Bomb squad called in for live grenade

By Nancy Spencer, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Thursday, July 17, 2008 (1 year, 8 months ago)
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The Fort Jennings Maintenance Dept. took delivery of the new tractor Tuedsay for summer mowing and other duties.FORT JENNINGS — A live World War II grenade caused quite a stir in Fort Jennings on June 23.
Putnam County Historical Society volunteers had moved artifacts from Memorial Hall and transported them to the old gymnasium/band room where the library is now located. A volunteer noticed the pin was still in place on the grenade and raised concerns.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office was contacted, who in turn contacted Jennings Police Chief Ethel Vaughn. The grenade was removed from the building and the Lima Bomb Squad disarmed the grenade and returned the shell to the society.
Helen Kaverman was one of the volunteers who helped move items to their new location.
“It was really scary when they told us about the grenade. It was packed in a box with other things and moved by truck to the library and jostled around and we never thought anything of it,” Kaverman said. “Millie Ruen was the one who noticed the pin was still in place and she started asking questions.”
Kaverman’s guess is that the grenade had been in Memorial Hall for decades before the group moved the artifacts to their new home; while it was in the hall, it had been moved and handled several times.
The Fort Jennings Park Board will get a boost from the village in purchasing new playground equipment.
Park Board President Cliff Wieging and other members attended the village council meeting Tuesday and reported they had raised enough for the first phase of the project and would like assistance with the remaining balance to complete the project.
The park board has $22,200 in their account with $36,771.91 needed for the equipment.
“We are making good money with our fundraisers but all we seem to be doing is upkeep and maintenance on what we have and we aren’t doing any improvements,” Wieging said.
The recent Fort Jennings Park Festival raised $3,000 and the board hopes the upcoming Motor Madness Weekend Aug. 15 and 16 will match or exceed last year’s profits of $9,000. A Movie Night in August is also planned.
Village council agreed to transfer $20,000 from the General Fund to the Park Fund so the park board could place the order for the equipment and take advantage of a 30 percent discount on the entire structure.
“It is also the village’s job to help maintain and improve our park,” Mayor Jim Smith said. “I don’t see a problem with transferring this money and with the upcoming fundraisers, I think we can be confident there will be money in the fund for future maintenance and upkeep.”
Wieging said Gametime, the company they will purchase the equipment from, will ship the order within three weeks; they assured him anyone handy with tools will be able to assemble it once the piers for the structure are sunk.
Site work is being completed by Poggemeyer Design Group for the Fifth Street storm sewer relief project.
The village received approximately $23,000 in a Small Governments Grant to help with the project.
A new 36-inch line at the detention pond at Jennings Schools will come behind the homes on Fourth Street down to St. Joseph Street, turn at Charles Street, turn at Fifth Street and then run out to the river.
The village will not receive the monies until September. Site work, engineering and other work can be done prior to receiving the funds but a bid cannot be awarded.
Bids for the project will be put out in late August, opened in the beginning of September for review.
The maintenance department took delivery of the new tractor for summer mowing and other duties. The old tractor was traded in and the new one purchased for $12,500 from Northwest Tractor in Ottawa. The old tractor has 732 hours on it.
In  other business, council:
• Learned Mayor Smith will attend an Emerald Ash Borer meeting Monday in Delphos;
• Issue II funding has increased and paving projects will need to put into a grant application; and
• The property on the corner of Fifth and Main streets was mowed by Maintenance Supervisor Paul Kramer. It took Kramer six hours, which will be billed at $50 per hour to the landowner.
The next meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 19.

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