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2 courts rule swerving ok within lane By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com
6th Annual Tractor show Tom and Vergi Aberl of Oregon came out to the Oregon Tractor Supply on Navarre Avenue June 14, for the 6th Annual Antique Tractor Show. The tractor they are looking at is a 1952, Oliver 77 and is owned by Barb Berger. Barb and her husband Butch Berger had 12 tractors in the show between the two of them. "I bought my uncle's tractor in '99 and restored the 33 Massey-Harris for Curtice Kidz Day so I could have it in the parade. It's been an addictive hobby ever since," said Butch. (Press photo by Stephanie Szozda)
Oregon
Board likely to seek levy soon The Oregon City Schools District will probably put a levy on the ballot within the next year and a half to counter a shrinking budget. In an update to the five year financial forecast for the district, Treasurer Jane Fruth’s analysis was not very rosy. “When you talk about a five year forecast, everyone wants to focus on what the cash balances are. But it’s really all about trends and it’s for planning purposes,” Fruth said at a recent board meeting. “In the last fiscal year, the trends have not changed. In the last fiscal year, we began spending more than we were taking in. Just barely. I think by a couple hundred thousand dollars. But that trend is continuing. The expenditures are outpacing the revenue. And that, of course, is not sustainable.” The district has cash balances through Fiscal Year 2016, she added. “We’re at the point where we have to be careful.” Some adjustments made to the five year forecast include increased revenue for special transportation and preschool, a refund from Worker’s Compensation, savings in health insurance premiums, and fewer
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We’re living off our cash reserves, which is obviously not sustainable.
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By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com
funds for Career Tech. “We’re really on the floor for Career Tech. At the beginning of the year, it was showing they were going to be able to afford $1,000 for Career Tech. And now we’re down to $280,” said Fruth. Open enrollment monies are also down from original estimates. And reimbursements for the tangible personal property taxes that the district previously lost are at the 2013 level, she said. “We slowly start to reduce the personal tangible property taxes in Fiscal Year 2016,” she said. “I’ve been told that the [state] budget director, Tim Keen, believes
very strongly in pulling that money back from districts, getting it back into the state budget. So effective in Fiscal year 2016, I have begun reducing the amount we would have received directly from the state, which is about $700,000.” Lower premiums An unexpected adjustment, which will have a large impact on the budget, said Fruth, is a reduction in health insurance premiums. “It is one of our larger expenses,” Fruth said of health insurance. The five year forecast had predicted a 9 percent increase in health insurance costs by renewing the district’s contract with Aetna. But the district’s broker was able to find another carrier, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, with the same coverage but at a 3.5 percent reduced cost. “This actually creates a $630,000 swing in the insurance line of my forecast because I had a 9 percent increase projected, and we have a 3.5 percent reduction. It was a nice little boost we could capture,” she said. With expenditures exceeding revenue, the district is leaning on its cash reserves to get by. “We’re living off our cash reserves,
In two drunk-driving cases decided in the past 10 months by the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals, the court has ruled in favor of motorists who’d been swerving so widely their tires were touching centerlines and fog lines and, in one case, an open container of beer was found. In both cases the court upheld motions to suppress evidence obtained when the drivers were stopped by law enforcement agencies, agreeing with the defendants’ arguments the stops were not lawful. Earlier this month, the appeals court upheld a decision by Bowling Green Municipal Court to suppress evidence obtained by a Wood County sheriff’s deputy after he stopped a driver for driving outside marked lanes. The deputy, Micah Kindle, stopped the driver, Kenneth Baker, about 1 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2013 after observing Baker’s truck riding on the centerline and drifting toward the fog line. The deputy reported he detected an odor of alcohol in the truck and observed an open container of beer and charged Baker with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and operating with a prohibited alcohol content. After reviewing the deputy’s testimony and watching footage from the patrol car’s camera that recorded Baker’s vehicle, the municipal court concluded his tires never crossed completely over any lane marking. The municipal court relied on a decision by the appeals court last year in determining the deputy “lacked reasonable, articulable suspicion to stop Baker” and granted Baker’s motion to suppress the evidence. The Bowling Green prosecutor’s office appealed the decision, contending the municipal court erred when it ruled the deputy’s reasons for stopping the vehicle weren’t sufficient for a stop under the fourth amendment. “Like other courts, we recognized in Parker (a case that began in Ottawa County Municipal Court) that a driver violates Ohio Revised Code 4511.33 when he or she travels completely across the centerline or fog line,” the appeals court ruled. Continued on page 3
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It was the greatest and most inexcusable slaughter of the whole war. John Szozda See page 15
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