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Trent Weigel, Swanton High School Class of 2021, has been awarded a $1,000 college scholarship from the Swanton Chapter of Lions Club International. It was the second of two scholarships given by the Swanton Lions to this year’s graduating seniors of Swanton High School. The primary criteria for consideration are community service and high school grade point average (GPA) along with other smaller factors.
Trent performed his community service as a member of the National Honor Society (NHS), an organization devoted to academic excellence as well as having its participants actively involved with their community. “I believe community service is important in showing support and leadership. I think it is a way of showing your thanks for everything the community has provided for you,” wrote Trent in his essay provided with his scholarship application. “I also believe it shows responsibility and that you take pride in and care for the well being of your community and everyone that resides within it.”
In the classroom, Trent compiled an exceptional Grade Point Average of 4.47, receiving top honors in every quarter during his high school career. He was also a Scholar Athlete in the Northwest Ohio Athletic League (NWOAL) and received a Student of the Month Award from the Swanton Rotary.
Outside the classroom, Trent was a three-sport athlete earning a starting position in football as a quarterback, basketball as a guard and baseball at several positions. He also was involved in the high school’s Show Choir and the spring play.
Mr. Weigel will be attending The Ohio State University this Fall and majoring in business.
Pictured: Swanton Lion Past President Richard Notestine presents a $1,000 scholarship check to Trent Weigel
This evening, July 29th at 6:30 PM, Benfield Wines on Main Street will be hosting another “Meet the Candidates” event for four Swanton residents that will be running for a seat on the Village Council. Each candidate, Derek Kania, Mickey Disbrow, Patrick Messenger and Sam Disbrow will also be soliciting for signatures of registered Village voters for their petition that will place their names on the ballot this November.
Four open seats will be on that ballot. All or none of the individuals who currently hold those seats, Kathy Kreuz, Mike Rochelle, Craig Rose and Tony Stuart may run for reelection as incumbents. Aside from Mr. Stuart, who was appointed to fill a vacancy last year, the other Council members have all served for far longer than a single term of four years. And each of those three ran as incumbents without any opposition in 2017, keeping the old guard in place and maintaining the progress-inhibiting status quo.
Hoping to bring economic growth to Swanton as a solution to combat rising prices and the need for higher taxes, Neil Toeppe ran against Mayor Ann Roth in 2019 and denied Mayor Roth a third consecutive term by a significant margin. The Swanton constituency had spoken and sent the message that it was time for a change to a forward-thinking direction.
Unfortunately, led by Council President Rose, the Village Council pushed back against the will of the Swanton voters and enacted legislation to minimize the authority of Mayor Toeppe and prevent any of his initiatives from not only being realized but also from being seriously considered.
It was those kinds of power-grabbing, progress-hindering, self-serving actions by the Council as a whole that triggered a grass roots movement by a number of community residents and business owners; a movement to be part of the solution. It is a movement that will not just put new names on the ballot to give the voters actual choices, but also to enact legislation on economic development and transparency in government that the Council has denied time and time again since Mayor Toeppe took office.
Along with the candidates and their petitions, Swanton resident John Schmidt will be in attendance with a petition to create an ordinance to form an all-volunteer Economic Development Commission and another petition to create an ordinance to live-stream all Village Council meetings to the public. When a community is compelled to circumvent its legislative body to fulfill its needs, it speaks volumes as to how unresponsive that legislative body has been to the people it has been empowered by to serve.
Tonight, is a great opportunity to learn about four potential leaders of this community, who they are, what they stand for and what their vision is for the Village. When you go to the polls this November it will allow you to make an informed decision. We have seen, for many years, what the current Council’s vision is for Swanton. I would describe it as short-sighted, at best.
One thing I firmly believe is “status quo” is actually a myth. Nothing is static. Certainly not an entire community. You either move forward or you fall backward. Backward is a problem. Forward is a solution. Be part of the solution.
At the July meeting of the Swanton Board of Education (BOE), Superintendent Chris Lake informed the members of an initiative to bring the district’s baseball and softball facilities up to date by constructing new fields on school property. Mr. Lake’s statement, taken directly from the meeting minutes, is as follows:
I want to take a moment to highlight a steering committee that I have put together for the purposes of building a varsity baseball and softball field on the campus of Swanton High School. For as long as anyone can remember the varsity baseball and softball teams have played their home games at Memorial Park, but it has long been the dream of many people associated with those programs to see these games be played on school owned facilities. The Swanton Local School District is very appreciative of the partnership we have with the Village of Swanton that allows our athletes to play on these village owned fields, but we recognize that there are difficulties in playing on fields that we do not own.
The committee which consists of Becky O’Shea (SMS teacher), Amy Remer (Swanton resident), Josh Siewert (SHS head baseball coach), Wade Haselman (Athletic Director) and I have been working together to draft a fundraising letter and to create a fundraising presentation to share with area businesses. Our goal is to spread the message about this project and to seek to raise money to help the school district with the cost of this project. Over the course of the last several months we have been seeking estimates on the cost of this project and based on the information we have the district will need around $1 million dollars to install playable game fields at the high school. To add a press box, bathrooms, field lights and other upgrades would cost additional money. For the time being, our goal for phase one is to raise the funds that will help us to install playable game fields so that our students will have a true home field to play on.
In the fundraising letters that were sent out to local businesses and alumni, the committee has developed several support levels that will allow donors a wide variety of options. The committee is in the process of finalizing our fundraising presentation, and we would love the opportunity to make a pitch to areas business that might be interested in supporting this project. The committee is also brainstorming other fundraising ideas to help us meet our goals. Any money donated to the softball and baseball field projects will be held in a special cost center devoted entirely to this project. We recognize that this project will not happen overnight, but we are dedicated to making the progress necessary to bringing this to fruition.
If anyone is interested in joining our efforts to help raise funds for this worthwhile project, I encourage them to reach out to one of the committee members listed above.
The Board also passed a resolution to place a Substitute Levy for an existing levy on the November 2, 2021 ballot. The Substitute Levy is a renewal of the $825,000 Emergency Levy that will capture new revenue on new homes and businesses built in the Swanton Local School District. With the Substitute Levy, homeowners will still get the 12.5% owner-occupied discount on their real estate taxes. For the first year of levy, the same amount of taxes ($825,000) will be collected for the School District. This levy is for five years and will run from 2022 to 2026.
The final year of a three-year contract for Leigh Pancoast, Middle School Assistant Principal, was rescinded by the BOE and a new five-year contract for Ms. Pancoast, effective August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2026 was approved.
The next meeting will take place on August 18, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. in the BOE Offices at 108 North Main Street.
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Several funding options for a two-phase resurfacing project for Hallett Avenue were discussed by the Swanton Village Council at their July meeting last Monday night and the members chose to apply for grants to help cover both phases. Grant funding applications would be through the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG) for Surface Transportation Block Grants (STBG). Hallett Avenue was chosen because it is main Swanton highway located in Lucas County and TMACOG funding does not extend into Fulton County.
“This is a big project,” said Rosanna Hoelzle, Village Administrator. “If you’ve driven down Hallett you’ve probably noticed that the curbs and gutters are in dire need of updating.” Ms. Hoelzle explained that the project would be divided into Phase “A” which would run from Airport Highway to the south side approach of the overpass and Phase “B” which would begin at the north side approach of the overpass to the Ohio Turnpike. Overall, the project would include milling and resurfacing, repairing curbs and gutters and placing a sidewalk on the southwest side of Hallet.
The three funding options laid out by Ms. Hoelzle were to apply for a grant for one of the phases, both phases individually with a preferred priority or a grant for the entire project. The estimated combined cost of the phases is $1,280,000 and, to maximize the chance of having the grant application approved, Ms. Hoelzle recommended the Village cover 36% of the total. Finance Director Jennifer Harkey said Village’s portion would be paid for with the gas tax.
After some discussion, the Council chose to apply for the maximum amount available of $1,170,000. If successful, the funding would become available in 2024.
Council also discussed replacing the 1998 wood chipper that has been breaking down on a regular basis for the past two years. The broken chipper has been causing delays in brush pickup and has required the Village to rent one at $1500 per week to continue the service for this year. The cost of a new chipper is approximately $45,000 and would not be available until early 2022.
Don Dutridge, Commander of the Swanton VFW Post 8598, addressed Council concerning the use of a vacant parcel on South Main Street. Currently, the Village has a temporary plan to convert it into a “green” space with picnic tables for the community until a better use is found. However, Commander Dutridge explained that the lot has been used by the VFW and other nearby businesses for parking for over twenty years.
“As you know, parking in that area is pretty bad,” he stated. “We have five businesses down there and we have eight parking spots. Losing that space when you called it a green space, picnic table area, I think that really hurt us bad.” Mr. Dutridge said using other businesses parking lots was not a viable option because of liability issues. At this time, the Village has no other plans for the lot. Council agreed to place the issue before the Public Service Committee which will next meet on August 23, 2021.
The next Council meeting will be held on August 9, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 219 Chestnut Street.
Pictured: Hallet Avenue facing North.
Scheduling guidelines, priorities and fees related to the usage of baseball and softball fields and the tennis/pickleball courts at Memorial Park were discussed at the July 19th Village Council meeting. “This is to create a more organized way for organizations to request the usage of the ball diamonds as well as the tennis and pickleball court,” explained Village Administrator Rosanna Hoelzle. “It is explicitly stated that Swanton Varsity Athletics and Swanton Recreation Program would be first in line at no cost. There would be no fees associated with their usage of the facilities.”
Ms. Hoelzle stated there would be no fees for any practices or any non-tournament games but there would be a cost for tournament games. “We don’t get a lot of tournaments but the intent would be to try to entice people to come and have a tournament that would bring a lot of people to the community which would be really great,” she said. “The fee structure is $25 dollars per field per day. We’re not looking at charging a tremendous amount of money for an individual to rent a field but it would allow a little bit of revenue to come in to ensure for cleanup.”
Provisions have been established for the reservation and use of the sports facilities. Reservations must be made through the Village Office (419-826-9515) 30 days in advance for practices and non-tournament games.
Pictured: Ballfields on the Upper Level at Memorial Park
At the Swanton Village Council meeting on Monday evening, Council voted to approve the date of October 30, 2021 for the traditional Halloween’s Trick-or-Treating for the Swanton Community. With that date now in place, the Swanton Lions Club will be putting on their highly-popular Halloween Hoopla event earlier on the same day.
Representatives from the Swanton Shine Committee requested and were granted from the Council the date of November 27, 2021 to hold their Annual Swanton Tree Lighting Ceremony at Pilliod Park. This committee raises funds every year to purchase and maintain Christmas holiday decorations within the Village. As in past years, they plan to serve cookies and drinks and will have other family-friendly activities as well.
Times for all these events will be finalized and made public soon.
With the five-year 5 mil levy for the Delta Police Department (DPD) scheduled to expire on December 31, 2022, the Village Council is preparing to place a renewal levy on the ballot by first passing Resolution #21-10, requesting the Fulton County Auditor to certify revenues with the Auditor’s Certificate. Council approved the First reading of the Resolution at their July 12th meeting and plan to place the renewal levy on the May 3, 2022 ballot. Both pieces of legislation must be submitted to the Fulton County Board of Elections by February 2, 2022.
In other news involving the DPD, it has been reported that the roof of the police station is leaking and, after an inspection by G.A. Wilson Roofing of Swanton, it has been determined the roof needs a total replacement. Wilson will be providing a quote.
In Public Comments, Delta resident Larry Bell of North Main Street addressed the Council about his concerns of what he believed to be excessive noise coming from the MetalX scrap metal recycling plant. Mr. Bell assumed the noise level was in violation of the local ordinance.
Village Administrator Brad Peebles informed Mr. Bell that decibel readings had been taken at two locations at two different times in response to other complaints. “The standard is typically 70 decibels at the property line. They are within that 70-decibel range,” said Mr. Peebles. “Based on today’s standards, I believe they comply with the industrial setting.” In conversations with MetalX management, Mr. Peebles said they admitted there are some occasions during the processing of certain materials where higher than standard noises will occur but, on the average, they are within standard.
Regarding previous legislation, the Third and Final Reading of Ordinance 21-09, authorizing the Village Administrator to make an application and execute all required documents with the USDA for the receipt of grant/loan funds for the construction of a water tower to replace an existing and deteriorating structure was approved.
Also approved on the Third and Final Reading was Resolution 21-06, authorizing the Village Administrator to enter into an agreement with Jones & Henry Engineers LTD to complete an inundation report for Reservoir No.2 as mandated by the EPA. Resolution 21-07, authorizing the Village Administrator to enter into an agreement with Jones & Henry Engineers LTD for service to design sanitary sewer service for areas along County Road H near State Route 109 passed as well.
The First Reading of Resolution 21-09, authorizing the Village Administrator to enter into an agreement with the State of Ohio Department of Natural (ODNR) resources for a Cooperative Fishing Agreement was approved. This will allow the ODNR to manage the fish stock within Delta Reservoir No.2 for a period of 25 years, expiring April 30, 2046.
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