs such as free health screenings, monthly events and fitness challenges.
“There are a lot of programs currently in place in Maumee and we’d like to add on where we can,” explained Richard Wallack, vice president of marketing services for Medical Mutual of Ohio.
“Something will go on each month,” he said.
The plan was also presented to representatives of St. Luke’s Hospital, Maumee City Schools, the Maumee Chamber of Commerce and the Maumee Senior Center, which will partner with the city to implement it.
In a letter to council, city administrator John Jezak explained the wellness program.
“The company wishes to collaborate with the city and other local partners to establish a program to increase health awareness and promote healthy lifestyles,” he wrote.
According to Wallack, Maumee is the second city chosen for the program. Solon, Ohio, was the first to implement it.
“It’s been very successful in Solon,” he said.
More than 3,000 people have received blood pressure and cholesterol screenings through the Solon program, now in its second year.
In addition, a 10-week fitness challenge motivated over 300 people to improve in the areas of blood pressure, cholesterol, strength and flexibility.
“The follow-up assessment found that everybody’s situation improved in at least one of those categories,” Wallack said.
The program, which is neither sponsored by nor funded by the city, could roll out as early as this fall with the annual Holiday Hustle 5K run and parade on Thanksgiving weekend.
A representative from Medical Mutual of Ohio is expected to outline the initiative further at an August council meeting.
Also at the meeting, council took the following action:
• Authorized the purchase of mobile and portable radios through the Lucas County 800 Mhz Interoperability Radio Project.
County grants will cover 80 percent, or $55,361.25, of the cost, while the city would provide $7,800.
• Approved a $38,182 contract with Geddis Paving and Excavating of Toledo for the next phase of the Rolf Park walking path.
• Appointed Scott M. Libbe as the city of Maumee representative on the St. Luke’s Hospital board of directors. The three-year term will expire in 2010.
• Approved the planning commission’s recommendation to change a small portion of property at Parkway Plaza from C1 neighborhood commercial to C2 general commercial. Brent Buehrer voted against the change.
The applicant, Larry Howard, plans to install a drive-through coffee kiosk at the location.
• Approved the extension of a contract for audit services with James Zukpa, CPA, Inc., and the state auditor.
• Approved a $1,250 service contract with Technicore for semi-annual clinical equipment maintenance.
• Authorized the advertisement of bids for the underground storage tank remediation project.
• Authorized a $2,092 contract with Cross Heating and Cooling to retrofit a central air system to the Frederick House at the Wolcott House Museum property.
• Authorized a $1,075 contract with SimplexGrinnell for fire alarm system improvements at the Maumee Senior Center.
• Approved a request to file a grant application with the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments for an improvement project along the Anthony Wayne Trail.
• Approved a noise ordinance waiver to allow the Maumee Substance Abuse Intervention League’s movie night on August 13.
• Authorized a $1,097.46 contract with Pneu-Matic Engineering for bi-annual maintenance of the Mako air compressor and quarterly air sample tests.
n Authorized an agreement for services relative to the city’s workers’ compensation cases with assistant law director Suzanne Norton of Reminger Co.
Council members Todd Zimmerman and Buehrer abstained from voting due to conflicts of interest.
Area Residents Pack Uptown Maumee On July 3rd (see more photos - online reprints available)
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