Let’s give the last word to those who made the pages of The Press in 2010.

“If the algae goes down when they stop it, then obviously there would appear to be a cause and effect…We’re at a point now where the algae and green water is causing some people to sell their boats and others don’t want to go out in wave runners. It’s putrid. It’s caused Toledo to pay more in its water treatment costs, walleye numbers to decrease substantially, and a decrease in yellow perch.”
Sandy Bihn, Lake Erie waterkeeper, urging a stop to open lake disposal of dredge material.

“How can we be expected to add costs without new funding?….My response might be considered a little defiant, but I am tired of unfunded mandates and intend to fight this.”
Brent Welker, Eastwood superintendent, opposing the state’s unfunded mandate to adopt all-day, everyday kindergarten.

“It is cruel and inhumane to confine animals in cages so small they can’t turn around and extend their limbs.”  Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, on a constitutional amendment establishing rules for animal care on Ohio farms.

“It’s interesting that the hallmark of poverty now is obesity rather than being too skinny. That is because the food we have available, mostly through pantries, are manufactured foods, not actually food-foods. They don’t normally provide a lot of nutrition but they do provide lots of fat and empty calories.”
Tana Schwiewer, executive director of Food for Thought, an Oregon food pantry, on growing fresh vegetables hydroponically to provide healthier foods.

“There isn’t any way to know everything.  There will always be more you don’t know than you do. You always have two options.  You can acquire the knowledge you need or you can utilize someone else’s expertise.  Regardless of the subject, the information you need exists.”
Bryan Golden, Press columnist, on not letting yourself fall victim to false justifications.

“I think it’s not a good thing to have something that could even potentially drive people away from our community, even if it’s one person a day who doesn’t come down Woodville Road and purchase gas or stop at a restaurant because of these cameras. We’re losing money in our economy.”
Ed Schimmel, Northwood councilman, voting against keeping the city’s red light cameras.

“They are speeding, and breaking the law. We laid off police officers. We don’t have the officers there to do the citations. The severity of crashes have gone down 57 percent, according to the fire department. So we’re not having the injuries like we’ve had before.”
Mike Myers, Northwood councilman, voting for keeping the city’s red light cameras.

“We’ve been seeing houses get emptied out and boarded up. When there is a row of boarded up houses on one side of the street and homeless people on the other side of the street, that’s immoral.”
Wesley Flowers, member of the Toledo Foreclosure Defense League and a squatter in the foreclosed home of Stony Ridge protestor Keith Sadler.

“The bottom line is, giving back millage or not, people don’t appear ready to support another tax.”
Bill Nye, Genoa schools’ treasurer, after defeat of the one percent earned income tax by a vote of 1,221 to 585. The school board would have let a 5-year, 5-mil property tax levy expire if the issue would have passed.

“The attraction is this is a critical area — a stopover habitat for migratory birds. In other words, they can’t get from the tropics where they are over wintering without having some place to stop. It’s like a bird gas station.”
Kim Kaufman, executive director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, on the estimated 50,000 birders who came from across the globe and 44 states to catch the Spring migration of warblers arriving at the Lake Erie marshes.

“I never saw what happened to her. I ended up getting thrown against the building and the only thing that saved my life was two boulders — one on my right and one on my left that held the building up and kept it from falling on me. The whole building collapsed.
“But I’ll never move forward from that day. It just plays in my head — it’s a tape play that never quits.”
Gerald Lathrop whose girlfriend and mother of their two-year-old son, Bailey Bowman was killed in the June 5 tornado.

“A person’s entire life is spread across farm fields, mixed in with all sorts of debris, building materials. You have everything from a checkbook to a two-by-four, to shingles, to photos. It’s amazing.”
Daniel Boudoin, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Stony Ridge, assessing the tornado’s damage.

“As soon as I shut the door, the house shook and I heard a train and I thought when I open that door again our walls are going to be gone…
MaryAnn Wittman, Millbury resident, whose neighbor’s house was leveled by the tornado.
 
“Where’s the house? Then I panicked and thought, ‘Oh, my God, Where are they?’ Then, I heard them hollering and screaming.”
MaryAnn Wittman, after opening her front door to check on her neighbors.

“I figure I’ve dodged the bullet many times. I was in Vietnam, so just go with it. We’re just all happy to be alive,”
John Gallagher, whose home was severely damaged by the tornado.

“People were extremely generous. They (employees) all gave up their tips and people put in more than normal for the tip jar. They were dropping the large bills in and it accumulated rather quickly. I mean, we’re talking five’s, ten’s, lots of $20 bills, many $50s, and we had some $100 bills go in there.”
Bob Reino, owner of Mel-O-Crème, whose employees raised $4,000, which Reino and his wife Pat matched.

“When you go through this, people say `At least you have insurance.’ Well, insurance doesn’t cover everything. It covers the monetary part, but there are other issues to deal with. All the uncertainty and chaos of the event you have to deal with yourself.”
Mike McAlear, owner of Service Spring, a business damaged by the tornado.

“We got up, grabbed our flashlight and went up the stairs. Our house was gone. It was all gone within seconds. It was just a flat piece of property.”
Janice Johns, whose home on Collins Road in Millbury was destroyed.

“In our city, a lot of people here underestimate what we can do. It’s very easy for people to be critical of good things. I found out as mayor we have to change the culture of how we do things here. I think we can do that.
“What we have to do is bring it together, because if we don’t fix the ship here we are all going to sink. Penn National has given us a lifeboat here.”
Mike Bell, Toledo mayor, at the groundbreaking of the Hollywood Casino in East Toledo.

“He was out of town, and his voice box was full. I think after 67 tries, he realized I’m pretty good at re-dialing. He did call me back then. I told him to get that thing shut off in the next 15 minutes, or we won’t have this program anymore. He said he couldn’t because he was out of town. I said, `You ought to be able to find someone to hit this thing with an axe or something, but shut it off.”’
Mike Seferian, Oregon mayor, about repeated calls he made to Mike Scott of One Call Now, about residents complaining about the repeated calls they received from the system during this summer’s bad weather.
 
“Try singing over subway trains. Try belting out and making sure people hear you when you got a subway train going this way and that way. And the acoustics down there, you can’t even hear yourself talk. That’s how loud it is. But people could hear me sing. My life has changed because I no longer have to play in the streets, but I am dying to do it. I want nothing more than to go back to Chicago and play on the subway–for the joy of it.”
Crystal Bowersox, our American Idol.

“A song that has the ‘f’ word being used in it 15 times is not appropriate…I want a list that I can hand to a DJ. If there is a radio version of the song I am OK with that. To me, if a song gets through the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) then I am ok with that. I have been seen as the evil dictator in this, that I was trying to take away their fun. Going forward, we need everyone involved, including the parents who could be chaperones.”
Lee Herman, Lake High principal, on appropriate music for the Lake High School homecoming dance.

“I don’t think many parents totally understood what grinding meant. I told parents that when you see your daughter bending over and guys, not one but two to three, behind them grinding up against her, you will change your mind on grinding.”
Jeff Thompson, Clay High principal, on supporting Lake High School’s enforcement of a policy not allowing grinding, a sexually suggestive dance, at its homecoming.

“You kill an eagle here, and you’re going to make a lot of people angry. And it’s just going to be an accident. But if it happens, the whole world is going to know about it. I have eagle sightings in Pearson Park regularly. I see eagle sightings going back and forth down Navarre Avenue. I know they’re in here.”
Terry Breymaier of Friends of Pearson Park speaking out against locating wind turbines at Oregon Schools until a study has been done to assess their affects on migratory birds.

“If it can be demonstrated that there are kills, that it’s really going to be a detriment to the migrating birds, I’m sure the schools would be willing to turn their turbines off during those periods of time. We can trust the schools to do the right thing at that time without amending or gutting the ordinance.”
Mike Sheehy, Oregon councilman, on supporting zoning to allow the schools to erect seven wind turbines.

“It’s a troubled world, bringing a little happiness is a good thing.”
Tim Stapleton, Oregon, on playing Santa Claus for the 52nd year.

“I’m telling you I’m bringing this mall back for this community. You just watch,”
Juanita Jones, new Woodville Mall manager, responding to criticism from two Press readers.

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