Lubrication engineers tell us that the moving mechanical parts within our engines should be separated by a thin film of oil. Theoretically, the only time that any significant engine wear should occur is during engine start up. During cold engine startup, the crankshaft and other internal engine parts rest against one another until the engine’s oil pump has delivered enough pressurized oil to create a barrier between the moving parts. This can take a few seconds after initial engine startup.
The amount of internal engine wear that can occur during startup is significant. Therefore, manufacturers have recommended the use of thinner engine oils which reach internal engine parts sooner after startup.
As long as engine oil is maintained and no dirt is allowed to build up within it, oil should perform its primary tasks quite well throughout its life span.
Engine oil has several primary tasks. Various additives are mixed into the basic lubricant so that engine oil can perform multiple tasks. Besides acting as a lubricant, engine oil also acts as a sealant. It helps prevent combustion gasses from entering the crankcase. Oil aids in internal engine corrosion resistance. Additives within modern engine oils help prevent an engine corroding from the inside. Those very same additives are what cause oil to “stick” to engine parts.
Oil has additives which help keep it from foaming within the crankcase. As the crankshaft spins within the engine and oil is slung inside the crankcase the oil has a tendency to foam. Aerated oil cannot be readily picked up and transferred by the oil pump. Therefore, anti-foaming additives are added to the oil to help prevent this condition from occurring.
Detergents and dispersants are added to oil to help keep small dirt particles suspended within the lubricant. If those particles are large enough they will be trapped by the engine’s oil filter as the oil passes through it. If the suspended particles are too small to be trapped by the engine’s oil filter then they will not be removed from the oil until the engine oil is replaced. This is one of the primary reasons we should replace our oil on a regular basis. Engine oil undergoes thermal breakdown at high engine temperatures. At these high engine temperatures, oxygen and oil chemically react with one another and mix with moisture trapped inside the crankcase which then creates a gummy black mixture called sludge. Sludge can block oil passages and deteriorate the engine’s lubrication system to a point where serious engine damage can occur. The detergent additives added to modern oils helps to dissolve the sludge and then suspend it within the engine oil. It is these suspended dirt and varnish particles that make our oil appear black.

Viscosity
Viscosity by definition is an oil’s resistance to flow. It is basically, although not literally, the thickness or the body of oil. Engine oil must be able to flow in order to lubricate. At very low operating temperatures, oils by nature, do not flow very well. Additives are added to oil to make them flow better at lower temperatures.
The Society of Engineers (SAE) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) established guidelines years ago for oil flow performance. Today we simply refer to these established standards as an oil’s viscosity index rating. Most modern engine oils have a number that looks something like this: 10W30. The first number before the “W” indicates the oil’s flow characteristics at zero degrees and the number after the “W” indicates the oil’s flow characteristics at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.  The “W” itself simply means that the oil was tested at zero degrees Fahrenheit and often is referred to as “winter weight” oil. If there is only one number and no “W” is present then the oil was only tested at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
The lower the number is before the “W” the better flow characteristics that oil has at low temperatures. The higher the number after the “W” the better flow characteristics the oil has at operating temperatures. Most modern day engines require engine oil that has a Viscosity Index of 5 W 30. However, check your owner’s manual for the manufacturer recommended oil viscosity.
If you have ever heard that short trips are harder on a car than highway driving, you heard correctly. When a vehicle is not driven at operating temperature for any length of time. the moisture within the engine never has an opportunity to fully boil out of the engine. The water then mixes with the engine’s oil and  creates some very nasty chemicals which can rapidly destroy our engines. Therefore, vehicles that may never be driven out of the city must follow a different maintenance schedule then those cars that have a combination of highway and city driving on a regular basis.
Oil change intervals
Vehicles that are driven primarily around town and that rarely see highway use should have their oil changed at 3,000 mile intervals. As I stated earlier, city driving is the hardest on engine oil.
For vehicles that are driven a combination of city and highway miles on a regular basis then 5,000 mile intervals should be adequate between oil changes. Finally, for those vehicles that are driven primarily on the highway and very little in town most oil manufacturers recommend that the engine oil should be changed every 7,500 miles.
Of course, if you operate your vehicle in dusty environments or at extreme temperatures, then you should change your engine oil more regularly.
It is also much better to change your engine’s oil when your engine is at operating temperature. When your oil is at temperature you are more likely to purge the engine’s crankcase of unwanted sludge and dirt particles.
I have briefly discussed engine oil this week. There is much more to engine oil than I was able to cover in this short piece.
I am always available to field any questions you may have regarding any automotive related topic, including engine oil.
Next week I will discuss conventional engine oils versus synthetic engine oils.

Nick Shultz is an instructor of Automotive Technologies at Owens Community College. He is an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau who specializes in cases involving the Ohio and Michigan Lemon laws. He is a certified master automotive technician by ASE, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. E-mail your auto questions to news@toledofreepress.com.

BashCon, the city’s largest annual gaming convention, celebrates its 25th anniversary at the UT Student Union, starting Feb. 19 and continuing all weekend. BashCon plays host to a wide variety of events with a focus on traditional table-top role playing games, board games, miniatures, computer games and panels with guest speakers.
“[We] just try and help bring the gaming community together for a few days, to share and enjoy it,” said BashCon coordinator Nicole Teare.
The event is offering a special deal for BashCon’s silver anniversary — attendees who pay $25 will receive a badge for admission and entry into all tournaments, as well as a commemorative six-sided die featuring the BashCon logo.
Teare’s experience with UT Bash — the student organization that runs BashCon each year — goes back to her freshman year at the university, when she worked at the registration desk. Four years later, she said that while the core of BashCon remains the same, it has seen a great deal of evolution in the time she has worked with it.
“In recent years, gaming has gotten a lot more mainstream, and that’s reflected in the higher attendance of our membership and at the convention. It seems we get a lot more who are just casual gamers than in the past,” Teare said.
Kerry Porter, one of the guest speakers at BashCon XXV, has been attending the event for many years as a fan.
She said that the influx of casual gamers can be witnessed in the event’s larger focus on video games.
“It’s progressed with gaming as a whole. It went from the whole classic, you know, ‘Dungeons and Dragons,’ ‘Magic: The Gathering’ card set, to including the likes of the MMO’s (massive multiplayer online games) — ‘World of Warcraft,’ ‘RuneScape’ and others. So it’s really incorporated the digital age,” Porter said.
Porter said the smaller size of an event like BashCon makes it a more personal experience than larger events.
“Conventions like Gencon, or DragonCon or ComicCon are so big you really can get lost in it, and it’s hard to, as an individual, really get in touch with things,” Porter said.  “With a smaller convention, you can sample games easier, you can see games easier. You can be a bystander or participant a lot easier.”
Local gaming stores will also be represented at the event. Darryl E. Dean, owner of The Game Room on Sylvania Avenue, said he has been involved in BashCon for 20 years, as a retailer and as a player.
One of the positive side effects of BashCon, Dean said, was that “you’re basically helping out the university, and it gets maybe even some of the kids that might even think about going to the university, it gives them a chance to see the place when you get there.
“And you get to meet all kinds of new people.”
And it is that interaction with fellow gamers — the chance to share the things they love with one another — that is the real attraction of the event, for both fans and organizers alike.
“The draw, at least for me, and I know for many other people, is friends. You get to go there and meet people who share in similar tastes and hobbies, and you get to, you know, test your skills with some of those hobbies,” Porter said.
“I just want everyone to come and have a good time,” Teare said. “We just really try to help bring gaming to the community and really encourage people to get together and just share their favorite games.”

I have a modest understanding of economics. I know that Keynesian economists want the government to increase spending to stimulate the economy during a recession. I know that supply side economists advocate lower taxes and less regulation. Of course, to make these concepts work, a fair amount of discipline is required, discipline we seldom see in our leaders. Keynesians are good at priming the pump during economic downturns, but are often reluctant to turn the pump off during economic upturns. This has allowed the size of government to grow large and unwieldy. Many supply-siders are eager to cut taxes and trash regulation but reluctant to cut spending, thus causing huge deficits that burden future generations.

It seems that our political parties give us a choice between “tax and spend” and “borrow and spend.” It is no wonder that the voters are wishing a pox on both houses. Of course we voters must share some responsibility in this. So many of us want things from government but have a hissy fit over the costs of these things. So we send people to our nation’s city councils, the general assemblies, and Congress with the instruction to bring home the goodies while cutting our taxes. There is not a whole lot of logic in this.

Fixing this is another issue. We are up against all those popular economic orthodoxies. Though I may know very little about economics, I do understand a thing or two about orthodoxy. The church is a place were all sorts of orthodoxies rub up against each other. Sometimes this is good. The tension points can create new possibilities for solving a problem or discovering a new way. Many times it is bad. The tension points become lines that are deeply drawn and never crossed. People get stuck, the community can not progress. Folks gets mired in a we-they mind set. We are the good guys that believe in low taxes and individual responsibility, they are the bad guys that believe in socialism and coddling the lazy…or we are to good guys who believe in compassion and caring for those who have need, they are the bad guys who are greedy and only care for themselves. When these orthodoxies get set in concrete, there is no room to negotiate. All we have are cartoon caricatures of each other.

It is quite possible that committing the cardinal sin stated by each economic orthodoxy may be the pathway out of our current mess. Maybe taxes will need to be raised and programming be cut. If this is the case, we better be electing leaders who are not so orthodox in their thinking and are not so afraid of the orthodox in their own political party.

As fate would have it, I was going to share some thoughts on Mayor Mike Bell’s proposals, which included committing the conservative sin of tax increases and the liberal sin of budget cuts. I was going to suggest that the people may have in Bell as a leader who isn’t wedded to any of the popular economic orthodoxies of the day. I was going to suggest that he seems like a pragmatist who was willing to challenge conventional wisdom. Raising taxes in an recession is a gutsy thing. Cutting programs and benefits is equally gutsy. I was going to suggest that this kind of leadership was and is a good thing. I was all set to push the send button to file this column, when I decided I needed a break and an ice tea from Panera. Standing in line at I glanced at the newspaper rack. There it was; the mayor is rescinding his proposal to increase taxes!

Of course, nobody wants to pay higher taxes. Nobody wants to pay more for health care benefits. We want everything we want … at bargain basement prices. But we are living in a time when this is not possible. Each of us will need to give up something for the common good of all. Maybe a little give in our personal, political, and economic orthodoxies is a place to start.

None of this suggests Bell isn’t all those things I was going to suggest. He seems to be a pragmatist that is his own man. The fact that he was willing to consider committing the carnal sin of conservatives: raising taxes, while committing the cardinal sin of liberals: cutting benefits of city workers suggests a man who is willing to seek a different path. Time will tell.

Eric McGlade is a United Methodist pastor who lives and works in Bowling Green.

A couple of years ago, an elderly lady came in to talk about her estate plan and have her documents reviewed. She had set up a living trust years ago and wanted to make sure everything was up-to-date. We looked over her documents for her and began to ask her questions about how her accounts were titled. She said that her accounts were all titled in her name. Mark asked her if she knew that if she died that all of her accounts would go through probate? She was shocked and almost in tears to find this out since the purpose of her living trust was to avoid probate. She said “you mean to tell me that if I died, my living trust would do nothing to help my assets avoid probate? What good is it?” We then explained  how important it is to take the final step and actually fund the trust by changing the title of accounts and real estate to the trust.
This lady was smart enough to take the step to set up a trust with the goal of more of her money getting into the hands of her children, rather than going to lawyers, courts, fees, etc. The problem was that she did not take the important final step. Making sure the accounts were properly titled. Perhaps no one told her what to do. Maybe they did and she neglected to take these steps. This is the biggest mistake people make when setting up a living trust. To avoid probate certain accounts should be titled with the trust as owner. We helped her get things corrected very quickly, but what a shame it would have been if she had paid good money to set up a trust and it ended up not helping her a bit.
Here is something else to consider. If you own a 401(k), IRA, annuity, 403(b), life insurance or any other account that has a named beneficiary, listen very closely. A huge percentage of people do not have a correct updated beneficiary form on all of their financial accounts kept at home that they have quick access to. Most trust that the correct information is on file with their custodian. Unfortunately, many will be wrong about this and it will be too late.
Here is another story. Mary had been a teacher for 30 years when she suddenly passed away from a heart attack. She had remarried and had been with her current husband for many years. They were truly a loving couple. Some time after Mary’s death, her husband Todd started the process of addressing their financial affairs. He went to the school district and got the paperwork to file a claim on her teacher’s retirement only to find out he was not the beneficiary.
Mary had started teaching prior to being married to Todd. When Mary filled out the original paperwork, she listed her brother as beneficiary of her account.
Todd went to court and even the children testified that their mother loved Todd and would have wanted him to inherit her retirement account.
Unfortunately, with Mary gone, all the court had to rely on was her written instructions. You can guess what happened.
Think it couldn’t happen to you and your family? Think again. Here are just a few examples of potential pitfalls. Naming your trust as beneficiary, saying “divided equally among children”, forgetting per stirpes language (bloodline), unintentionally disinheriting grandkids and assuming your financial institution has your form on file.
Here is what to do. Review each and every financial, insurance and asset you own and review the titling and the beneficiary designation. For our clients, we use a checklist call our B.O.S.S. system.
This system is designed to review the beneficiary, owner, survivor, and spouse of each account. This step-by-step checklist helps provide peace of mind by significantly increasing the odds that the forms are up to date and filled out correctly.
Can you put your hands on your beneficiary forms and are they correct? You can get a copy of this helpful checklist by going online to www.retirementguysradio.com and requesting the beneficiary form checklist.
When someone passes away, there is no second chance, no “do over,” so get it right now before something happens.
Do it today. It is one more step to take that will lead to a happy and relaxing retirement.

Got a question for The Retirement Guys? Send your e-mails to letters@toledofreepress.com or you can reach them by calling (419) 842-0550. Securities are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC. The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. Their office is located at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537.

Related story: Mayor Bell: Sharing responsibility for the future

On a day when most Toledoans were digging out from a foot of snow, Toledo City Councilman George Sarantou worked on another form of excavation: the mountain of municipal debt that threatens Toledo’s financial stability.
“There is no question that the city faces a fiscal emergency,” said Sarantou in a meeting Feb. 9 in his 21st floor office at One Government Center. “What we need to be concentrating on is finding long-term solutions and not just short-term fixes to the budget.”
The City of Toledo faces a projected $48.2 million budget deficit for 2010, a figure that includes approximately $12.77 million in deficits inherited from 2009, the last year of the Carty Finkbeiner administration. The deficit represents approximately one-fifth of the projected revenues in the 2010 budget.
While publicly Mayor Mike Bell and his staff discuss the need for budget cuts and tax hikes to solve the city’s budget woes, behind closed doors there is increasing talk that the only solution to the budget deficit is to have the state step in and put the city into receivership. Toledo Free Press obtained a copy of an eight-page internal memorandum from acting law director Adam Loukx to deputy mayor Stephen Herwat outlining the processes and conditions by which Toledo might make use of insolvency mechanisms to address its budget woes.
The memo details the background, definitions and possible resolutions of Fiscal Watch and Fiscal Emergency.
Bell reiterated in an interview that he considers receivership a last resort.
“Our expectation is that cooler heads will prevail,” the mayor said in reference to ongoing discussions with city unions. “It is in no one’s best interest for the state to become involved in Toledo’s financial difficulties, and to focus on doom-and-gloom scenarios might cause unwarranted panic that Toledo will run out of money.”

Mike Bell

When cities go broke
Though infrequently used, there exists a legal mechanism by which municipalities might declare bankruptcy. Under the United States Bankruptcy Code Chapter 9 Title 11, municipalities can file for bankruptcy protection with provisions similar to those found in the forms of bankruptcy filed by individuals and corporations.
An important consideration for Bell will be the fact that an attempt by the City of Toledo to file for bankruptcy would necessitate approval by the State of Ohio. Chapter 9 requires that any municipality seeking bankruptcy protection must first secure “specifically authorized” before commencing the process. This clause is because states retain considerable authority over municipalities within their borders due to restrictions under the 10th Amendment and the so-called contract clause in the U.S. Constitution.
Ohio Revised Code 118 provides an additional mechanism by which the state can intervene and prevent a municipal bankruptcy. Under this law, which was adopted in response to the 1979 financial collapse of Cleveland, the state can place a municipality in one of two categories: “fiscal watch” or “fiscal emergency.”
Sarantou indicated that state intervention to help a struggling municipality is preferable to bankruptcy.
“Investors are reassured when the state steps in to help municipalities restructure debt,” he said. “It would be disastrous for the city’s credit rating to file bankruptcy.”
For a municipality to fall under fiscal watch status, the existence of one of a number of possible scenarios must be confirmed. In Toledo’s case, fiscal watch status would occur if the projected general fund deficit exceeds one-twelfth of the previous year’s revenues. Toledo could be declared a fiscal emergency if the projected general fund deficit exceeds one-sixth of the previous year’s revenues.
The current projection of a $48.2 million deficit exceeds both criteria, Sarantou said.
“There will have to be a lot of changes — some of them painful — to get through the current crisis,” Sarantou said. “While the city has not yet defaulted on any major obligations, it is clear that this will not be the case by the middle of the fiscal year.”
Bell called “speculative” any attempt to project a date as to when cash flow problems would occur for the city.
“If we found that the city did not have the ability to raise the necessary revenue, we would make adjustments,” he said. “It will never get to the point where the City of Toledo would not be able to pay its bills.”
Insolvent municipalities
There is a lengthy history of American municipalities and other government entities whose financial woes exceeded their ability to solve shortfalls through normal budgetary measures. Most noteworthy of these is the 1994 case of Orange County, a wealthy California region that was overwhelmed by the sudden collapse of an investment scheme created by its county treasurer.
The losses from the implosion of the investment pool totaled $1.64 billion, and Orange County officials chose Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection to avoid a run on the available revenues that had not been lost in the scheme.
In 2008, the city of Vallejo, Calif., joined a list of municipalities choosing bankruptcy protection to solve their budget woes. At the time of filing for bankruptcy, this city of more than 120,000 people spent approximately 80 percent of its general fund revenues on salaries and benefits to public safety employees. Since the bankruptcy, the city has been forced to cut hundreds of jobs and slash services, and the number of police officers has been reduced by almost 50 percent.
Dozens of Ohio municipalities have made use of state provisions under ORC 118 to avoid filing bankruptcy and to take advantage of the state’s power to assist in debt restructuring. One of the most noteworthy examples was Cleveland, which remained in the category of fiscal emergency from 1980 to 1987. The largest Ohio municipality to fall under the category of fiscal watch was the city of Youngstown, which remained in fiscal watch from 1996 through 1999.
Sarantou noted the advantages of bringing in the state to help solve Toledo’s budget crisis.
“The state can step in and unilaterally restructure union contracts,” he said. “As it stands now the city has to rely on the unions to make any concessions.”
Sarantou bristled at the suggestion that the city has been financially irresponsible in prior fiscal years.
“There is a perception that Toledo has somehow been spending money like drunken sailors,” he said. “But I have been working on every budget since 2002, and every year we have been faced with cutbacks — the focus the last seven years is on ways to cut the budget.”
Sarantou said that contract agreements with city unions in the 1990s have come back to haunt Toledo.
“The city convinced unions to take increased pension payments in place of wage increases,” he said. “This made short-term financial sense, but in the long run the city is now paying a steep price for this negotiating tactic.”

Unlike a bankruptcy case, in which an outside receiver is appointed to oversee disbursements, the City of Toledo would retain a considerable amount of autonomy in any restructuring under the state of Ohio’s fiscal watch or fiscal emergency provisions, Sarantou said.
“In these cases the state acts more like an advisor than anything else,” he said. “The local government is still in charge of its day-to-day operations.”
Avoiding receivership
The preferred outcome for the City of Toledo, according to Sarantou, is that the city is able to solve its budget woes at the local level, and he praised Bell for his efforts to bring attention to and solve the financial crisis the city faces.
“This mayor has been very transparent, and this mayor is trustworthy,” he said. “Mayor Bell has been working diligently to generate ideas on how to fix the situation.”
Sarantou outlined a number of proposals that will reduce the city’s budget shortfall, including more stringent collection efforts on tax receipts.
“We have $21 million on the books in uncollected city income taxes,” he said, adding that some of these debts date back to the late 1970s. “Realistically, $6 million of this debt is collectable.”
Another potential source of revenue for the city is the sale of city-owned properties, such as The Docks and land in Monclova Township.
“This might represent $7 million in revenue,” Sarantou said, adding that these funds would revert back to the capital improvements budget and would also need approval to shift these funds to general revenues.
Sarantou also pointed to the city’s red light camera system as another source of uncollected revenue.
“Violators currently owe the city about $5 million in fines for red light camera infractions,” he said, noting that the compliance rate on paying these tickets is only 44 percent.
“The city has the legal authority to boot [immobilize] vehicles for which the owners do not pay their fines, and the police department is starting to target some of the most serious violators with unpaid fines.”
Bell agreed that enhanced collection efforts on tax receipts and traffic fines is a “key component of the city’s strategy to address the budget deficit.”
Yet ultimately the city’s budget problems revert back to personnel costs, Sarantou said. He outlined approximately $14 million in savings that could be achieved through items like having city employees pay 20 percent of health care costs, an elimination of the city’s pickup of employee pension contributions, and deferring payouts for one year from the comp time accrued by police and firefighters.
“Roughly two-thirds of the annual budget is consumed by components like salaries and benefits,” Sarantou said. “We can achieve some budget reductions through deferring purchases of items like police cars, but the most significant savings can only be achieved in personnel expenditures.”
The mayor described initial conversations with the city’s unions as “an amenable situation.”
“We have removed employee salaries off the table, and this makes any contract changes an easier sell for the unions,” he said, adding that changes to pension and benefit contributions will meet less resistance by city employees than across the board wage cuts.
Sarantou said he believes that a combination of budget cuts and a temporary increase in the city’s income tax can balance the budget, but he added that “all sides have to sacrifice in order to make this work.”

A great deal of discussion has taken place in the media about Toledo’s current budget situation. Since taking office on Jan. 4, my administration has worked to examine, line by line, the expenditures and revenues that make up the city budget. We’ve looked for places to cut costs, to improve efficiency and collect revenue that is owed us.
Working with the transition team, our union leaders, city council and the citizen’s task force, we have identified more than $25 million in budget reduction measures — without increasing taxes. These measures include greater employee contributions to health insurance, eliminating pension pickups, pursuing delinquent taxes and fees so that everyone is contributing their share, reducing nonpersonnel costs in all departments and more. These measures are rarely covered in mainstream media because they’re not as emotional as taxes and fees, but they are equally important to getting our fiscal house in order.
Some of these ideas are unpopular, but they are necessary. I have likened the city budget situation to a sinking ship. We are all in this together, so when people tell me that I’m facing one heck of a dilemma with the budget, I liken it to telling the captain of a sinking ship that he has one heck of a dilemma — when the water is rising around all of our feet. We must all play a role in bailing water and patching the leak if we are to survive this crisis.
Resolving a budget with a potential $48 million shortfall in revenues is a delicate balancing act, especially for a new mayor. I don’t want to pay more taxes, so I imagine the citizens of Toledo don’t, either. And we do our community a disservice by cutting vital services for which they are already paying. Eliminating some of our optional services can also do harm as we look to make Toledo an attractive location for business growth and development.
My goal is to preserve a quality of life that does not alienate the people who currently call Toledo home or dissuade potential employers from relocating here. But as I have admitted all along, the mayor cannot do it alone. This job requires constructive advice and input from stakeholders around the community. It is with these thoughts in mind that we are driving the 2010 budget process.
Our short-term focus is balancing the 2010 budget by March 31, and I have pledged to send council by March 1 multiple balanced-budget scenarios for their consideration.  Long term, we continue to examine opportunities for regional collaboration, increased efficiency, reduced costs and economic development. Pursuing these long-term goals will help not just to solve this current problem, but also put the city on the right track for future fiscal health.
Our working group comprised of council members, city directors, transition team and citizen task force members continues to meet on Wednesday mornings and our citizen task force continues to meet on Wednesday afternoons to continue determining the feasible options for resolving the immediate budget deficit and setting in place a long-term system of financial planning.
Finally, citizen input is just as important as the professional and expert voices we hear each day and I welcome the constructive ideas that you have to improve our city. There are multiple ways to submit your thoughts on the budget:
n E-mail your suggestions to budget2010@toledo.oh.gov;
n Call the city at (419) 245-3212; or
n Participate in an online forum at www.futureoftoledo.org, where you can find background information about the budget, surveys rating the importance of city services and areas where we can make cuts, and opportunities to offer direct suggestions. Comments from each of these outlets are directed to my office.
I pledged to you that as mayor I would apply good management principles to get our budget under control while preserving our city services and we are working not only to change how we manage operations, but the mindset of the people who do the work of the city.  Increasingly, employees are encouraged to take initiative in finding solutions to resolve the problems within their own department, provide more efficient service to our residents, and be accountable for goals that they have helped to set. All of these changes will develop a better, more responsive local government for the community we serve along with real pride in being a Toledoan.
This is a difficult time in our city’s history, but we have an opportunity now to work together in the same direction to change the look of our own future. I ask not just for your patience and trust, but also for your participation as we work through this challenge. We are all affected by the success or failure of this community and we can all be a part of the solution.

Mike Bell is Mayor of Toledo. E-mail him at mayor.toledo@toledo.oh.gov.

The Rotary Club of Reynolds Corners (RCRC) donated $10,000 to Rotary International to help with relief efforts in Haiti.
“We’re always looking for people in need. Rotary’s motto is service above self. Under that motto, we want to be able to give it to people who need it the most,” said Tamara Riggs, president of RCRC.
RCRC member, Ford B. Cauffiel, gave a $5,000 donation, which the club of 45 members then matched, she said.
“We’re all humans and they’re human. If children were starving to death in this room, how could you stand to have a nice lunch and not help the starving children? This is a terrible calamity,” Cauffiel said. “We all have feelings because we’re human and this was something we should do quickly. I’m willing because I’ve been successful in life, and have everything I need to donate $5,000 and I asked the club to match me.”
The donation provided funds for tents, food rations and other aid in Haiti that was dispersed by Rotary International.
Cauffiel has a history of giving through the 20-year program Students for Other Students (SOS), which he founded. SOS pays students $8 an hour to tutor other “at-risk” students. Rotaries around the state are matching funds to help fund the project that helps 15 school districts throughout Ohio, he said.

It was the late 1970s when Kevin Cronin first scribbled the lyrics to “Roll with the Changes” across a fast food bag on a long drive heading west from Champaign, Ill.
More than 30 years later, Cronin is still being inspired to write songs as the front man for REO Speedwagon. He and his band mates will join Styx (see article here) and .38 Special in a triple-bill at the Lucas County Arena on Feb. 28.
“I’ve come to terms with my songwriting as something that I love to do – any kind of writing, actually,” said Cronin in a phone interview last week. “I treasure the process more now. When I was younger, there was a little more fear involved with it. I thought, if I stopped writing, that would be it, maybe I’ve written my last song. Now I know that writing is what I do, and I enjoy it more than ever.”
The band’s latest projects include a self-financed CD titled “Find Your Own Way Home,” released in April 2007 and a Christmas album, “Not So Silent Night,” which came out last November.
REO Speedwagon has recorded 15 original albums since 1971 and released 13 live and compilation CDs. A stop in St. Louis during the first tour REO did with Styx, back in 2000, was recorded for Arch Allies – Live at Riverport.

REO Speedwagon

“We bring out the best in one another,” Cronin said of playing with his buddies in Styx. “They’re a great band. We take turns closing every night, and we both set the bar high for each other. If anyone is a fan of either band, you’ll see and hear that we’re at our absolute best when we play together.”
Cronin said that a highlight of the current tour is the concert finale with both bands on stage playing a song he and Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw wrote together entitled “Can’t Stop Rockin’.”
Fans can also expect to hear REO’s mainstay classics, including ballads “Keep on Lovin’ You,” “Can’t Fight This Feeling” and “Take it on the Run.” They’ll also jam on their more classic rock side with “Roll with the Changes,” “Back on the Road Again” and “Ridin’ the Storm Out.”
The current five-man REO lineup has been together for 20 years, since original drummer Alan Gratzer and original lead guitarist Gary Richrath left the band. Dave Amato (formerly with Ted Nugent) took over for Richrath on lead guitar and Bryan Hitt plays drums. Neal Doughty has been on keyboards since the band began at the University of Illinois and bassist Bruce Hall has been standing to Cronin’s right on stage since 1977.
And although the band is based and still resides in Los Angeles, the Midwest will always be where the band claims its most passionate following.
“We’re all Midwest boys,” Cronin says. “Before we hit it big, we drove around in a 1972 station wagon and played 250 shows a year. We were in touch with the fabric of people’s lives. It’s an honor. I appreciate that part of it, and I don’t take it for granted for a minute.
“Taking nothing away from the other places we play around the country,” Cronin continued. “But this feels like our home turf. We’re able to dig a little deeper into our catalog when we play places like Toledo.”
Off stage, Cronin recalls one experience in Toledo when he “got into a little bit of trouble.” He talked about the show REO played during the Toledo Speedway Jam on the Hi Infidelity tour in 1981.
“If I remember correctly,” Cronin said, “there was a three-wheeled vehicle out on the speedway after the concert. Back then, it was all systems go, all the time. So I took this thing for a spin around the track after the concert, and I got a little more momentum than it was prepared to handle. Yeah, I rolled it. But it was the 80s and the memories a little bit hazy. We were young and foolish and having too much fun.”
Today, Cronin and the band have matured and embraced the modern, yet still very hands-on way to relate to its fans, the Internet. He says e-mail has allowed them to stay close to the fans, unlike the earlier days when traditional fan mail was overwhelming and it was difficult to respond to everyone.
Technology has also given Cronin another outlet to continue to write, which to him means more than just songs.
“I enjoy the writing at every level,” Cronin said. “The Internet has become another forum to do that. Whether songs or stories or essays, you’re trying to express an idea, and you’re close to having the right word, and you’re sitting there searching your mind. Then you find it just right and it captures the feeling you’re trying to get. It’s a rush, a state of euphoria.
“I just finished a song last week, and I hadn’t finished one in about a year. There’s a joy and sense of accomplishment when I finish a song. I’m just sitting here now thinking back when I was a kid – every song I ever wrote – it’s like putting a puzzle together. What a great feeling. Many times I don’t understand how it is I’m able to do it. I just try to respect the fact that I can.”
Maybe all that’s really changed is that now he’s writing on a laptop keyboard instead of a greasy paper bag balanced on his lap.

“Can’t Stop Rockin’ ” — it’s the name of the tour and a single featuring Styx and REO Speedwagon. And that’s no coincidence.
“I think it was our manager Charlie Brusco’s idea; all the managers always want to title a tour and it’s usually corny for the rest of us, but he came up with ‘Can’t Stop Rockin,’ ’ and he said to Tommy [Shaw from Styx] and Kevin Cronin from REO, ‘Why don’t you guys write a song with that title?’ And that sounded even more Spinal Tap to me, but we actually embraced it,” said Styx bass player Ricky Phillips.
“The song, we didn’t take it too seriously; we just went in and cut it kind of old school, nice and quickly like you used to do records, and it came out sounding great,” he continued during a call from his home in Austin, Texas. “It’s been a lot of fun to close the shows with that song and both bands getting up on stage.”

Styx

Fans can look forward to that finale when Styx, REO Speedwagon (see article here) and .38 Special play the Lucas County Arena at 7 p.m. Feb. 28. Tickets range from $37.50 to $57.50.
“When you’re doing the big rock show and you’ve got your staging with the drop screens, the LED screens and the big lighting and the big staging, there’s just something about that. It’s something that was awe-inspiring to me when I was a kid, and I used to see bands in the big arena setting like that,” Phillips said. “Some bands aren’t set up to do that, but Styx music and a lot of other bands from that genre cater well to the huge PA system and thousands of people in one big room together.”
According to Phillips, the opening band usually plays a shorter set, and Styx and REO each take the stage for about 70 minutes.
“You can’t get real deep into the catalog like you would if it was just an evening with Styx, but in 70 minutes, we can play a lot of hits,” he said.
And Styx is known for its string of hits in the late ’70s and early ’80s: “Lady,” “Crystal Ball,” “Blue Collar Man,” “Renegade,” “Come Sail Away,” “Fooling Yourself,” “Babe,” “The Best of Times” and “Too Much Time on My Hands.”
In 1979, Phillips was playing bass in The Babys when the band opened for Styx.
“I’ve actually known the guys, geez, 31 years now,” he said. “We had a blast; they were in their heyday, in their prime, and we were kind of the opening act for everybody back in those days. But it was something that turned out to be prophetic, and I never would have imagined at this point in my career I would actually be in Styx.”
After four consecutive albums certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America — “The Grand Illusion,” “Pieces of Eight,” “Cornerstone” and “Paradise Theater” — Styx broke up in 1984.
The group has reformed with different lineups, including its current one with Phillips, singer and guitarist Shaw, original singer and guitarist James Young, drummer Todd Sucherman and keyboardist and singer Lawrence Gowan. Original bassist Chuck Panozzo makes occasional appearances.
Phillips said that since he joined the band in 2003, there’s been no talk about reuniting with singer and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung.
What about a reunion of The Babys?
“It would be so much fun to get together and do that catalog of songs again,” Phillips said. “That was when rock ‘n’ roll was rock ‘n’ roll, man.”

The Toledo Museum of Art will soon showcase the work of one of the art world’s most celebrated figures. Its latest exhibition, “Whistler: Influences, Friends and the Not-So-Friendly,” is set to open Feb. 26 in the Works on Paper Gallery. The show examines a number of etchings and lithotint prints by famed painter/printmaker James McNeill Whistler, as well as works by those who greatly influenced his life and artistic style.
The exhibit, which features 60 of Whistler’s works, is drawn from the museum’s private collection, and offers patrons a rare treat.
“This is the first time, since I think around the 1960s, that we as an institution have offered an exhibit that highlights Whistler. We had acquired a piece by another artist of Whistler and that’s one of the things that got us thinking about a show of his work,” said Assistant Curator, Tom Loeffler. “It was just time. We have around 100 pieces of his work in our private collection. We chose the pieces in the exhibit, first because of the quality of the prints, certain pieces had been damaged over the years, and secondly, because of how they relate to the other artists on display. To fully understand Whistler’s work, the viewer must consider the impact of the people — both friends and those he alienated — around him.”
The exhibit also features by artists such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Sir Francis Seymour Haden, Charles Emile Jacque, Alphonse Legros, Charles Meryon and Joseph Pennell.
“One of the things Whistler’s printmaking work offers patrons that his paintings do not is the line work, you simply won’t get the same quality of line,” Loeffler said. “Whistler etched, rather than painted, when his finances were in trouble because he was more successful in selling his etchings. Working on this exhibit helped me take something new from Whistler’s work, I don’t think I ever really understood before what he was trying to get across in his work the way I do now. I really would like everyone to know that if they’re coming in expecting pieces like Whistler’s Mother, they are in for a surprise, this show is something very different.”
Whistler was born in Lowell, Mass., in 1834. He died in London in 1903 at the age of 69.
He is known today for his association with Tonalism.
“Whistler: Influences, Friends and the Not-So-Friendly” will remain on display through May 30, and is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit www.toledomuseum.org.