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Ava Gargac, age 8, creates a Christmas angel with some help from her mother Bobbi, at the Oregon/Northwood Rotary Club's annual "Breakfast with Santa." The event was held at Clay High School and included breakfast, face painting, and pictures with Santa. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Work on an 800 megawatt gas-fired electric generating plant has begun in Oregon, it was announced last week. The long awaited project, Oregon Clean Energy LLC, will employ 450 construction jobs during the three year construction phase, 25 full-time permanent workers once it becomes operational, and have a total annual payroll of about $3.2 million “We are …glad to see local companies already working at the site after so much time in the development phase,” said Mayor Mike Seferian in a prepared statement. The power plant, which will use clean natural gas in combustion turbines to produce electricity, will be located on a 30-acre site at 816 Lallendorf Road. “We are excited that construction has begun,” City Administrator Mike Beazley said to The Press last Wednesday. “After four years of development, the community has been looking forward to this.” Beazley added that the industrial project is the biggest for Oregon in a generation. “There are lots of industrial projects in northwest Ohio - automotive plants, our two refineries - that are continuing sources of strong industrial investment. But this is really the first largest newest industrial project in a generation in the area. It will be a source of continued investment for generations to come,” said Beazley. “The Oregon Clean Energy facility paves the way for long-term future growth for the Oregon industrial area,” said Council President Dennis Walendzak in a prepared statement. “It will provide many jobs over the construction phase and establishes Oregon as a leader in the energy sector in Ohio.” The city has been working with the developer, North America Project Development LLC, a Boston-based energy group, and the Oregon Clean Energy team, to facilitate the project. “…We are pleased to see that a cooperative effort between the Ohio PUC, PJM, the City of Oregon, Lucas County, and the private sector has allowed for clean, low-cost and efficient electricity generation to replace dated coal-fired generation
in northwest Ohio,” said Bill Siderewicz, managing partner of North America Project Development. The plant will consist of two natural gas fired turbines that are combined cycle units. They generate electricity by burning natural gas but use the heat given off from the natural gas burners to create steam and generate additional watts with a steam turbine. They are projecting that the new plant will generate enough new electricity to power over 500,000 homes per year. “This project will fit in well with Oregon’s industrial area,” said Councilman Jerry Peach, who is also chairman of the Economic Development Committee, in a prepared statement. “Throughout the development phase, we believed this would be an ideal project for Oregon. We’re all very pleased with this investment in our community.” The construction of the plant will provide over $800 million in new investment to the northwest Ohio region and the state. Black & Veatch, a global engineering, consulting, construction and operations company, has been chosen by Oregon Clean Energy to direct the project. They are one of the largest privately owned companies in the United States. “Oregon Clean Energy and North American Project Development have been great to work with throughout the developContinued on page 2
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There were no protests in the wake of his tragic death. Dave Lange See page 9
Nearly $11,000 in missing money found By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com There was a huge sigh of relief recently by the administration of the Lake School District. About $11,000 in missing deposits were found not too far from a safe in the office of Jeff Carpenter, the district treasurer, where they should have been. Money bags containing cash and checks from the athletic department and cafeteria are routinely deposited into a drop box outside Carpenter’s office to a chute leading to the safe. Beginning in August, some bags were missing.
“Those missing bags, instead of dropping into the safe, dropped through a hole in the back of the safe through the chute, between the chute and wall,” Carpenter said. “We’ve been using the safe for quite some time and then all of a sudden in late August we started missing some deposits from our food service and athletic department.” Suspecting theft, the administration called the Lake Township Police Department, which dusted the area for fingerprints and interviewed employees. Polygraph tests were given to some employees. “Nothing turned up in their investigation,” Carpenter said. “We then had a secu-
rity camera installed directly over the drop box around Nov. 7.” A couple of weeks later even more money bags were missing and Carpenter reviewed the camera’s recordings and saw no one out of the ordinary had approached the drop box. “What we were suspecting, and the police were suspecting too, was that someone could reach in with some type of device into the drop box and pull the cash out,” he said. “But the camera showed nothing. I studied the video portion for about two days.” The police were called again. “They had already dusted for fingerprints and looked at the safe, inside and out,
but found nothing wrong. When I showed Sgt. (Scott) Sims the video system and how you could see everything that went on and not capturing anything, he checked out the safe again. That’s when he uncovered the gap between the safe chute and the outside wall of my office. So we took the safe out completely and there were the missing cash bags,” Carpenter said. In all, about 13 bags containing about $6,400 in cash and $4,400 in checks were found. “You have no idea how intense it was while this was going on,” Carpenter said. “Everybody’s looking at each other. We’re Continued on page 3