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November 2008 |
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By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
A former Wapakoneta law enforcement officer’s future is now in the hands of seven state Supreme Court justices.
Former Wapakoneta Police Chief Dave Harrison’s 6-year-old sex crime case reached the pinnacle in Ohio’s court system Wednesday, as justices heard arguments from Harrison’s attorney Dean Boland and state prosecutor Scott Longo.
Each party had 15 minutes to present their case to the justices. After both attorneys argued their cases, a single word in Harrison’s sentencing entry and a grilling delivered to Longo by justice Maureen O’Connor left Boland optimistic about his client’s future.
In June, 2003, Harrison plead guilty to a six-count bill of information after child pornography was found on his computer. After entering his plea, the man who served as police chief from 1988 to 2002 was sentenced to one year in jail.
Seven months after he completed his sentence, it was discovered by county prosecutors that Harrison should have been sentenced with an additional five years of mandatory post release control, or probation.
During a court hearing, Harrison was given the option to either be re-sentenced or withdraw his plea. Harrison chose the latter, taking things back to square one.
With the plea withdrawn, the state of Ohio slapped Harrison with a 23-count indictment which he was ultimately found guilty of and sentenced to six years in prison.
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
Wapakoneta Waterpark opens with large crowd
By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
Standing before a crowd waiting to enter the newest addition to recreational opportunities in the city, Wapakoneta Waterpark General Manager and City Recreation Director Jack Hayzlett uttered the words residents have been waiting more than a year to hear.
“We’re now going to open the water park,” Hayzlett proclaimed to the dozens of people who faced him. “Please come on in.”
With those words, a culmination of months of planning, fundraising and construction concluded. On Saturday afternoon, the $1.5 million Wapakoneta Waterpark on Hamilton Road was officially open and ready for business.
In a grand opening celebration that began at the park’s front entrance at noon Saturday, Hayzlett and several other officials who were involved in the water park’s design and completion gave brief statements thanking and praising all those who assisted in the project’s completion before opening the doors for the summer.
Along with Hayzlett, the speakers included Rachel Barber, Mayor Rodney Metz, Wapakoneta Waterpark Fundraising Committee Chair Dianna Epperly and Curtis Krakowski, who represented Brandstetter Carroll Zofcin, the water park design team.
Once Hayzlett finished his comments and the double doors swung wide, a stampede of children and adults rushed past the front desk and into the aquatic center. The children rushed off into the pool to test the new amenities while their parents staked their claim to one of the hundreds of white lawn chairs that line each of the two pools’ perimeter.
It took only minutes for a lengthy waiting line to snake its way from the 20-foot tall three-loop slide as people — young and old — demonstrated their aerial tricks off the 1- and 3-meter diving boards.
Dives, cannonballs and some clapping back and belly flops left some swimmers with rosy torsos.
After the water park had been opened for less than 30 minutes, smiles were abundant on the faces of the attendees. As he was making his way from the 8-lane 25-meter pool, 12-year-old Jonathon Eaton said he was glad to have such a facility in his hometown and added he wished the project had began earlier.
“If they had started sooner, we wouldn’t have had to drive to St. Marys every day,” Jonathon said. “But this place is a lot of fun. I’ll be here every day this summer.”
The $1.3 million complex, paid through the sell of Telephone Service Co. (TSC) stock held by the Hauss-Helms Foundation to Hanson Communications and to be used for recreational programs, started with a need for lounge chairs and a taller slide, Epperly said at the ceremony.
She left a meeting more than six months ago needing $60,000 — she learned the next morning when local businessman and Councilor-at-large Steve Walter donated $2,000 that the amount sought grew.
Epperly was asked to raise $200,000 to help with renovations to the bathhouse and concession stand as well as provide equipment for the lifeguards.
Area residents responded. Starting with Walter’s donation and a $52,000 donation from G.A. Wintzer & Son executives Gus and Carl Wintzer and the company’s employees and ending with a $10,000 challenge from TSC executives, Epperly declared Saturday that $233,000 was donated in cash with an additional pledged $15,000 which will roll in during the coming months and years.
Some of the money that is yet to flow through will go toward the next addition to the park — a $50,000 speed slide which will run off the same platform as the loop slide, Hayzlett said.
Hayzlett said a grant has been applied for the funding, but if it does not come through, he is confident that with the Fundraising Committee’s abilities, the slide will be standing ready by next summer.
The new facility is built on the same grounds as the original Wapakoneta Municipal Pool, which Barber said opened on June 7, 1937. The bathhouse from the 1937 pool remains but the standard rectangular 4-foot deep pool became outdated as the decades passed.
As Angie Watt watched her 9-year-old daughter, Madison, jump off the 1-meter diving board, she said the old pool had become such a drag that her family switched allegiance to the St. Marys pool last year.
“No one enjoyed it anymore,” Watt said. “So we went to St. Marys and they fell in love with that pool.”
But Watt’s loyalty to St. Marys only lasted a year.
“We’re here for good,” Watt said. “This is just fantastic to have something like this in town.” |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
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