Monclova Students Celebrate Ohio’s 207th Birthday
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Wearing their OSU shirts and feasting on buckeyes, the fourth-graders looked ready for a football game.
But Rachel Birt’s students came to Monclova Primary on Monday with a different match-up in mind: Ohio Trivia Jeopardy.
As boys and girls tested their knowledge of Ohio firsts, they also celebrated the 207th birthday of the 17th state on March 1.
“That’s one of the reasons I had a party: some of the information about where we live is not well known,” Birt said.
Using a Smart Board, students took turns clicking on answers to reveal Ohio facts.
During its first 13 years, the state’s capitol moved from Chillicothe to Zanesville, then back to Chillicothe again before the honor rested with Columbus in 1816.
Mumblings of surprise followed the revelation of how the “a” was dropped from city founder Moses Cleaveland’s name in 1832 in order to fit it onto the masthead of The Cleveland Gazette. Cleveland was the first Ohio city to have electricity, and Clarence Crane of Cleveland invented Life Savers candy in 1912.
Toledo, known as Glass City, Frog City and Frog Town, was formed when the towns of Vistula and Port Lawrence combined.
Nationally speaking, Ohio had the first Y-bridge in Zanesville, and Oberlin College, founded in 1833, was the first to admit women.
The trilobite is the state fossil and the ladybug the state insect. The state gemstone, flint, was used to create knives, arrowheads and spearheads.
The Paleo-Indians, who lived in the area as far back as 10,000 B.C., were among the first to work with flint, Birt said.
Starting with the Paleo-Indians, the fourth-graders have studied Ohio history through the birth of the state, and will continue their Ohio focus through the end of the year.
Lining the hallway are posters depicting famous Ohioans, such as Bob Evans, founder of the restaurant chain; Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s; Archie Griffin, two-time Heisman trophy winner; Victoria Claflin Woodhull, who ran for president with the Equal Rights Party in 1872; William Tecumseh Sherman, an Army general, businessman and author who was born in Lancaster; and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.

No Easy Task To Balance Budget In Village Of Waterville
BY NANCY GAGNET – MIRROR REPORTER
Residents in the village of Waterville still get the best bang for their buck despite growing concern over possible fee increases, says one member of the finance committee.
“Local government delivers in our local communities. You can see everyday what our tax dollars do,” explained Tom Titus, the chairman of Waterville village finance committee.
A certified public accountant, Titus was village treasurer from 1980 until 2004, and has been a member of the finance committee since 1978.
“Today I feel we are giving a tremendous value for what we get out of the village,” he said.
According to Titus, the village is not immune to problems faced by other municipalities as a result of a weak economy.
“The problems are huge – our uncontrollable costs such as health insurance and fuel have just skyrocketed with not as much income coming in proportionately,” he said.
The finance committee has been discussing those problems for several years, he said.
Last fall, in order to deal with the decrease of approximately $500,000 in revenue due to flat income tax revenue, a decline in real estate valuation and interest income, and a decline in state funding, the finance committee made several recommendations including reallocating certain funds, cutting village-sponsored events and imposing a garbage fee, something Titus supports.
“It’s been my personal opinion that we can no longer depend on outside revenues to support our services in the village of Waterville,” he said.
“If we want to have the same level of quality services in the village, then it’s my opinion that we have to take care of ourselves and pay for it ourselves,” he said.
According to Titus, the finance committee agreed that a $4.00 monthly charge for garbage pickup was an amount most residents could manage. In reality, it costs the village approximately $8.75 to $9.00 per household per month for refuse collection and recycling fees, said village administrator Jim Bagdonas.
While Titus acknowledged that taxes pay for local services, he believes certain items such as leaf collection and refuse collection are enhancements to core services and not required by the village.
“Somehow if we’re going to have all of these services provided such as police, fire, rescue, snow removal and so on, costs for those services have now exceeded what we have to pay for them,” he said.
In terms of property taxes, Dale Knepper, village finance director, said only a small percentage of that revenue goes into the general fund for village services.
“The village receives very little of the overall taxes. The schools usually receive the most,” he said.
A breakdown of property tax allocation shows that Waterville village receives 6.21 percent, schools receive 58.78 percent, the county receives 30.37 percent, TARTA receives 4.28 percent and Waterville Township receives 0.36 percent.
According information provided by Lucas County, for a home valued at $142,600 in the village, the homeowner pays $2,458.78 annually in property tax. Of that, the village of Waterville receives only $152.69 for the general fund for services.
According to Titus, since the 1980s the village has doubled in size from 3,000 residents to more than 6,000 today, while the number of full-time village employees has increased only slightly, from 25 in the 1980s to 32 today.
“In my opinion we have a very lean operation in the village; we always have,” he said.
At the February 22 council meeting, village council failed to pass the $3.2 million budget, which Titus finds disappointing.
He wants council to make the tough decisions for a plan that would encompass the next five years.
“As of today we’re supposed to have a balanced budget and we don’t. We’ve now worked two months – one sixth of the year – on an unapproved budget,” he said.