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Fighting against addiction By Kelly J. Kaczala News Editor kaczala@presspublications.com A public forum featuring a panel discussion about the opioid epidemic drew about 100 people to the auditorium at the Northwood Schools, Arts, Athletics and Administration Building on Lemoyne Road on Oct. 26 to hear about drug addiction that is destroying lives across the country. The panel included representatives from Bay Park Hospital, law enforcement, first responders, a recovering addict, and a couple who lost their son to an overdose. A common theme throughout the discussion was the significance of raising public awareness and removing the stigma associated with heroin addiction. Brett Tscherne, emcee of the forum, recounted how he was awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from a family member this year to inform him that his cousin had died. “Not only was I overwhelmed and blindsided by his passing, but there was the stigma you associate with someone who is on heroin. It’s huge,” said Tscherne, a board member of the Eastern Maumee Bay Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the forum. “It’s here. It’s in our neighborhoods, our backyards, in our families.” Opioid overdoses “is something our EMS, our first responders, our care teams, are seeing on a day to day basis at an unbelievable rate,” added Tscherne, director of Eggleston Meinert & Pavley Funeral Home. Out there Denny Hartman, deputy chief in the Oregon Fire/Rescue division, said opiate addiction is in every community. Hartman was the Allen-Clay Joint Fire District chief prior to becoming deputy chief in Oregon earlier this year. “I have two different perspectives coming from a smaller community and then going into a bigger city. The only thing Continued on page 4
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Mayoral debate
On November 7, Toledo voters will decide whether to stay with incumbent Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson or elect challenger Wade Kapszukiewicz, both Democrats. Both found their way to the East Toledo Senior Center for a forum last Wednesday. (Press photos by Ken Grosjean)
Search on for lost, deceased pets By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com The City of Toledo is establishing a policy on finding owners of dead pets collected in the streets after the city failed to contact the owner of a dog with tags that was hit and killed by a car last July. Carlos, an 11-year-old red Chihuahua, had an up-to-date license, rabies, and ID tags attached to its collar, but city workers who collected the deceased dog soon after it was hit never called owner Julia Hatfield to inform her of the dog’s death. Instead, Carlos was thrown in a common dump like other dead animals found in the road. Carlos had gotten out of its yard on Camden Street in East Toledo while Julia and her husband, Allen, went out for the evening on July 22. After returning home a couple of hours later, they started searching for the dog when they realized it was gone. Following an unsuccessful search, they found a note on their front porch informing them Carlos had been hit by a vehicle at Varland Avenue and Woodville Road, a couple of blocks from their house. “The note stated `Your dog was hit on Varland and Woodville. I knocked. No answer.’ It was signed `Teresa,’” said Hatfield. “She didn’t describe him, so we weren’t sure it was Carlos.”
Julia and Allen Hatfield with Carlos. (Submitted photo) Spot of blood Teresa had moved the dog from the road and had taken it to another location. A spot of blood covered by gravel was on Varland, where the dog had apparently been hit. “Teresa said she had placed the dog by a pole in an alley and covered the body with a coat. I asked if he was still alive, and she didn’t tell me,” said Hatfield. By the time she got to the alley, the dog
was gone. “We didn’t know what to do at that point. We still weren’t 100 percent sure it was him.” There were city workers across the street in Navarre Park, who she assumed had put the gravel on the spot of blood where Carlos had been hit in the road. Hatfield had twice called the non-emergency number for the Toledo Police Division, as well as Engage Toledo, an advocacy group that answers questions from Toledo residents about city services. The call center is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week (419-936-2020). Engage Toledo had confirmed the city had collected a dead animal on Varland that evening, but couldn’t tell Hatfield if it was Carlos. Her heart sank when she was told that the city had already disposed of the dog. “They said they took him to the dump that night. He was wearing a collar with ID tags, yet nobody bothered to try and call me. If Teresa had not put a note on our door, we’d still be looking.” She never even got Carlos’s collar with the tags returned to her as a keepsake. “I would have liked to at least have had that,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to remove the collar, or take a photo with a smart phone, and call the owner.” Identification was also easily obContinued on page 5