BORDERLAND Burris - The Blade · 11/2/2015  · zones between Reitz and the Waterville bridge for slope repair. 15. Douglas Road: Southbound lanes closed between Laskey and Sylvania

THE BLADE: TOLEDO, OHIO ■ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2015SECTION B, PAGE 2 toledoBlade.com

Each week, The Blade’s Road Warrior highlights the major construction projects in Toledo and the surrounding area, noting where delays are worst and suggesting alternate routes.The latest closings associated with I-75 widening involve two local streets’ access to South Expressway Drive, the service road along the northbound side between Lagrange Street and Stickney Avenue.Elm Street and Wersell Avenue will both close today at South Expressway and stay that way through Nov. 30. Detour routes will not be posted.I-75 motorists, meanwhile, should watch out for nighttime lane clos-ings between Miami Street and the Anthony Wayne Trail for soil borings. The samples to be taken are part of planning for the DiSalle Bridge’s replacement, tentatively scheduled to start later this decade.1. I-75: Reconstruction and widening from I-475 to I-280 closes all ramps at Jeep-Willys and all ramps at Phillips except the southbound entrance. Eastbound I-475 entrance from Pro-Medica also closed. Detour to nearby interchanges. Lane closings on local streets at I-75 for bridge work. Night-time lane closings on I-75 through the zone. Completion mid-2018.2. I-75, State Rt. 246: Two of four lanes closed, downtown Toledo to I-475, for reconstruction until mid-2016. Entrance ramps closed at Detroit; use the Collingwood entrance northbound or the Lawrence entrance southbound. Southbound Washington Street may be closed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily through Friday. Dorr Street (Route 246) closed today through Friday at I-75 for bridge repairs. Very congested during rush hours, especially northbound in the afternoon. Oakwood closed at I-75 for bridge work.3. I-75: No shoulders and 60-mph speed limit for widening project from I-475 in Perrysburg to Hancock County Road 99 north of Findlay. Off-peak single-lane zones possible. Rest areas south of U.S. 6 are closed.4. I-475/U.S. 23: Traf� c shifts and shoulder closings for bridge widening, Angola to the Ohio Turnpike.5. I-475/U.S. 23: Off-peak lane clos-ings from the I-475/U.S. 23 split to Dorr for construction at two interchanges in Sylvania Township. Southbound U.S. 23 is reduced to one lane through the I-475 junction. No legal access to U.S. 20 (Central) exit from southbound U.S. 23; use other exits or follow detour to State Rt. 2 and back.6. Anthony Wayne Bridge: Right lane closed in both directions for � nishing work on rehab project.

7. U.S. 20/State Rt. 120 (Central):Nighttime (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) lane clos-ings between I-475 and Central Park West for utility work.8. McCord Road, Angola Road:Closed at the Norfolk Southern railroad north of Hall for underpass construc-tion. Detour via North Mall, Holland Park, and Angola. Angola closed at I-475/U.S. 23 for bridge work. Use Hill Avenue or Airport Highway instead.9. State Rt. 2: Flag zones for pavement repair between North Curtice and Howard, today through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.10. U.S. 20A/Eber Road: Intersection closed for roundabout construction. Detour via Airport (State Rt. 2) and Crissey.11. State Rt. 2 (Navarre): Reduced to a single lane, governed by an alternat-ing traf� c signal, for underground utility work just west of I-280. Motorists may wait for several stoplight cycles before getting through, depending on traf� c volume.12. State Rt. 25 (Anthony Wayne Trail): One of three lanes closed each way between City Park and the Toledo Zoo for reconstruction. Changes in traf-� c pattern are planned this week.13. Bancroft Street: Closed between Secor and Talmadge, including the Talmadge/Bancroft intersection, in Ottawa Hills for reconstruction through Friday. Detour via Reynolds, Central, and Secor.14. State Rts. 64, 65: Intermittent � ag zones between Reitz and the Waterville bridge for slope repair.15. Douglas Road: Southbound lanes closed between Laskey and Sylvania for waterline replacement until spring. Use Jackman or Secor instead.16. Talmadge Road: Closed south of Laskey Road through Nov. 9 for replace a collapsed sewer. Detour via Secor. Lane closings between I-475 and Central for pavement repairs until Nov. 23 cause signi� cant delays.OFF THE MAPI-75 (Ohio): Lane closings south of Findlay for cutting of rumble strips along the shoulder line following a repair project. Reduced speed limits, varying ramp closings, and off-peak lane closings south of Lima for recon-struction.I-75 (Mich.): One of three lanes closed each way between Elm Street in Mon-roe and I-275 for freeway reconstruc-tion. Northbound traf� c crosses over to the southbound side through the zone. Additional lane closings possible during off-peak hours.U.S. 6: Lanes closed between State Rt. 25 and Dunbridge Road for pave-ment and bridge work. Ramp from southbound I-75 to eastbound U.S. 6 is closed. Temporary stoplight north of the State Rt. 53 junction west of Fremont for roundabout construction.

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Contact the Road Warrior at: [email protected] or 419-724-6094.

BurrisContinued from Page B1

specific individuals who needhelp, she will never be ready.

What Ms. Spang has on herside is enthusiasm and effer-vescence, and an ability tocommunicate with almostanyone regardless of class,party, ideology, or race. Sheconnects. She’s a retailer. Shetook me to a meeting with acouple in the Old West Endwho have both a neighborproblem and a traffic prob-lem. She was honest, probing,and pragmatic. Ms. Spang leftthem with the feeling that atlast someone cared. Whenshe is not talking, she is agreat listener.

I think she will also helpsolve part of the couple’sproblem and greatly diminishanother part. She stays withthe issues and problems shedelves into. She understandshuman trafficking and thelack of locally grown, healthyfood in the city better thananyone, because she hastaken the time to educate her-self. She understands the“folly” (her word) of the citybuying Government Centerbecause she dug into the mat-ter.

What she hasn’t been ableto do is accomplish much— put points on the board.That’s why she has to talkabout ideas rather than arecord. That’s why she is acandidate of, and for, the fu-ture, not the present. Sheneeds time.

That said, Ms. Spang hasalso put forward some highlyworthy ideas in this mayoral

campaign:Budget reform. She wants

to do priority-based budget-ing, which the city should doas a no-brainer managementtool, and which would onlycost about $50,000 to imple-ment in the first year.

She has advocated a parksconservancy, similar to Pitts-burgh’s, to better maintainand finance maintenance ofour parks.

And she has championedthe notion of the parks systemand the public schools enter-ing into a partnership, whichin turn would support betteruse of public schools build-ings for community events,tutoring, and family support.That’s something almost ev-eryone is for and a directionmany TPS schools are alreadymoving in.

These are all good ideas.But all are concepts. Abstrac-tions. None come out of herown experience or accom-plishments. It’s like a 20-year-old writing poetry: There justisn’t enough material to makeit real.

The problem is that shehasn’t worked on budgets foryears, as, for example, CityFinance Director GeorgeSarantou has done. Or bal-anced a budget, as Mike Bellhas done.

So, when Ms. Spang saidshe would, as mayor, get a re-gional water authority “done”in two years, it seemed aboutas credible as a third-yearmedical student saying he willcure cancer in his first twoyears of practice.

Still, Ms. Spang possessessome invaluable assets. First,she has guts. She was the first

candidate to say unequivo-cally that she would not fireFire Chief Luis Santiago be-cause there were no grounds.Second, people just like her— she is unfailingly upbeat,positive, and imaginative.One day, she could make thiscity believe in itself. And third,she is new. Folks in Toledoare sick of the old and in-trigued with the new.

Jack Ford famously toldSandy Spang, “You will bemayor one day.” Someonetold me recently he didn’t be-lieve Mr. Ford really said it.He did. I was there and heardit with my own ears. Mr. Fordsaw in Ms. Spang a brilliantintuitive politician with all thegifts. I also know he was dis-appointed in Ms. Spang’s lim-ited interest in the grunt workof government, at least thusfar.

If Sandy Spang could coolher ambition and calculation,put her head down, and keepdoing her work for a fewyears, maybe focus on fewerissues and amass a record ofaccomplishment, she wouldbe very hard to stop in 2017 or2021. Most voters would notwant to stop her.

I asked Ms. Spang why shejumped into this race, stillgreen and not fully prepared.She told me the story of a“small” Toledo business thatemploys about 100 peopleand is leaving Toledo and re-locating to Wood County.

“No one really fought tokeep it,” she said. “NO ONE’SFIGHTING.”

Kid’s got a point.Keith C. Burris is a colum-

nist for The Blade.Contact him at:

[email protected]

BORDERLANDBLADE STAFF

Sylvania teen injuredin Hancock Co. crash

McCOMB, Ohio — A Sylva-nia teen was injured in a sin-gle-vehicle crash in rural Han-cock County on Saturdaynight.

Nicole George, 16, was driv-ing a sport utility vehicle easton State Rt. 613 in PortageTownship when she lost con-trol and struck a utility pole,according to the Ohio HighwayPatrol.

She was taken to BlanchardValley Hospital, the patrol said.A hospital spokesman saidSunday she had no informa-tion on a patient by that name.

Ottawa County installsGOP commissioner

PORT CLINTON — Mark W.Stahl has been sworn in as anOttawa County commissionerfollowing predecessor StevenArndt’s appointment to anopen Ohio House of Represen-tatives seat.

Mr. Stahl, a Republican ap-pointed by his party, wassworn in Wednesday. He pre-viously served as a countycommissioner from 2009through 2012 and will servethe remainder of Mr. Arndt’sterm, through Jan. 1, 2017.

Mr. Arndt, a Port Clinton Re-publican, was appointed to the89th House district seat, repre-senting Ottawa and Erie coun-ties, after state Rep. SteveKraus was automaticallyousted following a felony theftconviction.

Stop signs to be placedat railroad crossings

Motorists accustomed torolling through certain Ohiorailroad crossings while barelyslowing soon will find them-selves obliged to stop.

In accordance with a statelaw passed in 2013, the OhioDepartment of Transportationhas reviewed nearly 2,000 rail-road crossings that don’t havewarning lights and gates andordered yield signs at abouthalf of them replaced with stopsigns.

“This change will reinforcedriver behaviors of being safeand cautious around railroadtracks: to stop, look both ways,and proceed across with cau-tion,” Julianne Kaercher, anOhio Rail Development Com-mission spokesman, said in astatement.

Railroad-crossing stop signsare enforceable as if they wereat street intersections.

Maumee, Findlay menreappointed to board

COLUMBUS — Gov. JohnKasich recently reappointedJohn D. McIntyre of Maumeeand Richard H. Hoffman ofFindlay to the five-memberOhio Real Estate AppraiserBoard through Oct. 28, 2018.

Mr. Hoffman is presidentand chief executive of Ap-praisal Research Corp.

Mr. McIntyre is president ofthe John McIntyre Group Ltd.

The board, under theDepartment of Commerce,regulates, licenses, and disci-plines appraisers and estab-lishes testing specifications.

Members receive fixed payfor each day performing offi-cial duties.

S. Toledo intersectionto close for resurfacing

If your Tuesday travels takeyou through the South Toledointersection of HeatherdownsBoulevard and Garden andPerrysburg-Holland roads,plan another route.

The city of Toledo will closethat intersection at 6 p.m. to-day for resurfacing work that’sto continue through Tuesday.

No detour route will beposted.

The intersection work is partof a late-season project to re-pave 11.52 miles of residentialcity streets.

The entire project, includingthe Heatherdowns/Garden/Perrysburg-Holland portion,will cost $4.58 million.

These repaving projects arein addition to the 30.12 milesof roads the city repaved ear-lier in the year.

That work was paid for with$7.8 million from Toledo’scapital improvements budget,plus an approximately equalmatch in state and federalfunds.

THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT

Carty Finkbeiner, center, tells of his ‘Clean Up Toledo’plan in front of an abandoned house at 759 Chesbrough St.in East Toledo as he stands between neighbors LynnetteJones and Lee Heckel. Councilman Mike Craig is at right.

AdContinued from Page B1

Toledo safer.”The advertisement also

showed a picture of The LittleBook of Carty, a collection ofmayoral anecdotes and car-toons forming a humorouslook at Mr. Finkbeiner’s polit-ical career published by TheBlade in 2008.

Mr. Finkbeiner, an unen-dorsed Democrat who wasmayor from 1994 to 2001 andagain from 2006 to 2009, is ina seven-way race for mayorthat will be decided Tuesday.

Also in the race is PaulaHicks-Hudson, the incum-bent mayor and endorsedDemocrat; at-large Council-man Sandy Spang; SandyDrabik Collins, wife of thel a t e M a y o r D . M i c h a e lCollins; former city council-man Mike Ferner; formermayor Mike Bell; and evan-gelist Opal Covey.

Tuesday’s special electionwill decide who will fill thetwo years left in the term ofMr. Collins, who died Feb. 6.

This is not the first time Mr.Ball has purchased a Bladeadvertisement during a may-oral campaign.

In November, 2013, he tookout an attack advertisementagainst then mayoral candi-date Mr. Collins.

That ad appeared twodays before the hotly con-tested race between Mr.C o l l i n s a n d i n c u m b e n tMayor Bell was to be de-cided by Toledo voters.

Mr. Ball’s paid 2013 politi-cal advertisement enumer-ated what he claimed werelies or other misstatementsmade by Mr. Collins in a se-ries of political forums.

Much of the strife betweenthe late mayor and Mr. Ballrevolved around the formerToledo Edison Station SteamPlant downtown.

Mr. Ball at the time ownedthe vacant Water Street Sta-tion Steam Plant and was aknown supporter of MayorBell for re-election.

“We are deeply committed

to downtown revitalizationand become very concernedwhen a mayoral candidatemakes reckless, untrue state-ments,” Mr. Ball wrote in that2013 advertisement on behalfof the company of which he ispresident, STS ManagementInc.

The 120-year-old SteamPlant, formerly owned byToledo Edison Co., was thecity’s property until it washanded over to Mr. Ball andJames Jackson in 2005. Thetwo planned to convert it to arental and condominiumcomplex.

Mr. Ball and Mr. Jacksonpromised a $19.7 million de-velopment, and then-MayorJack Ford engineered a$300,000 contribution by thecity. In the end, Mr. Ball andMr. Jackson failed to proceedwith that project.

Mr. Jackson withdrew, leav-ing Mr. Ball owning the steamplant and trying to come upwith a design that was eco-nomically viable and thatqualified for historic tax cred-its.

It sat empty for years untilMr. Ball sold it to ProMedicathis year for $1.75 million.

ProMedica plans to reno-vate it into part of its new

downtown headquarters.The building’s transfer to

Mr. Ball has been a contro-versy spanning five mayoraladministrations.

Mr. Ball said he buttedheads with Mr. Finkbeinerabout the building during hislast term in office.

In January, a month beforehis death, Mr. Collins blastedthe arrangements made forMr. Ball regarding the build-ing. He blamed former MayorFord for handing over thedeed to the steam plant to theprivate owners, on nearly Mr.Ford’s last day in office, with-out getting a guarantee thatthe property would be devel-oped.

Mr. Ball said he spent 10years trying to develop theb u i l d i n g a n d t h a t t h eProMedica deal would havebeen difficult to accomplishif Mr. Finkbeiner were inpower.

Mr. Finkbeiner was amonga group early this year oppos-ing ProMedica’s plan to builda six-story parking garage inthe southwest quadrant ofPromenade Park.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:[email protected],

419-724-6171, or onTwitter @IgnazioMessina.

TrailContinued from Page B1

inbound traffic back where itbelongs, setting up trafficlights to shift southboundtraffic, and then switching thesouthbound lanes over towhat will eventually be thesouthbound left and centerlanes, which are the lanes in-bound traffic has been usingfor several months.

Outbound traffic will stillhave just two lanes instead ofthe normal three. That'll beuntil the project’s completionnext spring or summer.

Contractor Geddis Pavingofficially has until August tofinish the $7 million recon-struction project, which fea-tures modifying the Southand Western intersections toeliminate traffic queuing be-tween the Trail’s two sides aswell as rebuilding the Trailthrough the area.

But Ms. Pollick said it'spossible lane closings willend sooner, perhaps by June.

“It’s just the contract goesout that far [August]. If wecan get it open sooner thanthat, we will,” the ODOTspokesman said before add-ing, “We’re overall pleasedwith the progress — it’s mov-ing right along.”

Demolition of the remain-ing old pavement on the out-bound lanes, which south-bound traffic will stop usingafter today, could be finishedbefore winter, Ms. Pollicksaid.

Pavement reconstructionwithin the South andWestern intersections thatwill yet again close thosecross streets for one weekendeach won’t occur until spring.

South and Western alreadyhave been closed twice eachfor weekend work, oncewhen the middles of theirTrail intersections were re-built, then more recently forrebuilding the Trail’s in-bound lanes.

As before, traffic will be de-toured to Western whenSouth is closed, and Southwhen Western is closed.

TPSContinued from Page B1

2013. His resume did not dis-close his tenure in Genoa.

Brian Murphy, TPS chief ofstaff, said that a records checkof Mr. Chambers, which in-cluded FBI and Bureau ofCriminal Investigation back-ground checks, did not turnup his Genoa employment.He acknowledged that thedistrict generally does not doInternet searches on prospec-

tive employees before hiringthem.

“I think it is certainly some-thing we are going to discussfurther,” Mr. Murphy said.

He said the district’s chiefof security received an anony-mous tip about Mr. Cham-bers’ past, which led the dis-trict in August to immediatelysuspend him.

In a September hearing forthe record, Mr. Chambers’testimony corroborated thedistrict’s evidence, accordingto TPS documents.

“I have been doing every-

thing I can do to put this be-hind me,” a TPS hearingrecord describes him as say-ing. “It keeps coming back tohaunt me. ... Genoa keepscoming up.”

Mr. Chambers was not al-leged to have committed anywrongdoing while employedby TPS.

Attempts to find a phonenumber for Mr. Chamberswere unsuccessful.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at:[email protected],

419-724-6086, or onTwitter @NolanRosenkrans.