S.B. 5 fight, economic woes topped area stories last year

Region given hope with Chrysler’s plans to expand

Toledo Mayor Mike Bell, Tina Yuan, and Wu King Hung unveil a symbolic rock at the Marina District. Dashing Pacific, a group of Chinese investors, purchased 69 acres at the east side Marina District in July and The Docks restaurant complex, also in East Toledo, in march.

THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
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Senate Bill 5 opponents billed their cause as a fight for the middle class.

For area residents, 2011 was marked by a long, thorny battle between union-backed Democrats and Ohio Republicans over Senate Bill 5, and the year was bookended with hopeful news that Toledo’s stagnant economy would be buoyed by Chrysler Group LLC’s plan to add 1,100 jobs.

The economy was, for another year, constant bad news. It sometimes offered glimmers of hope for a sustained rebound, but the reality of Toledo’s troubles were clear again when the Brookings Institution just last month said the concentration of impoverished people living in its poorest neighborhoods grew by more than 15 percent over the past decade — making the city No. 1 nationwide on that unenviable list.

Deb Ortiz-Flores, executive director of Lucas County Job and Family Services, said that story resonated widely.

“It is not just a pocket of our community having this problem,” she said. “It really has reached into neighborhoods it was never in before.”

Area tragedies

There was also tragedy in 2011.

Alan Atwater, who lived outside the small, bucolic Ottawa County town of Oak Harbor, shot and killed his wife and three young children before calling 911 to report the horror and then turned a gun on himself. In the end, five bodies were found in the Salem Township home — the killer, his wife, Dawn, 30, and their three children, Ashley, 4, Isaac, 2, and Brady, 1.

Closer to Toledo, Springfield Township residents were shocked early in the year by the brutal asphyxiation deaths of Johnny Clarke, 21, and Lisa Straub, 20, in the Long­acre Lane home of Miss Straub’s parents. Samuel Todd Williams, 24, of 1626 Kelsey Ave. and Cameo Pettaway, 22, of 133 Essex Dr. could face the death penalty if convicted.

Along with heartache, there was some measure of justice for the family of Eileen Adams, who disappeared just before Christmas, 1967. After 44 years, Robert Bowman, 75, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the decades-old slaying of the Sylvania Township teenager. His conviction and sentence concluded the oldest cold case solved in Toledo history, and authorities said it was among the oldest cases solved with DNA evidence in the state of Ohio.

After reviewing the case files and re-examining the evidence, investigators discovered DNA evidence on Miss Adams’ clothing. A partial DNA profile taken from a semen stain found in Miss Adams’ underwear linked Bowman to the crime. His first trial during the summer ended in a hung jury and the second, three-week trial in October ended in nine women and three men finding Bowman guilty.

Toledo Mayor Mike Bell, Tina Yuan, and Wu King Hung unveil a symbolic rock at the Marina District. Dashing Pacific, a group of Chinese investors, purchased 69 acres at the east side Marina District in July and The Docks restaurant complex, also in East Toledo, in march.

Map controversy

Other top news stories included the congressional redistricting of Toledo and the ultimate compromise congressional map to end a bitter, months-long partisan feud.

Under the compromise, portions of Toledo and eastern Lucas County that went to the largely rural 4th District now held by U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Urbana) under a law passed in September were restored to the 9th District held by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo). Six western city wards are to remain part of the otherwise rural and suburban 5th District held by U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green).

The final map still sets up a March primary election showdown between two veteran Democrats — Miss Kaptur of Toledo, and Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland — in the revised 9th District that runs along the Lake Erie shore between the two cities. In the race for the Republican nomination is Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. He announced his candidacy in Toledo this year and promises to best his Democratic rival.

After a lengthy fight, the Seneca County courthouse is sent to become the first Ohio courthouse to be razed after being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The political front

Mike Beazley, an astute political observer who is Oregon city administrator, identified Senate Bill 5 and the redistricting as the two big political stories that captured the public attention in 2011.

Senate Bill 5, a law restricting collective-bargaining rights, was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in a referendum called Issue 2 on the November ballot.

“Redistricting was a big change for us,” Mr. Beazley said. “The blow was softened by the most recent compromise. Toledo will be in a battle with Cleveland to see who will have a local representative in Congress and that will be a challenge.”

It was a rocky year again for the Lucas County Board of Elections.

Elections Director Ben Roberts, a Republican, resigned in December after just five months on the job for what he called an inability to change the “caustic environment” of that office. That same day, Election Manager Meghan Gallagher, also a Republican, called Toledo police to the elections office to report that Democrat Daniel DeAngelis, the deputy director, had gained access to Mr. Roberts’ office and removed his computer. Police responded and took an incident report but categorized it as a dispute rather than a burglary.

In October, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted cut the fractious board of elections loose from the administration oversight that started in March in the wake of a disputed Lucas County commissioner election.

Gov. John Kasich and Chrysler’s Sergio Marchionne announce an expansion.

Job prospects

The big Toledo jobs story in 2011 was the Chrysler Group announcement for expansion plans at its Toledo Assembly complex.

The Jeep complex, which makes Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Liberty as well as Dodge Nitro sport utility vehicles, is to receive $500 million to expand and retool one of its factories to make a Fiat-based replacement for its Liberty and to pave the way for the plant to make up to four more vehicles. In addition to the Chrysler investment, suppliers announced that they are interested in building on the company’s former Jeep Parkway factory complex, a 111-acre property owned by the port authority. That would create even more jobs.

“The significance of the announcement by Chrysler regarding hundreds of new jobs coming to Toledo reaches far beyond the jobs,” said Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority President Paul Toth. “It’s the opportunities behind the jobs that creates a multiplier effect for our region.”

Libbey High School was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September, but the Toledo Board of Education has said the building is too costly to maintain. The board accepted a bid to raze the structure.

In Toledo

2011 was a big year for Toledo Mayor Mike Bell, who led two trade missions to China.

The city in July closed a $3.8 million deal to sell 69-acres at the east side Marina District and in March a $2.15 million deal to sell The Docks restaurant complex along the Maumee River in East Toledo — both with Chinese investment firm Dashing Pacific Group Ltd. The company announced it would create a $200 million residential and commercial development and an “international village” at the former industrial property dubbed the Marina District.

Also in the city of Toledo, the Bell administration in 2011 suspended with pay four officials in the neighborhoods department. The move followed the start of an investigation into alleged bid-rigging, favoritism, and poor oversight in that department.

The fate of two historic buildings — Libbey High School in South Toledo and the Seneca County Courthouse in Tiffin — were sealed in 2011. Both are to be razed despite lengthy organized efforts to save the structures.

The Toledo Board of Education in November approved a bid of nearly $1 million by Evans Landscaping Inc. of Cincinnati to raze the shuttered high school on Western Avenue. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September, but board members have argued that the building was too costly to maintain.

Demolition was set to begin in late December but the bulk of work won’t start until mid-January.

32-year-old Renee and her newborn calf at the Toledo Zoo, June 7, 2011. The male African Elephant was born on June 3, 2011, at 11:28 pm.

And elsewhere

In Tiffin, a group of Seneca County residents sought to save their 1884 county courthouse, but ultimately dropped a last-ditch lawsuit designed to stop the demolition.

In a 2-1 vote in November, the Seneca County commissioners hired B&B Wrecking and Excavating of Cleveland to tear down the courthouse and clear the site for $373,000. A fence was erected around the courthouse Dec. 19, and the lawsuit was filed the same day. The plaintiffs had asked the state’s highest court to issue a temporary restraining order that would have immediately stopped demolition of the downtown landmark, but the court denied their motion in a 6-1 decision.

It will be the first county courthouse in Ohio to be torn down in four decades and the only one ever to be razed after being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Also in 2011, Sylvania attorney Erik Chappell and his two sons were injured in a Sept. 20 car bombing. He and his sons, Cole, 11, and Grant, 13, were hurt when the bomb went off while he was driving them to football practice on East Elm Street near I-75 in Monroe. There have been no arrests in the case.

The biggest news story actually born in 2011 was a 305-pound elephant named Lucas.

The elephant calf was born at the Toledo Zoo on June 3 to mother Renee. The animal weighed nearly 700 pounds by New Year’s Eve.