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The events of 2025 will be discussed - even debated - for decades. Tax issues, business closings and bird flu tested the strength of the area economy. Tragedy tested the human heart. Even the country's sacred rule of law was tested.
Perhaps one event symbolized the area's resilience. No sooner was a beloved church gutted by fire, than a community rallied together, eager to see what healing rises from the ashes.
St. John the Baptist Church, one of the area's oldest houses of worship, was hollowed out by an intense inferno on May 29. Parish leaders have vowed to either repair the church or build anew.
Multiple fire departments on May 29 descended on St. John the Baptist Church, a beloved sanctuary in Maria Stein where worship, weddings, baptisms and funeral Masses have taken place for well over a century.
In a show of solidarity with the people of the Marion Catholic Community left heartbroken following the fire at St. John the Baptist Church, Archbishop Robert G. Casey of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati celebrated Mass the next day at Precious Blood Church in Chickasaw.
The massive blaze caused the roof to collapse in on the church and eventually sent its spire crashing down. However, many sacred items were later recovered from the church in the fire's aftermath, including the holy tabernacle containing the blessed sacrament.
While parts of the church remain stable, a significant portion of the walls have been weakened due to intense heat and water shock, showing signs of severe damage to bricks and mortar joints, according to the Rev. Ken Schnipke.
Furthermore, the bell tower sustained significant damage due to "a chimney effect" that accelerated the burn, Schnipke said. The wooden structure above the bell platform was completely destroyed. Nearly half of the bell tower would need to be disassembled from the top down and rebuilt.
A building committee, Schnipke noted, continues a detailed, line-by-line review of the insurance claim. There are over 200 line item estimates for the church building and over 200 line items for contents.
With feedback from parishioners, a decision will eventually be made on whether to repair the church or build anew.
Architect selection is underway, and once finalized, parish officials will explore layout, function and worship needs, Schnipke said.
"This isn't just a technical process - it's foundational to our future," Schnipke said during a question and answer session in November. "Every decision about design, cost, insurance and liturgical function begins with structural clarity. That's why the Building Committee and parish leadership are proceeding with care and intention."
Millions of chickens and other commercial fowl were destroyed, victims of a nationwide outbreak of avian influenza. This area was Ground Zero.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), known as bird flu or by its virus name of H5N1, decimated the Grand Lake region's poultry farms between January and April of this year, with operations in Darke and Mercer counties most directly affected.
From January to April, there were 47 HPAI detections in Mercer, 22 in Darke, two in Auglaize and one each in Van Wert, Portage and Stark counties, for a state total of 74 in Ohio. The outbreaks affected 14,961,578 commercial birds.
Another 11 detections occurred in nearby Jay County, Indiana.
A Mercer County farm worker was infected in February with Ohio's first probable human case of HPAI.
The unidentified man was in contact with dead commercial poultry that were infected with the virus.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture does not disclose the locations of active HPAI cases. All affected birds were destroyed.
The last commercial detection was confirmed at a commercial operation on April 14 in Darke County. It affected 293,327 commercial layers.
Nationwide, over 175 million birds and 1,075 dairy herds have been affected by the current strain of HPAI since it began in February 2022, according to a report from MarketIntel, a blog published by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Detections of HPAI in both poultry and dairy cattle slowed over the summer months; however, they have started to pick up steam again in nearby Indiana, which has had 14 commercial detections in the last 30 days.
Ag educators Caden Buschur and Ryan McMichael from the Ohio State Extension offices in Darke and Mercer counties are working on a report assessing the economic impact that the 2025 bird flu outbreak had on the Grand Lake area. It is in progress and has not yet been released.
The southwest corner of a two-story building collapsed July 31 in downtown St. Marys, leaving one dead and another injured.
A 41-year-old St. Marys man was killed and another man was injured on the morning of July 31 when the southwest corner of a 6,000-square-foot, two-story storefront building collapsed in downtown St. Marys.
Christopher R. Brown and Kevin Sharp, 56, St. Marys, were set to survey the property at 305 E. Spring St. at around 10:30 a.m. July 31 in preparation for an eventual structural remodeling, but before they even got all the way inside of it, property owner Todd Klosterman said, the men heard a noise coming from the building and quickly scattered.
Sharp ran one way, managing to escape potentially life-threatening injuries while Brown ran the other and was quickly buried under the rubble of the property's southwest corner.
After several hours of search and rescue, Brown was found deceased under the rubble by first responders. The building, one of the oldest in town, was condemned and demolished that night.
Klosterman did not secure any permits prior to the planned survey, according to Rob England, the chief building official at the Miami County Department of Development, which has jurisdiction over St. Marys.
"Typically, local fire departments do annual inspections for general life and fire safety items and will notify our office if any structural repair work is being conducted so we can verify a permit has been issued. In this instance, the fire inspector may have thought the work was just typical maintenance type repairs," he previously told the newspaper.
As a result of a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation, citations for three "serious" violations were initially issued to Pro Fit HVAC LLC, Klosterman's company, on Nov. 13, totaling $41,706 in proposed penalties. However, the investigation is ongoing and a final order hasn't been issued.
State budget issues, calls for property tax reform and local school funding concerns collided at local school board meeting in 2025, leading to debates about legislative priorities, charges of misleading language, and numerous board meetings marked by warnings about possible financial shortfalls.
The warning shots were sounded in the spring, when some school leaders claimed the Legislature's changes to the Fair School Funding Plan would sharply reduce their schools' state funding in years to come. In addition, a series of property tax reform measures included in the Republican-driven House Bill 96 - the state's biennium budget - changed the way school districts could raise money through levies and made it harder for them to carry over money year-to-year.
By June, most area school board members and administrators were holding their breaths to see what the state's final biennium budget proposal would mean in terms of funding cuts and tax revenue changes. Chief among their concerns was House Bill 335, otherwise known as "The Property Tax Relief NOW Act," which would cause significant changes to how political subdivisions generate and retain tax revenue.
"I think everything they've proposed has been a cut (in funding) so far. They've talked about doing away with replacement levies, renewal levies. They talked about getting rid of the Fair School Funding Plan," Coldwater treasurer Jenn McCoy said at a June meeting. "And now, there's a new one, House Bill 335, which would be detrimental to schools, to townships, to the county."
On Oct. 13, administrators at school board meetings for Marion Local, St. Henry, Celina and Fort Recovery all warned of possible financial hardships due to state funding cuts and proposed property tax changes.
If approved, House Bill 129 would "take our 5.8-mill emergency levy and wipe it out," Marion Local treasurer Ryan Goldschmidt said. He said the board would have to make a decision in 2027 on either renewing the levy, if the legislation failed to gain approval, or look for other ways to generate the funds.
"It's important that we fight this. I don't think people understand what is going to happen," Goldschmidt said.
Ultimately, Gov. Mike DeWine signed five bills last week, including HB 129 and HB 335, that merged the proposals of his working group on property tax reform with many of the original legislative reforms.
Three counties inundated with reports of drones operating over farmlands asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture in September to launch a study to identify and examine potential threats posed by the unmanned aerial systems to livestock facilities in west central Ohio and east central Indiana.
"While drones have legitimate applications in agriculture, unauthorized or unregulated flights present potential threats to animal health, farm biosecurity, producer privacy, and facility security," the Mercer County Commissioners said in a letter to Ohio rural development director Charles Tassell.
Local authorities are still at a loss to explain why drones purportedly as large as a small car were flying in the night sky over Mercer County in January, or who was operating them, but continue to take the matter seriously.
Reports of drones began flowing into the Mercer County Sheriff's Office on Jan. 24 before reaching a zenith a few days later and then slowing to a trickle. The office had dispatched deputies to the locations of the sightings, compiled reports and forwarded them on to the Federal Aviation Administration.
There were also numerous reports of drone sightings reported throughout Darke County around the same time, per a news release from Sheriff Mark Whittaker.
Mercer County Sheriff Doug Timmerman in September said his office was still fielding reports. He said he has yet to be given answers about the origins or purposes of the drones.
A pair of state lawmakers in August penned a letter urging President Donald Trump to consider designating Ohio as one of the first states to receive federal funding for drone protection via his Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty executive order.
In late May, State Rep. Angie King, R-Celina, introduced legislation to encourage the U.S. Congress to pass a bill that would allow homeowners to use a shotgun to "lawfully use a legally obtained shotgun to disable a drone operating within 200 feet above their property."
The legislation, she said, was crafted in response to multiple sightings of large drones flying near various structures in her district earlier this year.
"The growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has led to serious concerns over privacy, property rights, and public safety, particularly when drones operate at low altitudes over residential and agricultural areas," King said in a statement. "In my own district, we've already seen incidents where drones have caused alarm among property owners, threatened livestock and crops, and raised significant cybersecurity and surveillance concerns due to foreign-manufactured components."
Two familiar fast-food restaurants closed their doors in Celina in 2025.
The Wendy's restaurant in Celina unexpectedly closed on the first weekend in June, providing a marquee moment to a year in which the Grand Lake region lost several notable food and drink retailers but gained a series of others.
A long-standing fixture on East Market Street, the red Wendy's sign, topped by the iconic, pigtails-framed face of the namesake of the Ohio-based burger chain, featured the message: "Thank you Celina, please visit our Wapak location."
Just as abruptly, Celina's longtime Burger King at 203 E. Market St. shut its doors for good at the end of September. A sign on the door cited only "unforeseen circumstances" and advised customers to visit one of the neighboring Burger King restaurants.
Suspected, but unconfirmed, factors in both closings included location, staffing difficulties, corporate priorities and a changing economy. Calling the two burger chain closings in one year "disheartening," Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel said multiple factors might have played a part, including staffing.
The year was book-ended by the finales of the upscale James Watson House in downtown Celina, which served its last filet at the end of 2024, and local favorite Casa Rodriguez, the beloved family-owned restaurant on Logan Street that had served up authentic Mexican food for over four decades. Citing a "changing economic environment," Casa filled its last crock pot this week. In St. Marys, the Dairy Queen on Celina Road closed in the spring, though the business' Facebook page indicates a new building near Kroger will soon be the site of a DQ Grill & Chill.
Restaurateurs Mandi Bruce and Jacob Poeppelman quickly filled the space left by The James Watson House with the 202 Tavern, which brought a fresh, unique menu to downtown Celina beginning Jan. 29. In the end, 2025 brought more feast than famine to the Grand Lake dining scene, with new openings that included Daylight Donuts and Marco's Pizzeria in Celina, Busch's SmokeHouse in Mendon, Creekside Carryout in Coldwater, The Goods in Minster and Polanco Mexican Kitchen in Fort Recovery.
Still to come, according to plans reported in the fall, are a Wawa in Celina and a Duchess in St. Marys - along with what is likely to be a new Wendy's in St. Marys.
A 22-year-old Celina man, Moses Alik, carrying a knife was shot and killed by a Mercer Co. sheriff's deputy. Attempts to stop him with tasers failed.
A Mercer County grand jury declined to hand down any indictments in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Moses Alik of Celina by sheriff's deputy Spencer Heinl on Dec. 31, 2024.
Special prosecutor Eva Yarger presented the results of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's probe into the shooting death of Alik to the grand jury on Sept. 18.
Mercer County Prosecutor Erin Minor had turned BCI's completed report over to Yarger, the prosecutor in Van Wert County, to avoid the perception of impropriety, as Minor's office maintains close ties to local law enforcement.
The shooting incident unfolded in the early morning hours of Dec. 31 when a call came in to the Celina Police Department about a man with a knife. Heinl, who was in Celina at the time, went to back up Celina police officers at Docksiders Marathon at 3:03 a.m.
When confronted by officers, the suspect, identified as Alik, reportedly brandished a knife.
A Celina police officer deployed a taser but it did not disable Alik. Alik then raised the knife above his head and "charged at Deputy Heinl," according to a Mercer County Sheriff's Office news release.
Heinl discharged his firearm, striking Alik, who fell to the ground. Officers immediately called for EMS and started life-saving measures. Alik was transported by Celina EMS to Mercer County Community Hospital in Coldwater where he was pronounced dead.
Body camera and cruiser camera footage provided by the sheriff's office shows three officers converging around Alik in the parking lot behind the gas station with their guns drawn. Officers can be heard repeatedly ordering Alik to get on the ground and drop the knife. At one point, Alik, holding the knife above his head, advances toward Heinl. The deputy appears to fire five rounds at Alik, who then falls to the ground.
Heinl, as a matter of routine, was temporarily placed on administrative leave as the investigation began.
Seven people perished on area roadways over a tragic Labor Day weekend, with a series of fatal crashes logged in Mercer, Auglaize, Darke and Allen counties.
Two Minster teenagers died early Labor Day morning in a single-vehicle accident on State Route 362 outside of Minster. Auglaize County sheriff's deputies along with state troopers responded to the scene at 3:44 a.m. , finding that a 2017 BMW 300 was traveling northbound on State Route 362, failed to negotiate a curve, drove off the right side of the roadway, and struck a tree, according to police reports. The BMW then caught fire and burned.
The crash took the lives of Carter J. Dirksen and Connor W. Collins, both 18 and 2025 graduates of Minster High School.
Prior to the Minster tragedy, 62-year-old Kathleen Forwerck, of Celina, died in a two-vehicle crash on Saturday evening in North Star. Sheriff's deputies from both Mercer and Darke counties responded to the intersection of State Route 705 and U.S. Route 127 in North Star at about 7:15 p.m., where they reported Forwerck had failed to yield at a stop sign.
Earlier Saturday, a 4-year-old girl died after a golf cart rolled over in Union City. Police investigation revealed that four juveniles were traveling on Converse Road, veered off the roadway and overturned. All four children were ejected. Sayla Wray succumbed to her injuries after being transported to Dayton Children's Hospital.
In addition, 45-year-old Timothy Betts, of Ada, was killed in a motorcycle-car accident on U.S. 127 near Carthagena; Stephen Snyder, 45, of Lima, died after crashing his motorcycle in Allen County; and 17-year-old Owen Conley, of Spencerville, perished after his vehicle traveled off the roadway on State Route 117 and collided with a tree.
In all, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported 23 deaths in 20 fatal crashes statewide over the four-day Labor Day weekend.
At 8:05 a.m. Sept. 16, the elderly subject of a massive search effort was found alive and conscious in a cornfield with the assistance of a drone.
Authorities located 89-year-old Roger Stachler awake and conscious in a cornfield about 200 yards east of a woods behind a property at 1821 State Route 118, not far from Stachler's residence at 1766 State Route 118.
Stachler was taken by ambulance to Mercer County Community Hospital, Coldwater, for treatment and evaluation, bringing to an end a multiagency operation set into motion shortly after Stachler's wife called to report her husband missing at 8:33 p.m. Sept. 14.
Law enforcement had begun searching the home and outbuilding owned by the couple. After not immediately finding Stachler, Timmerman initiated a full-scale search for the missing man.
Several departments and agencies, as well as Stachler family members and friends and volunteers, formed a search party that scoured a vast area of ground around Stachler's 10.3-acre homestead, including a large woods, a large soybean field, ditches, cornfields, a hayfield, neighbors' yards and outbuildings (including two ponds), local churches, local restaurants and local hospitals.
Les Bowen, the owner/operator of Elite Drone Services, aided in search efforts Sept. 15 and returned to the area the next morning to resume sweeping for signs of Stachler.
Bowen advised deputies of "an area of interest." Deputies and St. Henry Fire Department personnel then made their way into the cornfield where they found Stachler.
Additional St. Henry firefighters and a St. Henry squad were paged to the area to help get Stachler out of the cornfield and into the ambulance. Stachler indicated to deputies that he had a project that he wanted to work on and that he was hungry, thirsty and just wanted to see his family.
A day after President Donald Trump's second inauguration, he directed the Department of Justice to dismiss the cases of about 1,500 people charged with crimes related to Jan. 6, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
Those who were charged and then subsequently pardoned included Celina natives Donald and Shawndale Chilcoat and Todd Michael Bills of Coldwater.
The Chilcoats were arraigned on April 2024, on a superseding indictment of an upgraded eight charges, including felony obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The couple was also charged with misdemeanors such as entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; entering and remaining in the gallery of Congress; disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and "parade, demonstrate or picket in any of the Capitol buildings."
Bills was charged in September 2024 with four misdemeanor charges: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
All of their cases were dismissed and closed by February.
Trump's sweeping pardons were met with sharp condemnations from several federal judges who presided over the cases.
