City Of Maumee Welcomes Christmas Season With Lighted Floats And Holiday Runners
BY NANCY GAGNET— MIRROR REPORTER
For Stacie Kregel of Perrysburg, Maumee’s Holiday Light Parade is a great way to kick off the Christmas season.
“It’s the first time my kids get to see Santa this year,” she said.
The former Maumee resident has made coming to the holiday parade an annual event.
“I enjoy the lights too,” she said.
This year’s parade, which took place November 26, featured 50 floats – twice as many as last year, said Brenda Clixby, Maumee Chamber of Commerce executive director.
The Maumee Fire Division won first place for its parade entry, which featured Santa’s reindeer on top of a decorated fire truck.
The second-place float was the Experimental Aircraft Association, which featured the character Mater from the movie Cars, and the third-place winner was Valvoline Instant Oil Change, which featured the Grinch.
“We come every year. We love it,” said Teresa Porter, whose 5-year-old daughter Karley also participated in the Santa Strut Pageant, which took place at the Maumee Indoor Theater following the parade.
Maumee Mayor Tim Wagener served as the parade grand marshal.
“After the parade, many people told me how wonderful it was – it was something very positive. The parade really was Maumee at its best,” Wagener said.
Temperatures were balmy, topping out in the mid 60s.
“You couldn’t ask for better weather,” Wagener said.
Over 600 runners and walkers also participated in the Holiday Hustle 5K Run and 1.5-mile fun walk, which preceded the parade.
Norm Witzler of Waterville came to Maumee to cheer for his daughter, son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren who ran in the 5K race.
“We’re going to stay for the parade. This a great family thing,” Witzler said.
For the fifth consecutive year, 28-year-old Paige Biglin of Columbus was the female winner, finishing the race in 17:50. Julius Kiptoo, 34, of Toledo, who finished in first place for the third consecutive year, posted a time of 15:10.
For a complete list of race results, visit www.toledoroadrunners.org.

Camera Technology In Maumee Police Cruiser Featured In Car And Driver Magazine
BY NANCY GAGNET — MIRROR REPORTER
A pure Force-10 Termina-tor, here in Maumee?
That’s what it says in an article in the December issue of Car and Driver magazine.
An in-depth story about an MPH-900 camera, which was installed on a Maumee police cruiser, describes Officer Brian Walczak – who was also featured – as a “pure Force-10 Terminator” with “monster biceps, tree trunk thighs and veins a-poppin.’”
“Yeah, I’m definitely taking some heat on that,” the 42-year-old officer admitted.
In August, a writer and photographer from the magazine spent part of a shift with Walczak for a story about the new camera system, which was installed in May.
“I was one of the first officers trained on the system so I was most familiar with it at the time,” Walczak said.
The MPH-900 camera sits on the trunk of the car and reads and records information from thousands of license plates the cruiser passes, as well as cars parked on the road or in parking lots.
“It’s pretty amazing technology,” Police Chief Robert Zink said.
Each captured image appears on a monitor located next to the driver’s seat. The system is programmed to compare the letters and numbers to those in the Law Enforcement Automated Data System, or LEADS, Zink said.
If the system matches a plate with a driver wanted for a crime, an alarm will sound, he said.
“At that point the officer would verify the plate number and the state through dispatch,” Zink said.
Of the more than 30,000 plates that have been read, the system has found 20 with criminal activity, he said.
“This gives us another set of eyes to work with. I would venture to guess that it would have been very difficult to identify any of those 20 offenses, so it’s a big help,” Zink said.
Walczak agreed.
“This reads 600 to 700 plates in a few hours and there is no way I could read that many,” Walczak said.
The system, which cost $20,000, was purchased with grant money through the State Homeland Security Program.
Elsag North America, the company that manufactures the cameras, directed the magazine to Maumee, Zink said.
“I thought it was well done. It was good publicity for Maumee about how technology is used and how it works,” he said.
The magazine is currently on newsstands.

Maumee School District Votes To Refinance $10 Million Of Debt
BY NANCY GAGNET — MIRROR REPORTER
Refinancing a portion of debt incurred by the Maumee school district for a reconstruction project could save the district between $600,000 and $650,000.
At its November 21 regular meeting, the Maumee board of education voted unanimously to refinance $10 million in bonds.
In 2003 the district borrowed $42 million to renovate and rebuild school buildings in the district. To date, $9 million has been repaid, said district treasurer Paul Brotzki.
“Our plan is to refinance $10 million in bank qualified bonds,” he said.
The proposal could save the district more than $600,000 over a 10-year period, he said.
“‘Bank-qualified’ is a special type of bond aimed at banks that normally do not purchase regular bonds. By law you can only issue $10 million in bank-qualified bonds in one year, which is why we are only doing a partial refinance,” he said.
The old bonds will be paid with the money the district receives from selling the bank-qualified bonds, he said. In addition, the interest rates on the new bonds should be considerably less than on the old bonds, which is 4.6 to 5 percent.
“The board still has the option to not issue new bonds if the interest rate on the new bonds is not favorable. We will not do the deal if it does not generate the savings that were proposed. The interest rates on the new bonds are not locked in so we are at the mercy of the market to some degree, but all indications are that the market will not change that much before we sell,” Brotzki said.
Board member Glenn Rambo supported the plan.
“We think it’s worthwhile to the taxpayers. It won’t help with the operating funds but it will save in the cost of the mortgage. We’ll pay less over time,” he said.
The board also approved appropriations for fiscal year 2011-12 in the amount of $34.8 million.
The finance committee recommended both the bond reinvestment and approval of budgeted appropriations for 2011-12.
Also at the meeting, the board took the following action:
• Approved an out-of-state trip for the Select Choir to travel to New York, N.Y., on May 4-7, 2012.
• Recognized Maumee High School seniors Catherine Porter and Megan Gabel, who were named National Merit Commended Scholars for 2012. Porter is ranked second in the class with a 4.67 grade point average, and Gabel is ranked third with a 4.65 grade point average.
• Recognized MHS cross country runner Willy Fink, who was district and regional champion and named to the All-Northern Lakes League first team. Fink placed third at the Ohio Division I cross county meet, making him the highest finisher MHS has ever had in boys cross country. In addition, he is an honors student, ranked 32nd in the Class of 2012 with a 3.99 grade point average.

The next regular board meeting will take place Monday, December 12 at 5:45 p.m. in the administration building.