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Curfew nixed Oregon City Council on Monday voted 5-2 against passing a curfew for minors following a lengthy discussion. Members of the Oregon Block Watch Group met with city officials twice in the past to advocate the need for the curfew. Supporters wanted the measure to go before council for a vote. Many were at the meeting on Monday. Councilwoman Sandy Bihn, who met with neighborhood groups while she campaigned for a seat on city council last year, has been in support of a curfew. “A lot of big cities have them. The whole state of Michigan has a curfew,” she said. “So obviously, some governmental entities feel this is helpful. In the case here, people have been asking for this for a long time because there have been issues in their neighborhoods late at night.” The city years ago discussed whether a curfew would help deter juvenile delinquency, but it never gained much support. Bihn recalled attending a meeting at that time on the matter. “A couple of the older people said they were having problems with the kids and how they were taking things out of their yards,” said Bihn. They didn’t put Christmas decorations up anymore. I remember afterwards saying, `What time did that occur?’ and they said `2 or 3 in the morning.’ That’s something none of us would be comfortable with in terms of having kids prowling through the neighborhoods in the late hours of the night. I know personally, when you call [police] and ask for help, two things usually happen: Oftentimes we only have so many police officers out in the evening, and they can’t get there in time. The kids don’t stand still, they move. By the time police get there, they’re gone. This is a tool in the tool chest to help neighborhoods. If this is something that keeps kids in the house after midnight, then I think it’s worth having. It gives a message to the community that we do care about our neighborhoods, and kids shouldn’t be prowling the streets in the middle of the night.” Various curfews Police Chief Mike Navarre was opposed to the curfew. He said it would be different
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I am not one to legislate parenting, but I am one to legislate peace and tranquility in the lives of people that live in this city.
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By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com
from curfews in neighboring communities. “If Toledo’s and Northwood’s were the same, the most sensible thing to do is to adopt that [model}, since they are our neighbors to the west and to the south,” said Navarre. “But they’re not. They are nothing alike. An 11-year-old in Toledo can stay out until 11 p.m., whereas in Northwood, an 11-year-old must be in at 9 p.m. They are completely different.” The proposed ordinance, he said, has different times and days of the week. “We don’t have different times for different ages. We simply have midnight until 6 a.m. That’s unique. I don’t think there’s another ordinance out there like this,” he said. Instead of a curfew, Navarre said it would be better for the public to call police when they see problems occurring in their neighborhoods. He assured council and block watch members “that the police will respond to your needs and complaints.” “We are putting our heads together and coming up with what we feel will be an effective response,” said Navarre. “I have met personally with many of the residents to try and identify those complaints. So have members of my staff. We always will urge you to call 911. Never hesitate to call. You’re not bothering us. We want you to call. And we’re going to make sure our dispatchers ask the right questions. Their job is to get the information from you and send the police out to investigate. That should happen in almost all incidences. When you’re calling because there are people out late at night and it seems they are up to no good, our job is to go out there and find out what that is. And we’ll do that. We’ll continue to meet with you, we’ll continue to attend the block watch meetings. What’s essential to our response is we have to identify what exactly the problem is in terms of the days of the week, times, and specific locations. And once we do that, I think we can put a plan together where I can assign extra officers above and beyond what we would send out on a normal shift Continued on page 2
Ben Brien, a village employee, and Keith Kruse, village administrator, discuss the condition of State Route 20 (Main Street) with Kasey Smith, of the Ohio Department of Transportation. (Submitted photos)
Rt. 20
Village asks for aid By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com Just when officials in the Village of Woodville thought the town gained a little breathing room financially after voters approved additional millage for the general fund, another sizable expense looms not on the horizon but right on Main Street. Representatives of the Ohio Department of Transportation were in town recently to discuss the condition of the street, part of State Route 20, with the village administration. What they saw wasn’t encouraging. “It’s in bad shape,” Mayor Richard Harman said. “There are big holes, four or five inches deep. The state wants us to maintain that but there is no way we can do Main Street. We had a meeting with them and hopefully they’ll come back with some
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kind of assistance.” The irony of the situation isn’t lost on the mayor. One reason village council agreed to place an additional 2-mill levy request on the March 15 ballot was a drop in revenues from the state. Combined with lower interest income from village deposits, the annual losses from those two sources have averaged about $90,000 since 2012, according to village figures. To help offset those losses, the village has implemented about $30,000 in general fund spending reductions that will stay in place even though the levy has been approved. The village does not have a municipal income tax. The mayor and Keith Kruse, village administrator, met with ODOT personnel Continued on page 4