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RESS December 1, 2014
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A supplement to The Press Newspapers December 1, 2014 Cardinal Stritch forward Austin Adams lays in two despite an Emmanuel Christian player defending. (Press file photo by Doug Karns/ KateriSchools.org)
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Freedom violated, union says
Story leads to suit By J. Patrick Eaken Press Staff Writer news@presspublications.com
Fatal fire
Friends, family and neighbors create a memorial on the porch of a house at 650 Oswald Street, East Toledo, where a fire claimed the life of a 23 year old woman. The fire was reported Saturday, November 22 at about 4:30 a.m. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
A front page article about a high school athletic director published in The Press last March 17 is getting plenty of attention. A feature about the tribulations of Bowsher High School AD and Oregon City Councilman Terry Reeves titled “Councilman breaks up fight: Athletic director’s job description didn’t include this” has led to a federal lawsuit. The issue — whether Reeve’s First Amendment rights were violated when Toledo Public Schools reprimanded him for not referring his comments to the communications office first. Reeves, a lifelong Oregon resident who is serving his fourth term on Oregon City Council, is now in his sixth year as the athletic director at Bowsher. On Dec. 20, 2013, during the Rebels’ home boys’ basketball game against City League rival Scott, Reeves saw a ruckus in the stands in the third quarter and took action. In trying to break up the fight, Reeves, 56, tore a quad muscle that, at that moment, he said, “sounded just like a gun going off.” He was in a leg brace for weeks afterward and received a steady dose of physical therapy. Afterward, Reeves spoke to Press contributing writer Mark Griffin, and Griffin wrote about the incident and also about Reeves’ contributions to youth athletics, his political career, and from the days when was an athlete. They spoke by phone while Reeves was at home. The “green sheet”, or reprimand, from the Bowsher principal that followed was appealed to the board of education, which upheld the reprimand. “We have board policy related to all our employees that anytime that they speak to the media about any incidents in the district or anything related to an employee’s condition that they refer the matter to the communications office,” TPS Chief of Staff Brian
Murphy said. “This was a situation that wasn’t communicated through our director of communications, which is Patty Mazur.” It is a mark in Reeve’s file against him and doesn’t result in any fines or loss of pay, Terry Reeves Murphy told The Press. Reeves remains the AD at Bowsher. “Terry is a great guy. He really is. The situation is unfortunate,” Murphy said. However, the reprimand prompted the Toledo Federation of Teachers, the union that represents the district’s teachers, to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court. ‘Questions about his own life’ The suit is getting considerable media coverage throughout the greater Toledo area. In addition, union president Kevin Dalton says Reeves was reprimanded a second time two days after the suit was filed. The lawsuit, which draws attention to 48 allegations, seeks to stop the enforcement of the policy, compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees and costs, and “any other such relief,” is pending Continued on page 2
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How long it takes to reach your destination is irrelevant. Bryan Golden See page 10
More improvements are coming to Navarre By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com Oregon plans to improve the appearance of Navarre Avenue as part of its safety improvement project. The city received a $2.4 million safety grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation to improve Navarre Avenue between I-280 and Isaac Streets Drive to reduce the high rate of traffic accidents. The project mostly consists of the construction of a median on Navarre Avenue with seven U-turn or “turnarounds’ located between the project limits. At a recent Navarre Avenue stakehold-
ers meeting, Public Service Director Paul Roman had asked for input on improving the aesthetics on Navarre Avenue where the medians will be constructed. Mayor Mike Seferian said his administration will soon be requesting that council approve funds for the enhancements as part of the safety improvement project. “We may come back with a request for a fairly handsome dollar amount. We’ve found some funds that we think are available, to enhance especially the center of Navarre Avenue in the improved area,” said Seferian. “We want to come up with some artistic scheme that we could forward onto an engineering consulting or graphic company. We figured this would be the
time to do something like that. It would fall right into the timing. We believe we have secured financing, which would be solely city funds. Maybe we could even include the Wheeling – Navarre Avenue corner with some type of enhancement there, too. We don’t see that there would be a better time than acting on that now, and actually put together something that calls attention to Navarre Avenue as being our downtown. It would give some spirit to the area.” Lighting Councilman Jerry Peach said lighting of the medians would not only make it more attractive but also improve safety. “Of course, the primary goal is to
improve safety with that median in the Navarre-Wheeling area,” said Peach. “Looking at similar medians out in the Maumee area, especially where Maumee has some of its maintenance offices, some of the medians don’t stand out at night quite as much as one might hope with no shrubbery, no lighting - nothing to emphasize that the median is actually there. I think an unlit low median can present itself as a hazard. So whatever enhancements are contemplated will have an eye towards letting the motoring public know people who are turning out from businesses – that at night, there is a median there.” Continued on page 2
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