Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

University, local youths together study Grand Lake

By Nancy Allen
Submitted Photo

Blake Schmitt, Melissa Kahlig and Taylor Guggenbiller, seniors in the Tri Star horticulture program in Coldwater, tend to wetland plants in the greenhouse. The students will be working with the University of Findlay to study the plants and Grand Lake water quality issues.

GRAND LAKE - The University of Findlay's biology department received a $4,978 Ohio EPA mini grant to fund educational experience related to Grand Lake.
University officials will learn alongside high school students studying floating wetland plants at the Tri Star Career Compact greenhouse in Coldwater, while younger students will participate in water quality programs.
"What we envision working with Findlay is being able to share testing equipment," Tri Star horticulture instructor Denny Riethman said. "Ideally, we'd like to borrow plant tissue kits that determine the amount of nutrients the plants uptake."
The floating wetland plants, secured in interconnected mats, have been placed in the lake for two years to help lower levels of phosphorous, the main nutrient feeding toxic algae blooms. The plants are removed before the weather turns cold and adopted by different groups that care for them over the winter.
Tri Star students will test the effect of different types of water quality on the plants' growth and how well they absorb nutrients. This is the second year students have studied the plants. Students this year will share their findings with the university.
The grant will pay for plant material, water sampling supplies, lab equipment and transportation for Water Quality Days around the lake, the EPA says. The project will bring together Findlay undergraduate students with students from Mercer, Auglaize and Hancock counties. The college students are studying ecology, botany, microbiology and environmental sampling and statistics.
University staff and students visited the lake Nov. 1 to gather baseline water quality data and meet Riethman and his students, said Matt Hoostall, University of Findlay biology instructor. The university applied for the grant at the suggestion of one of its employees whose parents live in Celina, he said.
Hoostall said university staff and students also will interact with elementary students at water quality field days arranged by Walker. Youths will identify native and invasive plants, remove invasive plants, replant the lake's shoreline with native plant species and monitor bacteria and algal counts.
Hoostall said he believes local youths and university officials will learn from each other during the experience.
Riethman said he hopes the experience will expose students to different career paths.
"Studying the environment is something there is going to continue to be many opportunities in," Riethman said. "Just look at Grand Lake and other lakes around Ohio ... those lakes are having problems and they need people to test them and find out how we can use natural plants to clean up the mess we have."
The 13,500-acre Grand Lake has suffered toxic algae blooms the last two summers resulting in varying degrees of state-issued water quality advisories. The blooms devastated tourism and hurt lake-related businesses.
Ten projects throughout Ohio received environmental education mini grants totaling $42,813. The Ohio Environmental Education Fund distributes about $1 million each year for environmental education projects for students in kindergarten through the college level, the general public and the regulated community. General grants are awarded for projects that last up to 30 months and cost up to $50,000. Mini-grants are awarded for projects that last up to 12 months and cost between $500 and $5,000.
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Today is the last day
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A Lewisville man, who struck and critically injured an emergency response volunteer, faces additional charges in the wake of a second grand jury indictment.
CELINA - A local agency that provides transportation to the needy recently was awarded more than $225,000 in grant funding.
Mercer County Commissio
WAPAKONETA - Auglaize County Commissioners announced this week they hired a Cridersville-area man for county administrator after two other candidates turned down the job.
ST. MARYS - A 17-year-old St. Marys boy remained in stable condition this morning at a Lima hospital after losing control of a car Saturday afternoon on Greenville Road.
ROCKFORD - Chilly shooting and inopportune turnovers hampered Parkway on Tuesday night as the Panthers drop to 0-2 on the season following a 62-43 loss to Wayne Trace in nonconference action at Panther Gymnasium. It's the first win of the season in three tries for Wayne Trace.
MARIA STEIN - A year ago, Marion Local's Justin Rutschilling was primarily a junior varsity player who got his chances for varsity action on Friday nights when the Flyers were well in front of their opponents.
Compiled by Ryan Hines
The Celina swimming teams opened their season by sweeping Van Wert on Tuesday evening at the Celina YMCA.
Celina's girls coasted to a convincing 123-63 win while the Bulldogs' boys earned a 98-86 triumph over the Cougars.
The Celina boys' basketball team relied on depth and senior leadership a year ago to capture their first outright Western Buckeye League championship since 1998-99.
The Celina girls' basketball team regularly used 12 players each game a season ago, but graduation and some unexpected departures have the Bulldogs looking at a seven-girl rotation for this year.
COLDWATER - As has been the case the past several seasons, the boys' basketball season at Coldwater is currently on standby.
The success of the foo
COLDWATER - The return of five seniors that played significant time last season coupled with some experienced underclassmen, Coldwater's girls basketball coach Nick Fisher is very excited about the season.
FORT RECOVERY - After missing the district tournament for the first time since 2007, the Fort Recovery boys' basketball team will have a young but experienced group coming back from last year's 13-9 campaign.
FORT RECOVERY - After a spectacular run to the state tournament last season, the Fort Recovery Indians' girls basketball team will look to keep up their winning ways this year.
MARIA STEIN - The Marion Local Flyers will begin the boys' basketball season with a new coach but at least initially, he'll be dealing with an old issue.
MARIA STEIN - The Marion Local Flyers return a solid core of experience from last year's 13-9 squad and Treva Fortkamp has high hopes for a strong season in her 14th campaign as head coach.
MINSTER - For the second season, Minster's head basketball coach Mike Lee faces the bittersweet task of pushing the start of any full-squad basketball practice back a couple of weeks because of the success of the Wildcats' football team.
MINSTER - With the graduation of six talented seniors, including a pair of four-year starters, the only thing certain in the Minster girls' basketball program this year is that there will be a lot of fresh faces as they look to defend their Midwest Athletic Conference championship.
NEW BREMEN - The New Bremen Cardinals' boys basketball team will be under new management this season as Adam Daugherty was hired in May to became the 19th head coach in school history.
NEW BREMEN - It has been a struggle for New Bremen's girls basketball program since setting the school record for wins in the 2008-09 season.
Since winning 21 games and capturing the Midwest Athletic Conference championship, the Cardinals have amassed a record of 10-31 the last two years.
NEW KNOXVILLE - Youth will be served on the New Knoxville boys' basketball team this season.
Kort Fledderjohann's squad has just two seniors coming back from last year's 18-4 Midwest Athletic Conference championship season. The Rangers' varsity roster includes three sophomores and two freshmen.
NEW KNOXVILLE - Veteran New Knoxville girls' basketball coach Tim Hegemier will have a strong experienced core of players back for an attempt to repeat last year's 17-6 season that ended in the district finals.
ROCKFORD - It was a struggle last season for Parkway's boys basketball team and the Panthers are looking for Will Snyder to turn around a program that went winless in the Midwest Athletic Conference for the first time in nine years.
ROCKFORD - The Parkway girls' basketball team struggled through a 3-18 campaign a year ago, but head coach Jeff Kallas is hoping that an experienced roster will guide the Panthers to better results this season.
ST. HENRY - Eric Rosenbeck and the St. Henry boys' basketball team is expecting a successful 2011-12 season with the return of four starters from last year's team that finished the season 11-10.
ST. HENRY - The St. Henry girls' basketball took their share of lumps before finishing the year 8-14 overall and 3-5 in the Midwest Athletic Conference.
Dan Hegemier has taken a one-win St. Marys' boys basketball program to 10 wins in two years and the significant improvements should continue for the Roughriders this season.
The St. Marys girls' basketball team scored 1,057 points en route to a share of the Western Buckeye League championship a year ago.
Only 39 of thos