How this headline may connect to industries in Ohio. Technical scores are below — click any ? for what a metric means.
Walbridge: Park, safety improvements highlight latest council meeting - The Press.The village of Walbridge officially received grant money for improvements to Railway Park at the latest council meeting on May 20, and members also discussed safety improvements due to visibility concerns on local roads.Chris Smalley, who serves as the director of the Wood County Parks District, opened the meeting by presenting a check for $2,743 to council member Karen Baron, who heads the parks and recreation committee.“You guys have been a long-term partner in the local community parks grant program,” Smalley said.“We appreciate what you do to improve recreation and parks in your community.” The money will cover the cost of a new bike rack and tire repair station at Railway Park.Smalley said he goes in person to the different communities that have been awarded money from Wood County Parks District grants.He also brought along signage for the village to install near the new bike rack, and he praised the village for its participation in the grant program.“You've been a long-time participant (in the program),” he said.“Please, I encourage you strongly to continue to take advantage of this program.It's going to be around as long as I can keep it up.” The Park District awards around $100,000 to local communities each year.“We set aside (that money) from our tax levy specifically for parks that we don't maintain, but the communities of Wood County maintain, in an effort to support what we do,” Smalley said.“We do this throughout any municipality in Wood County.” Smalley said he brings in the director of the Hancock County Park District, as well as the director in Sandusky County and the retired director of Erie Metroparks to review and score the grants.“(Those are) folks who have, combined, well over 100 years of service,” he said.“They know what they're doing ...we appreciate what you do, seriously.The little things here and there (such as) a bike fix station.Those are things that are important to your community.You'll have folks using that that you don't even realize.” Dry Creek project Kolanko also spoke about the village’s work on the Dry Creek improvement project, which has lasted about six years.Northwood city administrator Kevin Laughlin has helped with the project, as well, and Kolanko said there will be a grand opening in the near future, and the Park District will be kept in the loop when that ceremony happens.“It’s all about partnerships,” Smalley said.“In this day and age, together we’re stronger.Whether that’s on a local park, whether that’s on a county-wide level or state level or even greater.You guys have always been great to work with.We appreciate it.I appreciate all that you do for your community.” As far as Dry Creek, council discussed the project further.Council president Thomas Urbina urged council members to sneak back there and take a look at the brand-new park if they get a chance.“What a great thing we have in our community.It's really cool,” he said, while adding it can be deceiving.“You look at it from the road, and it looks small, but you get back there, and it's really big.It’s all about maintaining and conserving, and I'm excited like the mayor is.I know he's been working hard on it for longer than I’ve been here.It's kind of cool to see that come to fruition, and I'm excited to see it open.” Kolanko said more will be known soon about that project’s official debut, which is an 80-acre, half-mile public walking path through nature.“It's something that we should all be proud about, and we should all be thankful that these things are happening within our community … we need to continuously look at the positive things that we do.Getting new parks, this is a whole entire new development for the village of Walbridge.” Culvert project done In related news, Kolanko said the culvert work on Walbridge Road is finished.It was a joint project with Lake Township.“If you guys saw the pictures of the culvert, it’s very cool,” he said.“When they cut the culvert underneath … I was able to see the old stone that was there when they took off the culvert and was still there.It's still there.There's no reason to take it apart.But those stones are pretty old.” Kolanko said he wanted to thank the Wood County Engineer’s Office for coming out to do that.It had been scheduled for years down the road, but in recognizing the OPWC (Ohio Public Works Commission) project going on, they pushed it forward and did it at their expense.Kolanko also thanked Lake Township administrator Mark Hummer, who was helpful in connecting to that office to make sure all the work happened.“There’s been a lot of collaboration behind the scenes,” he said.“The paving of that should be happening potentially later this week.If not, it'll be next week that you'll see Walbridge Road repaved.” Pool passes for summer reading Baron and council also approved the distribution of 200 single-day pool passes to the Walbridge Library for its student reading program.Council member Joel Mass said he believes students have to read three books to earn a day pass.“The pool passes are the one thing that kids really look forward to,” council member Sue Hart-Douglas said, while others said that this could potentially get 200 kids to participate in the program.In related news, Kolanko said the pool passed inspection the week of the meeting and will open in the near future.Citizen safety concern Hart-Douglas, who heads the safety and criminal justice committee, said that a citizen concern was brought forward regarding parking issues around the curb at Elm and Allen.She said her committee had a good discussion about the limited visibility that drivers have due to either parked cars or different things going on.“The committee agrees that ‘no parking’ signs should be started because the area has a lot of activity around there,” she said.“It could be a safety hazard.If a car is coming around from Holly to Allen to Elm, they can't see.” Hart-Douglas said they asked the police chief to consider a 200-foot stretch from Elm, around the bend, and then 200 feet on Allen.Kolanko said he wanted to make sure of where the driveways fall in terms of foot distance.“Thank you for taking the time in your committee to look at that,” he said.“When we hear about e-bikes and things of that nature, it's different than it used to be.These bikes come flying across, and they go a lot faster than the bike I had when I was 10 years old, and these individuals don't see things.They're not looking for those individuals.They're not looking for those bicyclists.” Kolanko said the garage sale weekend highlighted the issue even more.“We have to address things when we see them, and we need to be fair across the board,” he said.“If we see something else in a different area, we need to address it the same way.” Urbina asked if there will be discretion for the police to monitor the area as far as the footage, and village prosecutor Brian Ballenger said police always have discretion on those kind of things.Kolanko said the signs would be placed once approved by OUPS, or Ohio Utilities Protection Service.They have to make sure that nothing such as a water line, gas line, or anything else is under the area in which any sort of digging will be done.“We just can't stick stuff in the ground,” he said.“Once OUPS comes out and approves it, we then can place the no parking signs in,” he said.Kolanko wanted to make sure it was known that they aren’t going to hammer people with immediate tickets.“We’re going to send out some education pieces to the people that live in that area to remind them what we're doing, the new changes and why (we’re doing it),” he said.“We really feel it's important to promote safety, but (also) to educate about that safety prior to it because it's new, like anything else.We want to make sure that people know that.” Council members then passed a motion to implement the change, except for Kristen Angelo, who voted against placing the signs.Trash contract