Famous Findlayians Updated

I can mark another pandemic project off my list. I have completely revamped and updated my Famous Findlayian page. I went through each entry and revised the text if needed – like if someone died since being listed – and added some new people from previous suggestions. The page is now inside my WordPress install so no more hand coding the page…. YAY!!!

I’m not really sure when I started this list. I know it was before 2010. The WayBack Machine has a page capture from February 2005! Wow! In fact I think that was when I still had a website on Geocities.

Why did I start it?

I’ve always been into history and I love learning about the history of my hometown. Then I knew of a few famous people had been from Findlay like Ben Rothlisberger, Tell Taylor, and Gavin Creel. Then one day I was searching through the Internet Movie Database and put in Findlay as a search term and one of the names that popped up was Mark Metcalf, the actor who played Doug Neidermeyer in the classic comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. Of course I was a bit disappointed to learn he had only been born in Findlay and didn’t grow up there.

I started doing more internet searches like in Wikipedia and search engines like Google.

The initial criteria to be included was you had to be born or live in Findlay or Hancock county. I also insisted that the claim had to be verified by an online method.

I wanted to include a photo of the person so if I couldn’t find one to use online, I still included the person but put their listing further down the page after the ones with photos.

The first version had 16 people. With the update today, the page now includes 57 total individuals (54 with photos), 6 Medal of Honor Winners, and 5 additional people who served in Congress over the years. The listing includes two sets of siblings and while there is a heavy number of sports people, many vocations are represented.

I got many suggestions over the years and many of those were added in this update and I have several people needing more information to verify. For example, someone suggested a current TV actor but I couldn’t actually verify that they were born or lived in Hancock county. The person’s family did but I couldn’t find any information where they or some media report said they were born or lived in the area. For another person I did add, I found a transcript of a podcast they were a guest on where they talked about living in the “small town” of Findlay. If you have a suggestion or a corrections, feel free to send it my way.

Further updates will include adding more people, including more women and people of color. I also want to create a database of all the info I have so it can help in what info I still need and I can do a print out of the list should there me a point where I lose my website.

So, check out my updated Famous Findlayian page:

Famous Findlayians and others from Hancock County Ohio

Opponents Of Park Levy Use False Premise

logo for Hancock Park District

Election day is March 15th and there will be a levy replacement request from the Hancock Park District. The millage will be the same as the levy that is expiring but the park district wants to benefit from increased property values since the original levy was passed eight years ago. You might wonder who could be opposed to a tax levy for parks. There are people against the levy and they are using a false premise to justify their opposition.

There have been a couple of letters-to-the-editor in my local paper here in Findlay that give an example of an argument that is false from the get go.

Continue reading “Opponents Of Park Levy Use False Premise”

Hancock County Commissioners Delay Payment To Play Political Game On Recovery House Plan

?
Hancock County Commissioner Mark D Gazarek

Somethings never seem to change in my hometown of Findlay, Ohio. The city and county is red-red Republican and irrational politics even seep into addiction recovery services. It caused the county commissioners to delay paying a contract so they could interfere in a local dust up over a recovery house location. They claimed the delay was not political but then explained why it was. Meanwhile people in real need of help get ignored.

Back in early January, there was an “uproar” when some Findlay citizens found out that the Hancock County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) bought a house in a “affluent” section of Findlay near an elementary school, a parochial school, and the Findlay Country Club.

Continue reading “Hancock County Commissioners Delay Payment To Play Political Game On Recovery House Plan”

Local GOP Candidates Forum Turns Into Bible Debate And Attack On Education

screencap of Ohio State Senator Cliff Hite and challenger Corey Shankleton explaining what other rights they would like to restrict in the 1st Senate District.
Ohio State Senator Cliff Hite and challenger Corey Shankleton explaining what other rights they would like to restrict in the 1st Senate District.

A news story concerning a Ohio state senate primary race for Republicans caught my eye the other day. I didn’t attend the luncheon hosted by the Hancock County (Ohio) GOP, but from the news reports it turned into a bible debate, conservative purity check, and an attack on public education.

The attack on education was kind of ironic because two of the candidates, current State Sen. Cliff Hite and Corey Shankleton, are former teachers. Of course Senator Hite got appointed to the Ohio Senate by promising to sell out his teaching colleagues by voting for SB 5 back in 2011. SB 5 attempted to take away public employee’s rights to collective bargaining. So, I wasn’t surprised at Hite jumping on the bash public education bandwagon.

Continue reading “Local GOP Candidates Forum Turns Into Bible Debate And Attack On Education”

Could Local Versions Of JobsOhio Be Coming To Your City?

images of the Hancock County Ohio commissioners
Hancock County (OH) commissioners (clockwise) Phillip A Riegle, Mark D Gazarek, & Brian J Robertson

It seems the now secretive work of economic development to hide giveaways to corporations who may or may not create any jobs in Ohio has arrived in Hancock County. On Tuesday, the county commissioners went into executive session to secretly discuss what they claimed was economic development issues. It seems the Ohio state legislature put in the recent budget law a section that allows county and city governments to close meetings to the public when it will be discussing economic development. How much do you want to bet that soon we will see county taxpayer supported slush funds for corporate giveaway like the state’s JobsOhio.

Continue reading “Could Local Versions Of JobsOhio Be Coming To Your City?”