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The Tiger’s announcer recalls bruises See page 8
Shrimp farm: Mix of hard work and fun
September 16, 2013
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By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com
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He used to work in the fields until 11 or 12 at night with a head lamp, then get up at 5 a.m. to go to his full-time job.
Corrina Bench See page 10
Grub ‘n Suds Depot Park, Elmore, was the site of the annual Grub ‘n Suds. The event is sponsored by the Elmore Historical Society and featured bike games, food, live music and plenty of motorcycles. Bottom photos, left, Lucinda Kinnan, East Toledo, and, right, Jodi Reinhart, Genoa, show off their rides. (Photos courtesy of Russ Lytle)
Rare, electric Pacer last of its kind By J. Patrick Eaken Press Staff Writer news@presspublications.com Joe Badger likes AMC Pacers so much he collects them. One of his Pacers, an electric car built by Electric Vehicles Associates during the 1970s energy crisis, is believed to be the only one of its kind remaining. If you wander down to Genoa’s Cruisin’ classic car show and street fair on Sept. 21, you might catch Badger and his “Change of Pace.” Badger, a Genoa resident, owns JBI Corp., an independent battery testing laboratory not far from his home. So close, he can plug in his electric Pacer overnight and drive it to work the next day without spending a cent for gas. EVA was started by high school vocational education teachers in Cleveland as part of a student project. The aptly-named “Change of Pace” reached top speeds of 55 miles per hour and went from zero to 30 in less than 12 seconds. The range was 30 to 50 miles. According to Dennis Eichenberg, EVA made well over 100 Change of Pace Pacers, and then turned to Ford Fairmonts and Ford Escorts. Badger got his chance to meet Eichen-
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...I thought, ‘Man, that’s a rare car. I have to have it,’ so I bought it.
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Imagine you’re a grower but not able to even see the fruits of your labor until the day you harvest. Unlike the cultivation of grain crops or vegetables, Marc and Michele Gradel are relatively unsure if their efforts have paid off until Marc drains the ponds at his Martin farm. If it’s been a favorable growing season, the waters will recede to a certain level and then what was a placid pond resembles a boiling pan of water as thousands of shrimp are roused from their bottom-dwelling existence. In their third year of operating Sweetwater Farms, 7024 State Route 2, the Gradels are still learning the finer points of shrimp farming - an endeavor that Michele describes as a combination of hard work and fun. “During the season we can’t really see them,” Michele said. “We go out every night with a flashlight and feed them and can see their eyes but we don’t really know how many we have until we harvest them. It’s kind of nerve wracking.” The three ponds at Sweetwater Farms each cover about a half acre or so. The deep ends range from five to seven feet. The nearby Lake Erie marshes offer an advantage, says Michele, by naturally filtering the pond water. Freshwater shrimp have a sweeter taste than those grown in saltwater, she said, and have little or no iodine. The growing season coincides roughly with the summer months. The Gradels place juvenile shrimp in the ponds in early June and harvest them by mid-September. Ideally, the water temperature should be about 80 degrees. This summer was cool enough to affect the growth of the juveniles. “We had really cool weather this summer,” Michele said. “The year before last it was warmer and we had some real giants in there. People out here were calling them Bono lobster.”
berg, one of the original electrical engineers to work on converting Pacers and other cars to electric power. Badger bought his Pacer from a “car jockey,” who bought it from a New York engineer, inventor, and art gallery owner. He believes he has the only one remaining that is all-electric. “There might be some with gas motors in them because they were experimental, and most of them were sold to the government and electrical utilities and all torn apart,” Badger said. He saw it on eBay, and the temptation was too much. “I test batteries for a living, I collect
AMCs, and I thought, ‘Man, that’s a rare car. I have to have it,’ so I bought it,” Badger said. Badger’s Pacer only had 25 miles logged on it when he bought the car, but it was rusted, and it took the Genoa businessman two years, five months, and two weeks to finish restoration. “I took it completely apart,” Badger said. “I mean, you could not disassemble it any farther. I didn’t paint it or reassemble the body parts first, but I can’t take all the credit. A lot of people helped me. “I restored the original controls. I’ll say that they worked, but they didn’t work very well and even the engineer who had worked on it originally said they were dangerous, and that’s one of the reasons they were all disassembled after testing. I have all those original controls, which is very unusual. I don’t think you’ll find another set, and I put in a modern controller.” Badger also drives a 1973 German electric moped his father purchased to work, but he doesn’t take either vehicle much farther. He could drive the Pacer to Toledo or Sandusky, but would have to find somewhere to plug it in and wait for a charge, which usually takes overnight. “If you’re driving 35 to 40 miles per
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