By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
The Wood County Commissioners honored some of Wood County’s finest citizens Sunday afternoon for their leadership in agriculture, education, economic development, religion, citizenship, law, and self-government.
Each of the eight recipients at the 38th annual ceremony was recognized for “doing great things throughout the county all year long,” said Wood County Commissioner Craig Lahote.
The commissioners presented Spirit of Wood County Awards to Steve Weihl, Mark Reddin, Cindy Hofner, James Rossler, Tim Smith, Matthew Wahlgren, Martha Woelke and Geoffrey Howes.
Their contributions included supporting farm families and junior fair youth, ensuring the courts treat people with respect and fairness, leading a church in important community missions, working quietly and tirelessly to make Bowling Green and Wood County a good place to live, dedicating a career to fiscal integrity in support of students, mentoring the next generation of leaders, focusing on the value of the community’s rich heritage, and raising the bar for excellence in government.
Agricultural Leadership
Steve Weihl’s 36-year career with Ag Credit earned him the respect of the agricultural community and the Agricultural Leadership award at the Spirit of Wood County Awards ceremony. The award is presented to someone who plays an active role in agriculture and is a leader in the strengthening and betterment of agriculture in Wood County.
“He worked with second- and third-generation farm families helping them achieve their dreams—whether it was buying their first house or navigating difficult times,” said Bernie Scott, his nominator.
Weihl also may hold “the all-time record for attending the most FFA banquets in Wood County,” Scott said about Weihl’s attendance at banquets to present Ag Credit’s 110% Award to the top FFA member in each chapter. He also touched the lives of junior fair youths at the Wood County Fair each year, spending hours each fair bidding on youth-owned animals during the junior fair livestock sale.
In his role at Ag Credit, Weihl also helped initiate the Wood County Agriculture Hall of Fame, awarded each year during the county fair.
One of Scott’s best memories as Weihl’s agriculture teacher at Otsego High School was when Weihl showed the Ohio State Junior Fair Grand Champion Tomato Project. In the state fair’s junior fair sale, “the tomatoes sold for $300 per tomato under the watchful eye of the auctioneer, then-Governor (Jim) Rhodes in the early 1980s,” Scott recalled. “So, he knows about awarding youth success.”
“I was wondering if he was going to bring up that time about the tomatoes, because on our way home after we sold those tomatoes, we stopped to get 10 copies of the Columbus Dispatch,” Weihl said in accepting the award. “I had to prove to my football coach that I was actually where I was at and what I was doing. Bernie even volunteered to run the stairs if I had to run stairs.”
Weihl, who retired from Ag Credit in 2023, now raises cattle and farms full-time with his son and 93-year-old father, Harold. “It’s very humbling to receive this award,” he said, thanking Scott and the commissioners.
Liberty through Law and Human Freedom
Wood County Common Pleas Judge Matthew Reger nominated retired Bowling Green Municipal Court Judge Mark Reddin for the Liberty through Law and Human Freedom award. The award is given to an individual who supports the guarantee of due process and has confirmed the principle that liberty is an entitlement to all.
Reger, who started at the municipal court six months after Reddin became the judge and spent years as a practicing attorney in front of Reddin, shared some of the “interesting cases” they heard during that time: a student who impersonated a police officer and made a threat on the U.S. president; a dog musher charged with animal cruelty; and a Supreme Court Justice charged with Operating a Vehicle Impaired.
“What I saw was what I kind of carried on as a judge myself—an interaction with the litigants who came in front of him and a realization that those defendants didn’t get up one day and say, ‘I’m going to commit a crime,’” Reger said. “It was a series of events within their lives that led them to that.”
Reddin tried to get to the core issues, whether it involved issues like mental illness or substance use disorder. “I can tell you that for 30 years, the people who came through the Bowling Green Municipal Court got an impression that the Constitution was alive, that due process was a real thing and that the courts cared about the people who came down. That was all because of Mark,” Reger said.
In his nomination, Reger stated, “In his own words, he recently stated that his ‘responsibility is fidelity to the law and the Constitution [and] to be fair and impartial to all who appear before [him].’”
His commitment to fairness and impartiality “has made Bowling Green Municipal Court one of the most respected in the state and given Mark a reputation with other municipal judges that is stellar,” Reger said.
He saw his role was “not to simply jail people, but to help them find a new direction,” Reger said. He developed a diversion program for underage alcohol offenses and helped expand the probation department, which helps give people placed on probation the tools to succeed.
“Anybody who is able to be effective didn’t get there because of themselves alone,” Reddin said. “They got there because there were people to help them along the way on the journey. Certainly, this award is a reflection of those folks who helped me along the way as I was able to make some waves and make progress with what we did in the court.”
Self-Government
With 32 years of service to the citizens of Wood County as a staff member in the Wood County Clerk of Courts office, Cindy Hofner was nominated by Andrew Kalmar and received the award for Self-Government.
“It’s kind of a big job,” he said about the Clerk of Courts office, which is responsible for maintaining the records of the Common Pleas Court, the Sixth District Court of Appeals, and issuing and maintaining all motor vehicle and watercraft titles.
Hofner worked her way up through the ranks in the office, serving as chief deputy clerk of courts under former Clerk Becky Bhaer. When Bhaer retired, Hofner ran for the position and was elected in 2009. She was re-elected twice and retired in 2020.
“Over the decades, Cindy witnessed and participated in many changes,” he said. When she started, all of the work was done manually, “completely paper driven.”
She participated in the process to bring paperless filing to the clerk of courts’ office, as well as to automate the auto titling process.
Three months before she retired, Hofner completed a remodeling project of the clerk’s courthouse office to make it more efficient and customer-friendly, Kalmar said.
“A staff member who worked for Cindy said, ‘Cindy loved the clerk’s office more than anyone. She loved working there. She worked relentlessly to make sure the law was followed and the citizens were served,” he said. Hofner was also active in the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association, serving as its president.
Beyond her work, she was involved in Girl Scouts, first as a member from third through 12th grade and then as a leader from 1992-2005. She earned an appreciation pin from the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio Council for outstanding service and dedication. In 2000, she was the service unit director for the Black Swamp Service Unit for Bowling Green and Otsego school districts. For that role, Hofner was recognized for outstanding service to two or more service units.
Hofner has volunteered with the Wood County Committee on Aging and is active with her church in Tontogany. Recently, she completed service as president of the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club, and now is the club’s treasurer, “a vital role, making it function from day to day,” Kalmar said. “She knows what needs to be done and works hard to make it so.”
“I was just doing the job that all of you Wood County residents elected me to do,” Hofner said. “I had to keep the bar up there for myself and do what was supposed to be done and needed to be done.”
Education for Civic Responsibility
James Rossler Jr. “represents Rossford schools as treasurer, and he is Rossford schools,” said Rossford Schools Superintendent Dan Creps, who nominated Rossler for the Education for Civic Responsibility award.
He has worked as a public school treasurer for 38 years, with 34 years at Rossford. Though he has won “stacks of awards over the years,” Rossler “is all about humility,” Creps said, admitting that he probably wasn’t happy about being nominated for the spirit award.
“We’ve been in the media quite a bit due to this guy’s efforts in collaboration with other members of the Wood County Economic Development committee,” Creps said.
The Rossford school district has “done over $100 million (of work) in facilities … and over $50 million of that has been done without going out to the taxpayers and asking for a single new tax dollar,” he announced. “That is an amazing story in and of itself.”
He brings a calm, steady presence to the position and is known for balancing the budget to the penny at the end of each month.
When Creps has ideas for spending fund for new programs, Rossler has some standard sayings, such as “We’re finding great success with this model. It was that way since God was in knickers,” or the one that “speaks to him the most: ‘Hey, look, if it’s going to benefit the kids, we’ll find the money, “ Creps said.
“No matter what he did over all of those years, he’s found great success, and despite all of the changes in legislation, changes in board members and changes in budgets, this guy has delivered.”
Accepting the award, Rossler admitted, “I don’t like the spotlight; I’d rather work behind the scenes, so this is very humbling for me.” He thanked Creps, the commissioners and also his family for giving him “the latitude to do the things that I really wanted to do and get done.”
The mayor of Rossford always calls it “The great city of Rossford,” Rossler said. “I think he stops a little bit short. I think what he needs to say is ‘the great city of Rossford and the great county of Wood.’”
Tim Smith also received the Education for Civic Responsibility award thanks to a nomination by Mike Kuhlin.
Over the span of 60 years, Smith “has given selfless service to at least 20 organizations in Wood County alone, and eight regional and national causes,” Kuhlin said.
Smith has served as Wood County administrator, an elected board member of the Wood County Educational Service Center and as a leader in his church. “Tim is passionate about what he does and what he believes in,” Kuhlin said about Smith.
Kuhlin also challenged anyone who says they have a network of friends and associates greater than Tim’s. With a Christmas card list of hundreds and hundreds of family and friends, “his network is all encompassing and very impressive.”
Smith believes in working behind the scenes. Most recently, he persuaded the university, city officials and county commissioners to collaborate and provide funds to restore the corner artwork at East Poe and North College.
Smith has been passionate about helping people and mentoring them throughout his career and in retirement. “It began when he was an assistant dean of students at BGSU, where for decades he helped shape the lives of fraternity men and sorority women through his actions and deeds,” Kuhlin said. “In fact, I’m one of them, and he’s still mentoring me today.”
“Wood County has been a very special place for me since I came here in 1961 as a student,” Smith said. “It is still very important and very special. We do things well in Wood County, and I appreciate the commissioners for the thoughtfulness of these awards. As long as I may, I am still going to try to mentor a couple of people and do it right.”
Religion and Liberty
“Reverend Matt (Wahlgren) has his fingerprints and spiritual influence” on all three ministries of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Perrysburg,” said his nominator, Bob Mack.
The Religion and Liberty award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Wood County community through leadership, service, or advocacy for religious freedom and liberty. The focus is on service projects that strengthen moral, ethical or spiritual life and efforts that promote liberty through community engagement.
Through the support of Tim’s Perrysburg Foundation, the ministries include the Clothesline, Rescue Kitchen and Discover Music.
Run by volunteers, the Clothesline serves thousands of customers each year, taking in donated clothing, shoes and other items to repurpose or recycle the merchandise. All of the iteams are free to men, women and children in the area.
Tim’s Rescue Kitchen “has the double mission of reducing food insecurity and reducing food waste,” Mack said.
The Discover Music series is an outreach program that provides free, musical concerts on Sunday afternoons throughout the year.
“We honor him for his unwavering encouragement, wise guidance and steadfast leadership,” Mack said. “Through his vision and dedication, Tim’s Perrysburg Foundation has flourished, strengthening the Wood County community in faith and service.”
Wahlgren acknowledged the incredible group of volunteers for each of the ministries. “A priest doesn’t get an award without a whole bunch of people doing a lot of listening to God and recklessly running after amazing missions and things,” he said. “I’m honored to accept the award on their behalf, and at Thanksgiving, there is so much to be thankful for.”
Industrial and Economic Development
Diane Huffman has known Martha Woelke for decades as their careers crossed in the real estate industry and as colleagues on numerous boards and foundations.
“But little did I know how deep her roots were in fostering economic development in the county,” Huffman said in her nomination for the Industrial and Economic Development Award.
Since 2012, Woelke has served as treasurer for the Wood County Port Authority, which has been an expansive and vital organization in Wood County that has consistently been recognized by the Ohio Auditor.
In 1998, the Bowlihg Green Chamber of Commerce presented Woelke the Athena Award, given to women in business for their accomplishments and empowerment of other women.
She currently works with the City of Bowling Green to foster community partnerships to improve the local business climate.
“In leadership positions, usually she just quietly, tirelessly works,” Huffman said about her commitment to the people of Bowling Green and Wood County.
“I bet my husband Jim thinks he could be rich if every time I said, ‘What would you think if I…’ and then did something,” she said in thanking her family for their support. “We went to a lot of places and did a lot of things in Bowling Green and Wood County to try and make it a better place to live. That’s what our goal in life is.”
Lyle R. Fletcher Good Citizenship
Given to a “law-abiding community builder who has a concern for his or her neighbor’s welfare, but whose activities often go unnoticed,” the Lyle R. Fletcher Good Citizenship award was presented to Geoffrey Howes.
As a member of the Bowling Green Historic Preservation Committee, Howes played a lead role in a project that installed 16 historic interpretive signs throughout the city, said nominator Richard Edwards, former BG mayor.
“Even the most casual observer can’t help but take notice” of the historical signs, Edwards said. “This amazing and dedicated grant-funded effort to tell the fascinating story of Bowling Green’s history was named the Best Downtown Placemaking Award by Heritage Ohio at their annual meeting on Oct. 15.”
The organization honors the people, places and projects that exemplify a commitment to growth through preservation and revitalization.
“That has been the guiding mission of the Bowling Green City Historic Preservation Commission since its establishment by the city council in 2018 under the direction of city planning director Heather Saylor,” Edwards explained.
“Geoff Howes matches Lyle’s dogged determination to preserve local history and to tell the Bowling Green history story,” he said in presenting the good citizenship award to Howes.
After a recent trip to his hometown in Royal Oak, Michigan, Howes returned home with a file given to him by his sister from their parents’ home. In the file “I found that Mrs. Robinson, my first-grade teacher, predicted this award in one of my report cards,” he said with a smile.
“When I hear what my fellow awardees have done and are doing, I only hope to live up to this award,” he added.
He thanked Mayor Aspacher for inviting him to join the commission, and he thanked David Kuebeck for inviting him to join the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club. “That has made a big difference in my relationship to the community, getting to know people through that club.”
