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Permits, inspections on agenda By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com
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Ohio’s taxpayers should not be held accountable for a practice that many agree is deeply flawed. State Senator Edna Brown
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Gala showcases research posters
A poster gala was held at the Lake Erie Research Center, Oregon, showcasing scientific research posters by the University of Toledo's National Science Foundation REU Fellows. Pictured, student Jessica Barnes discusses her poster on the economic impact of algal blooms with Dr. Andrew Solocha, University of Toledo. The purpose of her study was to evaluate the impact of water quality on the different types of tourism along Lake Erie. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Oregon
Concerns raised over new practice fields By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com The city of Oregon has decided not to tear down and reinstall new baseball practice fields on city property adjacent to the Coontz Recreation Center, despite concerns they were not put in properly. P.J. Kapfhammer, owner of Maumee Bay Turf Center, said at a city council meeting in June that the practice fields were substandard and not “playable.” “You can call them practice fields, call them whatever you want,” Kapfhammer said to council. “You should probably just bulldoze it. Start over. I watched it progress, and I bit my tongue, and I watched it and bit my tongue. And I can’t bite my tongue anymore. I understand they’re practice fields. But if you’re going to do them, make them playable.” Among his complaints: The backstops should not have been installed first. “The fencing never goes in first. It’s not even an option, because you have to work around where that fence is. So you’re going to either hit it an awful lot of times, or you’re not going to do much work around that fence. And I got my answer when all of a sudden, the stone just got dropped. They
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You should probably just bulldoze it. Start over. I watched it progress, and I bit my tongue...
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Business owners and residents in Ottawa County who’ve been having problems obtaining required permits or inspections are being invited to a meeting Aug. 2 at 7 p.m. in the county emergency operations center, 315 Madison St., Port Clinton. Larry Durivage, a member of the county’s building standards appeals board, said he is organizing the meeting to offer contractors, installers of septic and sewage systems, restaurant and campground operators and other business owners the opportunity to voice their concerns to county officials. He said elected officials and members of the boards of the building inspection and health departments have been invited. “It’s taking some of these guys 12 to 16 weeks to get permits from the health department,” Durivage said last week. A contractor who builds homes in Ottawa and neighboring counties also said there have been numerous problems obtaining permits for installing septic systems and related issues. The contractor, who asked not to be identified, said campgrounds, nursing homes and restaurants have also reported problems about the health department’s approval process. “It’s awful. What should be a two week process, maximum, to get a permit is taking 12 or more weeks,” the contractor said, adding that the problem has been getting worse in the past several years. With septic systems ranging in price by thousands of dollars, depending on how many bedrooms in a home and other factors, for example, a builder is hampered in providing reliable cost estimates to homebuyers until a system has actually received a permit, the contractor said. Nancy Osborn, the county’s health commissioner, said last week her department has been informed of the meeting and plans to attend. The position of director of the department’s division of environmental health is
didn’t even dig it out. You dropped 900 tons of stone on top of the dirt. There’s no base to hold it now. So you have an eight to 10 inch lip that goes right from stone down to the ground. That’s unplayable,” he said. Seeded in June Kapfhammer also questioned the timing of scattering grass seed on the fields, and that there was no irrigation to deal with flooding after rainfall. The seed was thrown in June, without any cover or irrigation to deal with the warmer temperatures of July and August, he said. “I’ve done plenty of jobs for the city. It’s unheard of in this industry,” he said. He
asked Recreation Director Joe Wasserman, who was at the meeting, how much it cost the city to buy the seed. Wasserman said it cost $10,000. The total cost of the backstops, stone and seed was $40,000. “From that point, they were put in as practice diamonds, but strategically located so that down the road, when funds and resources avail themselves, we will turn them into game diamonds,” said Wasserman. “So basically, they were put in with just the stone, the seed and backstops for practice purposes. If they were going in as game diamonds, we would have looked at irrigation, drainage, additional fencing material, cutting out the dirt, bringing the soil, doing the subgrade and all of that. And obviously we would have gone to much more cost, and a lot more consultation from experts such as yourself. But at this point, they went in as practice diamonds.” Wasserman said the work has been completed. Backstops were installed, 900 tons of stone were dropped on the infields, and 7,000 lbs. of seed were scattered on 15 acres of fields. “I promise you, there’s no chance it can ever grow,” Kapfhammer said of the seed. “It’s not feasible. Even if there were Continued on page 2
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