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The Advocate honored See page 10
RESS January 13, 2014
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Pemberville braces for river flooding By J. Patrick Eaken Press Staff Writer news@presspublications.com
Getting shoveled out
Dennis Holdren clears the sidewalks at the East Toledo Senior Center after last week's heavy snowfall. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Damage control
Area cities stayed on top of the weather Northwood and Oregon responded quickly to the demands caused by heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures and wind chills last week. Northwood’s four snowplows had not stopped until the main roads and side streets had been cleared, said City Administrator Bob Anderson Wednesday evening. “Everything was open pretty fast,” said Anderson, who is also the city’s safety director. “We concentrated on the primary roads first, and also kept our business roads cleared. As soon as we could, we headed for all the subdivisions. Our guys have done a really good job. They’ve been working since before the storm actually started. Tonight [Wednesday] might be the first night we haven’t had anyone out plowing.” The city has four large snow plows as well as smaller trucks and heavy duty pickups with blades attached. “We had four street employees and the building and maintenance supervisor out plowing. They don’t work any more than 12 hours. We keep track of how many hours
Common People, Uncommon Challenges 50 stories of inspiration
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When you’re pushing that level of snow, breakdowns happen and it’s not uncommon at all.
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By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com
Related stories on page 4 and days in a row they work. We do what we have to do. But we also make sure our people don’t get fatigued so they’re safe,” said Anderson. “The only problem we had, just like everyone else, is the snow getting blown over some of our roads,” he added. “You can plow them a million times, but if it’s still blowing, the roads are still going to be covered with snow an hour later.” The majority of residents, he said, got their vehicles off the streets so that plows could remove the snow. Some of the
roads are very narrow, making it difficult for plows as well as emergency vehicles to navigate. “Emergency vehicles can’t get through some of those roads if there is a car on each side of the road,” he said. “Emergency access is vital.” Oregon Oregon’s roads were also cleared as of Wednesday evening, according to Mayor Mike Seferian. “Everything is plowed,” he said. “We just have two crews out this evening covering the city for possible snow drifts.” The city has 13 plows consisting of big and small end loaders and trucks with plows, said Seferian. “At any given time, some of them are being serviced or repaired. One of the snow plows hit a little shift in the road on Navarre Avenue and the blade was bent. It’s not anything tragic. But rather than keep that one out on the road, it was pulled for repairs so it didn’t get damaged any worse. And one of the big end loaders had a hydraulic issue, so part of the time, it was down. When you’re pushing that level of snow, breakdowns happen and it’s not uncommon at all,” he said.
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Anything we can do to bring traffic back to Woodville Road, we need to do.
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Ed Schimmel See page 9
Read about the heroes living in the homes next to you. In these 50 short stories, Press columnist John Szozda tells the stories of common people who have met uncommon challenges with vision, courage, passion and determination. These men and women include the Genoa grandmother who helped
by John Szozda
Pemberville mayor Gordan Bowman is hoping that nearly a foot of snow melts real slow after expected 40-plus degree weather over the weekend. The slower the better, he says, adding that while concerned, he is confident potential flooding won’t reach the same proportions as it did nine years ago. In 2005, melting snow and heavy rains led to flooding that resulted in the National Guard coming into town while drawing national news coverage. Throughout the day on January 13, news helicopters were spotted hovering over the village, and at least one of them represented national media. At one point the next morning on NBC’s Today show, Pemberville was specifically singled out as a victim of flooding in Ohio. Then-mayor James Opelt himself counted 20 interviews he performed throughout the six days that national and local news media were in town. He said he even talked to relatives in Arizona and Florida who had heard about the flooding in Pemberville on national news. In a downtown parking lot by the Portage River, hundreds of volunteers worked 24 hours setting up a dike system consisting of 18,000 sand bags and over 300 tons of sand to keep the rising water from damaging buildings. For the most part, the efforts worked. Some homeowners living near the river were not so lucky. Many homeowners experienced rising water filling their basements to the brim and coming close to entering the first floor of the home itself. Opelt said as many as 14 families were voluntarily evacuated from their riverside homes, and some homes were damaged to a tune of as much as $10,000 or more per house. In August 2007, flooding again hit villages along the Portage River, but it did not come close to levels reached in 2005. Because of that experience, and other historic floods, Pemberville has become increasingly aware of potential damage to its downtown buildings. A Pemberville Disaster Relief Fund was established soon
solve her daughter’s murder, the Polish-American boy who survived gruesome medical experiments during WWII and the woman, once a victim of fear, who fought back against crime and founded CrimeStoppers. The
For your copy of John Szozda’s book, send $15 to The Press, Box 169-J Millbury, OH 43447 or call 419-836-2221.
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