Block Party!

Those who attended Friday’s Main Street Van Wert Block Party had some tough choices to make, as several food trucks lined Jefferson St. next to Fountain Park. There was also a beer tent. The annual event turned out to be a big success. Scott Truxell photos

A strategy for many people was to scout out the various food trucks then decide which one or ones to order delicious food from on Friday.

U.S. 224 to close for two big projects

VW independent staff

Construction of Van Wert’s second roundabout, along with another nearby project will begin soon, leading to a notable road closure.

Friday, July 31, is when the intersection of U.S. 224 and Lincoln Highway in Van Wert will close for the construction of a roundabout. The closure is expected to last approximately 60 days and will impact the Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Sale, which is scheduled for August 13-15.

U.S. 224 between U.S. 30 and Lincoln Highway will also close on July 31 for approximately 120 days for rehabiltation of the bridge over the railroad.

The official U.S. 224 detour for both projects will be U.S. 30 to Ohio 49, back to U.S. 224.

In addition to those projects, Ohio 697 between the city of Delphos and Ohio 116 will close on Monday, July 27, for full-width paving.

Van Wert case highlighted after 29 years

Submitted information

Wearing a Marilyn Manson band T-shirt to class in August of 1997, Van Wert High School senior Nicholas Boroff could reasonably have expected it to cause a stir. What he never could have predicted was that it would lead to a landmark federal ruling concerning schools’ rights to limit the free expression of students.

By many standards, Boroff’s T-shirt would be considered provocative, if not profane. The front of Boroff’s T-shirt depicted a three-faced Jesus, accompanied by the words “See No Truth. Hear No Truth. Speak No Truth.” It also prominently featured the name of the goth-rock group, which was the pseudonym of frontman Brian Warner, who sang about and was widely suspected to use illegal drugs. On the back of the shirt, the word “BELIEVE” was written out, with the letters “LIE” highlighted.

During this time, Van Wert High School’s dress code prohibited “clothing with offensive illustrations, drug, alcohol, or tobacco slogans.” An aide to the school principal determined that the shirt violated this policy and gave Boroff the choice to turn the shirt inside-out, change shirts, or leave and be considered truant. Boroff left school but returned resolute in his beliefs. For the next three school days, he wore different T-shirts that featured images of Manson in his signature ghastly makeup. Each day, Boroff was sent home and marked truant.

In response, Boroff’s mother filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in September 1997, alleging that the school had violated her son’s First Amendment right to free expression and Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. The federal district court ruled in favor of the school, and Boroff appealed to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the federal circuit court, the school contended that based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986), there is no First Amendment protection for offensive language at school. Citing Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), also from the U.S. Supreme Court, the school argued it may regulate student expression if it is likely to cause disruption.

Van Wert County’s jobless rate rises

VW independent staff

Mercer, Auglaize and Putnam counties fared well in terms of jobs during the month of June.

Mercer County had the state’s second lowest unmeployment rate last month, 2.7 percent, while Auglaize had the third lowest rate, 2.9 percent. At 3.0 percent, Putnam County had Ohio’s eighth lowest jobless rate.

Numbers provided by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services this week show Van Wert County’s June jobless rate went from 2.5 percent in May to 3.2 percent in June. In June of last year, the county’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.

Paulding County’s June jobless rate was 3.1 percent and Allen County checked in at 3.8 percent, which was above the statewide average of 3.6 percent.

Among the state’s 88 counties, Holmes County had the lowest unemployment last month, 2.6 percent, followed by Mercer County (2.7 percent), Auglaize, Union and Wyandot counties (2.9 percent) and Geauga, Medina and Putnam counties (3.0 percent).

10 counties had jobless rates at or above 4.5 percent in June – Athens and Trumbull counties (5.0 percent), Meigs and Scioto counties (4.9 percent), Pike County (4.8 percent), Adams, Monroe and Noble counties (4.7 percent), Mahoning County (4.6 percent), and Lucas County (4.5 percent).

According to ODJFS, even though the statewide average dropped slightly between May (3.7 percent) and June, rates increased in all 88 counties from May to June.

Video: rare albino robin…

This rare albino robin was spotted on David St. in Van Wert for four consecutive days by Vern Boggs, who saw it at around 7:30 a.m. each day. Just how rare are albino robins? Only one in about 30,000 robins are all-white. According to Boggs, a mate — a regular robin — has always been by her side. Video courtesy of Vern Boggs.

Report shows how much renters need

By Megan Henry/Ohio Capital Journal

A full-time Ohio worker needs to make at least $23.82 an hour to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment, according to a new report released this week. 

This is slightly more than a five percent increase from last year — which was $22.51, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio’s annual Out of Reach report. 

The Housing Wage is an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must make to afford a rental home at HUD’s Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30 percent of their income. 

Ohio’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,238, meaning a household must earn $49,537 annually to cover rent and utilities, according to the report. The state’s Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $996, according to the report. Ohio has nearly 1.6 million renter households. The report showed the average Ohio renter earns $19.59 an hour, $4.23 less than what they need to be making to afford a two-bedroom apartment. 

The Housing Wage gap was $1.57 an hour in 2020, meaning the Housing Wage has increased by 169 percent in the past six years, the report said. 

“Renters’ incomes shot up in the early 2020s, but then rent increases eventually swamped the wage gains,” COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel said in a statement. “And it’s not just housing. The cost of food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, and education is continuing to rise while people working in low wage jobs are getting squeezed.” 

Of the 10 most common jobs in Ohio, only general operations managers and registered nurses pay more than $23.82 an hour, according to the report. Fast food workers, retail salespeople, stockers, laborers, home health aides, and cashiers earn a median hourly wage less than $20 an hour, according to the report. 

Ohio’s minimum wage is $11 an hour for non-tipped workers — meaning a minimum wage worker would have to work 87 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom rental and 70 hours to afford a one-bedroom rental. 

BOE handles personnel matters, gets update

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — During a very brief meeting of the Crestview Local Schools Board of Education on Thursday, Superintendent Matt Dube gave an update on the district’s massive athletic facilities upgrade project.

Dube informed the board that much of the outdoor portion of project is ahead of schedule.

“People who move dirt like to move dirt and they’re way ahead of schedule,” he said. “It is all graded out and you can see – there’s the track, there’s the football field, there’s the concession stand building, there’s the bleachers – you can see them plain as day. Now, just because the dirt movers are ahead of schedule doesn’t mean the (football) turf ordering is on schedule – that’s on time.”

“Everything is going smoothly out there,” he added.

He noted while things are going well outside, work indoors is going at a slower than expected pace due to a couple of unexpected issues.

“We ran into an issue with the (gym) floor, Dube explained. “When we took the floor up…we had two very different levels to our floors, very different surfaces. We had the original floor from the 1950s or whatever it was and the new floors around the periphery of that. Cincinnati Floor would not come in and put their floor down on that without revoking their warranty.”

“We had the floor leveled and Cincinnati Floor was in today and ok’d it,” he added.

He also said their was an issue with a large decal on the wall but the problem has since been corrected.

The gym was scheduled to be ready by September 1 but that projection has been pushed back by a week or two. 

Once complete, the athletic facilities upgrade is expected to cost between $13.5-$14 million. 

Bus routes for the new school year were given approval, along with lunch prices, athletic ticket prices, educational fees for preschool and student workbook fees, and a list of substitute teachers teachers, paraprofessionals and school nurses from the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center.

Robbery under investigation…

The Van Wert Police Department is investigating an early Thursday morning robbery at Winners Skilled Games on Fox Rd. Because of the ongoing investigation, few details have been released but Chief Doug Weigle said the suspect/suspects broke in and forced open a safe. The break-in and theft was reported late Thursday morning. As of Thursday evening, no arrests had been made. Scott Truxell/Van Wert independent

Review: new VWCT musical a fun show

By DAVE MOSIER/for the VW independent

A music-hating nebbish who gets trapped in musical hell is “the guy” in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals — the AYA (Adolescent-Young Adult) Theatre production that opened Thursday at Van Wert Civic Theatre.

In this horror-comedy-musical written by Nick and Matt Lang, with music and lyrics by Jeff Blim, Paul Matthews (Sean Carpenter in his fifth show at VWCT) is a white-collar drone quietly living out a boring existence in his hometown of Hatchetfield. His only personality quirk is his intense dislike of music — especially musicals. That’s why he declines an offer by co-worker Bill Woodward (Charles Bennett) to see a production of Mama Mia! at a local theater. Instead, he trots off to make moon eyes at Emma Perkins (Abbie Mengerink), a barista at Beanies coffee shop that he has a crush on. In addition to Bill, Paul shares his humdrum office life with co-workers Charlotte Sweetly (Kim Salisbury) and Ted Spankoffski (Andy Walpole). Unbeknownst to Paul, though, Charlotte, although married to Sam, a police officer, isn’t averse to a little on the side with Ted as well.

Things start spiraling out of control the next day when Bill tells Paul about a meteor hitting the theater the night before and people — including their boss, Mr. Davidson (Evan Joseph) — start singing and dancing like they’re in a musical (because that’s how the mind-controlling aliens communicate).
Paul runs over to Beanies to tell Emma about his suspicion that aliens are turning Hatchetfield residents into one big musical cast and finds the barista, who is also not a big music fan, forced to sing and dance by her boss, Nora (Ella Lamb), as a customer tip-appreciation ploy. In fact, one of the funniest bits in the show is Mengerink’s deadpan face and movements as she, a co-worker, Zoey (Chloe Parker), and her boss do a tip-appreciation song for customers. After finding customers in the shop, as well as her boss and co-worker, already infected by aliens through poisoned coffee, Paul, Emma, Bill, Ted, and Charlotte look for a way to survive the tuneful invasion, but, one by one, fall prey to the insidious musicality of the aliens.

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is a fun show with catchy tunes and funny comedy bits. Carpenter is getting good at playing the nerdy, but clueless guy caught up in something he doesn’t quite understand, and he again shows he is good at the everyman role. Bennett has the nerd loser Bill down pat, while Walpole is fun as the unrepentant sleazeball Ted. Joseph is also good as Mr. Davidson, as well as playing Charlotte’s husband, Sam, while Carson Caprella shines as a dotty professor who at first helps Paul, but later joins the aliens willingly.

Several other actors also excel. Emily Gehle does well as a Greenpeace canvasser who has Paul’s number, while Payton Frese gets a slinky number near the end as Bill’s wayward daughter, Alice. My personal favorite actor in this production is Salisbury, whose personality shines through in every scene, making Charlotte a uniquely interesting character — especially when singing and vamping with Joseph on the slinky love duet, “You Tied Up My Heart.”

The sets are clever, lighting and sound perfect for the production, while the gore was goofy, not lose-your-lunch nasty. Director Alyssa Taylor and Music Director Perri Webb do a good job of guiding what could have been an out-of-control production with a steady hand on the tiller. The show gets at least a PG rating because of some naughty bits and spicy language, but is good fun nonetheless.

The show, sponsored by Biggby Coffee, runs through this weekend and the weekend of July 30-August 2. Evening performances start at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday afternoon matinees beginning at 2. Tickets are $18 apiece, with a $2 senior discount on presale tickets only. Tickets may be purchased online at vwct.org or by calling 419.238.9689.

City announces upcoming road closures

Submitted information

A portion of Crawford St. in Van Wert will be closed Monday and Tuesday, July 27-28, for the Eggress Stadium renovation project.

Leeson Ave. will be closed all day on Wednesday, July 29, and all day on Monday, August 3, for the Enbridge gas line replacement project.