By Joshua Benton and Michael D. Sallah Blade Staff Writers Page 1 It was a critical time for the Toledo Sports Arena. The country’s top acts weren’t showing up anymore. The physical plant was crumbling. City officials were calling it unsafe and a contributor to local crime. It was 1975, and some arena executives were […]
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 13 Mayor Carty Finkbeiner wants to make sure at least one minor league team is in downtown Tole do. “The Rossford experience is a wake-up call!” Mr. Finkbeiner wrote in a letter sent yesterday to Lucas County Commissioner Sandy Isenberg and Ed Bergsmark, president of the Mud Hens […]
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 1 It didn’t exist a week ago, but the Rossford Arena Amphitheatre Authority has signed off on one of the biggest economic development projects in the region’s recent history. The authority voted 4-0 last night to buy 60 acres of farmland near I-75 and the Ohio Turnpike, and […]
By Joshua Benton and Michael D. Sallah Blade Staff Writers Page 1 Promising a $48 million investment in the region, Rossford officials announced plans to build an arena and amphitheater complex yesterday that likely will house a professional hockey team and could become the premier entertainment destination in northwest Ohio. The facility, to be in […]
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 1 When 77-year-old Bob Swartout was looking to move to a new, smaller house, he didn’t want to leave Toledo and head for the suburbs. “I’d rather be around where things are happening,” he said. “When you’re on the outskirts, you’ve got a ways to go to get […]
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 13 Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner shaved $8,000 from the salary of the city’s director of neighborhoods yesterday because Anthony Reams has not been meeting the mayor’s standards in his job performance. “Tony Reams is someone I have a lot of affection for, and I want Tony to be […]
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 17 Councilman Wade Kapszukiewicz has a plan he says will let the city add 15 police officers and stay within its budget. Police Chief Michael Navarre said the plan is a smart one “that makes good sense.” It involves the size of this year’s police class. Mayor Carty […]
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 13 Mayor Carty Finkbeiner will yank police officers out of Toledo schools unless the school district pays the city $385,000, he said last night. “When school lets out in May or June, that’ll be the end of the police in the schools,” the mayor said. “When school starts […]
Read More… from Mayor: Schools pay up or police go; $385,000 is half of cost for officers
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page A13 (Focus edition) The rest of the country finally figured it out. We here in Toledo always knew we lived in an All-America City. Aside from that occasional blizzard, this is a great place to live, plain and simple. So when a jury in Mobile, Ala., decided last […]
Read More… from All signs point to renewed vitality and growth in area
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 13 Toledo’s largest union of city employees has preemptively volunteered to cut its own health-care coverage as a bargaining chip in this spring’s contract negotiations. The changes, most of which require city workers to pay a bigger part of their health-care costs, will save the city more than […]