The Children’s Hometown Holiday wrapped up the weekend full of activities with their annual Breakfast with Santa.  The Wapakoneta Knights of Columbus has been hosting the free breakfast for around five years and they serve between 600 and 700 people.  Kids were able to sit and talk to Santa, get their pictures taken with one of the characters that were walking around.  Plus, they could also take part in a coloring contest or get their face painted themselves.    Members of the Knights of Columbus are glad they could help event organizer Elaine Poppe make some holiday memories for some local kids.

The bus pulled into the Allen County Republican Party Victory Center bringing some heavy hitters asking voters to vote yes on Issue One. Speaking today was Ohio's attorney general, 2 Ohio supreme court justices, and a handful of other officials in favor of issue one. It is a proposed constitutional amendment to state that judges shall consider the safety of the community when setting a bond. It is in response to the 4 to 3 vote of the Ohio Supreme Court rejecting the trial judge's decision to consider the victim's family's fear of retribution when setting bail in a homicide case in Hamilton County.

The program is called Make it Home and Lima was one of 13 municipalities nationwide selected by the Center for Community Progress to see if they can copy the success of the program in Detroit. Other cities that were picked are Atlanta, Louisville, Cleveland, and Milwaukee from a diverse group of applicants. The program takes rental properties that are being foreclosed on and the owner cannot maintain control of and helps the renters purchase them and become homeowners themselves.

Even though this is Work Zone Safety Week, it is a driver’s responsibility to make sure that the construction workers and other motorists make it home safe all year round. Last year, there were nearly 4,800 crashes in work zones, 35% occurred when construction crews were working. Of all the crashes, just over 1,000 people were injured and 29 were killed in a work zone. But with more contractors getting ready to tackle road projects, ODOT wants to issue a friendly reminder to keep the work zone safe.

Law enforcement will be stepping up drinking and driving enforcement this weekend and next for people going out and celebrating St. Patrick's Day. So far this year, the Ohio State Highway Patrol has handled 2,500 OVI incidents around the state, which is down from 2021. But medical professionals say all it takes is one bad decision to change the lives of many people by getting behind the wheel after drinking.

Even if you have an outside dog that is used to the cold, these bitter temperatures are not good for them. You need to make sure they have a safe space out of the wind and that has dry bedding like straw. Don’t use blankets as they can get wet and turn into a bed of ice. If you have indoor pets, pay close attention to them as you let them out.