P
The From hot dogs to arena See page 18
May 13, 2013
FREE
RESS
Title bound? See page 20
Serving The Eastern Maumee Bay Communities Since 1972
M
Oregon Schools change policy after Vicars incident By Melissa Burden Press Contributing Writer news@presspublications.com The announcement last month that a renowned football coach turned down the head football coaching position at Clay High School has left the Oregon Board of Education scrambling to find another coach to fill the position. Mike Vicars, who led Delta and Genoa high schools to state playoffs, including two state semifinal appearances, was hired by the district to lead the Eagles. Vicars was also hired as the assistant principal at Fassett Middle School, where he would have also served as the school’s athletic director. On April 19, Vicars told Superintendent Dr. Michael Zalar that he would not be accepting the position. According to P.J. Kapfhammer, school board president, Vicars applied for a middle school principal position in the PikeDelta-York district, where he led the Panthers to the Division IV state semifinals in 2003. Vicars, it turned out, had not signed his contract for the $90,000-a-year position in Oregon. Delta High School, where Vicars coached for eight years, currently does not have a head football coach. Currently, Oregon is “going backwards,” Kapfhammer said. “We are re-doing the search. We want someone who wants to work with the Green and Gold. We want someone who wants the job because it is a passion. We want someone who, on Friday nights, is proud to wear green and gold.” Kapfhammer said the district has posted the position internally for a week and has since posted an ad for the position externally. “When he (Vicars) did not take the job, we had to post the job internally for a week,” Kapfhammer said. “The job has been posted externally. We must post internally first. We have to follow the rules. I don’t like the process, but it is the process we have to follow. We are not going to rush and get the wrong guy. We want to get someone who will be here longer than three months.” The district will also have to find someone to take the assistant principal position at Fassett, he said. “I have said it before and I will say it again, Vicars was the perfect hire,” Kapfhammer said. “Vicars was a great coach and he had his administration license. I am not sure we will be able to find someone who
Continued on page 4
Q
uote of The Week
I am so proud of the honesty these children demonstrated. Dr. Michael Zalar See page 6
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Kimberly Oberhaus, of Walbridge, with “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” host Meredith Vieira. See story on page 2. (Photo courtesy of Disney/ABC.)
Vandalism a problem at Genoa park By Cynthia L. Jacoby Special to The Press Genoa village police are stepping up patrols to combat vandalism at Veterans Memorial Park. The busy summer season is days away but problems have already erupted in large doses as warmer weather sets in. “We’ve had some vandalism, some cavorting in the park,” Village Administrator Kevin Gladden said. “… They are destroying playground equipment, building huts in the woods and we’ve found all sorts of paraphernalia lying around.” Maintenance crews report someone is pulling branches off new saplings planted throughout the public park and knocking signs off fences at the ball park. Even the new pirate ship made of recycled materials purchased through a partnership with the village and the O-S-S Solid Waste District has fallen victim to the vandalism spree. “They tore the ladder off of it,” Gladden said. “It’s disheartening because this is for the kids,” Police Chief Bob Bratton said of
the park equipment damaged throughout the area. “I’m not sure what has gotten into them this year. They are being so destructive.” Veterans Park is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. But the summer season doesn’t officially start until Memorial Day weekend. That’s when the quarry opens for swimming, picnic tables are pulled from storage and the bathrooms are unlocked. “That’s when we’ll also start having some other problems. They plug up the toilets, try to pull the partitions off between the bathrooms,” Gladden said. Authorities say they believe the culprits are between 13 and 17 years old. Similar vandalism happened in the spring and summer of 2012, causing police to suspend access to the park for those involved for the rest of the year. There is no proof that those involved last year are to blame this time around though, Bratton pointed out. “We’ll just have to be vigilant with our patrols and see what happens,” the chief said. In recent weeks, village workers have
torn down two makeshift huts constructed in the park’s woods. They’ve also cleaned up the junk strewn about including condoms, cigarette packages and food wrappers as well as fire pits. At the same time, police increased their car and foot patrols around the park. “They will be getting out of the car more and walking around the park. You need to do that at some parts of the park to really see what’s going on. And we’ll be doing it at varying hours,” Bratton said. “No one should really be in there after dusk.” Late night visitors could be slapped with a citation for violating the village code regarding the park hours, the chief said. A second violation could result in a criminal trespassing charge. Still others could face littering or curfew violations. Teens age 16 and below are supposed to be off Genoa streets by 10 p.m. Seventeen-year-olds have until 11 p.m. to get home. “We try to work with people,” Bratton said. “In some cases it’s obvious that people are just running a little late and they aren’t up to anything.”
300+ Used Cars, Trucks & Vans www.dunnchevybuick.com
“You’ll like the guys and gals at Dunn Chevy Buick”
419-693-3000 419-698-4323