Citizens For A Better Norwood

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Sept. 1 issue of "The Norwood Times" in distribution

The second issue of Ted Hooks’ "The Norwood Times" is hitting the front porches of Norwood homes this Labor Day weekend. As with the first issue, this one is full of ads, many for local businesses, many with discount coupons. Included are announcements about a Norood (a typo perhaps) Cruise-In Swap Meet tomorrow, 9/3, from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at Frisch’s and a Community Picnic on Saturday, 9/15/07, 4:00 p.m., at Lower Millcrest Park. The sponsorship of these events isn't clear, but they both sound like a lot of fun. There’s a new classified ad section with local apartments for rent and a form to mail in for advertisements.

Additionally, a front page article announces the newspaper is now available by subscription. It states, "The Norwood Times is asking for subscription support in order to publish a newspaper to keep the people in Norwood up on what is happening in the city. There is much going on in our recreation, Senior Center and local organizations that are not printed in any other publication." A mail-in form for a $3.00, 4-month subscription for 4 upcoming issues appears on page 6. Contact information is provided on the front page: phone # 891-2292 and an email address thooks72055@fuse.net.

In this issue’s editorial, Mr. Hooks mentions, among other things, Citizens for a Better Norwood and a specific blog we published on 7/30/07, which we entitled "Look up in the sky, it’s a plane!" We’re certainly pleased Mr. Hooks visits our site. However, he misunderstood some of the facts we presented in our blog as well as our real purpose for writing it, which was to share with our readers information we collected about the Ohio State Police plane patrol program we’d never heard of in the hope that we all might slow down a bit on the highways and interstates.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hooks misconstrued from we wrote that a friend who reported getting a ticket after a plane clocked her traveling near Norwood 20 mph above the I71 speed limit complained about it. The friend, a lifelong and current resident of Delhi, acknowledged her guilt during our conversation and mentioned the episode only because it occurred near our city and involved a plane. (As far as is known, she’s never heard of this blog or Citizens for a Better Norwood.) We did not complain to Lt. Williams at the NPD when we called him seeking information about the plane patrol. Our call to him (we didn’t go see him as Mr. Hooks suggests) was strictly to gather information for a blog about the plane patrols. He briefly explained them and then referred us to the Ohio State Police since they run the program. We did not complain to the OSP officer, either, who very generously took the time to answer our questions.

Below, we’re publishing only the passages from Mr. Hooks’ editorial that pertain to our blog. Directly below these is a link to the blog he discusses for anyone who would like read it and judge for themselves how accurately Mr. Hooks described our content, tone, and purpose.

I recently read an article on a blog that is in Norwood, called Citizens for a Better Norwood. This article was about complaining about the noise with police and fire sirens. Actually, the true focus of this article was about the noise of an airplane that flies overhead. This plane belongs to the Ohio State Police and it covers 6 to 7 counties in southwest Ohio. As I read this piece, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. What the blog was really about, was a lady complaining because she was caught going 20 miles over the speed limit on I-71.

So let’s go and see Lt. Williams and complain. The only reason she complained was because she broke the law and got caught. The plane which she complained about flies so high, that we can’t hear or even see it.

Can’t we find better things to complain about? What will be next?

...As for the Citizens for a Better Norwood blog, I have found they have many interesting and informative articles, even though some of the articles are optionated. (Note: We think he means opinionated, but for sure, the reading of all of our articles is optional or optionated.) Like I said, freedom of speech. Isn't it great?

Click here to read the 7/30/07 blog