Pick An Issue Date

Whitehouse Council Split On Proposed Connector Trail

BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
For the second time since taking office in January, Whitehouse Mayor Angela Kuhn had to break a tie vote among council members – this time over a proposed connector trail grant application.
During their September 16 meeting, council members split on whether to authorize administrator Dennis Recker to apply for a grant that would fund 80 percent of a connector trail from the Wabash-Cannonball trail near Finzel Road through Whitehouse Square and the Blue Creek Recreation Area. Construction costs are estimated at $1.1 million.
During the September 2 meeting, with Bill May and Frank Billings absent, council passed the authorization on a first reading, enough for Poggemeyer Design Group to go ahead and send a preliminary drawing and application. Poggemeyer’s Jeff Yoder explained that he needed final legislation showing approval to turn in by the end of October.
Bill May, Maridee Curry and Debby Curry opposed applying for the grant.
Investing taxpayers’ dollars in property that’s being leased from the Metroparks of the Toledo Area concerned May, who also thought council should let the Anthony Wayne Youth Foundation install trails around the quarry and through Blue Creek Recreation Area, which is part of its 10-year master plan.
Frank Billings suggested that helping AWYF with its master plan and getting 80 percent of the funding from the state was an opportunity not to be missed.
AWYF president Todd Frendt said the nonprofit group planned to install a multi-purpose trail around athletic fields in four to six years, and would try to assist the village in funding its portion around the quarry and Whitehouse Square.
Maridee Curry said she was concerned that Recker was applying for a grant for a project that’s not in the village’s five-year plan when the budget is tight.
After the split vote, Kuhn voted for the application.
“We need to look at this as a unique piece of property,” Kuhn said of the quarry area. “This is a gem that you don’t find just anywhere in Northwest Ohio. What we do with this will determine the future of the village and how we handle it. It’s an investment in the future of the village.”
During the meeting, council also:
• Heard that several Whitehouse representatives traveled to the Columbus area to see Jeanette Studer receive a fallen firefighter award on behalf of her late husband Gary Studer. Gov. Ted Strickland and state Fire Marshal Michael Bell presented the award during the Fire Service Hall of Fame Awards. Studer died on June 28 while on duty on Life Squad 9.
• Discussed options for holding building permits for subdivisions in which the property is not being maintained by builders.
• Set a public appeal meeting for a board of zoning appeals case for Tuesday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m. Thomas and Margaret Waldeck were denied a zoning variance for property at 5935 Weckerly Rd. and are appealing the zoning board’s ruling at council.
• Heard May detail how he assisted hurricane victims in Texas as part of a local disaster medical assistance team.
• Approved paying for full- and part-time village employees to get flu shots at a cost of $20.00 each.
• Agreed to allow Police Chief Ed Kaplan to increase the use of part-time patrol officers to provide two road patrol officers during the day shift four days a week.

The next regular Whitehouse Village Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 7 at 7:00 p.m. at 6925 Providence St. in Whitehouse.

First Shrimp Harvest Nets 700 Pounds Of Prawns

BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
“You’re a part of history!” Martha Wheeler told the crowd gathered at the Whitehouse Shrimp Farm on Saturday, September 13 as she weighed and bagged freshwater shrimp hauled up from the nearby pond just minutes earlier.
Despite pouring rain and a trek through the Whitehouse Christmas Tree Farm to the pond, shrimp lovers arrived at 9:00 a.m. with coolers and ice in hand.
“I love shrimp,” said Jerry Greenwade, who drove in from Toledo to pick up the three pounds he had ordered online.
Jesse Haas was purchasing five pounds to prepare for the OSU vs. USC game Saturday night.
Nine-year-old Delaney Boltz was looking forward to shrimp stir fry, prepared by her mom Lisa.
“We went home, peeled and cleaned our three pounds of shrimp, and had them for lunch,” Kate Najacht told Duke Wheeler later. “They were delicious!”
Bruce Hankins of Pemberville said he rushed home to cook up his two pounds of shrimp.
“They taste much more like Maine lobster than prawns,” he told Wheeler. “We’ll triple our order next year. The entire gig was a real upper.”
About 700 pounds were harvested from the specially designed pond the old-fashioned way – people in waders with nets dredging the bottom as the pond was being drained.
“The weather was really tough,” Duke Wheeler said. “The rain was coming in as fast as we could pump it out.”
The Wheelers placed about 16,000 baby shrimp in the pond on June 14, once the water temperature was 70 degrees.
The crustaceans were fed a natural, protein-based fish food twice a day for the three months as they matured. Harvesting must occur before the water temperature gets to 65 degrees or the shrimp would die, Duke Wheeler said.
While the harvest netted less than the goal of 800 to 1,000 pounds of the organically grown shrimp, and some of the shrimp were smaller than anticipated, Duke Wheeler said he already has plans for next year.
First, he’ll purchase larger shrimp to start with, and try to place them in the pond earlier, as long as the temperature is right. He’ll also look at the ordering and pricing process so customers know what to expect.
“It was a new experience for everybody,” he said.
The Whitehouse Shrimp Farm is one of 25 in the state, but the only one in Northwest Ohio. The Wheelers enlisted advice from the Ohio State University department of aquaculture.


AW Teacher Of The Year Uses Humor, Hands-On Approach

BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Biology teacher Valerie Sido’s subtle comments produced some dumbfounded looks on students’ faces during the first week of school.
“I’d hear: ‘Did she just say that?’” Sido laughs. “Then they catch on to my dry sense of humor. I use a lot of double entendres and puns.”
Sido, who was named Anthony Wayne Local Schools’ Teacher of the Year, relies upon humor and lab-time chats to connect with her students.
“It’s important to have an awesome sense of humor and to have the ability to bring that out in students,” she said. “You can dispense with a lot of discipline and motivation problems by setting the tone in class right away.”
The lab portion of biology class is more conducive to fostering conversation, and Sido cleverly weaves in biology-related news. Articles on the effects of pollution on animals, a gene’s influence on a man’s ability to remain monogamous, and creating meat and milk from cloned animals were recent newspaper articles and great discussion-starters.
“I try to bring in current events and topics,” Sido said.
Over the years, Sido has heard from students that her hands-on approach to lab work and emphasis on note-taking and observation prepared them for college coursework.
Even those who don’t major in science find it beneficial, since every college requires students to take biology, physics or chemistry before graduating.
“I make them do write-ups just like they would do in college,” Sido said.
While the Ohio Graduation Test has changed some of the content and timing of her teaching, her style remains very traditional, Sido said.
“I’ve been fortunate in this building that I’ve been able to teach the way I want, using my own style and strengths,” she said. “We have a very strong science department. There’s a high expectation level for our kids.”
Even though girls are statistically shown to get turned off by science in junior high, Sido has noticed many Anthony Wayne graduates – both males and females – turning to biology-related fields in college, particularly in the area of molecular biology.
Sido isn’t shy about sharing with her kids: they know she’s politically conservative and that she’s worked part-time in retail for 29 years. She’s also noticed that kids are pretty much the same over the generations.
“There are different faces and different names but kids are the same now as they were in 1981,” she said. “They still have the same fears, hopes and desires as they did back then.”
The oldest of four children to the now-retired Dr. Robert Sido, a Waterville physician, and his wife Sylvia, the 1976 Anthony Wayne High School graduate said her parents were well-known in the area.
“All four of us kids knew that we couldn’t mess around or it would get back to them,” she said of her parents, who have since moved to northern Michigan.
After high school, Sido earned a degree in biology from Hillsdale College and completed coursework in education at The University of Toledo.
She was surprised to learn about being named Teacher of the Year.
“I’m very honored and humbled,” Sido said.

These are sample articles that ran in The Mirror Newspaper.

To see what else you've been missing . . .

©2008 The Mirror Newspaper