Thoughts Bouncing Off My Window VII

It's been awhile since I used that title but my clippings folder was getting full. It's time to clean it out.

It is with trepidation that I'm waiting to see what my gas budget will be for the coming heating season. In a piece in the Vindicator a couple of weeks ago it was said the price of natural gas is up 74% since last year. Ouch! The article was about drilling for new natural gas wells and said that with Ohio's 63,654 natural gas wells we may get some relief. Columbiana County has 1,900 active wells and drilling for new ones continues. Wasn't too long ago there was news of Buckeye Water District allowing some company to do some exploring on their land for gas.

Speaking a gas... Last Sunday's Post-Gazette had a chart of gasoline prices in 27 different countries. The prices were from June average prices and the US was ranked ninth as having the less expensive gas prices. The cheapest gas to be found was in Venezuela at $o.25/gallon with the most expensive in the Netherlands costing $10.05/gallon.

Gasoline prices have come down a bit lately. Isn't it funny we're jubilant when it comes down? We're happy to see it at $3.65 or so. Do you think it's a marketing strategy by the petroleum companies? Jack it up so high you have to starve your kids to be able to afford gas to get to work and then lower it a little so we'll quit complaining? Last month I had to spend $4.099/gallon and that's the highest price I've paid so far. A year ago in July I was paying $2.999/gallon. Now you see why I'm skeptical.

I enjoyed Jo Ann Bobby Gilbert's piece on "Staycations" in last Sunday's MJ. She told us about places in the county I would like to see someday. A "Staycation" is a vacation where you get away from the house but get back home every night. There are many interesting things to see in this county, too many to see all in one day. The best part is that they aren't that far away and don't cost you an arm and a leg on food, lodging and gasoline. Jo Bob said there were too many to see in a week's time.

There was a follow up piece about the threat of cell phone electromagnetic radiation possibly causing brain tumors last week in the Pittsburgh paper. It was written by Eric Swanson, an associate professor of nuclear physics at Pitt. In essence Professor Swanson says cell phones don't emit enough energy for the electromagnetic radiation to alter our DNA and consequently cause tumors. Incidentally the doctor I wrote about is initiating a study at UMPC Cancer Center along with another outfit to check out this possibility. It was interesting to note that the author of the rebuttal says he doesn't own a cell phone.

If ain't coal dust it's sewage stink causing problems in that part of the village. They think that the problem is that the liquid sludge holding tanks at the treatment plant haven't been cleaned out in over six years. It was reported from this week's Council meeting that they are working with the Village Solicitor to see if there is a way to get around the bidding process to hire someone to get the tanks cleaned. Sh, er stuff like this happens when you're strapped for cash. You neglect some basic needed house cleaning.

Also from Council meeting reports we were told that Council is looking into reducing the Wellsville's cost of health insurance for village employees. Tony Cataldo was reported as saying we are spending $240,000 a year on health insurance for 16 village employees. That works out to $15,000 per employee. That's steep and I would say that Wellsville is ten to 15 years behind most businesses in getting this cost under control. Of all the places I've worked since getting out of the service decades ago each one required a portion of each pay go to the cost of insurance. Just like gasoline prices it kept going up every year. For many it is prohibitive in today's times. Many small businesses don't even offer health insurance in their benefit packages. It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. It's a situation that needs to be addressed especially from the national level. The AMA & insurance companies don't want to hear it but the words are social medicine. It works in other countries. It's past time to consider it in the US.

Hootch2 got permission to block off Riverside in front of the Elks again. They are planning a Chili Festival on September 13 as a fund raiser for next year's Riverside Reunion. Along with the chili they are dragging out their big screen t.v. so we can enjoy a football game. Who's playing?

The lady that ran over one of the new trees on Broadway is balking about paying for a replacement. She says it is doing quite well. Dawn Johnson of the Shade Tree Committee is saying their tree expert tells them the tree will be dead by this time next year. According to Dawn tree killing insects will infest the tree where the bark got peeled off and it won't make it through the winter. That lady that ran over it is going to mess around, get dragged into to court, have to pay a fine & court costs plus pay for a new tree. Such drama!

The WHS Athletic Hall-of-Fame will be having an induction brunch on August 30 for the new honorees. Susie Haugh has all the particulars for that event on wellsville.net along with bios of this year's class. By the by, Susie H-A-U-G-H has accepted a seat on the Shade Tree Committee recently. Hey Erin Colella: note the spelling of the last name. It is not Hall.

In attempting to mainly concentrate on the ville on here I normally try to stay away from East Liverpool happenings. However, I can't resist Gary Bonnell, President of the EL Board of Education. He's on a mission and in the process is making a mockery of himself and dragging the board along with him. Seems with Gary there are no gray areas in life. He wants to hang some kids that corrected a wrong in a deal with the police and the school superintendent made to everyone's satisfaction, except Gary. Along with the scrapped school desks he was wrongly accusing someone with stealing culvert pipes. Now he has lost all credence with the board and members of the EL school district. Gary seems to be the Don Quixote up in that neck of the woods. The only difference is that Gary fights dirty.

Man! That Tom Giambroni from the MJ keeps right on top of things. In this morning's paper he reported that the OEPA has issued the second of three permits that the Baard people need to go ahead with the ORCF plant. This one is for the waste water discharge. That's two down and one to go. The third one has gotten tentatively approved and is awaiting the public hearing portion that is required. Wonder if Kanfer & Peya are sucking down the Rolaids today?

To wrap things up I can't help myself but I have to mention the lady from California that spent $50 grand to have her pet dog cloned in Korea. Is this a case of more money than brains or what? She got six pups out of the deal and after they wean from their surrogate mother she'll get to pay to transport them back to California. There are too many alternatives to replace a pet that would only cost a fraction of what her total bill will be.

What a country!

ole nib

Big Weekend In The Ville

Last night was opening ceremonies for the Down Memory Lane home coming. They are off on a river cruise this evening. Hopefully I can get some pictures Saturday night at the Alumni Center.

This evening was opening ceremonies for the 12th Annual Italian Festival. Above are a few pictures of that event. In his remarks "Mr. Italian Festival" Nunzio Lombardozzi said the festival has been going on for 77 years. That's even older than Nunzi! The twelve years they are talking about is the festival as we know it. In the old days they use to get the statue of St. Rocco from the Catholic church and parade it around town. It's a custom from the old country.

At any event it is a beautiful balmy August evening for both events. Hopefully the weather will hold out through the week-end. Both events are a home coming of sorts with old friends getting together.

Enjoy...

old nib

Hate To Tell You So

Finally some optimistic news about the proposed ORCF plant that Baard Industries is planning to build near Wellsville. A little over a week ago I was getting kind of down on the prospects since we haven't heard much lately but that has taken an upturn since this past Sunday.

In Sunday's ER there was story in which John Baardson himself was ensuring us that the plans are still very much alive. Once again he vouched that Baard intends to be a very responsible manufacturer and they find that the product - coal-to-liquid fuels (CTL) - will be a well worth the efforts and expense to produce. Again he emphasized that the area is ideal.

Then yesterday Tom Giambroni of the MJ gave us news that the Ohio EPA has issued an air pollution control permit and scheduled a public hearing at the high school on September 10. The permit issued is not an authorization to start building. According to what I read on the OPEA web site is that they find the plans acceptable and are now ready to proceed to the next step in the process. That would be the public hearing. The effective date on the permit won't be entered until after the hearing and the time period allowed for input of comments. It was interesting to note from what I saw on the EPA site is that they stated that the OPEA is more restricted on what they find permissible than the Federal EPA. The folks in Columbus find that Baard are well with-in those standards.

Then this morning Tom gave us another bit of news that the Sierra Club plans to target Baard and the ORCF. Tom said that in a news release from Nachy Kanfer members of the Sierra Club plan to "turn out in droves" at the next hearing. The news release must have been sent to selective recipients. I couldn't find it anywhere on-line. The only mention of it was in Tom's story. You would think the Sierra Club of Ohio would plaster that all over their web page and to other news sources.

From what I have read and heard so far is that the Sierra Club is more concerned with coal and the methods of mining it. That's a horse of a different color but I guess they are trying to get more news exposure with their intent to target the ORCF planned facility. Skimming through the pages of the OEPA permit I was very impressed with what Baard is willing to do and the restrictions that will be part of the permit. So far all I've heard from the ultra conservative environmental activists is vague threats. Tom quoted a lady from Wintersville that simply stated that the Ohio Valley has enough coal burning plants. She said we don't need any more. Then George Peya from their Salt Springs group is quoted as saying we have not educated ourselves about long term effects from this plant. He threatens us with doom and gloom predictions of being buried in soot and coal dust. Not one of that club's members have offered to back up their claims with any results from scientific data or comparative studies done anywhere in the world. All we heard so far is vague innuendos of problems I'm convinced will not take place. Sure there will be some changes on that hilltop but it will be progressive and beneficial for us tri-state residents. Believe me there have been very many that have educated themselves about this proposed plant and the effects on our region.

Matt Stewart made the comment that Baard doesn't care about us and with that I disagreed. If he were to say that the Sierra Club doesn't care about us I would be inclined to go along with that. Nachy Kanfer commented he is against the use of coal. I got the impression that they would like to see it left in the ground until the end of time. Coal in itself is not the culprit. It's the way it's been used over the course of history that has caused problems. However, as time moves on, man has found ways to use this God given natural resource with out harming us or our surroundings. With all the dust collectors, suppressant controls, covers, filters and screens proposed I have serious doubts that the conversion of coal to fuel will have any ill effects from our valley to anywhere across the world. You'll have to convince me otherwise with other than doom and gloom predictions. You'll have to prove that Baard's plans won't work with other than saying "listen to what I'm saying".

Baard has been warning us that the nay sayers will be coming every since that meet&greet dinner last fall at the EL Country Club. In a piece I wrote in June '07 I mentioned it too. That came from recalling the theatrics that went on with the WTI protesters. I was hoping it wouldn't happen here but it looks like it's gearing up to it.

One permit has been issued with a final ok. The second one is expected in the weeks ahead and the third one is approaching the final stages. It was reported that if they can break ground this year the plant should be operational by 2012. If you want to peruse the OEPA stuff you can find it at http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dapc/transfer/pti_list.html#orcf. It's all there.

For those that want to oppose the plant I say bring it on. We may be a small river village community but you'll have to do better than what you've done so far to dim my optimism. The people at WTI years ago brought in actor Martin Sheen to help with their protests. I wonder if they got any entertainers lined up for this?

I hate to tell you "I told you so" but it looks like the next hearing will be interesting.

ole nib

Acme Pottery

Know that kiln that sits at 3rd & Wells here in the ville? Before the building was torn down it was part of Acme Craftware, Inc.

This picture of Acme hangs in the River Museum and from the looks of the cars it must have been taken sometime in the 1940s. Back when I was a kid you couldn't see that kiln. It was inside the building.

ole nib

Some Ville Pottery History

Yesterday at the River Museum the Wellsville Historical Society presented histories of two potteries that got their starts in the ville. One is still in existence but is now located in East Liverpool and the other is Sterling China.

Sterling China got its start in 1917 when three gentlemen by the name of Charles Pomeroy, A.B. Allen & William Wells bought the building from the Patterson Brothers which sat at 12th & Commerce Streets. The Patterson Brothers manufactured yellow ware. Nick Rettos & Chris Park were both engineers at Sterling until it's recent close and gave us the story of this once thriving business. During the war years of WWII Sterling was the main supplier of dinner ware to the U.S. military. Maybe that is how I found a Sterling plate in a restaurant in Hong Kong when I was there for R&R in 1968. The place had a hodge poge of dinner ware. No two plates were the same.

Sterling's main claim to fame was their under glaze procedure on their products. They would apply an under glaze, decorate it and then apply an over glaze. I think it was a patented process. Mr. Park said Sterling had over 1,000 colors available for their decorating. Restaurant ware was their bread and butter products but over the years with constantly innovated designing they seemed to try it all.

The decade of the 1950s was their big growth years. In 1951 they opened Caribe China in Puerto Rico. In 1954 they bought Lamberton-Scamell China in New Jersey. It was also in the late '50s that they remodeled adding the then new office space and expanded the plant.

Over the years they had a huge international market sales supplying china to Canadian, Mexican, Saudi Arabian and even Russian customers to name a few. For many years they were exclusive suppliers to many hotel chains across the nation. Before their demise they were the biggest employer in the village.

Toward the end labor costs, energy costs and foreign competition forced them to close their doors. I imagine paper and plastic dinner ware added a big dent in their business too. When I was growing up we didn't have much paper and plastic available. With us kids doing the washing of the dishes we contributed to a lot of repeat business to replace the ones we cracked, chipped or broke.

In 2003 Sterling's last big customer pulled out and that sounded the death knell for that business. Lost business and lack of cash on hand forced them to shut down.

Although no longer located in the ville W.C. Bunting is still in operation. That company got started up on Highland Avenue in the basement of Delmar & Janet O'Hara. W.C. Bunting was a business man in Wellsville and was considered fatherly to Delmar. Mr. Bunting operated a confectinary that was the "in place" at one time in the ville in the early part of the 20th century.

Following his discharge from the military after WWII Delmar went to law school. After graduation he returned to the ville and hung his shingle. Being from part of the "pottery capital of the world" as a favor for his fraternity brothers he arranged to get a memento made for the fraternity. That memento was a ceramic pig. It proved so popular that a chapter of that fraternity at Ohio State wrote Delmar asking if he could get some of those pigs for them. Click the light went off and before Janet knew it she was in the pottery business. I think Terry said this was in 1946. Just being out of school Delmar didn't have the kind of credit it takes to finance a start of a business. Searching around he found that Mr. Bunting had a good rating with Dunn & Bradstreet, a commercial finance rating company. Using that reference Delmar was able to get a bank loan for his start up money. Thus the W.C. Bunting company was born and is still going strong some sixty years later.

From Highland Avenue the business was moved to 331 Main Street, the site of the old Bunting store. With continued growth the company was moved to Clark Avenue and in 1957 they doubled the plant size to 10,000 square feet. That's the building that Buckeye water is in today. The popularity of their product line kept growing and in 1963 they moved to East End to allow for additional growth.

Today W.C. Bunting is run by brothers Terry, Tim & Patrick O'Hara. All three are children of the company's founders and they grew up in that house on Highland. Bunting is strictly a decorating company and use outside suppliers for their raw product. They have a varied array of customers from different businesses, colleges, government entities to entertainers like Josh Graban to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. You can see their product line at http://www.buntingware.com/. Once you do you will recognize many of the items they produce. At present they employ about 30 people.

The pottery business, just like in East Liverpool, was a very big part of the ville's history. It goes back practically to the start of Wellsville. Over the years there were over 30 different potteries that operated here. These companies were just two of them. The Historical Society has many different samples on display in the Pottery Room at the River Museum. Stop over some Sunday afternoon and check it out.

The picture above was sent to me from Sparky Miller many moons ago. It's from an ad in the WHS 1949 yearbook and I finally found a good place to use it. Thanks Sparky and thanks to the folks at Wellsville Historical Society for sponsoring this trip down memory lane.

ole nib

Basketball Camp

Didn't see any mention of this in either of our local newspapers and I thought it should get some atttention, especially since it's for the kids. I stumbled across a flier at the store yesterday.

Coach Bill Long will be conducting a basketball camp at the 18th Street playground starting this Monday, August 4 through Friday, August 8. The camp is for "kids" entering 7th grade or younger. The camp will run each day from 10 A.M. until noon. If there are any questions the flier said you could call 330-532-4670.

Bill has been coaching youth basketball for some time now and I believe he volunteers his time doing it. He's one of the good guys that gives some of his time to our children.

Believe the camp is open to both boys and girls and the only cost is just showing up. It should be a fun activity for them as the summer break from school heads into its final few weeks.

Play ball...

ole nib

Wellsville Historical Society

Interested in some of the ville's pottery history? This coming Sunday, August 3, the Historical Society will be presenting three speakers giving the history of both the W.C. Bunting Co. and Sterling China. It begins at 2 P.M. at the Riverside Museum.

Most of us are very familiar with Sterling but some may not have heard about W.C. Bunting or remember much about it. That company got its' start in the ville. The name Bunting goes way back in Wellsville history.

The speakers are Terry O'Hara, Hugh Nile and Nick Rettos.

The museum will be open from 1 to 4:30 if you care to look around.

I don't recall where I got the picture above. I borrowed it from somewhere but I saved it. Thanks to whoever...

ole nib