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740-472-0734 < P.O. Box 70, Woodsfield, OH 43793 < monroecountybeacon@sbcglobal.net
Below are links to portions of this week's news articles. For the full story, pick up a paper at your local newsstand or send $1.25 with your name/address to P.O. Box 70, Woodsfield, OH 43793.
July 30, 2009
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New School
Update Revealed At District Board Meeting
Architectural drawing of Woodsfield Elementary and
Monroe Central High. WES is depicted as the light
blue area at left in the drawing while MCHS is the
light blue area at the right. Each building has a
courtyard, shown in green. The buildings face each
other with parking area and roadways between. Note,
in dark blue, the bus lanes running along and around
the schools to drop off zones. Although the fields
are located in the plan, they are not part of the
building construction. Development of fields would
be future projects not paid from the tax levy.
by Arlean Selvy
Some of the first studies for school facilities were
presented at a July 22 meeting of the Switzerland of
Ohio School District board of education. Drawings
were displayed of a proposed
Beallsville’s K-8 was first designed as one story.
How-ever, engineers and architects now recommend a
two-story building. “It’s a much nicer fit on the
site,” said Rich Milhoan, construction manager. He
said the smaller building would benefit both
students and the environment.
Noting 100’ tall pine trees on the land, Milhoan
referred to it as a school in the woods. He said it
is the recommended plan and asked the school board
if that could be the one they further develop.
“There are some beautiful, beautiful trees [on the
property],” said Milhoan. “It would be a shame to
clear all those trees out of there if you can save
some and keep the building smaller.” As far as not
having a courtyard, he said, “Who needs a courtyard
when you have a beautiful forest around?”
It was noted also that less dirt will have to be
moved with a two-story building. The engineer said
that while doing borings they hit rock at seven
feet in some places. He said they could hit rock on
the upper side and this would drive costs up.
Elevators will be placed in all two-story schools.
The proposed Woodsfield Elementary and MCHS would be
separated by a parking lot specifically marked for
faculty and visitors. There are separate parking
areas for staff at each school and another parking
area for students. The drawings also show locations
where the district can add a track, softball field
for MCHS and a middle school field and playground
area for K-8 students. Each proposal is depicted
with a courtyard. The access road is shown going
from SR78 and running behind the village street
department’s garage.
The site plan calls for each school to be two
stories due to property size. The schools will face
each other with a road and parking facilities
between.
It was noted that alternate sites are being explored
for the Powhatan school. One such site is the
Powhatan Sports-man's Club on SR7 north of the
village and another is farmland at Mt. Victory and
Cove roads. Exploration will also be done to see if
the school’s present location is feasible.
According to Larry Elliott, district superintendent,
officials will have a fair booth at the Monroe
County Fair and at the Belmont County Fair. Visitors
will be able to get information about the new
facilities project. He said architectural renderings
of the building sites will be available for review.
Marc Ring, director of transportation, reported bus
inspections by the Ohio Highway Patrol have been
going on and there have been no major issues. He
said new buses have been delivered and are awaiting
inspection and I.D. numbers by the OHP. Ring said
meetings are being held to decide how students
formerly under contract drivers will be transported.
“We’ve been driving the routes and checking into the
most efficient means of transporting those
students,” he said.
In other business the board:
• Gave permission to advertise for sealed bids for
the sale of 14 buses, a pickup truck and a bus
engine;
• Established the first Thursday of each month for
additional monthly board meetings to deal with the
building project and other matters as needed.
Meetings will begin at 6 p.m. at the Central
Office, Mill St., Woodsfield.
• Rejected tire bids and agreed to re-bid.
Photos of architectural drawings may be seen on the
Beacon website: monroecountybeacononline @sbcglobal.net
The drawings are not necessarily the final plan.
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by Martha Ackerman
It was a solemn and impressive ceremony
during Beallsville’s Heritage Days as Through this tragic loss for the Zimmer
family and with the gratitude they felt for the overwhelming
support of veterans’ motorcycle clubs and organizations in
attendance at the funeral, the Operation Iraqi Freedom Chopper
Fund (OIFCF), a non-profit organization, was established. The
OIFCF later became the Ohio Flags of Honor. A roofer by trade, Zimmer travels with the
display. “I do it for the love,” he said. “I find so much joy
in doing this on weekends,” said the father of the fallen
soldier. “If you believe in the war or not, please support our
troops ... I love our soldiers and also the ones (soldiers) of
the past because that is why I can stand here today.” Sue Riser served as master of ceremonies for
the event. Participating in the program were Rev. Jeff Rich,
pastor of the Beallsville Church of Christ; Rev. Wayne Clark,
pastor of the Beallsville Christian Church; and Debbie Burke,
who opened the ceremony with The Star Spangled Banner.
American flags lined the perimeter of the
field where 197 small
Rev. Clark, who read the names of As the program concluded, Burke sang Proud
to Be An American as red, white and blue balloons were
released.
The Flags of Honor were on display in
Beallsville throughout the weekend.
Woodsfield Awards Bids for Water Filtration, Sludge System
Bids were reviewed and awarded at the July
20 meeting of Woodsfield Village Council for sludge handling
improvements and a water filtration system. Council also heard a
report concerning the new waterline from Larry Lang Excavating, Belpre, was the sole
bidder for sludge collector installation at $9,874. Control
Design & Integration, Woodsfield, was low bidder for control
panels at $10,500. Rath Builders Supply was low bidder at
$29,358.56 for pipe and fittings. The sludge handling awards represent the
final phase of the project. Awarded bids for the water filtration
project were: Bench-mark Construction, Sardis, for piping,
$14,600; Larry Lang Excavating, Belpre, was awarded the bids for
a door at $1,464; a tank, $35,860 and blasting, $11,400; Art
Graf Builders, Wadsworth, was the low bidder for excavating,
building at $75,000; Control Design & Integration was the sole
bidder for the electrical portion at $66,900; and Jerry Ables
Electric submitted the low bid of $12,325 for HVAC. Once completed, the carbon filtration plant
will provide a better quality water for customers.
Village Administrator Jeff Woodell
reported the waterline project from
In another matter, Woodell reported that
light poles will have to be moved at
Councilman Bill Moore suggested it is time
council looked at replacing the recording system in council
chambers. Following a short discussion, Woodell was directed to
check on a system similar to the one used by county
commissioners. With regard to the Cap and Trade bill,
Councilman Bill Moore moved to notify members of the Senate
about the severe impact it would have not only on Monroe County
but on all of Ohio and across the United States. Council voted
6-0 to make their objection known.
In another matter, “Because I’m working harder to get the
withholding,” said Haselberger. According to documents, the June 2008 tax
collection totaled $9,906.50; the 2009 collection totaled
$15,858.85. Mayors court receipts for June totaled
$1,254 with $170 of that amount going to the state treasurer.
Part 1
While the Time Machine still waits to be
invented, one man has been working for nearly a decade to
capture the pages of
Over 375 different records are now
available on CDs for anyone who cares to travel back in time to
the very beginning of
Harrington, who goes by his nickname Dick,
informally collaborated with
What motivated Dick Harrington to
undertake such an arduous project and why was the focus on
It soon became apparent that the civil
records, family photos, newspapers and the research of others
could provide almost more information than one person could
handle. However, this large volume of information was scattered
among hundreds of records and documents. A thorough search for
the ancestral material could literally require several life
times. If the researcher had to repeatedly travel a long
distance and live in a motel for extended visits in order to
access these one-of-a-kind records, as in Harrington’s case,
such research could be expensive and time consuming.
One solution could be to enlist several
researchers to do the work. At any one time there are many
individuals researching their own family histories many of which
are common, overlap or intertwined. Also, there are tireless
researchers of Soon the elements of a plan to focus history
and family tree research began to take shape. The first step was
to make the records and resources easily available to everyone
who wanted them. Photographing the pages of records, newspapers,
etc. and burning the photographs onto CDs makes copies available
to anyone who is interested. Having to travel a long distance to
access the one-of-a-kind documents and the need for local
lodging ceased to be a problem. (Continued Next Week) If your income tax refund check bounces, the
government is in trouble. Wouldn’t it be nice to be as sure of
anything as some people are of everything?
I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve
been so busy trying to keep up with all the improvements going
on in It’s kind of funny how doing or hearing
something will bring back a flood of memories tucked in the back
of your mind that you hadn’t thought of for years. You probably guessed, last week a train ride
did it for me. As I mentioned last week my dad started to work
in a coal mine when he was 12 years old. Having been an “oops”
baby, I really did not live to know first hand how tough a coal
miner had it during the early years. Coal mining had improved by
the time I arrived,;however, I expect it still did not compare
to today's work in a mine. After arriving five years after the sixth
member of our family, I really didn’t experience the problems an
early coal miner’s family faced during the days when times were
really tough. I guess there was an advantage of being the
baby of the family. However, Mom gave the job of naming me to my
brothers and sisters. I guess they had trouble agreeing on a
name for me because I ended up with “boy Easterling” on my birth
certificate. Cost me ten bucks to get it corrected. I don’t know
who is to blame but I got teased about “Felix the Cat” so I quit
answering to that name, thus Denny. Times change as I didn’t
know at the time Felix would be a part of my official signature.
Most everything you fill out asks for middle initial.
Times must have been getting better as
bought out small farm and we moved to Dad ended up as a motorman hauling the cars
of coal where they were hauled up to the tipple top side. I
would guess doing this he had to keep his eyes open to see
anything that might go wrong. I guess this is the reason when he
drove a car he would miss very little on either side of the
road. He also did something while driving a car that could
probably be frowned on. When he came to a hill he would put the
car out of gear and coast down the hill. Claimed it saved
gasoline.
We moved to
I did get a chance once in a while to batch
with Dad. He would take me with him. I really enjoyed this as
Dad had some special things he would fix to eat. It was there I got a little idea of what
miners’ families went through. I would sit on top of the hill
and watch the miners get into the cage to be lowered down into
the mine. At quitting time I would watch the cage come up and
the miners get out and head for the showers. Dad had some hillside tobacco hanging in one
of the rooms. I got the bright idea of rolling myself a
cigarette. One problem. The only thing I had to roll up my
cigarette was newspaper. I really do not know how I did it but I
got one rolled up and also fired up. I guess it was a good thing because I had no
desire for a cigarette until I went into the service where I
learned to burn them and blow smoke. You know, just when you think you have seen
it all, you learn something. Charlie is a cat that lives in my daughter’s
house. Like most cats he just about has his own way and brings a
mouse in the house every once in a while. For some time he
started drinking a lot of water and losing weight. A trip to the vet discovered Charlie had, of
all things, diabetes. Well, as some humans having the same
thing, Charlie requires insulin shots twice a day. You know who went on vacation and I had to
fill in and give Charlie his insulin shots. It wasn’t that I was
not experienced in giving shots as I had done so at times in the
service. I recall once when I had night duty. At this
time a shot consisted of 20,000 units per shot; now they add a
zero. This meant a shot every four hours. I knew how many shots
I’d be giving at night and I’d prepare that many and put them on
a shelf by my bed. To get a shot they would wake me up, then
back to my bed and bingo it was over. I’d go back to sleep, he
would go back to his bunk and be back again in four hours. Talk
about your modern medicine. Charlie and I got along fine. He gets up on
the kitchen table for a treat or two. While he was eating the
treat, bingo he got a shot. He really liked the chicken treats I
got. He even asked for more.
Big things going on in Faith may move mountains, but hard work puts
the tunnels through them. Church Sunday? Why not?
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He graduated as Valedictorian of
Lewisville High School Class of 1941. He served in WWII
from 1943-46 in the Navy and Marine Corps as a medic in
the South Pacific, including Okinawa and Surviving are two brothers, Bob
(Pat) Bartenschlag of Berea, Ky., Jack (Jane)
Bartenschlag of Columbus; sister-in-law, Wilda
Barten-schlag of Lewisville; caregivers and their
families for the last several years, nephew John (Kim)
Bartenschlag of Parkersburg, W.Va., niece Crystal (Pat)
Willis of Pleasant City, nephew Don (Aimee) Bartenschlag
of Chandlers-ville; other nieces and nephews are Patty
Secreto of Akron, Fran (Ron) Morris of Akron, Kathy
Bartenschlag of Columbus, Cheryl (J.R.) Eshem of
Marysville, Mark (Amy) Bartenschlag of Danville, Ill.
and several great- and great-great-nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, he was
preceded in death by two brothers, William and Clayton
(Thelma) Bartenschlag; sister, Melba Bartenschlag; and
niece, Debbie Haurez. Per Ellis’ request, his remains are
to be cremated and there will be no viewing or services. Arrangements are by Bauer-Turner
Funeral Home, Woodsfield. Condolences may be expressed
at www.bauerturner.com.
Memorial contributions may be made
to the Friendship Cemetery Association, c/o Dana Bach,
33765 SR 78,
From the Desk of
This month’s article is designed
to inform our county veterans and community of potential
benefits for service during the Vietnam War, Gulf War,
and those exposed to radiation while on active duty.
This year we have been able to assist numerous veterans
apply for benefits. It concerns me that so many veterans
are not aware or receiving benefits that they are
entitled. It is important that veterans evaluate their
own physical condition and seek assistance from our
office and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to
determine if they have any entitlements.
The Veterans Administration is
concerned that many Vietnam veterans may regard certain
diseases associated with aging, such as prostate cancer
or mellitus type II diabetes, as just another illness
rather than as the results of their military service in
Southeast Asia. The VA wants these
As of today, only a small
percentage of the 2.6 million men and women who served
in
The Department of Veterans
Affairs, effective July 9, 2002, has added Diabetes
Mellitus Type II as a presumptive condition for
in-country Based on clinical research, the
following 10 diseases are on VA’s Agent Orange list of
presumptive disabilities: chloracne or other acneform
disease similar to chloracne, Hodgkin’s disease,
multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, porphyria
cutanea tarda, respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus,
larynx and trachea), soft-tissue sarcoma (other than
osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma or
mesothelioma), acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy,
prostate cancer, diabetes mellitus (Type II diabetes)
and chronic Lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
In addition, monetary benefits,
health care and vocational rehabilitation services are
provided to The VA has developed databases
called registries to help analyze the type of health
conditions being reported by veterans who served in the
Vietnam War between 1962 and 1975, served in Korea in
1968 or 1969, participated in the Gulf War Aug. 2, 1990
to a date not yet established, claim exposure to atomic
radiation, or were treated with nasopharyngeal (NP)
radium during military service. These veterans are
provided with free, comprehensive medical examinations,
including laboratory and other diagnostic tests deemed
necessary by an examining physician to determine health
status. Other veterans who may have been exposed to
dioxin or the other toxic substances in a herbicide or
defoliant associated with the testing, transporting, or
spray of herbicides for military purposes also are
eligible to participate in the Agent Orange registry
program. Participants are advised of the results of
their examinations in personal consultations and by
letters.
The purpose of the above
information is to ensure that our county veterans are
aware of any service-connected entitlements based upon
individual military service. It is important for
veterans to contact our office if they think they have a
medical condition caused by exposure to Agent Orange or
other herbicides, exposure to ionizing radiation. Those
veterans currently receiving compensation and whose
condition has worsened can apply for increased benefits.
Often there are secondary health conditions that develop
later which are considered service connected. Also Gulf
War veterans who suffer from chronic disabilities
resulting from undiagnosed illnesses need to contact our
office. We can advise and assist the veteran of
entitlements and ensure that the proper paperwork is
processed. The key to filing a claim is that the veteran
can provide detailed medical evidence, have a certified
copy of the original DD214, and other documentation as
necessary. For additional information call 472-0743,
E-mail at monroevets@sbcglobal.net or stop by our office
at
Special Note: Any veteran who
served in-country VA re-opens Veterans Healthcare
Enrollment. Effective June 15, 2009, those veterans who
applied for VA Healthcare before for medical conditions
not service-connected and were denied because they had
too much income can now re-apply since the VA
established new income caps that are designed to allow
more veterans to get into the medical system. Those
veterans who were denied can come into the Veterans
Office and obtain a new application for medical
benefits.
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It
was a solemn and moving ceremony as the 
Gino
Zimmer, founder of the Ohio Flags of 
Richard (Dick) Harrington is shown working
among his inventory of several thousand copies of CDs. To date
over 375 different 
Ellis
Burdette Bartenschlag, 85,