Buckeye Trail's Blue Ribbon

“We have a great community, great kids, a great staff and a great school board,” said Dr. Richard Hall to the Cambridge Lions Club. “To be successful is one thing; to sustain that success over a five year period is something else. We are very proud of what we have achieved.” (Pictured at right, Dr. Hall and Lion Tim McKim East Guernsey School Board President).

Hall was referring to Buckeye Trail High School’s recent notification that it had been designated a “No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School.” Hall is the superintendent of the East Guernsey Local School District.

“We have been able to achieve this because we have offered intervention every day,” Hall said. “We offer academic intervention to every student. We try to do a lot of prevention to avoid the need for intervention.”

“If a student is not making adequate progress we require them to do Saturday school or stay after school for more help. We give pretests and posttests to make sure that the intervention is working.”

“We have rearranged the teachers’ schedules so that they can offer intervention,” Hall said. “Students know they have to make progress or they cannot participate in sports, in school dances, or other activities until they show that they are making progress.”

“We have had to deal with budget cuts during this time,” Hall said. “We have had to balance what needs to be done with what we can afford. We have had to do more with less.”

“We always wish that we could give our students more opportunities. We do have new buildings and a new athletic facility. We do the best we can with what we have.”

“We expect that we will have further funding issues,” Hall said. “The governor will present his new education plan in March of 2009. We expect that we may have to face more budget cuts. We will have to adapt.”

Hall served as a coach and as a teacher at the elementary, middle and high school levels in the East Guernsey district before becoming superintendent. “I have been blessed with opportunity,” said Hall.

“I’ve done about everything there is to do in a school district except drive a bus,” Hall said. “It takes a special kind of person to drive a bus with sixty kids sitting behind your back. I have a lot of respect for our bus drivers.”

Safety Service Director Ley Provides Update

“In the next few years we are going to be talking about a good neighbor policy,” said Bob Ley to the Cambridge Lions Club. Ley is the Service and Safety Director for the City of Cambridge. “We have good people in Cambridge. We want to encourage a sense of pride in our community.”

“Maybe you can help those less able by offering to mow a neighbor’s lawn,” Ley said. “You could offer to trim their shrubs or adopt a vacant lot. We would like to see people helping each other to turn this into a community we can all be proud of.”

“We saw people last night and this morning helping others clean up after to remnants of Hurricane Ike passed through here,” Ley said. “I want to publicly commend the people in the street department who have been working all night to clear trees off the streets.”

“We want to encourage more people step up like Don Davis and the historical society and the veterans,” Ley said. Davis approached city council to support efforts to repair and replace tombstones vandalized at the cities cemeteries and to identify and mark all veterans’ graves and repair or replace their tombstones.

“We are also working to get the different departments to work together,” Ley said. “We want everyone to be on the same page. We now have the different departments helping each other out so we don’t have to pay extra for outside help.”

“We are confronted with budgetary constraints,” Ley said. “We have had layoffs in the police department. Costs of materials have risen. Blacktop has gone up forty percent so we can’t pave and patch as much. Salt has doubled in price since last year so we may have more problems keeping streets clear this winter.”

“Gasoline prices have gone up so this increases our costs when we operate police cruisers twenty four hours a day seven days a week. It also increases the cost of the storm cleanup when we have to drive the trucks more.”

“We want to make Cambridge a great place to live,” said Ley. “Our city park is a masterpiece. We plan to make upgrades to the park on the south side.”

“We need to get a handle on our housing stock. Fifty percent of our housing is rental property. Council is considering updates to the code to help us address the problem of deteriorating housing. We have looked at rental codes in other cities. Ours is less restrictive.”

“We are experimenting with pocket video recorders for our police officers,” Ley said. “Two officers have been testing them. They are like the dashboard camcorders but they allow us to follow suspects. The recorders help the prosecutors and the judges see what actually happened. They are a real plus.”

“When I was a business owner I decided what needed to be done and just did it as long as the money was there,” Ley said. “Now I have to deal with three unions, the mayor, and city council. It’s something I have to get used to. We have highly qualified and competent people in city government.”

Cambridge Lions Induct Dennis Dettra

Cambridge Lions Club is proud to annuounce the induction of Dennis Detra to the club. Dennis was sponsered by Lion Tom Cahoon. The Induction Ceremony was performed by Past District Governer Bill Channel. (Pictured are Dennis Dettra, left, and Tom Cahoon). Contratulations and welome to the club Dennis!

Roby Williams Talks Wildlife Economics

“Recreational use of our natural resources including hunting and fishing is a big business,” said Roby Williams, state wildlife officer with the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “Nationwide over one hundred eight billion dollars is spent on these outdoor activities.”

“The real value of hunting is taking your kids hunting and sharing the experience,” Williams said. “As Ted Nugent said, ‘Take your kid hunting and you will not have to go hunting for your kid.’”

“Over sixty six million people in the U.S. take advantage of the opportunities to enjoy the outdoors including watching wildlife,” Williams said. “In addition we have over thirty four million anglers who enjoy fishing activities and over thirteen million hunters.”

“The Ohio Division of Wildlife receives twenty four percent of its funds from fishing licenses and sixteen percent from deer hunting permits,” Williams said. “Other hunting licenses generate another sixteen percent of our funds. Twenty eight percent comes from federal funds. Six percent comes from other sources including fines.”

“Landowners and their children and grandchildren can hunt on their own land without a license,” Williams said. “Anyone else including in-laws have to have a license. Everyone who hunts on state or private land needs to have a hunting license. Those who are sixteen years of age or older need a fishing license unless they were born before 1939.”

“Since 1970 we have had a requirement to have a hunter education course before being granted a hunting license,” Williams said. “Those learning to hunt can also get an apprentice hunter license.”

“We have a problem with deer overpopulation here. We are encouraging hunters to take antler-less deer as well as their one antlered deer. For hunting and fishing rules and regulations visit the web site at www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife.

In other club business Gene Moore reported that final orders for the rose sale are being taken. Rose will be delivered on September 18 and19. Les Wymer reported that the next bass fishing tournament will be held at Seneca Lake on September 28. Funds from these events are used to purchase glasses and provide other eye care for those in need and to provide funds for the diabetes support group.

Ken McConnell reported that his committee will be distributing materials to area schools for students ages 11-13 for the annual peace poster contest. Terry Losego reported that the club will be providing refreshments at the Cambridge Fly-In on September 20 at the airport.