Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Note: This story originally said that Capacity LLC recently completed an 18-month load study. The load study was completed by First Energy.
The latest city council meeting in Oregon on Aug. 24, which saw a pair of former mayors speak, was highlighted by a discussion of several items to be put forward on the November ballot in regard to election timeline measures.
The city’s most recent mayor, Mike Seferian, spoke in response to allegations at the previous week’s committee of the whole meeting surrounding ownership of a business property in the Wynnscape area, which resident Ruth Price alleged matches Seferian’s home address and raised conflict of interest issues.
Seferian said that his address, while close to the business, does not match the property, and that Bob Dedo created Molly’s Ventures before selling it to P&R Communications, which still owns it today.
“I do not watch these meetings that I do not come to,” Seferian said. “I came one other time to clarify when you folks thought that the data center extension failed, just to merely inform you that it actually passed. Other than that, I'm in my backyard doing yard work when I get three calls saying "Oh, you just got thrown under the bus. It appears that somebody thinks you're guilty of conspiring to make money on this deal.’ I never owned one cent worth of that building. Bob Dedo does not own any part of it. P&R Communications is the sole owner. It is very clear on the Internet. I don't know how that mistake happened.
“I had a lot more to say. I can't get it done in the time. I don't need to come back here. I wish you guys all well. I live in this city. I plan to die in this city. All three of my children live within three miles of my house. They probably will live their whole lives here. I want the city to succeed.”
In addition to Seferian, former Oregon mayor and judge Donald Petroff spoke about the proposed charter amendment on the November ballot that would limit the size of data centers in the city to 25 megawatts.
“The charter was never designed, nor should it ever be designed, to contain political decisions or business decisions,” he said. “That's a political thing for you folks to decide. I don't care if people are for or against the (data) center. This is not the way it's done.
“In places in New England, small towns, when they have an issue, the people all show up and they vote by a raise of hand. That's not who we are. Decisions are made here with you people. Everyone has a right to speak their piece, state their views and move on. I think you as councilmen have an obligation to talk about this with your constituents when they ask you.
“It's not a matter of the data center. It's a matter of, are we going to do this next? What if somebody comes in and wants to build a robot center? We're going to say, ‘No, you can only have so much space to build 25 robots?’ Or Amazon, ‘You can only have so many trucks in our city at any one time.’
“This is foolishness. Political decisions belong here and not this kind of stuff. For people who don't trust council or don't understand how decisions are made, that's the point I wanted to make. I hope you make that point to people also.”
On the topic of data centers, Connie Trudell said she had followed up with Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson’s office seeking answers to concerned citizen questions about the data center process.
Trudell said she initially submitted questions to First Energy on March 30 of this year and Will Turner of Capacity LLC on June 9. She said she was told by Hicks-Hudson’s office that they were told First Energy just finished an 18-month load study and should be responding to her soon.
“I am seeking clarification on this point as I was present at the city council meeting on Feb. 2, 2026, when Will Turner was present, and he stated that the First Energy load study was completed in December 2025,” Trudell said. “I recall the members of city council and city administration who were present at this meeting in February 2026 being quite surprised to hear that the load study had been finished as they were not properly notified.”
Oregon mayor Steven Salander said the 18-month load study completion was news to him when presented with three follow-up questions from Trudell.
“This is the first I've heard of that,” he said. “I don't know if anyone else has, but this is the first I've heard of that. That pretty much kills all the other questions because this is the first I've heard of an 18-month load study. The last I knew also was in February. I have not been told anything beyond what we were told in February.”
Trudell said she would submit her questions to city administrator Brody Walters.
There were also three items for consideration on the agenda, which were initially questioned by resident Jim Davis.
“I read their proposed amendments, and one of them appears to be kind of a housekeeping to align the charter with Ohio state law with regards to the candidate nomination process. No problem there,” Davis said. “The second appears to be requested by the Board of Elections to align the primary election date with that of other cities. No problem with that, although the primary would move to May, leading up to a much longer campaign.
“The last one is problematic. It appears to provide a mechanism for filling a vacancy on council, but there's no adequate description of the process for potential candidates to apply and be considered. And the second paragraph is seriously flawed. I understand that council may have knowledge of a potential candidate, and that's fine as long as they present that candidate for consideration on an equal footing as other interested candidates.
“There's no urgency to fill the position since most issues before council do not require seven council persons to be present, so the idea that council could just select somebody without consideration for other candidates leads us right back to the situation we had last December.
“The charter represents the governing document for how city business is conducted, and altering it is not something that should be done hastily and without careful consideration. If an amendment is approved by the voters, it cannot be changed very easily.”
Salander agreed and removed the third one from consideration, while the city’s law director, Chynna Fifer, took responsibility, saying she was just trying to avoid a repeat of past issues regarding the Open Meetings Act.
The other two proposals were approved to go to ballot.
Onto a brighter topic, Salander read a proclamation declaring Aug. 28-30 as the 60th annual German American Festival. Council also approved providing additional stop signs on East Hampton Drive following an issue discussed at a recent meeting.
