Fulton County Ohio Media

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Just a few photos to get ready for the upcoming season. Click on the link above to access and view or download any or all photos for FREE.

After helping to lead the Swanton Lady Bulldogs bowling team to unprecedented heights during the 2020-2021 high school bowling season, Hannah Patch has decided to continue her education and bowling career at Siena Heights University (SHU) in Adrian, Michigan.  Her original post-high school plans had her attending the University of Toledo but that all changed when she was contacted by SHU with an offer to keep bowling while in college.

Hannah began bowling at the age of eight and progressively improved every year, finishing with an outstanding senior season for the Lady Bulldogs.  Swanton finished the Northwest Ohio Athletic League (NWOAL) regular season in second place behind the defending state champion Bryan Lady Golden Bears.  However, in the NWOAL Tournament, the Bulldogs put it all together and defeated everyone, including the Bears in their home alley to capture Tournament Championship.

In the Sectional Tournament held in Napoleon the following week, Hannah put on a clinic, rolling a career high 623 three-game series, finishing second overall as an individual and leading the Lady Bulldogs to a second-place finish to advance to the District Tournament in Findlay.

Hannah gives a lot of credit for her development and success to her high school coaches, the father-daughter duo of Nick and Ashtin Staler.  Thanks to the excellent coaching and her dedication to the sport, she will be moving on to the next level, bowling for the Siena Heights University Saints.

The Swanton Bulldog golf team continued its hot start to the 2021 season, shooting a 327, as they finished in third place in the 14-team Paulding Golf Invitational held on Thursday at Auglaize Golf Course in Defiance.  Senior Garret Swank fired a personal best 72 to finish at even par and garner runner-up medalist honors, just one stroke behind Kalida Wildcat Ryan Klausing’s 71.   Sam Betz, also a senior, was second on the team with an 82, followed by Ryan O’Shea (86) and Mazin Rukeih (87).

Swanton was grouped with fellow NWOAL foes and perineal golf powers Archbold, Bryan and Wauseon to make it an intensely competitive matchup.  The Bryan Golden Bears shot a 312 to tie Kalida for the day’s top score but finished second based on the fifth golfer’s score used as a tiebreaker.  The Wildcats fifth golfer shot a 91 and Bryan’s fifth man had a 118.

The Wauseon Indians got a 340-stroke total from their top four scorers Andy Scherer (73), Jackson Gleckler (77), Mykale Schneider (89) and Zach Puehler (101) and finished in fifth place.  The Archbold Blue Streaks came in ninth place with a score of 364.  Cahle Roth shot a 72 to tie Swank for runner-up medalist honors and was followed by Luke Rosebook (78), River Ryan (104) and Mason Bickle (110). 

Heading into the third week of the season, the Bulldogs are carrying an impressive 29-11 record.

Pictured:  Garret Swank (left) and Sam Betz.  (Photo courtesy of Swank Photography)

Kim Newborn, who lives with her husband on the east side of County Road 6-2, adjacent to the Southwood Falls subdivision within the Delta corporation limits, spoke before the Village Council during their first August meeting about flooding on her property due to recent construction on Glacier Lane in the subdivision. 

Ms. Newborn contends that the builder, Keith Marchs, built a home on top of a storm drain on Lot #4 and did not compensate for the change in water flow by rerouting the water with proper drainage.  “We did contact Keith and he said, ‘No one would say that this is my fault,’ and hung up on us,” related Ms. Newborn. 

According to Ms. Newborn, the lack of drainage created flooding on Lot #6 which those home owners partially alleviated by adding 12” of fill dirt to their property.  “That’s when our yard started to flood,” she explained and said that her neighbors planned to add more dirt until the flooding stopped completely.

Village Administrator Brad Peebles then interjected to address the issue.  “I am very well aware of this.  Mr. Marchs has been sent a letter.  He has been given a time frame to respond.  His time frame is up this week,” he said.  “I’ve spoken with Keith.  I concur with you that he believes that he is not obligated.  At that point the law director and I will address it with him.  He is obligated.  He is required to fix it.  With regards to the buried catch basin, there is nothing that says he can’t reconnect those low spots to it.  It’s very much accessible.  It’s very much fixable.  We need to push Mr. Marchs to do it and we plan to.”  Mr. Peebles did say that the Village would pursue the issue and it might involve the legal system.

In legislative news, the Third and Final Reading of Resolution 21-09, authorizing the Village Administrator to enter into an agreement with the State of Ohio Department of Natural (ODNR) for a cooperative fishing agreement was approved.  The Third and Final Reading of Resolution 21-10, declaring it necessary to renew an existing levy for the police department pursuant to the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) sections 5705.19(H) and 5705.25 requesting the auditor to certify the amount of revenue to be generated by the proposed levy was also approved.

Emergency Resolution 21-12, establishing Fund 207, was passed.  Due to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Public Law 117-2 that was signed into law by the President of the United States on March 11, 2021 it is required the Fund be established specifically for the management of funds the Village of Delta receives from the Ohio of Budget and management.

Stated in Mr. Peeble’s Administrator’s Report, the Village retained the services of Aqua Line to perform a leak evaluation of the entire Village to investigate unmetered water loss.  Aqua Line found seven leaks with four of those considered to be major and accounting for 1,100,000 lost gallons per month in total.  The leaks are being scheduled for repair with the most significant leaks addressed first.  The Palmwood leak is in the center of the street and will require excavation of the pavement.

The next Council meeting will be on August 16, 2021 at 5:30 PM in Memorial Hall.

Pictured:  Kim Newborn addresses Council members concerning flooded property

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The host team Swanton Bulldog Golfers shot an 18-hole total of 330 to finish in third place at the Bulldog Golf Invitational held at their home course, Valleywood Golf Club this past Monday.  Swanton missed second place by one stroke as the Perrysburg Yellow Jackets finished with a 329 score.  The Ottawa Hills Green Bears captured the first-place trophy by carding an impressive 322 total.  Rounding out the eight-team field were the Otsego Knights with a 354, the Springfield Blue Devils at 357, the Emmanuel Christian Warriors at 434, the Delta Panthers at 470 and the Northwood Rangers with a 503.

Pacing the Bulldogs was Garret Swank with a 79 and Sam Betz with an 80.  Both scores placed the Swanton golfers on the All-Tournament team.  Also contributing to the Bulldog total of 330 was Mazin Rukieh (83) and Ryan O’Shea (88).  Adam Lemon (90) and Lucas Bloom (119) competed for Swanton as well.

Michael Budge of Otsego took medalist honors with a +3 score of 74.  He also made the All-Tournament team along with Eddie Griffin (78), Anthony Adduci (80) and Will Swigart (80), all of Ottawa Hills.

Swanton will be in action again tomorrow, August 12^th, in the Paulding Golf Invitational at Auglaize Golf Club in Defiance.  Tee time is 9:00 AM.  Delta next takes on Evergreen at Woodlawn Golf Club in Adrian, Michigan on Friday, August 13^th.  Tee time is 10:00 AM.

Click on the link above to access FREE photos.

Pictured: Swanton Bulldogs

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Big Shout Out to the Swanton Corn Fest Committee for great job they did this past weekend. The Village of Swanton is very lucky to have dedicated people committed to put on this wonderful event. We know it takes a lot of time and a lot of hard work to pull this off and we really appreciate it.

Here are over 300 photos for the Swanton Corn Festival events that were held at Memorial Park. Just click on the link above for access. Any or all photos can be downloaded for no cost.

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After a one-year hiatus, the Swanton Corn Festival Parade returned to the streets of Swanton in spectacular fashion. Great job by the Corn Fest Parade Committee and welcome back!

Click on the link above to access over 600 photos in a Google Photos folder. Any or all photos can be downloaded to your computer for free. All photos are in jpeg format which will allow for editing.

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Two teams of Swanton High School graduates got together on the varsity baseball field at Memorial Park to play in what they hope will be the first of many alumni co-ed softball games. The teams were divided into the older seasoned-by-life veteran Bulldog grads wearing purple versus the younger still-finding-their-way-in-life Bulldogs wearing white. The Purple Bulldogs were hoping to prove they still had it going on while the White Bulldogs wanted to send the message, “Make way for the next generation.” to their older fellow alums.

When all was said and done, the Purple Dogs schooled the White Dogs in convincing fashion and sent their younger over-confident fellow alums the message, “Not so fast my young friends and next year you need to bring your ‘A’ game if you want to have any chance of being the Top Dogs.”

Click on the link above to view the photos.

In 2019, Swanton resident Neil Toeppe ran for the office of mayor with local economic development being the defining issue of his overall platform.  The voters chose Mr. Toeppe by almost eight percentage points over two-term incumbent Ann Roth and it appeared that a much-needed effort and focus on boosting the Swanton economy was in the making.

However, several members of the Swanton Village Council were not only against the new mayor’s economic incentive plans, but pushed back on virtually all of his community-enhancing initiatives.  Several citizens and business owners came forward to address the Council and express their support for Mr. Toeppe’s ideas to no avail.  When local businesses began to suffer heavily under the weight of pandemic-related restrictions imposed by Governor Mike DeWine, the Council, sadly, was not moved to change its stance.   It was not long before Council meetings devolved into contentious affairs, creating an almost toxic environment at times. 

Frustrated by Council’s lack of response to the concerns of the Swanton community and unwillingness to enact positive change, resident and business owner Janet Ritter organized a grassroots effort earlier this year to give a voice to the voters of Swanton.  And, with four Council seats up for reelection, find citizens willing to challenge for those seats and work for the community.  She created a Facebook page called “A Community Forum” and began to hold meetings for with the following objective: “Creating a safe space where Swanton residents can equitably discuss ideas and solutions. A platform where residents can become involved with their community through social programs, event organization, and politics.”  And a Mission Statement: “A Community Forum will provide information and tools necessary for Swanton residents interested in becoming involved to improve their community in a manner that is impartial for everyone.”

What developed from this political movement over several months of meetings was a strategy and a game plan, if diligently followed, would give the Swanton community a path and an opportunity to be taken seriously by its leaders and have an impact on its future.   Four individuals, Patrick Messenger, Mike Disbrow, Derek Kania and Sam Disbrow stepped up and solicited for petition signatures to put their names on the November ballot to replace any incumbent that decided to run for reelection.  Registered voters flocked to organized petition signing events, giving the hopeful candidates more than enough signatures for eligibility.  The citizens of Swanton answered the calling, choosing to take the right path to change.  No torches.  No pitchforks.  No storming Village Hall. Just a pen and later, a short trip to the polling station.

As added insurance to realize true change, John Schmidt circulated petitions to create ordinances for an economic development commission and to live-stream all Council meetings, placing those decisions in the hands of the voters.  Unfortunately, a special requirement allowing Village officials to hold the petitions for ten days before being submitted to the Board of Elections, pushed the petitions past the deadline but can be placed on the ballot in the November 2022 election if still needed. 

Fortunately, a new Council will be in place by then because all four incumbents chose not to seek reelection.  A wise choice given what could be surmised from local social media’s commentary on Council’s behavior and decision making the past 18 months.  At the August 4, 2021 4:00 PM deadline only the four newcomers had filed petitions.  Now, the hope is the four new Council members will join Councilman Dave Pilliod and Councilwoman Diane Westhoven in forming a coalition with Mayor Toeppe and the Village Administration to make decisions that best serve the interest of the Village of Swanton and its residents.

A preliminary study for a new Delta community pool along with a splash pad, which would be performed by the engineering design firm of Peterman Associates, Inc. was discussed by the Village Council during their August 2^nd meeting Monday evening.  The scope of the work, as listed in the proposal from Peterman, would include a site layout, a floorplan for the bath house, an elevation view of a new bath house, an estimate of the probable cost including design and construction, and an estimate of the probable demolition cost.  An evaluation of the existing facility and its potential for reuse would also be included.  The fee quoted in the proposal was $19,750.

Village Administrator Brad Peebles informed Council that Peterman Associates is authorized to perform work for the Village and had performed a similar study for the municipal pool in the city of Napoleon.  “It’s (Napoleon pool) a very nice facility and from all the measurements and data, that layout would basically almost drop on our site.  You could virtually take that layout and put it on our physical site where the pool is currently,” explained Mr. Peebles.  “From a planning perspective, it gives us a tool that has already been designed and developed that we could work from to create the budgeting and the planning we may need.”

Mr. Peebles also said legislation enacted by Council for the study would be required to “educate and inform” the public so the community would know what would be involved.  He inferred the study would better identify the overall costs associated with the project and would give the Village a much accurate number to present to the community in the way of a bond issue or levy.

Another point of consideration Mr. Peebles expressed to the Council was the time required to complete the project for a new pool which would begin with the demolition of the existing facility.  “We’ve also talked to Astro Pools.  Astro Pools is the company that built the Napoleon facility.  They also built the Wauseon facility,” he said.  “There is a strong likelihood that, even if you had this on the May ballot, you may not be having a pool until the 2024 season if it went forward.  Just because of timing and everything associated with getting it approved and built.”

Councilman Art Thomas asked if funding for the study could come from the levy that was recently passed to operate the pool.  Mr. Peebles said he believed that would be allowed and that money would later be reimbursed.  Council members will now consider to go ahead with the study and have Mr. Peebles draft the required legislation or have more discussion.

Pictured:  Delta Community Pool