News Briefs Week Of 3/28/2022

Live in the House!
“Two friends, two pianos, too fun.”
With four hands, 20 fingers, two keyboards and 176 keys, pianists Robert Nance and Jonathan Young will perform music from Bach to Pop Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Pemberville Opera House, 115 Main St., Pemberville.
The concert is presented as part of the ongoing Live in the House concert series.
Audiences will delight in these two entertainers as they perform virtuosic standards as well as arrangements of popular musicals and songs.
Tickets are $12 and are available at Beeker’s General Store, 226 E. Front St., Pemberville, at the door or by contacting Carol at 419-287-4848.
Young is an active pianist, composer, teacher, conductor and accompanist. He has earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at the University of Kansas. An avid performer of chamber music, vocal, instrumental, and choral music, he has released two solo piano compositions on iTunes and Amazon Music. He currently serves as Piano Faculty at Purdue University - Fort Wayne.
Nance is a multi-talented musician who maintains a lively schedule as conductor, keyboardist, teacher, composer, clinician and arts advocate. A distinguished graduate of DePauw University School of Music (Indiana) and the Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore), he is the president and founding artistic director of Heartland Sings, Inc., a company of professional vocal artists and ensembles founded in 1997.
He is also the founder of Mobile Performing Arts LLC. His honors include serving as guest conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, receiving the Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and appeared on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center.

Libraries to host
Community Reads
Join the Pemberville Public Library System’s 2022 Community Reads Program, featuring discussions about the book, “Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America,” by Kate Washington.
This book is a memoir of the author’s struggle to care for her seriously ill husband, offering a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support.
Copies of the book are available at the Pemberville, Stony Ridge and Luckey libraries. The Luckey Area Library Movement and Friends of the Pemberville and Stony Ridge Libraries have sponsored a limited number of paperback copies to give away to participants.
Events will take place each Monday in April, starting with presentations about caregiving from Sara Chambers, from Hospice of Northwest Ohio, and Jessica Ricker, from the Wood County Committee on Aging, at the Stony Ridge Library on Monday, April 4 at 6 p.m.
Subsequent programs include discussions about the book April 11 at 6 p.m. at the Pemberville Library and April 18 at the Stony Ridge Library and a virtual visit with the author April 25 at 6 p.m. at Pemberville Library.
For the full schedule of events, visit the library's website at pembervillelibrary.org.

Kitten Shower &
Adoption event
Fur Angels Rescue Shelter, a no-kill group (unless the animal is dangerous or euthanasia is medically necessary) which provides temporary and long-term shelter, food, medical treatment and care in a network of foster homes until each animal finds their perfect, forever home, is holding a Kitten Shower and Adoption Event.
Community members are invited to stop by Pet Supplies Plus, 6929 Central Ave., Sylvania, on Saturday, April 30 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and bring gifts for the kittens currently in the adoption program and for those who will be born and taken into the Fur Angels Rescue Shelter family in the coming months.
Items like KMR kitten milk, Miracle nipples and bottles, heated cat beds, pop-up playpens, kitten food, soft blankets, litter and toys are needed and appreciated.
Adult cats and kittens will also be available for adoption at the event.
Those who cannot attend the kitten shower can send donations to the organization directly from their Amazon or Chewy wish list, available at furangelsrs.com.
The non-profit Fur Angels Rescue Shelter, which has a goal of opening a brick-and-mortar shelter, does not receive any state or federal funding and relies on support from individuals and businesses to help the community’s homeless animals.
The gifts and supplies collected at the Kitten Shower and Adoption Event will save the organization valuable dollars that can be used for spay/neuter and medical care instead and will allow the group to take in as many kittens as possible. The event will also help cats and kittens currently in the adoption program find their forever families and make space for more kittens.

Quilters to meet
The Maumee Bay Country Quilters’ Guild will hold their monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 5 at Northwood Church of God, 3375 Curtice Rd., Northwood.
Doors open at 6 p.m. The meeting begins at 6:45 p.m. Visitors and new members are welcome. The visitors’ fee is $10; yearly membership is $35.

Waterline projects set
Lane restrictions for motorists on Lemoyne Road are possible through April for a waterline relocation project in Lake Township.
The Northwestern Water and Sewer District began work last week on the project that stretches from Plumey Road to Walbridge Road.
In the City of Northwood, the district will be conducting another waterline project on Wales Road, east of Tracy Road.
The project is expected to start April 11 and continue through July. Traffic will be maintained by flaggers and area businesses will be notified about water service interruptions.

Educational grant
awarded to Eastwood
The Northwestern Water and Sewer District has awarded the Eastwood High School Marine Biology class a grant for educational programs focusing on water.
The Water And Environment Teacher Education Resources grants assist local schools by providing direct funding to support educators in teaching about the importance of water resources.
In 2022, the district will be providing more than $5,100 to local schools to fund water-focused educational programs.
On March 18, the district presented teacher Eric Rutherford with a $500 grant for Eastwood’s Marine Biology class. The grant will assist in purchasing the necessary water quality test kits and equipment used by the students. Some of the funding will help the class transition to digital water quality meters to help prepare the students as 21st-century learners.
Over the next several weeks, the district will also present grants to the educators from Bowling Green, Bowling Green Christian, Elmwood, Otsego, and Perrysburg schools.
“This is the largest year for our WATER grant program. We share in our educators’ enthusiasm for teaching students about taking care of our number one resource, water,” Jerry Greiner, district president, said.
The district introduced the WATER grant program in December 2014.

Contracts OK’d
The Ottawa County commissioners have approved contracts for work on two bridges. A contract for $263,934 to repair a bridge on Reiman Road over Packer Creek was issued to B Hill’z Excavating, Inc., and a contract for $486,000 to replace a bridge on Nissen Road over the creek was issued to R&I Construction.
The commissioners also authorized a contract for $766,918 with Kokosing Construction, Co. for repaving various roads.

Tax agreement
approved
An amendment to the enterprise zone agreement with First Solar, Inc. and Lake Township and Wood County was approved last week by the county commissioners.
The amendment covers an additional 200,000 square feet to the 1.8-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in the township that is expected to be operating by 2023.
The amendment also includes $25 million in capital and $10 million worth of processing equipment.
The company sought a 65 percent tax exemption for 15 years.
Lake Township approved a resolution in support of the amendment and Lake Local Schools and the Penta Career Center have agreements with the company covering the addition.
First Solar constructed a solar module manufacturing facility near the intersection of Tracy Road and State Rt. 795 in the township. That plant began operating in 2019.

County risk
pool lauded
The County Risk Sharing Authority, a risk-sharing pool designed for counties, has received recognition from the Association of Governmental Risk Pools (AGRiP) for adopting industry best practices.
Wood County Commissioner Craig LaHote currently serves as board treasurer and has been an active board member since 2019. Ottawa County Commissioner Mark Stahl also serves on the board of directors.
The AGRiP Recognition requires pools to undergo a self-assessment to ensure pool operations meet professional standards and industry best practices.
CORSA is a member-owned property and liability risk sharing pool sponsored by the County Commissioners Association of Ohio. CORSA is governed by nine directors who are county commissioners from member counties and provides property and liability coverage as well as risk management services to 66 counties and 41 county-affiliated public entities.

Road projects
The Ohio Department of Transportation has announced several construction projects in the area that will require closures and lane restrictions:
-Interstate 75, between Buck Road and Monroe Street, Toledo/Rossford/Northwood, will be two lanes in each direction for major reconstruction. Lane restrictions and overnight ramp closures are possible. Estimated completion is the fall of 2023.
- Eastbound Wales Road., between Chelsea and Oregon roads, will experience lane restrictions for drainage work beginning March 29 through April 1.