Fulton County Ohio Media

Have you been to the new eatery on Main Street in Swanton yet?  What about the restaurant that just opened on Airport Highway?  Or maybe the place that serves family style dinners on Zeiter Way?  If not, you and your taste buds are missing out on some incredibly delicious mealtime selections.

To be clear, however, there is only one new Swanton-based business enterprise dishing our great meals.  And it is not a brick-and-mortar establishment confined to a particular address.  It is actually a wheels-and-motor food truck that can set up shop on any street, parking lot, driveway or back yard in the area.  This most recent addition to the Swanton community’s dining choices is called Lulu Fare and is owned and operated by long-time Swanton resident Heather Williams.

“I’ve always loved cooking and feeding people makes me extremely happy and everyone is always receptive to my cooking and says it’s delicious.  It’s always been something in the back of my mind so, with COVID, I didn’t return to the casino where I was working and I ended up buying a food truck to get my feet wet in the whole restaurant, catering business to see what happens,” said Heather, explaining her initial motivation to jump into the food service industry.  “I just decided if I’m not going back to work, I need to start a business.”

And jump into it she did, opening the business in late October, just about one week after she purchased the truck from a colleague at the casino.  “I bought it and I just started booking dates.  Because I knew if I booked dates then it would make me work faster.  It’s always good to work with a deadline,” explained Heather, a self-labeled procrastinator.  “We’ve built a good relationship with Benfield Wines and Majestic Oaks and we’ve got our schedules for the whole year.”

One thing is for sure.  Lulu Fare is not your every-day food truck and Heather is not a short order cook flipping burgers and dropping every kind of breaded vegetable you can think of into a deep fryer.  Her offerings are truly “cuisine” that just happen to be served on paper products.  “The interesting about this food truck, which is different than most food trucks, is my food truck changes its menu all the time.  We have things that are specialties that people really like, like our Blazing Balls and our Pulled-Pork Nachos, different things like that but we change our menu depending on what is going on or what the event is.”

On St. Patrick’s Day, for example, Lulu Fare served the traditional Jiggs Dinner which sold out very quickly.  If breakfast is more to your liking, Heather does that, too.  “I’ll have Shenanigans which is a cheesy potato casserole with sausage gravy and scrambled eggs, bacon, chives and cheddar cheese,” she described.  Or I’ll have a Chorizo Burrito, French Toast or Bread Pudding, things like that.”

Looking for something quick and simple for the family dinner?  Try one of Heather’s family-sized casseroles in a 9×9 or 9×13 pan with a vegetable and bread which are available on Thursday nights when the truck is conveniently parked next to Benfield Wines where the staff will gladly help you pick the proper wine for your casserole. 

Lulu Fare’s menu can be customized from a list of over 100 items that have each been approved by the Fulton County Health Department.  And, Ohio state law allows her Fulton County license to be recognized by all other Ohio counties.

Even though it has been only several months, the Lulu Fare Food Truck has really caught on and Ms. Williams is looking down the road for more culinary-related opportunities.  “I want to start doing cooking classes,” she said.  “I’ve talked to Benfield about doing cooking classes there for adults. And I’m going to look into having cooking classes over the summer for kids.”

This Monday, April 5^th, Lulu Fare will be parked at the Hallet Law Offices at 113 West Airport Highway for lunch beginning at 10:30 AM.  It will be the perfect opportunity to sample the tasty wares of a Swanton original.  The marketing slogan for Lulu Fare is “Making Mealtime Magnificent” and it is undeniably truth in advertising.

For more information on this wonderful addition to the list of Swanton community dinning choices, visit Lulu Fare on Facebook or contact them by calling 419-356-3885 or email them at lulufare8@gmail.com.

Pictured:  Heather Williams hand Jodi Gilsdorf a box of “deliciousness” from the Lulu Fare Food Truck

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Evergreen freshman pitcher Hunter Vaculik, making his first high school career start, threw five innings of no-hit, no run ball with seven strikeouts to lead the Vikings to an 11-5 victory over the Delta Panthers. After Vaculik left the game with a 10-0 lead, the Panthers scored three runs in the sixth inning and two more in the seventh but their rally fell short. Brock Hudik had five hits for the Vikes and scored four runs. Zach Laver stroked a bases-loaded double to drive in three runs and RJ Shunck reached base five times with three hits and two walks.

Vaculik was credited with the win and Hunter Hamilton took the loss for the Panthers. Chase Stickley had a one-out RBI single in the sixth inning to break up the no-hitter.

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Julia Benfield of Benfield Wines and Cat Kania of CK Sweets, Swanton small business owners and active members of the Swanton Small Business Association (SSBA), spoke before the Swanton Village Council last Monday night asking the members for help in bringing other businesses to the downtown area to boost the local economy and support the existing businesses on Main Street. 

Both Ms. Benfield and Ms. Kania have experienced the Council’s rejection of Mayor Neil Toeppe’s initiative to form an all-volunteer Economic Development Commission several times to the point where Council President Craig Rose will no longer allow the topic to be placed on the Council meeting’s agenda and were appealing to the Council to find another option to help the struggling downtown businesses.

“We would like to re-open the conversation about what the Village can do to help support the businesses,” said Ms. Benfield who spoke first.  “We would like some ideas about how maybe some of the Village’s ordinances can be changed to help new businesses coming in, similar to what Delta is doing, similar to what Grand Rapids is doing.  And we can look at some of those other villages to see what they are doing to bring businesses in and mimic or emulate some of that.”

Ms. Benfield, who works full-time as a nurse in addition to running the business with her husband Rob, told the Council she and her fellow SSBA owners have been working very hard to build up business in the downtown area and have done relatively very well but are struggling under the weight of the pandemic impact on the economy.  “I know the Economic Development (Commission) has been a bone of contention but we need to figure out something else to do to hype businesses to Main Street and other parts of Swanton as well,” she explained. 

One idea Ms. Benfield suggested was establishing a DORA (Designated Outside Refreshment Area) in the downtown area to bring in people from outside the community similar to what other communities are doing.  “That brings a ton of businesses into town,” said Ms. Benefield.

Ms. Kania, who is also a Master Sergeant in the Ohio Air National Guard stationed at the 180^th Tactical Fighter Wing at Toledo Express Airport, spoke next and informed the Council that not only do potential customers living in the surrounding communities not know of downtown Swanton businesses, many Swanton residents remain unaware of what Main Street has to offer and believe local businesses only exist on Airport Highway.  Before she and her husband Derek opened CK Sweets they spoke with Village Administrator Rosanna Hoelzle and then mayor Ann Roth about what the Village was doing to help local businesses.

“We came and spoke with Rosanna and the previous mayor and we were told that ‘Way Finding Signs’ were something they wanted to do.  To put on Airport Highway to point, ‘Hey, Benfield Wines is this way, Posh Pallet is this way,’ We haven’t seen that.  We haven’t heard of anything like that happening,” said Ms. Kania relating one of the reasons they chose to open their business in Swanton.  “That is something that could help us.  This community is super supportive.  They want to help us.  They want us to stay open but we need your support too.”

Generally speaking, most of the Council members seemed receptive to the requests from the two business owners, several ideas were discussed and there appeared to be a sense of cooperation developing.  However, that changed after Mr. Rose spoke on the issue.  “So, your assessment, the way everything is right now, it’s impossible to run a successful business on Main Street?  Is that what we’re looking at?” he asked.  The reaction from the two speakers was quick and pointed.  “I don’t think anybody said that,” countered Ms. Kania.  “Nobody said that.  That’s not at all what we said,” added Ms. Benfield.  “There are ways to run a business on Main Street in the current atmosphere.  I’m just asking,” said Councilman Rose.

“We’ve all been working really hard.  There were things that were put forth before that the Council talked about doing and all we’re doing is asking to revisit those things,” said Ms. Benfield.  “I think we want to do that,” said Mr. Rose.  “Yes, we do,” said Councilwoman Kathy Kreuz.  There was no further discussion on the issue and no official statement made for the record when the issue would be revisited. 

Pictured: Julia Benfield speaks to Council with Cat Kania

Five players from three Fulton County Schools filled half the DIII roster of the District 7 Basketball Coaches Association Girls All-Star Game but scored over three-quarters of the points in leading the Division III Team over the Division IV Team 42-30.  The five players, Kylie Sauder of the Archbold Blue Streaks, Braelyn Wymer and Brooklyn Green of the Delta Panthers and Aricka and Averie Lutz of the Swanton Bulldogs, accounted for 35 of their team’s 42 points, or 83.3% of the total offense.

The game was played with a two 20-minute half college-rules format versus the traditional four eight-minute-high school game to allow for plenty of court time for all the players.  Both squads used a full five-man rotation when substituting players.

The D3ers jumped out to an early 9-2 lead on a short baseline jumper from Green, a three-pointer and lay-up from Averie Lutz and another lay-up from Sauder.  The D4ers managed to pull within two points at 12-10 but a 7-0 run put the D3 Team ahead by nine points in route to a 24-14 halftime lead.

The second half saw the margin hover around the 10-point mark until the final buzzer sounded.  The Woodmore duo of Brooke Allen with 12 points and Ava Beam with seven points kept the D4 Team in the game but could not overcome the balanced scoring by the D3 Team.

Green led the D3 Team with 10 points and was awarded the game’s Most Valuable Player trophy.  Aricka Lutz and Keirsten Cline of the Fairview Apaches each scored seven points.  Sauder added six, Wymer had five, Averie Lutz had three and Sadie Estle of the Paulding Panthers had two.

Pictured:  Most Valuable Player, Brooklyn Green of Delta

On this day, Saturday, March 27, 2021, the Swanton American Legion Riders, Swanton Mayor Neil Toeppe, television news crews from Toledo, friends and family gathered at the home of Marion Lehman to celebrate and commemorate his 100^th birthday as well as his service to his country.  Mayor Toeppe honored Mr. Lehman with a proclamation on behalf of the Village of Swanton which had been read at the Village Council meeting this past Monday and entered into the Village’s official records.

Marion Eugene Lehman was born in a house on Independence Street, now Lincoln Avenue, in Swanton on March 27, 1921.  He lived on West Garfield Avenue until he was 10 years old and later graduated from Fulton Centralized School in 1940.  Seaman First Class Lehman served in the United States Coast Guard from October of 1943 until February of 1946, stationed on the USS Marine patrolling the northeast coast of the United States providing convoy escort and weather support.

Following the war, Mr. Lehman returned home and began to farm, got a job at the Willys-Overland Company (Jeep), got married and raised a family.  In 1960 he built and moved into a home on County Road 4 where he still live today.

Mayor Toeppe read the Proclamation which ended with, “Whereas the Village of Swanton wishes to honor Marion Lehman on the occasion of his 100^th birthday, for his service to his country and the Swanton area by his example, his indelible impact on the community and its citizens and the quality of life we enjoy.  Therefore, on behalf of the Village of Swanton and the people of Swanton, I, Neil Toeppe, Mayor of Swanton hereby honor Mr. Marion Lehman for his exemplary life well-lived and wish him many more.”

Pictured:  Veteran of WWII, Marion Lehman receives a Proclamation from Swanton Mayor Neil Toeppe on his 100^th birthday.

Not long after graduating from Delta High School this Spring, multi-sports star Regan Rouleau will be traveling to Transylvania later this summer.  Just to be clear, it is not the same Transylvania we’ve all heard of, a region of Romania made legendary and infamous by Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula”, but there will be bats involved, lots of bats and lots of at bats.  Reagan has signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her education and softball career at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

Excelling in three different sports, volleyball, basketball as well as softball as a Lady Panther, Reagan could have chosen either of the other two but went with her passion.  “It’s always been my go-to.  It’s always been the sports that makes me the happiest,” she said.  “I’ve always enjoyed it and I’m anxiety free.  I love doing it and I love getting better.”

Ms. Rouleau’s high school softball resume definitely backs up her college sport of choice.  She has been a four-starter for Delta, team Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 and team Most Valuable Player in 2019, the same season she led the NWOAL in stolen bases.  Reagan has been the team Captain the past two years, a leadership role she has also held with the volleyball and basketball teams.

“She’s one of a kind.  We’re so thankful she is on the team,” said Delta’s head softball coach Kelsey Gillen who has been with the Lady Panther program for nine years.  “She’s primarily our shortstop but she’s one you could put anywhere.  She can bat right-handed or left-handed, equally great at both.  She is a very talented player and a great team captain.”

Reagan’s versatility on the softball field was also on display in her other two sports.  In volleyball she was a four-starter and her tall stature allowed her to dominate at the net with blocks and spikes while her quickness let her cover the backcourt.  In basketball she was a force on the boards with rebounding and scoring but could also fill the net from three-point range.  Reagan has received All-NWOAL and All-District honors in all three sports and All-Academic NWOAL Awards as well.

Athletically and academically, Reagan felt Transylvania University was a good fit for her.  “The athletic facilities are really nice and the academics are really high level.  It’s really disciplined and I really need that.  I want to be good at my career that I want,” explained Reagan, a National Honor Society member with a 3.867 GPA who plans to major in psychology and become a child psychologist.

Relocating from Delta, Ohio with a population of just over 3,000 to Lexington, Kentucky with a population of over 300,000 will be somewhat of a culture shock for Reagan but she is looking forward to the experience.  “It’s in a big city but it’s a small school so it has the opportunities of a big city.  We live in a small town now so, it’s like small school stuff with a big city right there,” she said.

Reagan is definitely well prepared and has all the tools to be successful at the college that shares its name with the land of Dracula.  You can Count on it.

Pictured:  Reagan Rouleau signs with Transylvania University as her mother, Amy Jo and father, Ron look on.