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LORAIN COUNTY
AMHERST NEWS-TIMES • OBERLIN NEWS-TRIBUNE • WELLINGTON ENTERPRISE Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022
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Wellington PD overtime talk causes anger
Volume 9, Issue 43
Say it ain’t snow!
JASON HAWK EDITOR
WELLINGTON — Struggling with a staff shortage, Wellington police have racked up an $80,000 overtime bill this year, a trend Village Council made clear can’t continue in 2023. But Police Chief Tim Barfield said he’s reached the limit of what he can do to keep officers from leaving for better-paying jobs. “I’ve got no further to go. Only Council can do the things above that,” he said last week. In an angry exchange with the Police Committee, Barfield told Council President Gene Hartman to try making a schedule that would keep officers happy. “I’m not doing your job,” Hartman Tim replied. Barfield Employee discontent over scheduling was front and center in a report released this summer by an independent consultant hired to look into low morale and high turnover in the Wellington Police Department. Barfield and Lt. Josh Poling both took issue with the report during last week’s Council meetings, saying LeBrun Management Solutions was Gene hired to find problems and did just Hartman that. Barfield refused to believe the survey results, which he called a “collection of half-truths.” Officers approached him two years ago about going from 8-hour to 12hour shifts. They met in the middle on 10-hour shifts. “Something that does look pretty clear in this survey is that whatever Hans the officers thought two or three Schneider years ago about this, they’re not happy with it now,” said Councilman Guy Wells, chair of the Police Committee. If the department goes back to working 8-hour shifts, three people have already indicated they’ll leave, according to Barfield and Poling. “We are at a point in time that if one person leaves, maybe two are going to leave or three, and I don’t know where we’re going to find any more,” Barfield said. OVERTIME PAGE A2 Classifieds, legals, display advertising, and subscriptions Deadline: 1 p.m. each Monday Phone: 440-329-7000 Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday
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Bruce Bishop | Community Guide
Inspectors look over one of the trucks that will be hitting the roads as winter weather comes to the Ohio Turnpike. Their vehicles were inspected last week at the Amherst Township facility on Oberlin Road.
Turnpike plows are ready for winter JASON HAWK EDITOR
AMHERST TWP. — Joe Verespe is looking forward to snow. “It makes my job more interesting,” he said last week, watching a fleet of snow plows being prepared for freezing weather at the Ohio Turnpike’s maintenance garage on Oberlin Road. Verespe, of Amherst, has driven a plow the past 7 years. In the depths of winter, he spends about 40 hours a week behind the wheel, clearing the lanes along a 36-mile path from Erie County to Cuyahoga County.
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weight pushing them, so you get a lot of traction,” he said. If the weather turns really nasty, drivers will team up and drive three abreast down the Turnpike to clear the way. Each is equipped with a 12-foot front plow blade. Most of the newer trucks also have 7-foot wing plows to move as much snow and ice as possible, said Matthew McMullen, superintendent for the Turnpike’s eastern division. The 2021 models, which are the newest in the fleet, are using upgraded tech this year, he said. Spreaders TURNPIKE PAGE A3
Oberlin plans citywide power outage FirstEnergy needs time for repairs to main power feed JASON HAWK EDITOR
OBERLIN — Just before Halloween, a citywide blackout is planned for the witching hours of Sunday, Oct. 30. The outage is planned to allow FirstEnergy crews to repair broken and failing
equipment on the transmission lines that provide power to Oberlin. Doug McMillan, director of the Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System, said residents will be without electricity from about midnight to 6 a.m. Work is being done overnight to minimize inconvenience, he said — but warned that residents need to plan ahead for the outage, especially those who need electricity for critical equipment such as oxygen
machines. The problem has nothing to do with OMLPS, but with FirstEnergy’s 69-kilovolt transmission lines that tie Oberlin to the grid, said McMillan. The city gets its power from a 1.6-mile, dual-circuit line that runs parallel to Garfield Road. FirstEnergy workers inspect it each year for issues, and recently discovered a broken cross-arm brace. “The line is pretty old, is very old, actually,” McMil-
lan said. “So these braces are stressed and rot and you can’t tell until they break, from what I’m gathering.” Years ago, FirstEnergy would have been able to leave one circuit live to make repairs without interrupting service, said McMillan. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations now require both to be taken offline for safety because they are so close together. OUTAGE PAGE A3
INSIDE THIS WEEK
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His truck was one of 14 to get a 136-point inspection from Chief Mechanic Matt Timms — engines, plow blades, tires, lights, salt sprayers and de-icing systems. The yellow and white Peterbilts, Western Stars and Freightliners boast 350 horsepower, 8.3-liter diesel engines and can haul up to 7 tons of salt. Each plow is able to put down 600 pounds of salt per lane mile at a time. Timms said he’s never seen a storm vicious enough to stop one of the Turnpike’s trucks. “I don’t think you could slow it down. When the trucks are loaded, they go really good. There’s a lot of
Amherst
Oberlin
Wellington
Haunted history tales told at Sandstone Village • A4
Splash pad back on the table if grant comes through • B1
Main Street aims to save downtown stores • B1
OBITUARIES A2 • CLASSIFIEDS A4 • BULLETIN BOARD A6 • PUZZLES B2 • KID SCOOP B6