There’s nothing cookie cutter about Saugatuck, Michigan.
Nestled on the southwest coast of Michigan, the well-heeled artist community is just a couple of postcard-perfect grass-covered sand dunes away from the deep, blue waters of Lake Michigan.

“We’re not generic,” local sculptor Marcia Perry said. “That’s our trump card.”
Saugatuck and its sister city, Douglas, across the Kalamazoo River are old — old as in quaint, historic, cool. No box stores, no chain restaurants.
Shops, inns, and restaurants are smaller and personal, concentrating quality and service while overlooking a beautiful river and landscape. Riverside shops and inns crowd up to busy docks where personal boats and charter boats sortie in and out of slips, typically returning from the lake with nice catches of salmon and whatever else is biting in the great lake.
Downtown streets and neighborhoods are for strolling and biking as much as for cars.
It’s a town with a genuinely fierce sense of pride in where it’s been.
There’s no more demonstrative evidence of that community pride than in their homegrown parades. Stay any length of time in Saugatuck and there’s a good chance you’ll see one. No big-city style floats. It’s veterans leading the way, carrying the flag past onlookers not embarrassed to stand and clap and cheer. Before it’s over pretty much every manner of small-town transportation passes review.
“We have parades for about everything here,” said the woman running the register at Pumpernickels, a local eatery steeped in atmosphere. Parades mark the summer holidays, Halloween, even the day the town’s traffic light changes from blinking to red-yellow-green.
“And then, in the fall, we have another parade when it changes back to a blinking light,” said Perry.
Blinking or not, it’s a short drive through that light, across the bridge and on to the shore of Lake Michigan at Oval Beach, consistently ranked as one of the very best beaches in North America. It’s that good. That beautiful.
“When I’m on the dunes, feeling the whole power of that landscape, I feel a direct relationship with nature,” Perry said. “You can get lost there.
“It’s spiritual.”

Getting There
Saugatuck/Douglas is a year-round tourist destination on Lake Michigan, 200 miles from Toledo, less than four hours via the Ohio Turnpike, I-69, I-96 and local routes. Visit the Saugatuck/Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau at the website www.saugatuck.com.

In the transportation appropriation bill the Ohio General Assembly passed one section created stringent rules for obtaining a construction equipment auction license. The rules were so stringent, only one company operating in Ohio — Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers — met all of the requirements.
One requirement is maintaining  a permanent auction site in Ohio that is at least 90 acres in size and also maintaining more than 60,000 square feet of total facility space. Another is to receive more than $1 million in gross annual sales in Ohio.
When the bill first passed in March, auctioneering companies that were impacted did not know it had happened. They were not contacted, asked to testify nor given an opportunity to protest.
The Ohio Auctioneers Association (OAA) members started contacting their elected representatives after learning of the bill’s passage. Few legislators were aware that HB 114 created a monopoly for Ritchie Bros. OAA obtained legal advice that included the opinion that this section of HB 114 violated the Ohio Constitution’s uniformity clause and could be struck down as unconstitutional if challenged.

Canadian-owned Ritchie Bros. is the largest auctioneer operation in Ohio. It employs two legislative lobbyists. This isn’t just about one giant corporation trying to eliminate all of its competition through legislation. The auction issue is also one that involves the Ohio Auto Dealers Association, which has its own lobbyists and does not want construction equipment auctioneers to sell equipment that has a motor vehicle title.
HB 114 allows Ritchie Bros. to auction motor vehicles at its Columbus location as long as they only account for 10 percent of its gross annual sales revenue in Ohio.
A local company impacted by this is Yoder & Frey Auctioneers. Its general manager, Dan Pletcher, said he contacted his legislators, Rep. Barbara Sears and Sen. Mark Wagoner.
“Sears came out the day after the phone call. When we explained the impact of the bill and how our business plan operates, she appeared to get it,” Pletcher said. “She said she would see what she could do, then stopped returning my phone calls.”
Wagoner did not return his calls, Pletcher said.
When Toledo Free Press contacted Wagoner on June 15, he said Senator Cliff Hite had proposed to solve the issue by placing an amendment in HB 153. Sears was contacted, said she would comment on the issue, but did not respond by press time.
Pletcher said HB 153 does not repeal what was passed in HB 114, nor does it eliminate the concerns about unconstitutionality. It still allows one company, Ritchie Bros., to conduct auctions that other construction auction firms like Yoder & Frey would not legally be able to conduct in Ohio. OAA said HB 114 and HB 153 will impact more than half of the companies that do construction equipment auctions in Ohio.
“The public should be the ones that are angry, this will not allow them to get the best price for equipment or allow them options,” Pletcher said.  “They are giving a Canadian company the ability to do what they are not allowing any other Ohio company to do.”
Instead of a local company being able to sell or buy heavy equipment that would include dump trucks at a local auction, the local company could only sell construction equipment that did not have a motor vehicle title. You could buy or sell a backhoe, but not a dump truck. To sell all of your equipment you’d either have to take it out of state or go to the one auction location in Ohio where you could sell or buy both — Ritchie Bros.
Yoder & Frey have been in Northwest Ohio since 1964. Like a majority of auction operations, they are family owned and operated. HB 114 as passed and HB 153 as it is written will mean the company will have to seek more out-of-state auctions to survive as a business.
Members of OAA don’t want special treatment; all they want is to be allowed to compete fairly. They don’t have scores of lobbyists with powerful friends, but they should have been able to count on our elected representatives to read bills before passage. The General Assembly still has time to do the right thing — let’s hope they do it.

Toledo Free Press Web Editor Lisa Renee Ward operates the political blog GlassCityJungle.com.

Gov. John R. Kasich announced today that an agreement has been reached with Penn National Gaming, Inc., in which Penn would pay Ohio $110 million over 10 years, and Ohio’s Commercial Activity Tax would be applied to Penn’s wagers minus payouts, instead of on wagers only.

This agreement with Penn National is similar to an agreement reached with with Rock Ohio Caesars, LLC (ROC) that Kasich announced June 15.
Kasich issued the following statement, “I’m proud that Ohioans are getting $220 million more from gaming companies — funds that will help improve education and job training, as well as support food banks. I know that many thought it was futile to push the gaming companies for a better deal, but the governor’s job isn’t just to enforce laws, it’s also to make sure they benefit Ohioans in the greatest possible way. This agreement does that, and also provides the casinos a more predictable set of rules so they can be more successful. The casinos can now more forward without delay. This is a win for all involved.”

According to a press release from the Governor’s office the highlight of the new agreement are:

• $220 million more for Ohioans: ROC and Penn would pay Ohio $110 million over 10 years–$10 million per year for the first five years and $12 million per year for the next five years;
• Tax certainty for gaming companies: Ohio’s Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) would be applied to casinos’ total dollars wagered minus winnings and prizes paid out to customers;
• Capital Expenditures: Gaming companies would make a combined capital expenditure in their casino facilities of at least $700 million (ROC: Cleveland and Cincinnati, Penn: Columbus and Toledo);
• $50 million VLT Licenses: The Lottery Commission intends to allow each of Ohio’s seven horse racing permit holders to apply for a 10-year sales agent license to operate a VLT facility. Licenses would cost $50 million and be paid over time: $10 million upon application, $15 million at the onset of VLT sales, and $25 million one year later;
• Track Relocations: The state would consider transferring horse racing permits from current track locations to new locations, including locations in the Dayton and Youngstown areas.

Penn National Gaming, Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Timothy Wilmott released a statement on the agreement in principle reached with the State of Ohio.

“Reaching an agreement with the Administration allows us to meet our primary goal of keeping our Ohio projects moving forward. While we continue to believe in the strength of our State Constitutional protections, any further delay caused by uncertainty would benefit no one — particularly the thousands of construction workers building our two projects, the 3,200 permanent casino jobs that will be generated, as well as every community across Ohio that will benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenues. With this matter behind us, we look forward to working cooperatively with the Governor’s office and the General Assembly to bring this new industry to life,” Wilmott said.

With a late-night decision, the motion picture academy has quelled criticism that has recently plagued the Best Picture category. At the same time, it has also added a splash of surprise for next year’s race.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors voted Tuesday night to implement a system that will now produce anywhere between five and 10 nominees in the Best Picture category. The number of nominees will be announced when the nominations themselves are revealed. For the 84th Academy Awards, that date is Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012.

After what critics thought were egregious nomination omissions of films like “The Dark Knight,” the Academy announced two years ago (LINK) that it would be expanding the field of five Best Pictures nominees to 10. The last time the field had been that large was at the 16th Academy Awards (1943). Critics then lambasted (LINK) the Academy for the expanded field after last year’s Oscars, the first year it was implemented. This decision could be the middle ground.

With two years of the expanded category under its belt, the Academy conducted a study with the help PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Academy President Tom Sherak explained the study: “We’ve been looking not just at what happened over the past two years, but at what would have happened if we had been selecting 10 nominees for the past 10 years.” The change was first recommended to him by retiring Academy executive director Bruce Davis and then to incoming CEO Dawn Hudson (LINK) and then to the governors, he was stated in a press release.

During the period studied, the average percentage of first place votes received by the top vote-getting movie was 20.5. Post-analysis, Academy officials determined that 5 percent of first place votes should be the minimum in order to receive a nomination, resulting in a slate of anywhere from five to 10 movies.

“In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies,” Davis was quoted in the press release. “A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn’t feel an obligation to round out the number.”

According to the press release, if this system had been in effect from 2001 to 2008 (before the expansion to a slate of 10), there would have been years that yielded 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 nominees.

“The final round of voting for Best Picture will continue to employ the preferential system, regardless of the number of nominees, to ensure that the winning picture has the endorsement of more than half of the voters,” stated the release.

Other rule changes
The big twist was not the only rule change approved by the board.

For Animated Feature, the need for the Board to vote to “activate” the category each year was eliminated. A minimum number of eligible releases – eight – is still required for a competitive category, however. The short films and feature animation branch recommended a modification to the number of possible nominees for Animated Feature. In any year in which eight to 12 animated features are released, either two or three of them may be nominated. When 13 to 15 films are released, a maximum of four may be nominated, and when 16 or more animated features are released, a maximum of five may be nominated. The Board approved the change. (Last year eight to 15 features had to be release for three nominations. The change allows for up to four nominations if there are 13 to 15 released.)

For Visual Effects, the “bakeoff” where nominees are determined will expand from seven to 10 contenders. This increase is related to a change last year that ballooned the possible number of nominees from three to five.

Previously, the Board approved changes to Documentary Feature and Documentary Short rules that now put those categories’ eligibility periods in line with the calendar year and thus with most other awards categories. The change means that — for the 84th Awards cycle only — the eligibility period is more than 12 months: Sept. 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2011.

Other rule modifications for next year’s Oscars include expected date changes and minor “housekeeping” changes.

Rules are typically changed or modified during this time of year when individual branches and category committees meet and propose changes. Those recommendations are presented to the Academy’s Board of Governors for approval. Some, if not all of those proposed changes, were reviewed at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Toledo Free Press Star Lead Designer James A. Molnar blogs about all things Oscar at TheGoldKnight.com. His column will appear online and in print periodically.

Toledo Free Press will focus a six-week series this summer on the mission of Feed Lucas County Children (FLCC). From July 3 to July 17, Walt Churchill’s markets will participate in a “Round Up Hunger” campaign to raise funds for FLCC.

When Tony Siebeneck read a newspaper story about child hunger in Toledo 11 years ago, he wasn’t buying it.
“Man, that’s not true,” he recalled saying. “Don’t give me no bleeding heart story.”
But after a year of grassroots research with a group of friends, he decided the article had been understated. Siebeneck founded Feed Lucas County Children in response. The group works to feed healthy meals to up to 6,200 children at more than 67 locations on weekdays all summer.
In Lucas County, 29,962 children under the age of 18 — 27.4 percent — live at or below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census. During the school year, the National School Lunch Program ensures at least one meal a day for them. But that program halts during the long summer break, leaving many children scrounging for cheap food.
For hungry children, the cheapest and most readily attainable meal is often a burger and fries from a fast-food chain.
Anthony Johnson, director of inner-city program Kids Unlimited, said children raid trash bins behind fast-food restaurants after closing time for a late dinner.
These foods are unhealthy and, when depended on for survival, can result in obesity and Type II diabetes and open children to a host of other diseases, said Jeannie Wagner, a registered dietitian at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center who works primarily with adult diabetics.
Twenty years ago, Wagner said, she never saw Type 2 diabetes, but the disease has flourished as people have become more obese. Today, she said nine out of 10 diabetics she treats are Type 2.
Feed Lucas County Children is trying to combat the issue by offering regular, balanced meals — avoiding fried and heavily processed foods in favor of healthier options.
“This is a chicken patty,” Siebeneck said, picking up a particle-board piece of meat resembling McChicken sandwich meat. “Processed. Garbage.”
“This is a prime example of what makes us different,” he added, indicating a whole-muscle chicken breast in his other hand.
The lunch menu for June 15 consisted of barbecue chicken, Mexican corn, an orange, a wheat roll and a carton of milk.
The organization focuses on providing fresh or frozen fruits and, when it does use canned produce and vegetables, avoiding heavy syrups.
Siebeneck prides himself on the fact that the FLCC kitchen is without a fryer.
Instead, 14 industrial steamers line the wall, which Siebeneck said is the healthiest way to cook food — conserving the most nutrients possible.
Siebeneck worries that FLCC is running out of kitchen space. Unless the organization expands into another building, he said, it will soon have to turn hungry mouths away. But expansion costs money — anywhere from $850,000 to almost $2 million, depending on the project’s scale —and that’s money the FLCC does not have.
Sonia Najjar, director of UT’s Center for Diabetes and Endocrine Research, said about 33,000 Type 2 diabetics live in Toledo. She estimated that five years ago, 6 percent of them were children.

Today, she estimated, more than 9 percent are children.
“Our bodies, our children’s bodies are basically aging due to obesity,” she said. “They are using computers much more than we did. They are not using playgrounds like we did.”
Blacks and Hispanics, populations with a high percentage under the poverty line in Ohio according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, are at an especially high risk for Type 2 diabetes.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that Hispanics have a 66 percent higher risk and blacks have a 77 percent higher risk of contracting the disease than non-Hispanic whites.
According to the most recently available data from the CDCP, about half of the newly diagnosed cases of diabetes each year for black children between the ages 10-19 are Type 2, as opposed to Type 1, which is not diet-related. Just under half of new cases for Hispanic children in the same age range are also Type 2.
Many Toledo children survive on one or at best two meals a day, said parent Dacia Bolden, whose children have eaten at FLCC when she struggled to pay the grocery bills.
Wagner at St. Vincent said skipping meals is a major contributor to obesity and, by extension, diabetes. If a child doesn’t eat breakfast, his metabolism doesn’t start working to burn food, and he is then more likely to gorge on food when it is available — junk food out of a trash bin, for instance.
Danny Gray, a black Toledo resident, has had Type 2 diabetes for years and was in the hospital during the winter. He doesn’t have healt insurance, so fighting the disease with a healthy diet is vital for him.
During the summers, he volunteers and eats at FLCC, which he said has helped him to balance his diet. Last year, his son Danny Jr. — who Gray believes is also diabetic — also worked and ate there.
“It keeps me at the portion I should have, rather than overloading my plate like it’s Thanksgiving,” Gray said.
The healthier meals have also helped him avoid his habitual fast-food run, which he believes contributed to many of his problems.
“I’m trying to break that,” he said. “I’m a fast-food junkie.”

The recent National Basketball Championship series ended with the Dallas Mavericks being crowned champions by beating the favored Miami Heat in a best of seven series 4-2. It was a crowning achievement for Dallas superstar Dirk Nowitzki.
The bigger story is superstar LeBron James and his teammates Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. All three are major superstars and it is the first time in history that stars of such magnitude have come together to try to win a championship. Some have called James the most talented player to ever play the game.
Up until the last year or so, James has been viewed as a basketball hero and much loved by his fans. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, a thrill to his hometown fans that he would be playing near where he grew up. They watched him for seven seasons, wearing T-shirts to games with the word “witness” on the front, referring to witnessing the greatness of “King James.”
The story did not have a happy ending for the city of Cleveland. After his seven seasons without winning a championship, James became a free agent. Would he stay in his hometown? Or would he jump to greener pastures? It just so happened that Bosh became a free agent at the same time.  Wade was already at Miami and the three got together and decided to form a threesome like no other in history. Here was an opportunity they could not pass up.
No one could really hold anything against James for seizing the opportunity. It was the way it was done that caused many to hate him. First, he abandoned his hometown. He didn’t just leave, he left without informing the owner of his intentions and no one knew what he was going to do until he announced his plans on a special television show that he arranged called “The Decision.” He said, “I am taking my talents to South Beach.”
A Miami pep rally included mugging for the camera amid smoke, flashing lights, video and sound effects. They talked about how they were not going to just win a championship, but at least seven. This, before the three had stepped onto a basketball court together.
They reached the finals with everyone expecting them to easily beat the Dallas Mavericks. After winning game 1, they had a big lead in game 2 and were seen celebrating way before the game was over. To their chagrin, Dallas came back and won that game. During the series, Dallas’ superstar Dirk Nowitzki was fighting a fever, cough and generally not feeling well, yet he fought through it, performing at a high level. James and Wade were caught on camera coughing apparently mocking Nowitzki.
Many things, like basketball, are team games and require all things to come together in harmony to win. This did not happen for James. I feel bad for him because he is held to such high standards. Even so, much of his plight he brought upon himself. The Retirement Guys talk about being financially self-reliant but not without a good team, good advice and good sound strategies. Many times it is all how you go about things. Perhaps James needs a good public relations person, and if nothing else, a little wisdom.

For more information about The Retirement Guys, tune in every Saturday at 1 p.m. on 1370 WSPD or visit www.retirementguysradio.com. Securities and Investment Advisory Services are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC.  NEXT Financial Group, Inc nor its representatives provide tax advice.  The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. The office is at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537. (419) 842-0550.

Even on a sweltering June day routing around in the attic of his Massachusetts home, Lloyd Cole still sounds cool.
The British-American artist was getting ready to go back on the road in support of “Broken Record,” which was released in the States last month.
For the disc, Cole, best known as the cerebral frontman of the Commotions, assembled a band.

“I wrote a few songs that seemed to demand drums, and that’s when we put together the band,” he said during a phone interview. “I thought it was so much fun, we might as well do a whole album like that because you never know — I might never do another one.”
While he laughed, he wasn’t joking.
“I think it’s natural there will come a point where you reach maybe the diminishing returns, a sort of watershed, and at that point, I think I’d be quite happy to just sing my old songs,” Cole said.
“I think actually it’s really to be applauded if people realize that the next album that they might make is maybe really not that good,” he continued. “I don’t want to become one of those artists who keep making albums when they should stop. As long as I can feel I’m doing good work, I will try to keep making records, but it doesn’t get easier.”
The singer-songwriter turned to fans to help finance “Broken Record.” For $45, 1,000 fans prepaid for a deluxe edition.
“It was nice because they’re all sort of executive producers of the record, and they know the record is there because of them,” he said.
The Lloyd Cole Small Ensemble — Mark Schwaber, guitar and mandolin, and Matt Cullen, guitar and banjo — will play The Ark in Ann Arbor at 8 p.m. June 23. Tickets are $25. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
“I just really was looking for a break from being a troubadour/folk singer,” he said of the ensemble. “And then when it came to making the record, we ended up expanding on that sound.”
Fans can expect to hear some Cole classics.
“We are reinventing old songs. We’re playing quite a few songs from ‘Rattlesnakes’ and quite a few songs from the new album, and almost at least one song from every album,” he said.
The brooding Brit’s catalog includes “Jennifer She Said,” “Perfect Skin,” “My Bag,” “No Blue Skies” and “Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?”
A noted golfer, Cole isn’t sure if he’ll hit the links before the concert.
“I know we get into Ann Arbor the night before the show,” he said. “You don’t really want a 50-year-old dude trying to play a big round of golf and trying to do a concert the same day; I might fall asleep onstage.”

Local businessman Ford Cauffiel has helped more than 15,000 elementary school students in Northwest Ohio school districts improve their academics through a peer tutoring program, Students for Other Students (SOS).
Cauffiel said he has invested more than $1 million in the SOS after-school program. He established a nonprofit corporation, Students for Other Students, to fund the program he began more than 20 years ago.
Cauffiel reported that the SOS program has received funds from the Rotary Clubs in Northwest Ohio and numerous other local companies and organizations.
“I want to raise some big money for this program,” Cauffiel said.
He plans to approach educational foundations and philanthropic organizations for grants and donations with the goal of raising $1 million per year for the SOS program.
Since its inception, Cauffiel reported the peer tutoring has been applied in urban, suburban and rural school districts in four Ohio counties, and districts in Illinois, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Rhode Island.

Cauffiel said the program pays older, academically bright students to tutor younger, struggling students in need of assistance in their studies. Paying students up to $8 per hour to tutor their peers has proven to be a win-win for both tutors and students, he said.
Struggling students learn new effective study habits from their contemporaries, while tutors serve as role models who communicate to students in their language as opposed to the more formal style of adults.
By being paid, tutors experience responsibility and the satisfaction of earning money using their mental skills, Cauffiel said.
“It has changed the lives of thousands of children who for various reasons found learning difficult in the public school environment. Many of those students were at risk of falling through the cracks of society,” he said.
He first introduced the program to Perrysburg Schools in 1989 when the district became the original adopter. It has used the tutoring program annually, according to Kadee Anstadt, director of teaching and learning for the district.
Anstadt reported the district is helping about 135 middle and high school students with the SOS program funded by Cauffiel and additional students at the elementary level with a similar program funded by the Perrysburg Rotary Club.
Seventy-eight students participated in the SOS program in Springfield Local Schools during the 2009-2010 school year.
With the help of 42 high school student tutors, the third through fifth graders earned an average gain of 13 percent in test scores.
The Springfield district used title funds to assist with the program as the total number of students needing the tutoring service was larger than normal, according to a report filed by Todd Cramer, director of instruction and technology for the district.
Cauffiel was honored by the Springfield Schools at its May 25 meeting for funding the SOS program in the district for 21 years, said board president Kenneth Musch. They presented Cauffiel with three posters signed by 78 students expressing their appreciation for the program.
Evergreen Local Schools used the SOS program to provide tutoring to 33 elementary students during the 2009-2010 school year.
Preliminary results from the Ohio Achievement Assessment confirmed the strides students at Evergreen Elementary School in Metamora are making with the SOS tutoring program, according to Principal Scott Lockwood.
“We just finished another after-school program for this school year with 58 students enrolled. We’re very grateful to Mr. Cauffiel for his support,” Lockwood said.
The SOS program helped to provide student tutors from Evergreen High School for one-to-one tutoring in 30-minute study periods.
Bedford Public Schools in Monroe County has used the SOS program every year since 2004 to tutor approximately 10-15 students in grades K-5 for one hour five days a week at Jackman Road Elementary School. The program began in November and ran through the end of the school year.
“It has been a powerful program for us and we have seen a substantial increase in reading assessment scores with better attitudes toward their studies and classroom performance,” said Janice Gibson, reading specialist at Jackman Road Elementary.
Cauffiel said Toledo Public Schools used the SOS program in the past at Burroughs, Glendale-Fielbach, Nathan Hale, and Whittier schools with tutors from Libbey, Start and Waite high schools. He said that only some TPS Schools continued the program due to a lack of funds for the after-school program that requires a teacher to coordinate it.
Burroughs Elementary School in Toledo Public Schools provided 3,487 hours of tutoring to students in grades three through six during the 25-week program in 2009-2010, according to a report filed by the school.
Whittier Elementary had fifth graders tutoring second and third graders with the SOS program, eliminating the need for high school students to travel to that school. The tutored students who had previously failed the Ohio Proficiency Test raised their average score in five months to the accelerated or above-average proficient range, according to Cauffiel.
The inspiration for SOS came when Cauffiel was a freshman at Libbey High School in danger of failing algebra. A math teacher introduced him to an older student who tutored him in algebra and helped him become a math and engineering whiz, Cauffiel said.
Cauffiel is founder and CEO of Cauffiel Technologies in Toledo, which serves the steel processing industry around the world. He has established five subsidiaries and holds 25 patents.
“Like most businesspeople, I still have a burning desire to continue to prosper. But why make more money unless you have a noble objective? With the SOS program, I’ve tried to create a legacy from which children all across the country can benefit,” he said.
For more information, call (419) 843-5798 or email sos@cauffiel.com.

Almost exactly two years to the day after he assumed the leadership role at Owens Community College, president Larry McDougle will leave for another try at retirement.
Two years may not be long enough to carve the legacy of a decade-long tenure, but there are several advances and triumphs McDougle has earned credit for. First, he came out of retirement to help Owens when it needed him. Taking control during an uncertain time in the wake of the departures of President Christa Adams and Provost Paul Unger, McDougle kept calm and stability in his “cabinet” and ensured a smooth transition.

He also helped focus the ongoing efforts to address the state of Owens’ nursing program, which lost its accreditation from the National League for Nursing (NLN) in July 2009. The school’s candidacy for reinstatement has been approved and it is more than halfway through the multi-step process to realize that goal.
He has overseen the successful opening of a satellite campus at Arrowhead Park in Maumee. Owens continues to work with The Source of NW Ohio, which aids job hunters through education.
Owens’ Findlay campus continues to grow, as does the school’s commitment to alternative energy.
As a member of the Owens Community College Foundation Board, I echo the comments of Dee Talmage, chairwoman of the Owens Community College Board of Trustees: “President Dr. Larry McDougle’s leadership has been invaluable in furthering Owens Community College’s mission and vision of providing a superior academic experience through excellence, innovation and collaboration,” she said. “The Board of Trustees looks forward to continuing to work with President McDougle to meet the educational needs of students throughout the Northwest Ohio region in the coming year and receiving his guidance during the search process for the next President of Owens Community College.”
In a 2010 Toledo Free Press profile on McDougle, writer Michael Stainbrook related this story: “The president demonstrated [the many elements of leadership] with a multicolored ball he once bought for his grandchildren. The ball initially comprised many spikes joined only at the center. But McDougle then reshaped the ball to reveal a web of interconnected points without a central core.
‘It’s more conducive to free flow of information‚ he said. ‘I focus on the nursing program, but it’s not my only piece by any means’’.’
We wish McDougle many years of teaching his grandchildren such lessons and thank him for the service and lessons he has given us.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

I married Shannon Marie Scott on a Sunday morning in the warm sand at Dania Pier. Dania, just south of Fort Lauderdale, is home to a public beach with clean sand, clear water and several open-air huts that offer shelter from the intense and insistent Florida sun. We were married in formal wear and bare feet, with our closest family and friends as witnesses, standing around us in the saltwater breeze.
We married in March 2002, after a long courtship; we planned and assumed we would welcome a baby within a year or so.
But it was four years before we were blessed with our first son, Evan. There are undoubtedly couples who consider four years to be a walk in the park compared to their ongoing wait, but on the far side of 35, every barren year feels increasingly ominous.
It was Sweetest Day 2005 when I came home from work, surprised to find that Shannon had a card and small gift bag waiting; surprised, because Sweetest Day isn’t one of our big holidays. I reached in the bag and pulled out a baby bib. It took several beats and happy tears in my wife’s eyes before I understood the message.
We first held and kissed Evan on June 16, 2006; his brother Sean made our family complete on June 12, 2008, a birthday shared by my only sibling, Mark.
Mark lives in north Miami. He would rather eat a game-worn LeBron James sneaker than board an airplane, so we travel to see him two or three times a year, as finances allow.
During each trip, we make it a point to take our sons to Dania Pier. We don’t make a fuss about the importance of the site to us, but we spend a few hours each trip watching them play in the sand, becoming increasingly brave with the Atlantic Ocean surf.

On June 12, we spread our towels on the multi-colored sand and walked the boys to the edge of the surf. In previous years, neither of them showed interest in venturing into the waves beyond knee level, but this year, both of them wanted to see how far into the water they could go. Evan, I am guessing, was hoping to find Frisbee-size shells or other pirate treasure. Sean, I know, was seeking mermaids.
I lived on the Florida coast for a while, so I know that stretch of ocean well. It beckons with a lover’s whisper of seduction, but it holds cruel and dangerous surprises. There are often sharp rocks or shells or — spiny things — underfoot. There are nearly invisible sea lice and jellyfish and man-o-war waiting to sting.
As a father, it is my job to allow my sons to explore the wonder around them while keeping watch for any threats. The eternal quest is to find the balance between all-out freedom and overcaution.
I put Sean on my shoulders and took Evan’s hand and waded toward the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean.
About 50 yards from shore, the water was still only chest-high to Evan; a sandbar beckoned about 15 yards away, but I was sure the water would deepen to his eyebrows by then. A novice kick-and-thrash swimmer like Evan needs full attention, and with Sean on my shoulders, it seemed wise to stop, wave to Mom on the shore and head back to land.
I love the open water. The ocean erases a lot of the sins of middle age. I do not need my glasses, as there is nothing to read. I do not feel gravity pulling on my weight, as the waves buoy and support my frame, which approaches as close to a state of grace as I am going to achieve in this life. The water, especially the clear saltwater, is also an effective mental cleanser. At one with the calm Atlantic, it doesn’t matter what Toledo’s politicians, its battered citizens or its corrupt media elements are up to.
None of the ongoing concerns that dominate the news cycle in Toledo can follow me into the water — although even as I watched my boys splash in the waves and knew I would write about the moment in this five-year series on their birthdays, I could hear the scoffing of the vacuous and nugatory who think writing about life, love and the brief existence of both is somehow less legitimate than dissecting the latest local political idiocy.
We reached the shore and Mom’s waiting dry-towel embrace. I did my job; no undertow, jellyfish or errant speedboat touched my boys on that day. The slippery puzzle of fatherhood rarely offers such in-the-moment symbolic opportunities to feel like a good shepherd, so I let the modest glow fuel my smile as we drove back to my brother’s condominium home on the Intercoastal waterway.
That day, during a poolside conversation with a building resident, I mentioned that we had earlier in the day visited Dania Pier and waded nearly all the way to the sandbar.
“Dania Pier, down by the huts?” he asked.
I confirmed the location.
“I was just there yesterday afternoon,” he said. “We saw a 5-foot shark on the beach side of the sandbar, where they hardly ever go. It just looked around and then darted off. Cleared the beach for a while, though!”
I looked over the top of my bifocal lenses to see if the man was playing games with me, but he was not.
I had stood tall in the sand, believing I had enveloped my growing sons in a bubble of vigilance and safety, ignorant that we swam in waters where a shark had sniffed for lunch the day before.
That night, I dreamt of razor teeth and helpless screams and clear South Florida water running red with blood.
And I am reminded, as I guide my sons through the waves in their third and fifth years, that a man who stands on shifting sand is never in a position to feel like he is standing tall.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.