January 2023

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Bluffton Family Recreation will be holding a Daddy Daughter Dance this February 25 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

The '80s-themed dance, called “Be Rad with Dad,” will include “music, pictures, neon and games.” Photographs will be taken by Picture Me This Photography, LLC and Xtrasound will be providing DJ services.

Tickets for BFR members are $20 and non-members are $40, with dads/grownups included in the fee.

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Pirate records continue to fall

The Bluffton High School boys and girls swim teams finished strong at Ottawa Glandorf on Monday night, Jan. 9. The boys finished first and the girls finished second. Teams from Kalida, McComb, Miller City, Ottawa Glandorf, Pandora-Gilboa, Saint Marys Memorial and Van Wert High School competed.

The boys were followed by Saint Marys Memorial and Ottawa Glandorf. The girls finished second with Ottawa Glandorf taking first and Saint Marys taking third.

Freshman Jenna Downey reset her 100 backstroke record with a new time of 1:07:21.

The teams also competed in a double dual at Napoleon on January 3, 2023 against Napoleon and Whitehouse Anthony Wayne. The boys finished first against Anthony Wayne and second to Napoleon. The girls finished second to Anthony Wayne and second to Napoleon.

Two records were set at this meet:

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By Andy Chappell-Dick

On January 9, Bluffton Council met for the first time in 2023, utilizing fourteen fewer ballots to select their leader than their D.C. counterparts. I'm not saying it's a who-drew-the-short-straw, but Councilor Jerry Cupples was expeditiously re-elected Council President as the first order of business.  With Mayor Rich Johnson absent, Cupples chaired the rest of the meeting.

COMMITTEES
Councilor Phil Talavina reported on the Safety Services Committee meeting. EMS Chief Jan Basinger had presented a proposal for increasing EMS volunteer incentives. (This meeting is covered HERE).

LEGISLATION
Three bills were up for consideration. The first was an annual ordinance that adopts the latest version of Ohio Basic Code as the Village's code. This is chiefly for the Police Department's day-to-day enforcement of safety and general welfare. The ordinance passed 6-0 as an emergency.

The second was a resolution adopting a new policy called "Complete Streets For All."  This document is the culmination of many months of work by a committee of residents, experts, and officials that will guide the Village as new streets are added or existing streets are repaired.  Councilor Joe Sehlhorst gave a summary slide presentation describing how streets can be better designed to be useful to cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and other ways of getting around.  This policy is not a set of requirements, he emphasized, as each situation must be weighed individually. With buy-in from Council and the public, the ideas put forward can bring many benefits to the community. This resolution passed 6-0, and will move on to a second reading at the next meeting.

The third resolution reaffirmed Bluffton's relationship with Lima-Allen County Regional Planning Commission.

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Women's Basketball

Alumni Day festivities on January 14

The Bluffton University women's basketball team cruised to a 72-59 victory over Earlham College on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. With the students back in the class, the atmosphere was electric for a Beaver squad that won its third straight game and improved to 10-4 overall and 5-3 in the Heartland Conference. Former Bluffton assistant Shanna Thompson and her Quakers fought to the end, but Earlham fell to 1-12 on the season.

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By Cort Reynolds

The visiting Bluffton High School girls basketball team put three players in double figures to defeat Elida 45-39 in a non-league contest Tuesday evening, January 10.

Bluffton improved to 9-4 with their second road victory. The Bulldog girls dropped to .500 at 7-7 with the defeat.

The Pirate girls held a narrow 16-14 lead after the first period. Elida led 12-11 before Sami Scoles canned a triple and fed Julia Mehaffie nicely for a layup. 

The visitors stretched the margin to 29-21 at halftime.

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It is time again for Allen County 4-H Enrollment.

Visit the OSU extension website for information including:

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By Karen Kier
Pharmacist on behalf of the ONU HealthWise team

The power of having a voice is important so one can be active and have a participatory role in making or influencing a decision.  At times we can think of this as it relates to politics and our role in making our voice heard.  The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum offers a course for 3rd to 6th graders titled Making Your Voice Heard.  The course teaches about civic engagement and making a difference by writing letters.  The goal is to use the written word to effect change in communities and government.  

Besides the written word, we can use verbal communication to inspire, create, and innovate.  We can use our voice to create movies, television shows, art, theater, music, and poetry.  When I hear the voice in conversation, I often think of the television show The Voice. An interesting concept of judges blindly listening to someone’s voice without any other visual clues.  

The music competition first aired on April 26, 2011.  The show completed season 22 on December 13, 2022.  For those who watch, country music’s Blake Shelton is the only original coach on The Voice and he plans to finish out season 23 and walk away from coaching.  

How does one’s voice correlate to one’s health?

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By Liz Gordon-Hancock

The Village of Bluffton Board of Zoning & Building Appeals, which is made up of members Tom Downey, Tony Pinks and Dave Miller, met on Tuesday, January 10 to hear a proposal from Ryan and Jessica Meyer asking for permission to convert the former True Word Tabernacle church at 104 East Elm St. into a multiple apartment facility.

The Meyers’ proposal required permission for variances to certain Chapters and Sections of Village code, involving conditional use (Chapter 153.142), required yardage for a residential property (Chapter 153.123 & 153.145), and off-street parking (Chapter 153.306).

Jessica Meyer gave a detailed presentation on their proposal to convert the church into 8 individual apartment units with modern amenities and private entrances. 

Over twenty community members attended, many of whom spoke in favor of the proposal.

The Zoning Board unanimously approved all three variances required.

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UPDATED 1:00 P.M. JANUARY 11
The Icon is providing expanded and corrected descriptions of two incentive program options provided by EMS Chief Jan Basinger. The proposal document is attached.

EMS Chief went on 486 of 808 calls in 2022

By Paula Scott

On January 9, the Bluffton Council safety services committee met to hear a proposal by EMS Chief Jan Basinger to provide on-call and service frequency incentives for EMS volunteer crew members. He was responding to a 2021 request from the council to create a bonus program for EMS members.

The reason for the new proposal is that calls for service are steadily increasing while EMS volunteer personnel numbers are decreasing.

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Women's Basketball

The Bluffton University women dominated quarters two and four en route to a 61-53 victory over MIAA-power Albion College (9-4) on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. In a game that was made possible thanks to Mother Nature, as the Britons were unable to fly to California for their games at Christmas, the Sommer Center faithful was treated to an outstanding non-conference tussle between Albion and Bluffton.

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