P
The
Since 1972
Father of the bride See page 13
RESS January 16, 2017
FREE
Giving 35 years See page 17
Serving More Than h 33 33,000 000 H Homes & B Businesses i iin 4 C Counties ti
M
Community to raise funds for Jake Lipstraw By Yaneek Smith Press Contributing Writer news@presspublications.com A standout football player and wrestler at Oak Harbor High School, Jake Lipstraw had that all-American look. Tall, athletic and driven, he was the premiere running back for a football team that nearly made it to the state final in 2006 and left as one of the best at the position for a program that featured a number of great runners over the decades. On top of that, Lipstraw was a great wrestler at 189 pounds, qualifying for state
A bar-b-que chicken fundraiser to benefit Jake Lipstraw, shown with wife Sam and baby Mila, will be held Jan. 21 at Oak Harbor High School. Lipstraw was seriously injured in a car accident Oct. 1. (Photo courtesy of Katlyn Stratis)
Q
uote
of The Week
There isn’t a city around us that has as much going on as we do. Mike Beazley See page 5
on a team that finished third in Ohio in ‘07. Now, he’s married to Sam, 27, and they have a 1-year-old daughter named Mila, and for the past three-and-a-half years, Lipstraw has worked at Style Crest in Fremont, a company that distributes and manufactures building products for homes. Life drastically changed for Lipstraw, 28, since he sustained serious injuries in a car accident in early October. After three surgeries on his back and thousands of dollars in medical bills, he is currently in the hospital fighting to return to some sense of normalcy. The accident occurred Oct. 1 in Green Springs when Lipstraw was traveling southbound on SR 19 and his truck was struck by an automobile driven by Tori Meggitt, who ran a stop sign. Lipstraw, who was wearing a seatbelt, suffered a number of injuries including multiple broken bones in his back and injuries to his spinal cord. He also has a kidney contusion, a bulging disc in his back and a severely sprained knee. Emily Wagner, 16, of Clyde, was killed in the accident. Skylar Burroughs, 17, also a Clyde resident, was seriously injured and is in critical condition at Mercy Health – St. Vincent Medical Center. Meggitt, a 16-yearold from Green Springs, suffered non-life threatening injuries. Lipstraw’s first surgery, performed in Toledo at Mercy Health – St. Vincent Medical Center, was to repair the broken bones in his back and the damage to his spine. Doctors thought Lipstraw was experiencing a spinal bleed in the aftermath, later found a benign tumor growing next to his spine. After spending most of October and November at home, he had two more surgeries, both at the Cleveland Clinic, to remove the tumor. Since then, Lipstraw, who has been in and out of ICU, has been struggling and is on the verge of being transported to the MetroHealth Spine Center in Cleveland, where he will begin intense rehabilitation. “He is suffering from severe paralysis in his legs and feet. The goal is that he will be able to walk again one day, but it is unclear at this time if that will happen,” said Katlyn Stratis, a family friend. “There is no movement in his feet at all, and very limited (movement) in his legs. “They are done with the surgeries for now, unless (the tumor) were to come back,” Stratis said. “The tumor does have a very high recurrence rate. There are differing opinions from the doctors (on his future). Some say there is hope, others are unsure. If he does walk again, there will be major deficits. One leg is much worse than the other.” His wife, Sam is splitting time between Cleveland and Oak Harbor, where they live, and is balancing her job as a math teacher at Port Clinton Middle School while taking care of baby Mila. Jake’s mother, Paulette, lives in Toledo and his brother, Josh, lives in Tiffin. His father, Mark, passed away Continued on page 4
Play day Richard Lauffer enjoys a warm day playing with his son Bishop, age 2½, at Pearson Park. Lauffer, originally from Oregon, now lives in San Diego, California, and was home for a visit. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Lakefront, South Shore Park
Oregon plans makeover By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com Oregon is looking at developing the lakefront and South Shore Veterans Park. Some ideas include a boat launch, a swimming pool, beach volleyball, tennis courts, a gazebo and a basketball court. “Our community has talked about South Shore Veterans Park for a long time,” City Administrator Mike Beazley said at a recent Recreation & Parks Committee meeting, which has been discussing ideas for the lakefront and park. “Council and the mayor have discussed it. We think we can do better with our lakefront and better with our park.” He said discussions will be ongoing, but he wanted to get input from the community near the lakefront and park. “We want to begin to get the community thinking about where we should be
going with the park and our lakefront,” he said. “I think we got some really good energy going about how together we can work with other partners to make sure people realize there are things to do in Oregon. There’s so much going on here. Oregon is very unique. We’re the only community in northwest Ohio that I know of that has a state park, a metropark, a city park system, a YMCA, the Challenger Learning Center, and the Lake Erie Center. We have a theater group, a historical society, an active library that has great programming. And one of the things we realize is that all these groups have programming, and they don’t necessarily talk about it with each other.” South Shore Some ideas thrown out for the park, said Beazley, are volleyball courts, splash pads, a shelter house, better picnic areas, Continued on page 2