ADA — The Ada Village Council Meeting Tuesday featured, among other things, excited talk about Sports Illustrated Magazine’s just published feature on the Wilson Football Factory in the village.
Titled, The Super Bowl is a Showcase for Ada, Ohio, the Town Where Footballs are Born,
Village Councilmember Bob Simmons explained that it was an “excellent”
article about the history and workings of the Wilson Factory.
A
couple excerpts: Every football made by Wilson, the official provider
for the NFL and NCAA, is produced at the plant in this small town in
northwest Ohio. The football trade is what sets Ada apart from Alger and
Dunkirk and McGuffey, and other towns in Hardin County, marked by miles
of corn and soybean fields. Wilson pride is evident all over town. One
of Ada’s two water towers reads MADE IN ADA and is painted with the
Wilson logo and NFL shield.
The full story can be found at www.si.com, or, well, at a news stand. (Remember those?)
Informal mayoral (snow) tour
Moving
‘downfield’ from footballs to snow removal, Mayor Dave Retterer said
that after the heavy snowfall a couple weeks back, he “…drove every
street in Ada (proper).”
He said his intention was to, first-hand, observe the affectiveness of the snow plowing.
“What our guys (village snow removing crew) did was pretty remarkable,” said Retterer.
The mayor added it took him a good three hours to drive all the streets.
“Did you go down the alleys too?” Councilmember Terry Keiser joked.
Village
Administrator Jamie Hall noted, as an addendum, that there had been
three “minor accidents” during the snow plowing and those claims had
been turned over to the village insurer.
Village administrator report
Hall
also said, during his report, that bids for work on the renovation of
the Ada Municipal Building will open on March 6. There is also a plan in
the works to redo pavement around 65 manholes (personholes?) in streets
around Ada, to make them more flush with the road contours. And Hall
said that some 11 trees are slated for removal around the village. (Ada
is a Tree City USA village.)
More Ada banners?
The
Council also heard a report from Hardin County Commissioner Roger
Crowe. He has been spearheading a “Banner Project” in Kenton, with each
banner (attached to poles throughout town) dedicated to various area
military veterans.
He explained after the meeting that some 225
banners have been sponsored in Kenton alone, and he’s now expanding the
project throughout the county. He was at the council meeting floating
the idea for the village of Ada.
This could be a “lifesaver”
The
Council also heard a presentation from Dick Pees on the relatively new
“Lifesavers Project,” through the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department.
Pees is the project coordinator and a member of VIPS (Volunteers In Police Service).
He
said the crux of the program is to identify people with, say,
Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and such, who are at risk to “wander off.”
Pees
said the Sheriff’s Department has trained some 12 people, so far, in
protocol around setting up a safety net for these people.
This
entails identifying those in need, working with their caregivers,
fitting tracking devices to, say, an ankle or wrist, regularly visiting
to change batteries, etc.
If a person does wander off, said Pees,
caregivers, in turn, notify the Sheriff’s Department, program volunteers
are dispatched, and tracking devices are activated.
Similar
programs are in various counties all over the country. And Pees added
that if a caregiver wants to enroll in the program, they can contact
Hardin County Sheriff’s Department.