Fostoria Railroad Festival  Saturday Oct 9th, 2004 

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Fostoria Mayor, family swept away by presidents's men

Secret Service picks up Davolis

By BRIDGET CAMBELL

( R/T Staff Writer )

    As President George W.Bush's motorcade was driving through Fostoria Saturday, (Aug.30, 2004) Mayor John Davoli and his family were following close behind -- in a van driven by the Secret Service.

    In a surprising turn of events, Davoli was able to join the Bush motorcade and later meet the comander in chief himself.

    "It was the chance of a lifetime," the mayor said.

    As news of the president coming through Fostoria arrived last week,  Davoli said early that he didn't know exactly what to do.  He had tickets to see the president speak in Perrysburg, but at the same time he wanted to be with fellow Fostorians to welcome the president as he made his way along Countyline Street.

    "About midweek the Secret Service advance team called me to coordinate with the city," the mayor said.  "At that time I told (the Secret Service agent) that I was in a quandary about what to do."

    Half-jokingly, Davoli asked the agent if they could swing by and pick him up as the president drove by his home on Countyline Street Saturday.

    "There was silence on the other end, and more silence --- then he said they would see what they could do." the mayor said.

    It wasn't until late Friday evening after the entire Davoli family had been cleared with national security, that Davoli received confirmation that they would indeed be picked up by the presidential motorcade on Saturday.

    "I told them we'd be standing by McDonald's and all be wearing red shirts." he said.

    Inclement weather, slowed Bush's travel from Lima, bringing him into Fostoria around 5:30 p.m. (motorcade was running over an hour behind schedule at this point)

    The mayor, with Lisa, and children Sarah and Mathew, stood on the sidewalk when two Secret Service vehicles quickly pulled up to where the Davolis stood.

    "They came to almost a screching halt," the mayor said. "It happened so fast. The frisked us, used metal detectors and then rushed us into the vehicle and we pulled out right behind the buses,"

    As the motorcade drove towards Perrysburg, Davoli witnessed something he won't soon forget about the day he met the country's 43rd president.

    It wasn't the hectic excitement of driving under the highest level of protection the country can offer, or the thrill of helicopters overhead keeping a watchful eye on the comander of the United States.

    It was more simple --- more symbolic.

    "We were on a country road and there were no crowds, waving --- but there waa a long driveway leading to a farm house and a single man standing at the end of the drive," Davoli said.

    The lone man, a veteran in his military cap, stood saluting the president as he drove by.

    "I'll always remember that," Davoli said.

    After arriving at Fort Meigs, the mayor and his family were standing near the stage as Bush spoke when a member of the Secret Service  came up and told Davoli the president had been impressed with the turnout in Fostoria. "I asked him if he would give the president a plaque."

    "Would you like to present the president with the plaque yourself?" he asked.

    The plaque, provided by Kaminsky and Son Jewelers, thanked the president on behalf of the city of Fostoria for visiting the state of Ohio.

    Davoli and his family were taken back stage, pass the crowds, to where the prisident's bus was parked.

    The only others there were a small group of veterans, Secret Service agents and the Whitehouse photographer.

    After Bush shook the veterans' hands, they left -- leaving the  Davoli family alone with the president and his staff.

    "He told me that Fostoria had a great turnout and he wished he'd been able to stop, (he had intended stopping at Elm and Countyline Streets) but Mother Natue had gotten the best of them" Davoli said.

    "I presented him with the plaque on behalf of the great city of Fostoria and thanked him for taking the time to come through our town," Davoli said.

    The president then complimented the mayor on his fine looking city, and how gracious the citizens had been and thanked him for the "nice looking plaque."

    As the president began to board his bus to continue on his campaign trail, he turned back around and looked at Davoli one more time saying: "I want to thank you for your service as mayor."

    Davoli answered back.  "No -- thank you, Mr. President."

 

click for full size picture

 

This Photo taken by a White House photographer,  Mayor John Davoli stands with

President George W. Bush in Perrysburg Ohio, after traveling with the Bush motorcade

from Fostoria.  Mayor Davoli and his family were able to speak with the president and present

 him with a plaque on behalf of the city of Fostoria.

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Reagan, Ronald Wilson
40th president

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th president of the United States, who transformed the Republican Party and substantially defined the terms of contemporary political debate during two momentous terms in office, died yesterday afternoon. (June 5, 2004). He was 93.
Ten years after Reagan announced his Alzheimer's disease in an open letter to the American people, he reached the end of his long twilight at his home in Bel Air, Calif., in the company of his wife and their children.

"My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has passed away," former first lady Nancy Reagan said in a written statement. "We appreciate everyone's prayers."

President Bush received the news shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern time; he was in Paris and had just left a dinner with French President Jacques Chirac. In Washington and California, plans were quickly implemented for the capital's first presidential funeral in more than 30 years.

Plans call for Reagan's body to lie at his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., early this week and then travel by Air Force One to Washington on Wednesday, where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. Late in the week, probably Friday, there will be a funeral procession with horse-drawn caisson from the Capitol to a spot near the White House. From there, a hearse will carry the casket to Washington National Cathedral for a funeral officiated by the newly nominated ambassador to the United Nations John C. Danforth, an Episcopalian minister and a former Republican senator from Missouri.

The body will then be flown back to California to be buried at the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

Official plans will be announced this morning, a library spokesman said.

"This is a sad hour in the life of America," Bush said after speaking with Nancy Reagan by telephone. "A great American life has come to an end. Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility and the humor that comes with wisdom."

Blinking back tears, Bush added: "He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done. And now a shining city awaits him."

It was an almost unbelievable life, a melodrama, a rags-to-riches tale, a multi-part saga written by someone with boundless imagination and an infinite sense of the possible. Born in tiny Tampico, Ill., educated at Eureka College in nearby Dixon, Reagan was a radio sportscaster, a Hollywood B-movie star, host of a TV variety show, a soap salesman, a motivational speaker, governor of California and -- starting at age 53 -- arguably the most important American political figure since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

So it was no wonder that he believed all things were possible, from the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he predicted even when the clash of superpowers seemed near its most menacing point, to the complete disarmament of all nuclear arsenals, which Reagan proposed in a stunning arms-control summit near the end of his administration. What seemed to some as naivete struck others as good old gumption.

Reagan was a champion salesman of the American dream, mayor-for-life of the land he called "a shining city on a hill."

Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry said, "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious," and he praised the late president for his "goodwill in the heat of partisan battle."

"Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate. Despite the disagreements, he lived by that noble ideal that at 5 p.m., we weren't Democrats or Republicans, we were Americans and friends," said the senator from Massachusetts.

Like all forceful leaders, Reagan deeply angered some -- but his gift for communication and his bedrock optimism attracted far more supporters than critics. In 1984, he was reelected with the largest number of popular and electoral votes in U.S. history. Though the nation has added about 50 million people since then, no candidate has surpassed his record. His electoral vote landslide that year was among the most lopsided in history.

He entered the White House older than any previous occupant, and yet as the candidate of fresh ideas, from supply-side economics to welfare reform. He intrigued and imprinted students of the 1980s much as John F. Kennedy had done for the previous generation, dispatching them into the mills of commerce rather than the halls of government.

It had been 20 years since a president had completed two full terms. Five administrations had been cut short: by assassination, Vietnam, Watergate, rampant inflation and civic malaise. In a sense, Reagan's signal achievement was that he restored in Americans their hope for normalcy.

 

"He got the country to believe in itself again," his longtime aide Michael K. Deaver said in an interview before Reagan's death.

Beyond that, experts argue over his record. Among the ranks of Republican conservatives who live and breathe Reagan's catechism of low taxes, small government, unregulated liberty and a strong military, he is rated one of the most important presidents in U.S. history. They credit him with winning the Cold War.

"Ronald Reagan was a president of great historic impact who led the United States with strength and conviction, and the positive impact of his policies is still felt today here and around the world," Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie said. "Because Ronald Reagan lived, people across the globe live in greater freedom and prosperity."

Reagan's critics acknowledge that he dramatically recast the nation's political agenda, replacing the aging New Deal consensus with an entirely new language. But they see little good coming from it.

As Walter Williams, professor emeritus of the University of Washington, put it in a recent book, "Reaganism -- with its antigovernment, antiregulation, antitax, and probusiness philosophy -- achieved its objective of hamstringing the federal institutions concerned with domestic policy." Williams blames failures from the Enron scandal to inadequate airport security on that achievement.

In a recent history of the Republican Party, Lewis L. Gould of the University of Texas rates Reagan as the most important president in terms of his influence over the party, but gives him a more mixed report as chief executive. "Reagan stands supreme as the embodiment of GOP virtues and conservative ideals," he wrote. "Reagan transformed the Republican Party into a conservative unit with a diminishing band of moderates on its fringes. . . . Reagan thus serves as a talisman of what it means to be a Republican."

Reagan's successor, president George H.W. Bush, quickly discovered just how deeply Reagan had carved the new creed into Republican stone. Bush's decision to raise taxes as part of a broad budget deal with congressional Democrats outraged the GOP base and crippled his bid for reelection in 1992.

Gould added, however, that "when hard choices loomed, Reagan and the people around him preferred a conservatism of gestures rather than one of substance."

At the end of his presidency, Reagan lamented that he had not substantially cut domestic spending, despite years of rhetoric, nor had he come close to balancing the federal budget.

Unquestioned was Reagan's ability to connect with the American public through formal speeches, offhand remarks, even mere gestures. He was the most effective presidential communicator since Roosevelt and probably one of three greatest to hold the office -- Abraham Lincoln, master of the written speech; Roosevelt, master of the radio address; and Reagan, master of television.

Wounded in an assassination attempt shortly after taking office in 1981, Reagan quipped, "I forgot to duck."

Dogged by worries about his age during his reelection campaign, he promised during a presidential debate: "I am not going to exploit for political gain my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Comforting a nation stunned by the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, he said: "Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue."

Crystallizing the final stage of the Cold War confrontation between Western liberties and Soviet repression, he visited the Berlin Wall in 1987 and challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to tear it down. In a perfect summary of his core faith, Reagan declared, "After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor."

Reagan's legacy can be seen in the current White House, where his example is revered; in Congress, where Reagan Republicans captured control of the House in 1994 and have held it ever since; and on the Supreme Court, where Reagan appointees hold the balance of power on most issues. (He filled four vacancies, elevating William H. Rehnquist to chief justice and adding Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy and Antonin Scalia.

He left the public eye in 1994, soon after attending the funeral of Richard M. Nixon, the last president to die.

Reagan's farewell note to his fellow citizens was his final masterpiece. "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience," he wrote in the same small, neat hand he used for thousands of personal letters. "When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage."

In a recent speech promoting stem cell research, Nancy Reagan said her husband had been for several years "in a distant place where I can no longer reach him." Death in Alzheimer's disease usually results from the accumulated effects of immobility, disordered swallowing and malnutrition. Pneumonia is often the immediate cause of death. The stress of illness can also worsen underlying cardiovascular disease, triggering heart attacks or strokes. Alzheimer's is now the eighth-leading cause of death in the United States, and its rate is rising.

"In closing let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your President," Reagan wrote 10 years ago. "When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future."

 

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Update on Emerine Mansion
June 5, 2004

It's hard to put a price on history, but Virgene Barkley knows that the price is definitely more than $140,000.
She rejected just such bid for her historic limestone structure on the corner of South Wood and West Tiffin Street at auction June 1, 2004..
To participate in the auction, seven potential buyers wrote deposit checks of $1,000 each. After a tour of the home's three floors, auctioneer Phil Cole opened the bidding at $400,000. It dropped to $125,000 before the first bid was placed. The price rose to the $140,000 sum, but was not enough to tempt Barkley.
Virgene Barkley will put Emerine Mansion on eBay

One of Fostoria's historic showcase homes is going on the auction block.
What is being billed as the "Emerine Mansion," at 200 W. Tiffin St, will be sold to the highest bidder on June 1, 2004 by Phil Cole Real Estate & Auction Co.
An article in the Fostoria Times on Feb. 2,1893, stated, "One of the handsomest residences to be erected in Fostoria will be that of Andrew Emerine Sr., which will be located on the northwest corner of Wood and Tiffin Streets. The plans for this structure have already been drawn and disclose a stone building with all the modern improvements and conveniences. The beauty of the exterior will be only exceeded by the perfect symmetry of the interior, The building will cost about $8,000 and will make a splendid home for a useful and industrious citizen."
Another newspaper article about the structure says "The home is from the Romanesque period, built from local native limestone."
Mr. Emerine a German immigrant, ran a harness business here before founding the First National Bank, an institution in this city for more than 50 years. When Emerine died, his daughter, Lucy, continued to live in the home until her death in the early 1940's
The next owner of the mansion was Harry Howbert. president of Buckeye Stages, Fostoria's first bus company. He lived there until Roy Kissling, a local shoe repairman, bought the home in 1971. Kissling and his wife did a good deal of restoration there.
In 1985, the home was purchased by Charles Barkley. Barkley had been employed at Atlas Crankshaft for more than 25 years, retiring in 1980. He was a 1938 graduate of Fostoria High School and a 1948 graduate of the Chicago Institute of Arts. When he passed away in 1993 ownership of the home reverted to his daughter, Virgene Barkley who still owns it.
Virgene opened Corporate Etc., a bed and breakfast,at the location in 1995 and continued to operate the business for several years before closing it.
The home contains 4,768 square feet of living space, not counting the full basement and attic
The first floor contains a center foyer, library, parlor and formal dining room all with fire places, a sitting room, sun room, kitchen, butler's pantry, food pantry and laundry room. On the second floor is a center hall, siting room suite, four bedrooms, one with fireplace, and a separate maid's quarters with a bedroom and a combo bedroom/sitting room.
There are 13 beveled Fostoria Glass windows, leaded and stained in the building.
It is listed on the Historic Register.

 

Fostoria Man, returns from Iraq

From The Advertiser-Tribune March 24, 2004

By Cathy Willoughby

 

    For over a year, one area man observed, and helped to deliver first hand news on unfolding events from the front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Relaying information to press from around the world, Fostoria resident Jefferson Wolfe served his country from the fiery sands of Iraq as a member of the Army Reserves Public Affairs unit.

    A reporter for The Advertiser-Tribune, Wolfe left Fort Campbell, Kentucky on April 1, 2003 and arrived in Kuwait.  His unit was attached to a Marine unit at Camp Commando, the First Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Pendleton, California.

    Broad expanses of sand, high winds and extreme heat greeted him.

    While he was first in Kuwait City, Wolfe saw his first sandstorm.

    "It looked like a tan snowstorm," he said "You could see it coming and going .  People would go out in it,  they didn't seem to think too much of it."

    After a sandstorm, everything is covered in fine layer of dust.  Soldiers quickly learned that no amount of cleaning would rid them of the constant presence of sand, Wolfe said. 

    On April 25, 2003 five Public Affairs officers from Wolfe's unit moved out to the north, first to Numineah then on to Babylon.  there was one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, one of two homes of the former dictator where Wolfe lived for a time.

    Huge and empty, the Palace made it's own noises in the night, creating an eerie atmosphere.  When Wolfe awoke after the first night, he looked out the window to another sandstorm, leaving visibility low.

    "Then the sun came up, and the sandstorm burned off."  Wolfe recalled.  "and it was living in a resort. The Palace was a beautiful building. And it was on the Euphrates River, which was really beautiful," he said.

    Initially there were four Public Affairs officers and three enlisted PA's with the Marines headquartered in Babylon.

    Wolfe's role was to field calls and accompany the international press during many of the newsworthy events coming from the area they were stationed.

    In the south, occupied by Shiites, he worked with press at the mass grave site.

    "Reporters were always coming to look at the Babylon ruins," he explained. "Fox news ,CNN, U.S. News and World Report.  In Tikrit, I met Geraldo Rivera."

    "A ceremony that noted the exchange of Spanish for Polish forces involved many international press representatives,"  Wolfe said.

    In December, his unit was sent to the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which was headquartered in Tikrit.  The opportunity to set up a press conference led to Wolfe's absence during the biggest news story in Tikrit, the capture of Hussein.

    "My job was to answer e-mails from reporters, schedule reporters and keep track of embedded reporters." Wolfe said.  " Before Saddam was caught, at some base camps there were 12 to 15 embedded reporters."  The Associated Press, Reuters, FOX, Agency France Press and news agencies from many countries descended on sites of major events, especially in Tikrit following Saddam's capture.

    In Tikrit, the Public Affairs unit stayed with the 4th Infantry Division in the presidential palace complex,specifically in what was called the Water Palace.

    The Water Palace was build on top of a man made lake," he said " There were fish swimming underneath."  That building was just one of many, each with an indoor pool. The complex had it's own roadway system and was located near the Tigris River.  It was there that he saw a helicopter come down, watching it out the back door of the building in which his division's headquarters were set up.

    "Then they kicked off a big operation to try to get rid of the guys that shot down the helicopters,"  Wolfe said.

    Times spent with the Iraqi people were infrequent, he said, yet when the opportunity arose, he ventured out to find that they were friendly and generous.

    In the south, all Americans were greeted warmly, he added.  "Everywhere in the south, they were very friendly and accommodating."  Wolfe said.  They were excited that Saddam was gone.  They said, 'Saddam 'Donkey'  which was a big insult."

    Among those who made a lasting impression on him was a barber, whose English improved and spoke of losing his brother to Saddam's henchman.  Another was a translator, who had been a cab driver in San Diego at one time,  Another was a television producer who had been a basketball star in Iraq.

    "No matter where you were, they would gather around and practice English,"  Wolfe said. " They would say, George Bush was good." and the little kids would ask for candy."

    Though the adjustments to 130 degree heat and blistering winds,  Wolfe found the country and its people fascinating.

    "I got a better feel for a part of the world that I didn't know much about." he explained.

    Spending a year without the comforts of home also gave him an appreciation of what one really needs, he added.

    "The first time we had cold pop we had gone a month without." he said.  "Someone got Pepsi that was bottled in Iran, it was the biggest treat in the world when it's 110 degrees."

    He also found that he would rather deal with extreme heat than cold.

    "At first 130 degrees scared the heck out of me, but you get used to it."  Wolfe said.   " It's amazing how wonderful 110 feels after 130.  110 feels balmy, your body works properly. Although 130 with wind is miserable.  It's like standing in front of an oven all day, it burns the eyes."

    There are places he would like, to see when he returns someday, such as an arch south of Babylon and the site where Abraham was born.  He would also like to interact with the Iraqi people more

     "I wish I had more time to get out and meet those folks," Wolfe added..

 

- Click for picture -

Jeff Wolfe poses in spider hole where

Saddam Hussein hid in Tikrit Iraq.

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Jeff Wolfe, local Fostorian, is the Son of Mr. & Mrs. Robert Wolfe (retired LtCol. U.S. Army) 1706 North Walnut St. Fostoria.

Artist' work combined to make final design

By TIM SOSTER

R/t Staff Writer

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    After weeks of debate over the designs, the chapel committee of local veterans agreed on a design comprised of two drawings by three people John Cockie, Dean Mossier and Samantha Sayre.    The kneeling soldier was added to the design by the Veteran's Ministry Assoiation, and the window went back to the drawing board.   

    "They agreed on the drawing and another composite was made and the committee voted on the second drawing and a couple of the members were upset about the changes," said Mayor John Davoli.    "In any group you will always upset some people.  But this has been a real pleasant project."    The mayor then decided to have another meeting to get another vote.    The committee again voted for the same design.   

    "I just got the call (Wednesday)." said Linda Radcliff, (A local woman) from R&L Stained Glass who will make the window.    Radcliff said once she receives the contract from the city, she will begin the process.    "Right now, it'll probably be about two weeks before I have the design drawn and ready," Radcliff said.    The window is scheduled to be completed just prior to Memorial Day, Radcliff added.    The Chapel is schedujled to be didicated on Memorial Day 2004.    The city has received more than $10,000 in the past week from the veteran's organizations through their charitable bingo funds.    That brings the overall total to almost $80,000 of the projected $210,000 projected cost.    The AMVETS post just signed a contract to donate the proceeds from their charitable bingo, according to Diane Lind, the mayor's secretary.

    Harold-Floriana Funeral Home, Hoening Funeral Home and Mann-Hare Funeral Home each donated $2,500 for the window and the Fostoria Woman's Club donated $3,750.    Lind said there is still room for another sponsor for the window that will cost under $15,000

Below is a drawing of the stained glass window design that will grace the Veteran's Memorial Chapel at Fountain Cemetery.  Each pane will be 2 1/2 by 3 feet.