The Ohio State University is set to host seven future NCAA Championship tournaments starting in 2023, including men’s basketball.

The NCAA announced that OSU had been granted final approval by the competition oversight and championship committees.

In 2023, Ohio State will host men’s basketball games in the first and second rounds, then in 2024 will hold the men’s gymnastics and women’s fencing championships.

In 2025 OSU will be the site of the men’s volleyball championship and the women’s golf regional before finishing in 2026 by hosting the men’s golf regional and the co-ed rifle championships.

 

As COVID cases rise across the state, Hancock and Putnam County stayed at their previous levels on the latest COVID-19 alert map that was released on Thursday.

Hancock County remained at level 2, or the orange level, while Putnam County is still at level 3, or the red level.

Hancock and Putnam both are still labeled as a “high incidence” county.

The number of “red” counties has increased to 29, and Lucas County has returned to the red level.

The red level is defined as a county with very high exposure and spread of COVID-19.

A day after setting a record for new cases that record was broken again, with 2,178 cases reported statewide on Thursday.

Governor DeWine says local health department officials say schools are doing a good job but they are seeing a rise in cases from social gatherings.

The governor says health officials are seeing fewer people wearing a mask when they’re out.

“These are not times to be complacent or comfortable. It is the time to be vigilant to protect yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbors,” DeWine said.

 

We have 13 new red counties today. Our local health department officials have told us this week that our schools are doing a good job. But what they are seeing is spread from social gatherings.

— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) October 15, 2020

The City of Findlay Water Distribution Department will be performing some fire hydrant flushing on Friday.

It will take place in the area of North Blanchard Street east to Bright Road and from the Blanchard River north to Tiffin Avenue.

Anyone with a question can contact the Water Distribution Department at 419-424-7192.

Hydrant flushing is part of the general maintenance of a city’s water distribution system and helps ensure that adequate water flow is available.

 

Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development hosted a business roundtable discussion with Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, of Lima, on Wednesday.

Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn said COVID response was one of the topics and how the legislature can help support businesses through the pandemic, especially bars and restaurants.

She says allowing bars and restaurants to serve alcohol past 10 p.m. would be a big help.

 

 

Speaker Cupp said the roundtable discussion was very informative.

 

 

He mentioned that there are still some federal dollars with the CARES Act that need to be allocated that could help some local small businesses as the pandemic continues.

(In the picture above are Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn, State Rep. Jon Cross, Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp and Tim Mayle, Director of Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development)

Two candidates competing for a Hancock County Commissioner’s seat participated in a forum on Wednesday.

Republican William Bateson and Democrat Melissa Kritzell shared their thoughts on a variety of issues affecting the county, such as the pandemic’s effect on county finances, flooding, lowering addiction and crime rates and jail expansion.

The forum was aired on WFIN and hosted by the University of Findlay. You can view the forum below.

There are three Hancock County Commissioners.

Commissioners Mark Gazaraek and Brian Robertson are not running for re-election.

Bateson and Kritzell are running for one seat and Mike Pepple, a Republican, is running uncontested for the other commissioner’s seat.

Tim Bechtol is the other county commissioner.

 

Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris will be in Cleveland on Friday.

A release from the Biden-Harris campaign made the announcement.

There were no additional immediate details on her visit.

President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden were in Cleveland last month for a presidential debate.

Ivanka Trump is also expected in Ohio on Friday.

President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Campaign made the announcement on Wednesday about the event planned in Cincinnati.

The president’s daughter says she’ll be sharing the campaign’s agenda with Ohioans on Friday.

It wasn’t immediately clear where or when the event will be.

Four more Hancock County residents have died of COVID-19.

That puts the total number of deaths in the county at 18.

Hancock Public Health says there were 907 cases as of Wednesday.

113 of the cases are active.

State data shows Putnam County had 784 cases and 27 deaths as of Wednesday.

Both Hancock and Putnam Counties are considered a “high incidence” county.

Hancock County is still at level 2, or orange, on the state’s COVID-19 alert map.

Putnam County is still at level 3, or the red level.

The new map will be released on Thursday.

Statewide, Ohio broke the record for the highest number of COVID cases reported in a single day.

2,039 new infections were reported over the last 24-hours, the first time the number has exceeded 2,000.

16 new coronavirus deaths have also been reported since Tuesday.

That brings the death toll to 5,033 statewide while there have been 173,665 cases of the virus.

 

The Findlay Fire Department conducted a joint training session with Mercy Health Life Flight on Wednesday morning.

 

 

Assistant Chief Brian Sanders says the department has new technology allowing them to call in Life Flight directly to the location of the incident using GPS coordinates.

The new technology will get Life Flight to the scene quicker and create a more secure scene for everyone involved.

Sanders says Life Flight pilots are great at landing in tight spots, and recently they had to land on Western Avenue in Findlay for a motorcycle crash.

In the training on Wednesday morning, Life Flight helicopters landed at the high school, Glenwood Middle School, Emory Adams Park and fire station 4 (below).

Also below is a video of Life Flight landing at the scene of a crash from over the summer.

 

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/FindlayFireDepartment/videos/662867851268231/?epa=SEARCH_BOX” width=”500″ height=”” onlyvideo=”1″]

 

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/1330wfin/videos/2730241147256300/” width=”800″ height=”” onlyvideo=”1″]

The Kiwanis Club of Findlay will be holding a ribbon cutting for Brucklacher Memorial Park, which is the club’s 100th anniversary project.

The park was built at the site of the Little Red Schoolhouse at 8884 County Road 236.

The ribbon cutting will take place at noon on Monday, October 19th and the park and playground will officially open.

The park is in honor of James Brucklacher, a longtime Kiwanian and one of the founders of the Hancock Historical Museum.

 

 

Kiwanian Rick Kidwell says they decided to do a park and playground for their 100th anniversary project because they wanted to do something that would have longevity and that kids would enjoy.

 

The Ohio State Highway Patrol ticketed nearly 500 drivers during a distracted driving enforcement initiative.

Details are in the following news release from the highway patrol.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol joined forces with other members of the 6-State Trooper Project to focus on distracted driving enforcement. During the project, 491 people were cited with distracted driving related offenses.

The high-visibility enforcement included the Indiana State Police, Kentucky State Police, Michigan Statee, Pennsylvania State Police, West Virginia State Police and the Patrol. The initiative began on Monday, October 5 at 12:01 a.m. and continued through Monday, October 12 at 11:59 p.m.

On October 29, 2018, Ohio passed House Bill 95, a law which broadened what is considered distracted driving, and increased the fine if it was a contributing factor to the commission of the driving violation.

Distracted driving is any non-driving activity with the potential to distract a person from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing. Distractions can be visual, taking eyes off of the road; manual, taking hands off the wheel; or cognitive, taking the mind off driving.

The 6-State Trooper Project is a multi-state law enforcement partnership aimed at providing combined and coordinated law enforcement and security services in the areas of highway safety, criminal patrol and intelligence sharing.