President Bush spoke at the Renaissance Theatre in October.
Dave Polcyn/News Journal
Jamilla
Davis and her fellow flag corps members wave tiger-stripe flags at the
ribbon cutting of the new Mansfield Senior High School.
Dave Polcyn/News Journal
Emergency
room nurse Jo Ann Inscho gets a hug from Crestline Patrolman Jake
Rietschlin after her last shift at MedCentral/Crestline Hospital.
Daniel Melograna/News Journal
John Kerry stopped in north central Ohio and visited Arlin Field before a game in September.
Notable stories of 2004
While they
did not make the Top 10, the following 2004 stories got at least one
vote or were otherwise noted as locally significant:
Ashland
Rose "Kate" Roseborough was sentenced in October to life in prison
after being convicted of setting an April 7, 2003 fire that killed her
11-month-old twin daughters.
Brian Hackedorn, an off-duty Shelby police officer, lost his job and
was convicted of assault in June. Nicole Emmons, 22, an Ashland
University student, reported finding Hackedorn passed out in her yard
and said he assaulted her when she attempted to wake him up.
There will be a new look to the Ashland justice system in 2005 -- a
decidedly feminine look in this staunchly Republican county that
includes no Democratic office holders.
Voters
soundly defeated Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Runyan in the spring
primary. Juvenile Magistrate Deborah Woodward won in the fall election,
becoming the first female judge-elect in more than 30 years.
Ashland
County Prosecutor Bob DeSanto is retiring after 27 years in office.
DeSanto joined the office in 1977 and was elected prosecutor in 1984.
Chief Assistant Ramona Francesconi Rogers, a veteran criminal
prosecutor, easily won election as prosecutor. DeSanto's daughter,
Karen Kellogg, is moving to the Ashland office from her current
position as an assistant prosecutor in Richland County.
The move also will put women in the majority at the Ashland prosecutor's office, which has five attorneys.
Mansfield
In June, Plymouth bookkeeper Janet L. Jones was indicted on felony
charges accusing her of using the law license of Ashland attorney and
part-time Judge Eric J. Akers to bilk elderly estates of more than $1
million.
In March, former Mansfield police Lt. Charles Oswalt was released from
prison after almost 16 years behind bars for killing a Butler woman in
1987 and dumping her body in a rural creek. Authorities said his motive
was a paternity suit the woman had filed over a son she claimed was
fathered by Oswalt. In an interview with the News Journal, Oswalt
denied he had anything to do with the crime.
Voters passed a resolution turning ambulance transport over to the
Mansfield Fire Department. Previously, private ambulances were
responsible for transporting patients.
The juvenile and domestic courts split, leading to a new domestic court judgeship won in the November election by Bob Konstam.
Operation Snowdozer took 81 alleged drug dealers off the streets of
Mansfield, Florida, Texas and Mexico in what authorities called one of
the largest drug busts in north central Ohio history.
In a drive spearheaded by the News Journal, the community raised the
$30,000 necessary to open the city's swimming pools. Budget cuts had
forced the city to close two of Mansfield's four public swimming pools.
The city later announced it was paying $27 a month per employee on gym
memberships it hoped would reduce health-care costs.
North Central Ohio
A winter storm dumped 16 inches of snow on the area three days before
Christmas. Driving was treacherous and residents spent part of the
holiday weekend shoveling their driveways and sidewalks. In Bellville,
many residents were without power for several days.
It was a year dominated by politics. Headlines in
2004 focused on the politics of war, visits to Mansfield by
presidential contenders and a sex scandal that ended with a county
commissioner in prison.
But the war in Iraq was the biggest
story of the year. Here are the top 10 news stories of 2004 as voted on
by the editorial staff of the News Journal.
1) War in Iraq and Afghanistan
Two area families paid the ultimate price of war: The life of their son.
Spec. Allen "A.J." Vandayburg, 20,
died April 9 while fighting insurgents in Iraq. A 2001 graduate of
Mansfield Senior High, Vandayburg was awarded the Bronze Star with
Valor for exemplary performance during the battle, killing at least 12
insurgents and drawing the fire that cost him his life.
Michael C. O'Neill, a U.S. Army
Ranger and a classmate of Vandayburg, died in November when one of his
hand grenades accidentally exploded while he was preparing for a combat
mission at an air base in Afghanistan.
While reserve units from throughout
the area continued to serve admirably, one of the most memorable war
stories of 2004 was the action by a crew from the 179th Airlift Wing to
save a C-130 cargo plane carrying about five dozen soldiers.
The crew was transporting the
soldiers on the first leg of their journey from Iraq back to the United
States for two weeks of rest and relaxation.
But the plane's landing gear
malfunctioned after taking off from the air base in Iraq. The crew
calmly worked through the problem, aided by folks on the ground, and
safely landed the plane.
2) President Bush, John Kerry, visit Mansfield
Democratic presidential candidate
John Kerry was the first to visit Mansfield during a whirlwind tour in
September. Kerry's bus stopped in Bellville before greeting football
fans at Arlin Field and then touring the General Motors plant in
Ontario.
President George W. Bush managed to
get a week's worth of headlines out of an hour visit to the Renaissance
Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 2. Word leaked of his visit the previous
Sunday, giving the town six days to put on its best dress.
Bush spoke about the economy and met
privately backstage with the Vandayburg family, offering his
condolences for the loss of their son in Iraq.
3) Aiden Stein
The fate of a 4-month-old Mansfield
infant captured headlines across the state, even making national news
on CNN and FOX, as his case went to the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled
Thursday that he cannot be taken off life support.
Stein was rushed to
MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital on March 15, before being flown to Akron
Children's Hospital. Doctors diagnosed him as a victim of shaken-baby
syndrome. Left with just a functioning brain stem, doctors contend the
infant will remain in a permanent vegetative state for the rest of his
life with no hope of recovery.
The hospital had sought permission
to remove him from life support, a move parents Matt Stein and Arica
Heimlich fought. A criminal investigation into the cause of the baby's
injuries is pending and could become a murder investigation if he dies.
Now 14 months old, Aiden has spent more than two-thirds of his short life in the pediatric intensive care unit.
4) County commissioner resigns, jailed
Arguably the biggest shock of the
year came on Jan. 21 when Richland County Commissioner Dave Swartz, 66,
abruptly resigned after appearing in Shelby Municipal Court on a sex
charge.
"Absolutely stunning" was the headline detailing the resignation amid the sex allegations.
Swartz eventually pleaded guilty on
charges of sexual battery and gross sexual imposition against two
adolescent girls from 1996 to 2004. He was sentenced to eight years in
prison and currently is at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.
5) Galion finances
It didn't take long for Galionites to
discover they had a problem when city Finance Director Bill Bauer
apparently shot himself in the head at a ballpark concession stand on
March 26.
Bauer survived but Galion soon found itself neck deep in debt as state and federal investigators descended on the community.
The deficit became official at $2.5
million. In August, the state put the city in fiscal emergency. This
year, the city has slashed about 30 employees, or 25 percent of its
workforce.
6) Overdose deaths
With 24 fatal drug overdoses in an
18-month period, the News Journal set out to bring the problem to light
through the eight-day series "Hidden Deaths: A Fatal Fight with Drugs."
Many loved ones of those who died
agreed to help tell the story, sharing their memories and momentos of
those who paid the ultimate price for recreational drug use.
The community response was largely
positive. Everyone knows someone who has struggled with the issue. The
deaths continued as the series was written and they continue today.
But the problem has been pulled into
the light and authorities are optimistic that a cooperative effort can
improve the situation for area residents struggling with addiction.
7) NASCAR comes to Mansfield
So did the rain. And a derailed
train. And just about anything else to throw a wrench into the first
NASCAR event in Ohio since 1954.
About the only thing that went as planned was the transporter parade and Friday practice.
Saturday qualifying, for which
tickets had been sold and given away, was rained out. Diehard fans sat
wrapped in plastic raincoats, watching the persistent rain fall hour
after hour.
All that water turned the parking
area for Sunday's race into one of the world's largest mud puddles. A
train derailment downtown further stalled traffic. Some reported the
short drive from U.S. 30 to Mansfield Motorsports Speedway took several
hours.
Others were diverted to the airport.
Some who took Ohio 545 were diverted onto Piper Road toward Ohio 13,
which was logjammed with irritated race fans.
The threat of rain continued to hang
over the race on Sunday. The weekend of weather was so abysmal that a
ray of sunshine shortly after the start of the race nearly got a
standing ovation.
But NASCAR announced the trucks will
return on May 15. The inaugural UAW-GM Ohio 250 sold out to 21,000 race
fans who watched a good race that included a series record number of
caution laps before Jack Sprague took the checkered flag.
Another 5,000 seats will be installed for the May race, for which tickets are still available.
Hopefully sunshine will be, too.
8) New Mansfield Senior High opens
It was a long road -- about 15 years -- getting the $53 million Mansfield Senior High School built.
"It was never an issue that we didn't
need a new high school," Principal Ron Morvai said in August. "Finding
the right location was the key."
Morvai, who retired this summer as
superintendent after 38 years in the district to take over as principal
of the new high school for a year, was on hand on Sept. 7 when the bell
rang for the start of school, the first day at the sprawling building
at 124 N. Linden Road.
Looking back, there was no argument
among school and community leaders that a new Mansfield Senior High
School was needed, even as early as 1989 when the high school was
overcrowded. It also lacked the capability to handle the technology
that developed since the building opened in 1927.
Consolidation of the former Malabar
High School with Senior High in 1989 led administrators to determine
that a new high school was needed to accommodate all four grades.
With consolidation, ninth-graders were sent to the Cline Avenue building; students in grades 10 through 12 went to Senior High.
Mansfield City Schools won voter approval Nov. 2, 1999, to build the new $53 million high school.
Voters approved Issue 9, which
generated $17.9 million in local money and triggered another $29
million from the state for construction of the new school. Voters also
said yes to Issue 10, which raised $6.9 million to pay for an
auditorium, vocational classrooms and other items the state did not
finance.
9) Local economy
The local economy continued to take a
beating in 2004. It was as if the October 2003 announcement that Crane
plumbing was putting 230 out of work by closing its Ontario plant was
just a harbinger of things to come.
In the spring, a national study
showed the Mansfield Metropolitan Statistical Area had a job-loss rate
of 7.6 percent, making it the 15th hardest-hit area in the country by
percentage.
The actual number of lost jobs is 5,200 in the last three years, with manufacturing losing the most.
In August, the Pump Division of
Pentair Inc. announced it was consolidating its Hydromatic Pump
facility with Myers Pump in Ashland.
In October, Hedstrom Corp. in
Ashland filed bankruptcy and abruptly closed its doors, leaving more
than 70 out of work at the plant, which operated in Ashland since
before World War II.
Burner Systems International announced it was closing its Beer Road facility, leaving about 300 workers to search for new jobs.
On the positive side of the ledger, a
group of Ashland-area investors secured financing to purchase Hedstrom
assets to form a new local division called Ball, Bounce and Sport Inc.
and plans to employ between 75 and 100.
WIL Research Laboratories Inc. also changed hands and announced a $20 million expansion that could add 162 jobs.
10) Crestline Hospital closes
MedCentral Health Systems closed its
Crestline hospital in September, saying it had lost $7.5 million at the
facility since 1997.
Blackhawk Healthcare of Austin,
Texas, with has signed a letter of intent with the city, hopes to
reopen the 25-bed hospital by May.
NASCAR trucks, the new Mansfield Senior High School, Dave Swartz's conviction and the closing of MedCentral/
Crestline Hospital were among the top stories of 2004.
