At the Fencepost

An Audit of Heroes

Robert Sprague, Findlay's city auditor, was interviewed for The Courier's one-year anniversary coverage of the August 2007 flood as someone who went "beyond the call" in his service to the community.

Click HERE to read Sprague's diary account of the events.

Below, in his words, are others who deserve recognition:

*****

I can think of some other “behind the scenes people” that you could call heroes.

For instance, our chief engineer Brian Hurt noticed the red pencil drawing from 1981 and put the map on the table and said, “This is what we are going to be dealing with.” That helped us visually figure out that we needed to divide our response with a north command post and south command post for police and fire.

Matt Trevor, a battalion chief, should be listed as a hero. He came up with the idea to command and control all the outside (37 different outside fire departments) fire boats that came to help us. He also put one of our men in each boat with our radios. In my opinion, this command decision may have made the difference in our being able to respond without fatalities during the flood.

Matt Carpenter, our assistant chief engineer, personally led the charge at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning to sandbag the water treatment plant to save the water supply for about 60,000 people.

Todd Richards, our zoning inspector, helped sandbag the AT&T building behind Wilson’s, which serves as the nerve center for all phone and cellular communications in Hancock County. Without it, all the phones in the county would have gone dead, leaving us very little means to communicate with the city employees. We were able to sandbag it and prevent any serious problems.

After the flood, Barb Wilhelm, our health department supervisor, did a miraculous job of inoculating people for tetanus and hepatitis A, even though her department lost most of its equipment in the flood. She also saved some key items from the health offices while the flood waters were rising.

Lu Draper did an outstanding, miraculous job of opening the CUBE during the flood and creating a shelter that the national Red Cross described as "wonderful."

Finally, I thank Ron Kear, the local Ohio Department of Transportation manager for the Hancock County office. His group cleared more debris than any other single entity after the flood, and if it weren’t for them, we would have taken months, not days, to clean up our city. They came riding in on front loaders and dump trucks like the cavalry. I have never witnessed a more professional and effective group than the ODOT team.

*****

Visit www.thecourier.com to learn about more folks who went Beyond the Call.

Commissioners Rescind Tax Imposition

Hancock County commissioners this morning rescinded a July 24 resolution imposing a 0.75 percent sales tax.

They told the county prosecutor to draw up resolutions setting public hearing dates for two new emergency tax measures. The three commissioners will vote on those resolutions this afternoon.

If commissioners decide to pass one or both of the taxes as emergencies, the county would receive the money by mid-April.

Commissioners said they are not certain they want to pass either the 0.25 percent tax or the 0.50 percent tax as emergencies, but to consider the possibility they must identify the measures as such when setting dates for public hearings.

If the either tax is adopted as an emergency, the county can collect money regardless if a petition is filed to put it on the November 2009 ballot. Even if voters turned the tax down, the county could collect for most of 2009.

A petition to put a non-emergency tax on the November 2009 ballot, however, would prevent the county from collecting until voters have had a say.

Without some revenue collection, commissioner Ed Ingold said he is concerned the county will not be able to fully support public safety and welfare. "A portion of this needs to be adopted as an emergency so we can begin collection and stabilize where we are," he said.

County reporter Mary Kate Malone will continue to develop this story for you throughout the day. Count on www.thecourier.com to bring you the news as it happens.