Betterment hears 20/20 update

Rachel Mendell — Staff

By Rachel Mendell

Inquirer Edi­tor

The Galion Area Bet­ter­ment Com­mis­sion met Oct. 3 to lis­ten to a pre­sen­ta­tion of the 20/20 Vision.

Cathy George spoke on the need for drug pre­ven­tion edu­ca­tion in the area. She stated sta­tis­tics includ­ing in 2006 most deaths were drug deaths, drug deaths were the num­ber one cause of death in 20–50 year olds, and EMS records show that the most drug runs are on the west end of town. George said drugs are the cause of lower city rev­enue, lower real estate val­ues, and lower test scores in schools. Because of drugs there are not enough good work­ers in the area for businesses.

George went on to say the 20/20 Vision Group con­tin­ues work on a safe house for an area rehab pro­gram. Keller Hall has zon­ing issues for the project, but is still an option, she said, while another pos­si­bil­ity for loca­tion is Fairview Manor. The safe house will staff pro­fes­sion­als 24–7, have secu­rity sys­tems in place and will pro­tect the com­mu­nity in which it will reside. George said the amount needed to begin the project is $250,000 and $80,000 was raised at the ban­quet. The group is also pur­su­ing grant fund­ing and work­ing with the ADAMH board.

George feels edu­ca­tion is the key to drug pre­ven­tion – get­ting to the kids before they get into drugs and alco­hol. Although the DARE pro­gram is no longer offered in Galion, there are other pro­grams the schools are pur­su­ing that are more effec­tive than DARE, she said.

In reports, Kiwa­nis are hold­ing their pan­cake break­fast at the Galion Inter­me­di­ate School this Sat­ur­day from 7–11 a.m. dur­ing the Con­nec­tions Week­end event.

United Way raised about $9,000 dur­ing their event at the Moose last Fri­day night. Their next big event is the annual Tail Gate Party.

Polk Town­ship reported paving projects just about done for the season.

Ohio Heart­land gave away 12,000 pounds of fresh pro­duce to 175 fam­i­lies in 85 min­utes. Oct. 28 will be the next time fam­i­lies can receive pro­duce. The back­pack pro­gram has been suc­cess­ful with 100 Galion stu­dents tak­ing home food for the weekend.

Home Care Mat­ters will have their vol­un­teer appre­ci­a­tion night Tues­day, Oct. 4.

The Golden Age Cen­ter has a new roof and a new freezer and is get­ting ready for their Octo­ber mince­meat sale. Nov. 5 will be its fall fes­ti­val and food clin­ics are being held at the center.

The Rotary Club’s dic­tio­nary project has expanded to eight school sys­tems within Craw­ford County. The pub­lic is invited to the meet­ing on Oct. 12 when the Rotary will dis­cuss their youth exchange pro­gram. On Oct. 26 the Rotary will dis­cuss its Strive pro­gram that involves help­ing strug­gling C stu­dents do bet­ter in school and earn schol­ar­ships. Rotary reminds the pub­lic that the group meets Wednes­days at 5:30 p.m. at Var­sity Grill.

The school dis­trict reminded the Bet­ter­ment Com­mis­sion that Career Day is the cen­ter of the Con­nec­tions Week­end. This year each class of the high school will hear from alumni on a vari­ety of sub­jects; the fresh­men will learn about tran­si­tion and flex­i­bil­ity, the sopho­mores will learn about goal set­ting and focus, juniors will hear speak­ers on per­se­ver­ance and action, while seniors will dis­cuss adapt­ing skills and mak­ing choices.

The library is offer­ing a vari­ety of work­shops and activ­i­ties for adults includ­ing geneal­ogy, hands on Inter­net, senior work­shop on social net­work­ing, card mak­ing, blog­ging and par­ties. Oct. 27–29 is the Friends of the Library used book sale.

The Crop Walk was suc­cess­ful, although not as many peo­ple par­tic­i­pate now as in the past.

The his­tor­i­cal soci­ety is host­ing an organ con­cert Oct. 23 to com­mem­o­rate the 50th anniver­sary of the organ at Grace Epis­co­pal. Ghost hunts con­tinue to be suc­cess­ful. Full details are avail­able on the society’s web­site www.galionhistory.com.

The Galion Health Depart­ment announced flu shot clin­ics at the Board of Health office on Tuesday.

The The­atre will offer a British Com­edy Nov. 11, 12, 18, 19 and 20. The com­mis­sion was invited to the annual Town Hall Meet­ing that was hosted by the The­atre this year.

The hos­pi­tal is hold­ing an open house for the new pain clinic Oct. 25 and announced five new health providers on board.

The Galion Y will have a bowl-a-thon Nov. 4 from 7–9 p.m. Funds will go to the Cen­ter Y Sus­tain­ing Fund that is used for mem­ber­ship dues.

The City of Galion will be paving Sum­mit Street from Mar­ket to Fairview. The city is also work­ing on a deal with a jet ambu­lance com­pany that is look­ing into set­ting up in Galion. Okto­ber­fest was “sub­dued” with no major prob­lems this year.

The Cham­ber announced O’Reilly’s Auto will have a rib­bon cut­ting Oct. 5 at 11 a.m., Chris Shi­ef­fer Insur­ance will have a rib­bon cut­ting Oct. 26. The USPS is offer­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion on ways busi­nesses can save money. There will be a new candy store going in on Colum­bus Street called “The Candy Bar.” A new Ver­i­zon store will be open­ing on Carter Drive next to East of Chicago.

The next meet­ing of the Galion Area Bet­ter­ment Com­mis­sion will be Mon­day, Nov. 7 at noon in the Galion Hos­pi­tal cafeteria.

Posted by Rachel Mendell on Oct 4 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.