Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Lake Township police chief and city administrator, Mark Hummer, announced a few promotions for his staff, which were approved by township trustees at the latest meeting on Feb. 18.
Todd Cromer, a lifelong Lake Township resident, was promoted to the fiduciary position of captain, effective Feb. 24. He joined the department in 2007 and was promoted to sergeant in 2018.
Matt Mariano and Jon Schmidlin were both promoted to the rank of sergeant, also effective Feb. 24.
Hummer said he first met Mariano while doing some work at Put-in-Bay, where Mariano had spent his entire career - patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant and captain, and he noted that if he can do that out there, he can do it anywhere. He said Mariano has bought a home in Lake Township and moved his family here.
Schmidlin is an experienced officer having worked with the Oregon and Village of Walbridge police departments.
“They’re both level-headed, knowledgable of the job and well-respected by the troops,” Hummer said. “I think they’ll both do a wonderful job, and I feel the department is in really good hands.”
Additionally, although they were approved at the previous meeting, Scott Somogye and Kallin St. John were introduced as new officers.
St. John, a county resident and Lake graduate, comes from Sandusky via the Oregon and Bowling Green police departments. Somogye most recently worked for the Waterville police department after time at Mercy.
Township trustees then voted to extend Hummer’s contract by two years, effective Jan. 24, 2026, under the same terms and conditions of the original employment contract. His employment is now contracted through Jan. 24, 2028.
“I really can’t imagine being anywhere else,” Hummer said.
In other business, Fireside Park will have two standard and one ADA accessible portable restrooms installed by March 10, and through Oct. 31, for the upcoming sports season. Two will be installed between the ball diamonds and one will be placed in the playground area. C&L Sanitation is the new vendor for this and saved the department almost $700, Hummer said, while noting they are scheduled to be cleaned once a week.
Melanie Bowen-Greenwald rescinded a motion made at a previous meeting to “approve the recommendation of the zoning inspector to stagger the terms of those on the zoning commission and the board of zoning appeals subject to the list that she has provided.”
“We have to do some more research,” Bowen-Greenwald said. “I don’t think we can do it that way, so I’m going to rescind that motion until we get a look at it and do it the correct way.”
Fiscal officer John Ervin announced that the township has received an advance on funds to hire four full-time paramedics, which was approved through the recent levy passage. He noted that they couldn’t do it at the beginning of the year because they needed the funds in place first, which typically don’t come until March, so they asked for and received the advance from Wood County auditor, Matt Oestreich, and will work on getting those four hired once they pass physicals.
The fire department renewed its contract for a medical director, Premier Physician Services, which is an annual renewal task.
In other news, Mel-O-Creme will open for the season on March 7.
