Thinking back, John VanBuskirk remembers little about the day he should have died.
Except when he’s asked to recount the moment he decided to step in front of a shotgun-wielding robber aiming his weapon at VanBuskirk’s 20-year-old daughter.
Then, his memory is clear as glass.
‘This weird feeling’
Samantha “Sam” VanBuskirk had had enough.
She’d been living with her boyfriend, Christopher Green, and their 4-month-old daughter, Leah, in a house on Lodge Street in South Toledo.
On April 7, 2010, during an argument, Green grabbed Sam around the neck and choked her. Bruises on her neck and chest viewed by Toledo police confirmed the altercation.
That night, a Wednesday, Sam decided to leave Green. The following morning, her decision became clearer when Green poured water on her as she lay in bed with their daughter.
When Green left, Sam called her family and asked them to help her move. Her mother, John’s ex-wife Penny VanBuskirk, and sisters, Andrea and Amanda VanBuskirk, arrived late that morning. Green returned while the women were packing and, upset with what he saw happening, began yelling obscenities at Sam before leaving.
Meanwhile, earlier that morning, Coryana McGhee and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Alonzo Anderson, turned up to see Sam on two occasions. McGhee, 18, a former classmate of Sam’s and a friend of Sam’s next-door neighbor, had visited the night before and called Sam that morning, asking if she could help with the move. It was during the Wednesday night visit that Green showed McGhee a stash of marijuana he kept in a vacuum cleaner. When McGhee and Anderson arrived unexpectedly the next morning under the pretense of helping her move, McGhee asked Sam during the second visit if she would sell her the marijuana. Sam told McGhee no: The pot was not her business and all she wanted to do was pack and leave. McGhee told Sam she was stupid and left with Anderson.
Soon after, Green’s brother, Ramone Preston, arrived. Green had asked him to collect the marijuana. By then, Sam’s brother, Zach, had arrived. As Preston left the house, carrying the vacuum cleaner holding the pot, he turned and said, “I hope you guys are safe.”
That got Zach’s attention.
He headed to his truck where he kept a 12-gauge shotgun recently bought for him by his father for hunting. He loaded the gun with three shells.

Samantha and John VanBuskirk, photographed May 18 by Lad Strayer.

“I just had this weird feeling,” Zach said.
The lick
After McGhee and Anderson left Sam’s house the second time, they went to Weiler Homes in Central Toledo. There, around 11 a.m., Anderson met a friend, Anthony Cardell. Anderson asked Cardell if he wanted to hit a lick — a street term for robbery — at a house in South Toledo, where there was a stash of marijuana and likely cash. Only two women were there so it would be an easy score, Anderson told Cardell. He said he couldn’t do it because he would be recognized.
Cardell agreed.
With McGhee driving a white Lincoln, the threesome headed to the Lodge Street address. Cardell was sitting in the backseat with a shotgun given to him by McGhee and Anderson. While she drove, McGhee said she had been at the house the previous night and had seen the marijuana stashed in the vacuum cleaner.
McGhee drove into an alley behind the house. As Cardell left the car, McGhee and Anderson told him they would park in another alley one block away.
It was just after 2 p.m. when Cardell walked through the front door and into the living room. Instead of finding two women, he was stunned to see seven members of the VanBuskirk family scattered about the first floor, including Leah, sitting in a baby swing. Another was 46-year-old John VanBuskirk, who had arrived minutes earlier.
Cardell pointed the shotgun at the VanBuskirks and shouted, “Where’s the weed?” As Cardell moved forward, Penny screamed. Zach, who was near the back of the house, quickly moved his mother, Amanda and Andrea to a rear hall and out of sight. That left Sam and John with Cardell.
Cardell walked up to Sam, stopping two feet away. The gun was in her face.
“I just stood there for a second,” she said. “I thought, ‘Is this really happening right now?’ I looked over and saw my mom, my sisters and my brother run. I glanced at Leah in her swing.”
John was behind Sam, on his knees. He had been picking up trash when he first saw Cardell. Initially, he didn’t see the gun and assumed he was Sam’s friend.
“Then, I heard, ‘Daddy, he’s got a gun. I’ll never forget the sound of her voice.”
John, inching closer to Sam, calmly tried to get Cardell to lower the gun, but he did not budge.
“I could see his trigger finger,” John said. “I knew he was going to shoot.”
At that moment, John knew what he was going to do.
“I just got this warm feeling,” he said. “I’ve never been so calm and relaxed in my life. I knew I was going to die. I knew that before I stood up.”
John leaped toward Sam. He grabbed her sweatshirt hood with his right hand, pulled her down toward him and raised his left hand, which held his cell phone, in front of his face, just as Cardell pulled the trigger.
“I remember the shot,” John said. “I remember what it felt like. It was massive.”
Choking on his own blood
Zach had his hand on the backdoor knob when Cardell fired. He wanted to retrieve his shotgun. He kept going.

This x-ray, taken by John VanBuskirk’s oral surgeon, Dr. Paul Kozy, shows several dozen of the more than 200 buckshot pellets still lodged in his face, neck and left hand.

Sam, in shock, ran into the bathroom. Her sisters and mother were in the attic. Somehow, Leah remained asleep in the swing, Sam recalled.
Cardell ran out the front door and headed south on Lodge. The white Lincoln was not in the alley; when McGhee and Anderson heard the gunshot, they fled. Zach grabbed his shotgun and took off after Cardell. He fired three shots, missing each time. The police arrived. Zach sent them in Cardell’s direction. By then, neighbors were in the street. One carried a handgun. Cardell scared him off with the shotgun, which he soon discarded. He eluded police for about 30 minutes before being captured without incident.
Back at the house, Zach tended to his father. Amazingly, John remained on his feet. Blindly, he had been picking up what he thought were pieces of his skull but were, in fact, teeth and denture fragments. He put them in his pocket.
“I couldn’t believe he was standing up,” Zach said. “His whole face was just blood. I thought he was fatally shot.”
John asked Zach to take him to the bathroom.
“I wanted to look in the mirror and see how much of my head was gone,” he said.
Zach then took John to the bedroom, where he lay on a bed. John remembers choking on his blood.
Figuring he was dying, John said to himself just before passing out: “The hell with it. Let’s just go with it.”
Hot on their trail
Cardell was charged with aggravated burglary and felonious assault with a firearms specification. At the time of his arrest, he did not implicate McGhee or Anderson.
After initially thinking her boyfriend, Christopher Green, set up the shooting with her as the intended target, Sam turned her attention to McGhee. She did not know her well and, recalling the odd phone call and visits that morning along with her interest in the pot, it was clear to Sam she was somehow involved.

Anderson

Toledo Police Detective Kermit Quinn had a similar feeling. He interviewed McGhee and Anderson on April 13, 2010. They admitted knowing Cardell and giving him a ride to the Lodge Street neighborhood the day of the shooting. But, they said, they did not know his intention. Quinn did not believe them.
McGhee and Anderson went into hiding, but they were still seen around Toledo.
“They were well aware we were hot on their trail,” Quinn said. “They just evaded us for a while.”
Meanwhile, first Jeff Lingo and, later, Lindsay Navarre of the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, worked on the case against Cardell. Nearly a year went by, and Cardell declined to finger McGhee and Anderson. Finally, on Feb. 27, the day before his trial was set to begin, Cardell agreed to a deal with prosecutors. He would give up McGhee and Anderson in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Centimeters from death
The day John VanBuskirk was shot, his physician, Dr. George Blossom, saw the report on the evening news. He had delivered John 46 years earlier, when he first began practicing medicine.
“I thought he was a goner,” Blossom said.
In fact, John’s injury appeared worse than it was.
As he lay in the emergency room at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the most critical early issue was whether any of the several hundred pellets that struck John in the face and neck had penetrated his brain.
To his amazement, Dr. Daniel Gaudin, a UT Medical Center neurosurgeon, found that only a single pellet was life-threatening. That pellet went through John’s left eye and lodged just inside the surface of his brain.

Cardell

A few centimeters more and the injury would have been fatal, Gaudin said. He believes John’s hand and cell phone likely deflected and slowed the pellets, preventing more serious injuries or even saving his life.
Still, there was plenty of damage and serious medical issues. The eyesight in John’s left eye was gone. His mouth was badly damaged. Most of his teeth were gone. His left hand was mangled. The hundreds of pellets embedded in his previously handsome face and neck swelled his head into the size of a pumpkin.
Doctors induced a coma to stabilize John’s vital signs and inserted a breathing tube into his lungs.
When John woke, a week later, the life-threatening issues had passed. After he was released, the task of recovery began.
For months, it seemed, he had medical appointments every day. Speech therapists. Ophthalmologists. Oral surgeons. John couldn’t drive, so his daughter, Amanda, took him from office to office.
The job of removing some of the reachable pellets in his face and hand fell to Dr. A. Thomas Dalagiannis, a plastic surgeon. One day, while waiting for the doctor, John began counting all the pellets he saw in an X-ray of his face.
“I got to 175 of them and quit. I wasn’t even halfway,” he said.
Last week, John underwent 12 hours of dental surgery performed by Dr. Paul Kozy, a reconstructive implant dentist. The difficult and costly procedure included 18 implants and 28 fixed crowns, but John walked out with new teeth as real as his own.
Like many of the doctors who have worked with John, Kozy took it personally.
“As a father of three daughters, you don’t envision this happening to yourself. I wanted to make him whole again,” he said.
Although he remains self-conscious about the scars on his face and neck, John has regained some of his good looks. More troubling is the constant pain numbed only by the pills he consumes every day. The pain had been there before, the result of two back surgeries. Now he has pain from two sources.
Although his hand has improved, he has yet to regain full movement. As a result, he worries that his working days are over — he has 27-and-half years at Chrysler, only two-and-a-half years short of earning his pension.

McGhee

Blossom, amazed by John’s recovery, concedes John might not be able to return to work unless they give him a desk job rather than the more strenuous utility work he performs.
Physically, Blossom said, John is fine.
“I don’t think anything that is going on right now is going to shorten his life span,” he said.
The larger issue is how John deals with what has happened and the nagging pellets that will remain.
“In fact,” Blossom said, “it’s sad that he’s going to be dealing with this for another 30 or 40 years.”
For his part, John is happy to still be around. And he’s thankful for the doctors who have, literally, put him back together. On the occasion that he thinks about the day he was shot, he finds it hard to believe he survived.
“How my head is still attached, I don’t know,” he said.
‘He’s my hero’
John’s actions that day have awed all of those involved.
“Without hesitation, John literally took a bullet to protect his daughter,” said Lindsay Navarre, the prosecutor.
Most significant, to John at least, is how Sam feels. After she watched her father step in front of Cardell, she thought: “I have never loved someone so much in my life.”
She went on, “My dad has always been there for me my entire life. He’s a good dad and a good person. He’s my hero.”
Sam said she has turned her life around. She has a good job and has made a decent home for herself and Leah, now 15 months old. (Two other children, Joseph, 5, and Jayden, 4, are being raised by her mother.) The shooting still haunts her but less than before as a result of therapy. She’s working hard to mend her wounds.
When the subject returns to her father, Sam is certain of one thing:  “He would do it again.”
Ordeal not over
McGhee and Anderson were arrested on Feb. 27, not long after Cardell implicated them in the shooting of John VanBuskirk.
John called it a happy day. He described the uncertainty he and his family had felt during the year the investigation continued, and then said, “It felt like a 1,000-pound weight had been lifted off my back.”
Cardell was sentenced March 30 to a reduced sentence of 14 years in state prison.
McGhee and Anderson were charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and felonious assault. All of the charges carried gun specifications, which carry a prison term of 6 to 31 years. Both have been in the Lucas County Jail since their arrests.
On May 18, the VanBuskirks were jolted when they found out McGhee had negotiated a plea with the prosecutor’s office in exchange for testifying against Anderson.
Navarre said prosecutors didn’t think the Cardell’s testimony alone was strong enough to convict McGhee and Anderson. They determined they had a better chance of convicting Anderson if McGhee testified against him. Anderson’s trial is June 1.
Under the terms of the agreement, the charges against McGhee will be reduced to second-degree felony robbery. The sentence for that charge is 2 to eight years. She was awaiting release on bond May 19 that will require her to wear an electronic monitoring device. McGhee will be sentenced June 8.
Sam and John were livid at the news.
“It disgusts me,” Sam said. “If it wasn’t for her, none of this would have happened.”
Added John, “The guy who shot me should get out before either of them.”
In their minds, it’s not over.
It may never be.

John Michael Montgomery, Tonic and Green River Ordinance will headline the fourth annual Smoke on the Water — Ribs for the Red Cross event set for Aug. 5-7 in Downtown Toledo.
Proceeds from the weekend event in Promenade Park in Downtown Toledo will benefit the Greater Toledo Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Montgomery

Last year’s event drew 30,000 people and raised more than $65,000, said Red Cross Special Events Coordinator Stephanie Lent.
Green River Ordinance will headline Friday night’s concert. The Texas rockers have several hits, including “Come On” and “On Your Own,” and its songs have been featured on more than 20 TV shows, including “So You Think You Can Dance,” “The Hills” and “The Young and the Restless.” “Out of My Hands,” its Capitol/Virgin Records debut album, was released in 2009 to critical acclaim.
The group’s most recent album, “The Morning Passengers — Acoustic Sessions EP,” was released on iTunes only. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Heatseeker list and No. 39 on the Billboard Independent charts.
Saturday night’s headliner will be Tonic, which stormed the charts with its 1996 platinum debut album “Lemon Parade” and its monster hit “If You Could Only See.”
Boasting six Top 10 singles, more than 4 million records sold, two Grammy nominations and the No. 1 most-played rock song of 1998, Tonic released its self-titled fourth album in 2010.
Montgomery will headline Sunday night’s concert. The country music superstar has sold more than 16 million records worldwide and produced more than 30 singles on the Billboard country charts, including two No. 1 country singles of the year: “I Swear” (1994) and “Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)” (1995).
Five other singles have topped the country charts (“I Love the Way You Love Me,” “Be My Baby Tonight,” “If You’ve Got Love,” “I Can Love You Like That,” and “The Little Girl”) and 13 more have reached the Top 10. Montgomery has won four Academy of Country Music awards, three Country Music Awards and has twice been nominated for a Grammy. The native Kentuckian was inducted into the state’s Music Hall of Fame this year.
Known for its ribs, Smoke on the Water will feature a dozen rib vendors, Famous Dave’s pulled pork eating contest on Saturday and voting for people’s choice for ribs. There will be activities for kids, including a free play area 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
New this year, organizers are working with Imagination Station to offer activities and demonstrations for kids. Also new will be a corn hole tournament organized by a local corn hole group, said Event Chairperson Rachel Hepner Zawodny.

Tonic

Smoke on the Water covers all the bases for a great event, Lent said.
“It’s on the waterfront, it’s a family-friendly event, it’s reasonably priced, we bring in some great entertainment and the food is phenomenal,” Lent said. “People can arrive by car or bus or boat — that sets us apart. People can drive up to the dock in their boat, listening to music. It’s a great event in a great environment.”
The event will be open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aug. 5-6, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 7.
Admission is $5 for adults with kids 12 and younger free. Presale tickets are available by calling (419) 329-2619. Military personnel get free admission on Sunday with a military ID.
Sponsors include Columbia Gas of Ohio, KeyBank and Heidelberg Distributing. Toledo Free Press is a media partner for the event, with FOX Toledo and Cumulus Toledo stations K100, 94.5, 93.5, 106.5 The Ticket, Star 105, 1470 and 1560.
For more information, visit www.ribs4redcross.com.

Three staff and faculty unions at the University of Toledo protested job cuts at UT with a press conference May 17. Mark Sherry, assistant professor of sociology and AFL-CIO delegate, led the press conference along with representatives from the UT-AAUP, AFSCME Local 2415 and CWA Local 4319.
“We are making this statement because we love our students and we care about our university,” Sherry said. “We will not allow this administration to destroy it. We are sick and tired of hearing of management bonuses accompanying employee layoffs. We are sick of feeling scared about job security while management remains unaccountable for lavish expenses. The only reason tuition is going up and layoffs are occurring is because we have an inept and incompetent administration.”
UT President Lloyd Jacobs announced in April plans to lay off dozens of nonfaculty employees and raise tuition as the university faces cuts of approximately $20 million per year in state funding.
One of the employees being laid off spoke out at the protest. Former administrative secretary Carolyn Schlievert ended her career May 20 after 27 years at UT.
“I would have been proud to put in 30 or more years of service and end my career with thoughtful reflections of the past while anticipating a comfortable retirement,” Schlievert said. “However, with a daughter still in high school and bills to pay, these comforting thoughts have been replaced with stress and anxiety. One thing is for sure, there is not time for me to dedicate 30 years of service elsewhere.”
Schlievert said she is looking toward the future and supports fellow laid-off employees in the same situation.
“Those of us losing our jobs are not numbers on a piece of paper,” Schlievert said. “We are real people, dedicated men and women with real-life issues who are trying to pick up the pieces and move on to the next phase of our lives with as much dignity as possible.”
Bonuses questioned

Mark Sherry, photographed April 7 by Nick Kneer.

The loss of employees like Schlievert caused Sherry and the unions to question bonuses received by management as well as expenditures of the university.
“Management continues to give themselves record bonuses,” Sherry said. “$350,000 [in bonuses] were ratified by the UT board in February alone while lower-paid workers who struggle to support themselves and their families are being shown the door with little regard for their skills, experience and dedication. As a result, morale is at an all-time low.”
The UT-AAUP raised questions about charges to a UT credit card by administrators. This includes $61,164 on two apartments in Ypsilanti, Mich., $539.09 at Jos. A. Bank of Toledo and movie tickets, among other charges.
UT media relations manager Jonathan Strunk provided explanations for a few of the charges. The two apartments are for UT medical students in their third and fourth years doing clerkships. One specialty is not offered in Toledo, so the university provides apartments while they spend a month at the University of Michigan. The $539.09 was to purchase bowties for the “Tie One On” charity event to raise money for cancer research.
“Those are some examples of how the shadiness is not really all that shady when you learn what the actual things are,” Strunk said.
Sherry still wants more answers from the university.
“This is public money, and the Jacobs administration must be held accountable,” he said. “We have called for an independent audit of the books at the University of Toledo because we feel that the current administration is neither transparent nor accountable.”
According to Sherry, a lack of accountability is one reason approximately 400 faculty, staff and students unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Jacobs at a rally March 21. CWA 4319 president Bob Hall agreed the administration is not being transparent.
“There’s a black cloud of secrecy over this whole administration,” Hall said. “They are working within that cloud for their own benefit. This is a public university, and the whole public should know what’s going on. When we as a union put in a public records request, we’re not getting those requests timely. They are being evasive. Some of the things we are requesting are critical to the operation and expenditures of money on this campus.”
SB 5 support criticized
Hall said the union also condemns Jacobs’ public support of Senate Bill 5.
“I think it was totally inappropriate and totally uncalled for,” he said. “It sent a message to his employees that ‘I don’t care for you, and I’m going to replace you.’ In his testimony, he said something like the inadequacies of his union workers were costing him millions. What does that tell you if you are a dedicated worker? It’s the wrong message.”
“We also condemn Dr. Jacobs’ public endorsement of Senate Bill 5,” Sherry said. “All three unions have worked tirelessly to get a referendum on this issue in November. Over 2,000 people at the university have signed petitions for this to occur, another indication of the widening gap between an out-of-touch administration and its workers.”
AFSCME support
AFSCME President Thomas J. Kosek Jr. expressed support for the unions and laid-off employees such as Schlievert.
“AFSCME 2415 remains steadfast in its commitment to support our partners in this struggle, to ensure shared sacrifice by all members of the UT family,” Kosek said. “At a time when UT is expected to increase tuition, cut staff, increase workloads and ask others to take wage freezes and furlough days, shouldn’t the administration lead by example? The people of Northwest Ohio deserve better.”
Administrators declined to comment on the protest, bonuses or expenditures, but UT Vice President for External Affairs Lawrence J. Burns issued a statement.
“The economic collapse of the last few years has been deeply challenging to organizations and industries across the nation, and higher education is no exception,” Burns said. “In Pennsylvania, legislators have proposed cutting public higher education subsidies by more than 50 percent. In California, tuition rates have climbed more than 30 percent. From Minnesota to Texas, from coast to coast, and in Ohio, public universities are being called on to do more with less.”
Burns said the university is doing its best with the resources available.
“At The University of Toledo, we have worked hard to strengthen the academic experience, our commitment to research and service and our delivery of health care despite these challenges,” Burns said. “We have, wherever possible, eliminated positions through attrition. We have avoided laying off professors and instructors since the recession began, and we have moved millions of dollars from backroom functions to the interface between the student and the teacher.”
Sherry takes everything said by the administration with a grain of salt.
“Don’t let these people fool you,” he said. “The problems at UT are not caused by faculty or staff. They are caused by an incompetent administration.”

Editor’s note: Toledo Free Press will follow the Blank family of Millbury for one year as they rebuild their lives after a June 5 tornado destroyed their Main Street home.

Lake Township police officer Joe Musil wishes he could forget the devastation he heard and saw after the June 5 tornado: Gerald Lathrop saying fiancée Bailey Bowman had been killed, freeing the injured Beverly Hicks from her basement and finding out family friend Ted Kranz had died.
But the Millbury resident knows how important it is to remember.
“I knew quite a few of the people who were lost. We never want to forget. We want to remember how it brought our community closer together,” Musil said. “We never thought we would see levels of devastation like this. We saw the best part of people come together.”
For this reason Musil is part of the tornado anniversary committee, which is hosting an event themed “Triumph over Tragedy” on June 4.
The event will be part celebration of life, part memorial. The 4 p.m. block party with food, alcohol and music will take place on Main Street in Millbury, just south of Ayers Road to Cherry Street, the neighborhood that bore the brunt of the tornado. At midnight — the one-year anniversary of the tornado — several pastors will lead a moment of silence for the seven people who died from injuries sustained in the storm.
“We aren’t celebrating the tornado,” said Millbury Mayor Michael Timmons. “I think it is a good idea to celebrate all the people coming together. People know their neighbors three or four doors down when they might not have before.”
Timmons is on the tornado anniversary committee, which is being led in part by Ed and Julie Blank. The Blanks lost their Main Street home the night of the tornado, as did several other neighbors. Three of the four members of the Walters family lost their lives and a 5K run/walk will be hosted in their honor on the morning of the block party.
However, the evening event cannot take place without the help of others. The committee is searching for a primary sponsor or several sponsors, as well as bands to perform throughout the evening. The committee also needs food vendors, in addition to those who want to set up arts and crafts booths within the block.
Lake Township Police Chief Mark Hummer said he appreciates the committee’s desire to give back. Part of the profit from that day’s sale of food and alcohol will be given to the fire and police departments to cover costs that went beyond what the insurance paid.
“The community is on the heal,” he said. “It is going to be a new normal. In the past year, a lot of accomplishments have been made and we have done that as a community. I think it is more than appropriate to come together in a more positive manner.”
Hummer said the administration building, which was destroyed by the tornado, will be open by June 5 — another reason to celebrate.
Musil rushed to the administration building the night of the tornado. He was working off-duty at a wedding when he heard the screams for help from Lake Township dispatchers. When he got there, Lathrop told him what had happened. Lathrop and Bowman were running toward the building for safety when the tornado hit and Bowman was killed. Musil’s daughter was friends with Bowman.
“We really have remained together and strong in the past year,” Hummer said. “Not forgetting those folks who can never be replaced is important.”

Triumph over Tragedy
4 p.m. June 4
Main Street, Millbury
To become a sponsor, perform, donate or set up a booth, contact Ed Blank at (419) 508-9693 or via email at eblank@lubriplate.com.

As of May 20, active and retired military personnel have the chance to win a complete smile makeover through Great Smiles Family Dentistry, which has partnered with K100, Star 105.5 and Toledo Free Press to celebrate Armed Forces Day on May 21.
The grand-prize winner will receive any dental procedures it takes to restore their smile. Ten second-place winners will receive a Zoom! whitening treatment.
“We cannot thank our troops enough for their selfless service,” Dr. Nadeem Khan said. “This is our way of giving back and giving back their smile.”
Contestants should submit a photo of their smile and a short essay on their military service and why they deserve the complete smile makeover. For more information call (419) 843-8095 or visit their website at greatsmilesfamilydentistry.com and click the Facebook button.

Voting takes place between June 13 and June 17 on the contest section of their Facebook page. The winners will be announced June 20.

Donna Hill received a shock April 28 when she opened her mail to find a first notice letter for an unpaid parking ticket.
The surprise? The ticket was issued nearly nine years ago, on June 26, 2002.
“When I first got it, I thought ‘This is a joke. Are they really trying to collect on a nine-year-old parking ticket?’” said Hill, a 25-year resident of Sylvania.
“My immediate reaction was that these guys don’t know the difference between chicken salad and chicken s—,” husband John Hill said. “This is bad policy and bad politics.
“I’ll give you a hundred bucks for your Police Athletic League Association but don’t nickel and dime me for crap that’s 10 years old on a car we don’t even remember. That was three cars ago and five license plates. It all boils down to an aggressive attitude for a little amount of money from people who don’t understand the community.”
Donna Hill wasn’t the only one. Just one street over from her house, 34-year Sylvania resident Mike DelVerne also received a first notice letter for a ticket that was issued in 2002.
Both tickets were for $20, which included a $5 late fee.
“It just shows up in the mail for some ticket in 2002 on a car that I owned,” DelVerne said. “I don’t ever remember getting a ticket I didn’t pay. I don’t even remember parking on the meters anywhere in Sylvania.”
Hill and DelVerne have taken exception to the nine-year-old tickets because neither have records that go back far enough to disprove them, or prove that they already paid them nine years prior. The notice also required that the ticket be paid within a 30-day window or else a summons would be issued for a court appearance.
“How dare these people expect me to pay this ticket within 30 days or I am going to be issued a summons while they have nine years to send me the ticket that I supposedly never paid,” Hill said. “They never followed up with me nine years ago — $20 nine years after the fact? That’s just wrong.”
“It’s like getting a bill from a hospital from 1995 that you don’t remember being at and they are demanding payment,” DelVerne said. “The city must be hard up for cash. I don’t know how you could dispute a ticket from 2002? It’s like, ‘Give me 20 bucks’.”
Both parties received letters from Sylvania Chief of Police William H. Rhodus, who issued the notices. Rhodus did not return multiple messages left with his secretary. In a letter to Hill, Rhodus blamed the previous police administration for the nine-year lag in response time.
“I do agree with you that this letter should have been sent to you a long time ago, but I can not speak as to why the previous police administration did not do so,” Rhodus wrote. “The non-issuance of these letters is the fault of the police department and has been corrected.”
Hill and DelVerne may not be alone with their dated notices. In Rhodus’ letter to Hill, he alludes to “many hundreds” of recently discovered unpaid parking violations.
“Since I have been chief over the last year, I have discovered that we have many hundreds of parking violations tickets that have not been paid,” Rhodus wrote. “I am obligated as your Chief of Police to enforce the laws of he City of Sylvania and the State of Ohio. This I do as one of my responsibilities as your Chief of Police, and seek a resolution to these unpaid parking ticket violations. To ignore this further or do anything less would be negligent and irresponsible on my part as your chief. I’m sure that you as a law-abiding citizen would agree and expect no less.”
Although both Hill and DelVerne received responses from Rhodus in the form of letters, neither one was satisfied with the chief of police.
“I got his response to my letter; it almost sounded like to me he wanted me to thank him for sending me this nine-year-old parking ticket that was his obligation to follow up on and that I should expect no less,” Hill said.
“Immediately I wrote [a letter] and a couple days later I get a letter back basically saying ‘Screw you, our database says you owe it,’” DelVerne said.
Both parties have since paid the $20 ticket but maintain their distaste in how the situation was handled. With such a long period of time transpiring, each feel they had no opportunity to disprove the situation and that Rhodus should have backed off the issued tickets.
“If it would have been a year or a couple of years I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it,” Hill said. “It is wrong. Justice delayed is justice denied. It’s wrong for them to collect.”
“We paid it and have a bad taste in our mouths,” DelVerne said. “Hopefully this guy doesn’t come after us for any tax money because we are certainly not going to help him anymore.”

Toledo native Chelsea Mummert was selected as the 2011 Outstanding Senior for the Animation department at the Columbus College of Art & Design, after graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts May 14.
The award was a surprise for her. Mummert said she didn’t know it existed since the award works off teacher nominations. Her dean, Ron Saks, visited her and told her about the award after asking, “Can you keep a secret?”
“I was overcome with happiness,” she said. “He couldn’t have told me at a better time. I was really struggling with my film at the time with a lot of technical issues I couldn’t fix. Right after he told me, I called my parents.”

Chelsea Mummert

Her parents were both very excited about the news. She said her mother Barb Mummert got teary-eyed and couldn’t stop telling her how proud she was. Ken Mummert, her father, while excited, also expected the achievement out of his daughter since she’s always done well in school.
The Outstanding Senior award is given to one graduating student from each department at the end of each academic year. Mummert was chosen from 300 students.
Mummert said she received the award for hardships she’s overcome since January. After a close friend was involved in a car accident that involved about four months of hospitalization, her backpack was stolen. In the backpack were her laptop and external hard drive, which contained all her schoolwork.
“I think they were very proud of the fact that I overcame that and worked very hard,” she said.
Graduating, she said, was a beginning to a long-awaited dream. The dream, which sprung from watching animated films when she was young, includes wanting to eventually work for such companies as Disney and Pixar.
“I prefer the more cutesy-style things, so I’d lean more toward children’s animation with some adult humor in it,” she said, although she mentioned she wouldn’t mind doing “darker work.”
Instead of graduate school, she said she plans on working for a few years before judging if she’s where she wants to be. Mummert is working on an animated film, “Now I See,” about three minutes long, which she has written and produced.
“Everything about this film is me,” she said, “and I have people who are helping me out, but I’m in complete control of it. It’s a story I came up with. I’ve learned a lot from it.”
She plans to enter the short animation into a film festival once it’s completed.

So I called Visa last night and said, “Look guys, I was looking at my account and noticed there might be a little problem with the money I owe you. Don’t worry though, I took a vote today and raised my credit limit to fix it. I just thought I should let you know.”

Fortunately for me, the conversation I had was with an automated system at my bank that was probably paying just about as much attention to me as Congress is to the money it’s borrowing from us. Certainly a $14 trillion National debt is a pretty good indicator that this is the case (and many experts believe this number to be low).

I mean Jeez, they way they spend money, you’d think that they had a printing press cranking it out and … No wait, they do.

Yeah, but the way they’re spending money, you’d think it was somebody else’s money … No wait it is, ours.

In the midst of this fiscal insanity, isn’t interesting that Democrat voices crying out for relief from spending in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan just 2-3 years ago are now curiously silent; perhaps concerned that their ox (entitlement benefits) might also be gored in the process of gutting the defense budget? Meanwhile, the head of their party has gotten us into a third military conflict in Libya; spending money on missiles, bombs, and jet fuel in an effort strikingly similar to ones he decried from the campaign trail and the floor of the Senate.

Isn’t it likewise interesting that the Republicans, legs apparently tired from standing on a soapbox before the election telling all who would listen that they would curb runaway spending if given the chance to lead again. Given one, they repaid that trust through accounting diplomacy that turned $100 billion in spending cuts into $38 billion; and followed that with some fiscal legerdemain that that turned $38 billion into $352 million. With barely an apology for sleight-of-hand normally reserved for Pizza Parlors during a six year-old’s birthday party (no insult intended to Pizza Parlors or six year-olds), they now tell us we should trust them yet again.

And as responsible financial organizations and foreign debt holders do everything but take our credit card away, both parties in Congress remain oblivious to any semblance of responsible spending behavior or the global fiscal reality. Have the nations on the verge of bankruptcy around the world this last year somehow escaped them? Can they ignore that the United States Treasury has been buying a large part of the debt issued by the government in the delusion that there can be no problem if the debt is being purchased? Is it possible that they are so far gone down the road to fiscal insanity that no one sees the result of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and then rolling Paul to pay Peter back?

Now for those of you rising up in self-righteous anger to denounce the political party that you don’t belong to … sit down. Try to be at least honest enough with yourself to admit that this problem wasn’t caused in the last two years; nor in the eight before it. It is Congress which proposes the budget and the problem of government overspending may in fact be one of the few examples of true bi-partisanship in the history of that august body.

For those of you now getting to your feet to denounce the tax rates of those making more than $200,000 per year, you can sit down too. According to Rep Tim Scott of South Carolina, “The problem sir, is a simple one … that if we were to tax these individuals 100% of their income, we still could not cover our deficit this year alone. As a matter of fact, to tax our way our of debt we would need to increase taxes across the board on every man, on every woman, and every business by 60%.”

You know, many years ago I was still smoking cigarettes and I vowed to quit the habit. In order to strengthen my will to do so, I refused to buy a pack or carry cigarettes with me. Of course there was always someone at the ready to enable my bad habit with offers of a free smoke. With the opportunity to smoke ‘other people’s cigarettes’, I remained firmly in the grasp of my nicotine addiction. Perhaps Congress is simply a spending junkie with a habit that taxpayers continue to feed (albeit somewhat unwillingly). Until we can find a way to break this obsessive and irresponsible spending and get the monkey off of their back however, I have little doubt that they will continue to throw away ‘other people’s money’.

Tim Higgins blogs at Just Blowing Smoke

LEGOmania hits the high seas in this latest installment of the LEGO movie games, “LEGO Pirates of Caribbean” (Disney Interactive Studios) on the PlayStation 3. This title compresses all four films, including the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” into a fun experience for all ages.
The constant puzzles, challenging missions and problem-solving elements are best for ages 9 and up. Younger players need considerable assistance since many story chapters (in story mode or freeplay mode) require multiple level activities. Free play mode is the best way to learn each character’s abilities. Game developers also ramped up the interactivity options to promote a more free roaming style instead of linear play that limits player creativity.

The huge character set (more than 70) has no actual dialogue, which follows other LEGO games, but makes voice expressions and sounds. The strong visuals, character physics, and synergy from the films put a unique spin on the LEGO media. Jack moves while he leans back and has the same expressions. The LEGO character cutscenes closely follow the film with unique visual styles, including puppet show-type load screen that summarizes current storylines. Key production elements like Hans Zimmer’s memorable musical score and comic embellishments provide constant entertainment.
Players can switch among the unlocked characters in free play after completing the first level and expand to two-player cooperative at any time. Players can still get hurt by their teammates, but always have infinite lives no matter which character they choose. LEGO game veterans (e.g. “Batman,” “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones”) get some definite advantages from the familiar gameplay and actions. This game also features amusing sound effects and helpful visual animations. This game has a high replay value and constant action plus great teamwork and friendship themes (***1/2, rated E10+ for action violence, also available on Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation Portable, and XBox 360).

Comedian. Songwriter. Record producer. True crime author. Few entertainers sport a resume quite as eclectic as Tim Wilson’s.
The veteran comic, who has nearly three decades of performing under his belt, will appear at Connxtions Comedy Club beginning May 20. In an interview with Toledo Free Press Star, Wilson professed his love for performing in the Glass City.
“Toledo’s one of my favorite towns to work, because the crowds are good, and they laugh at what’s funny, and if it’s not, they don’t,” Wilson said.
The Columbus, Ga., native speaks with the manner and grace of a true Southern gentleman, but don’t let the demeanor fool you — Wilson is a passionate  individual with opinions on a wide variety of topics, and he’s not afraid to express his thoughts.
He attended college in South Carolina, then moved to Atlanta in the early ’80s with an eye on becoming a songwriter.

“When I was 18, I hooked up with a bunch of guys in a group called the Atlanta Rhythm Section that was big in the late ’70s. They sorta took me by the hand and showed me how recording studios work,” Wilson said. “So I was working in Atlanta, wanting to be a songwriter, and I was working in the mall selling glasses. And I passed a place called a comedy club. And I thought, ‘Well, hell, I can do that,’ because I’d done that in school growing up.”
From his humble beginnings at open mic nights, Wilson began to forge a career that has been going strong for more than 28 years. But an important facet of his act that would become a trademark didn’t get introduced until the late ’80s — music.
“I’d been writing songs for a group called Pinkard and Bowden. I got away from them because I just didn’t much care for the way they did things,” Wilson said.
He began to write his own material and introduce it into his stand-up. To call him a prolific writer would be an understatement — Wilson has released 17 albums worth of comedy during the past two decades. But his music is also exceedingly well-crafted and witty.
Wilson admits to being a perfectionist when it comes to his music.
“I like to put time in a song. I don’t work on a song unless I kind of believe in it. I was an English major in college and I put alliteration in comedy songs. It’s not just a laugh. You try and write it like you try to write anything. You chop it down, you knock off the excess to it, and all that,” he said. “Now I have a bit of a writer’s block. I ain’t thought of anything in about two months! But a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’ve already covered so many topics. Something’s really gotta stick out at me as sort of a classic before I spend a lot of time messing with it.”
This is not to say Wilson’s dance card is empty. In addition to regular appearances on the “Bob and Tom” radio show, Wilson’s experience in the studio has led to many chances to work as a producer for other acts. Other than working with fellow comic Jeff Foxworthy on his “Redneck Twelve Days of Christmas” track, however, Wilson is hesitant to work with other comedians as a producer.
“Comedy, to me — and apparently I was wrong — but I never, ever considered comedy a team sport. It’s competitive. The thing that makes you a comedian is sorta being an a*****e, you know? Which Foxworthy showed us is not the way to go,” Wilson said. “If I could go back in my life, I would be less competitive. But I still — I’m not the person who needs to produce another comedian’s song.”
Wilson also recently co-wrote the true crime expose “Happy New Year, -ted,” wherein he and Roger Keiss analyzed whether famous murderer Ted Bundy might be responsible for several killings in Wilson’s hometown. Wilson is currently working on a documentary on the same subject.
For audiences who come to Connxtions, Wilson promised, “I’m gonna be interested in the people in Toledo, Ohio. You know, a lot of comedians go out on the road, and they wanna get ready to do the show they’re actually trying to get ready to do. ‘Oh, I wanna do this club so I can get ready to film this and have my special.’ I’m actually interested in entertaining the people who come to the Toledo show. I’m not interested in Hollywood, I ain’t interested in anywhere else.”

Email Jeff at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.