City of Defiance

O-G topples Defiance, 61-42

2011-01-08T06:52:00.001-08:00

It was one year ago that Defiance handed Ottawa-Glandorf a 73-53 loss at “The Dawg Pound,” in Defiance, a fact that has lingered in the Titans’ minds since then. Redemption was their goal as the two teams faced off on Friday at Robert J. Hermiller Field House in Ottawa, a place Defiance hasn’t won at since 1993.

This year, Ottawa (7-2, 2-0 WBL) returned the favor with a 61-42 victory over Defiance (5-1, 1-1 WBL).
“It’s just a big win because they got us pretty bad last year. When they came here we just wanted to do the same thing to them,” admitted Titan senior guard Travis Schomaeker. “We kind of got embarrassed last year and didn’t do too well in the WBL. This year we want to go undefeated in the league because it’s going to be tough to have a loss in the WBL and win it outright.”

At halftime, the Titans led 26-18 and it appeared the Bulldogs were going to mount a charge when they cut it to 26-20 after Eric Stapleton completed and old-fashioned three-point play. But a series of baskets from beyond the arc at the 6:53 mark by Andrew Trenkamp and Schomaeker all but ended Defiance’s chance at a comeback as the Bulldogs trailed 44-29 at the end of three quarters.

Ottawa-Glandorf handled the Bulldog threats in the third quarter with their game plan of taking big man Stapleton out of the equation by running offense right at him.

“We tried to do it earlier, we kept going at him but he made good plays,” stated O-G mentor Josh Leslie. “You have to go right at him rather than avoid him or he’ll step across and block shots. Plus he gets every rebound. So, we take the opposite approach and go at him. The hope is he’ll get a couple fouls the first half, a few more the second half and make him sit awhile and change the complexion of their team. That’s what happened and it was huge.”

The fourth stanza started out much like the third with a Bulldog attack cutting the lead to 10 at 46-36 after a Stapleton three-point play with 6:11 left. But again, the Titans mounted a counterattack of their own and cruised to the 61-42 victory.

“You know they’re going to make one more run at you, regardless what the score is,” Leslie said. “We just tried to break their momentum by calling timeout when they hit a few baskets in a row. Calm it down a little bit and make sure we get the play we want to get.”
Leslie, who picked up win 101 in his career, believed the real key to the game happened in the first quarter .

“The big key when you play them, because they’re so well coached, is you have to get ahead,” he explained. “Even if you can get up just a couple possessions so they chase you. Fortunately, we were up 16-9 after one and that gave us some cushion. That allowed us to stay in our game plan while they have to change theirs’ just a little.”

Meanwhile Defiance mentor Kirk Lehman saw a different factor that contributed to his teams’ loss.
“I thought in the first half we were right there with them and competing pretty good,” Lehman said. “It was two teams playing really hard, but we just missed too many layups. You can’t do that against a good team like Ottawa-Glandorf.

“At one point, they had an eight or nine-point lead and we missed three or four layups and you can’t do that in a game like this,” added the DHS mentor. “Then in the second half we lost our composure. When you lose your poise, Ottawa has you right where they want you and they beat you by 20.”

Another big key was that the Titans held Defiance’s biggest perimeter threat Doug Herrett scoreless on the night,
“Teams know that Doug (Herrett) can shoot the basketball,” said Lehman. “They force him to step a little further out. We’ve got to do a better job of recognizing that and get him in a better position. He also has to get himself in a better position. He shot a lot of long range threes and he can make some, but when you play in a game like tonight where they make you go up and down you don’t have the legs.”
Stapleton led the Bulldogs with 19 points. Schomaeker paced the Titans with 24 points while Andrew Trenkamp tallied 11 and Landon Pothast added 10 points.

“It’s all about my teammates, I just get open and they feed it to me,” explained Schomaeker. This is just the beginning of it, we just need to keep getting better and better every week. Now we’ll just focus on the WBL and nothing else.”

BOX SCORE

DEFIANCE (42) – Murray 3; Parrish 3; Moore 6; George 0; Guilliam 2; Weisgerber 0; Kidston 5; Small 2; Shankle 0; Herrett 0; Stapleton 19; Tobias 2. Totals 17-48 4-9 42.
OTTAWA-GLANDORF (61) – Lammers 3; Kaufman 0; Schomaeker 24; Metzger 7; Leopold 0; Brickner 0; Peck 2; Hershberger 4; Rosebrook 0; Pothast 10; Trenkamp 11; Koch 0; Ellerbrock 0. Totals 24-39 6-10 61.
Three-point goals: Defiance - Moore 2, Parrish, Kidston. Ottawa-Glandorf - Schomaeker 4, Lammers, Metzger, Trenkamp. Rebounds: Defiance 18 (Stapleton 7), Ottawa-Glandorf 24 (Peck 7). Turnovers: Defiance 8, Ottawa-Glandorf 13.
Defiance 9 9 11 13 - 42
O-G 16 10 18 17 - 61
Reserves: Ottawa-Glandorf, 59-3.

Defiance man arrested after 19-mile chase by authorities

2011-01-08T06:51:00.001-08:00

A Defiance man is facing multiple charges after leading authorities on a 19-mile chase Friday in two counties, deputies say.

Trey Lee Reynolds, 18, is being held without bond in the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio on charges of felony fleeing and eluding, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia, speeding, reckless operation, and failure to obey a traffic control device, according to the Williams County Sheriff's Office. Additional charges are pending. He also is held on a Fulton County warrant for failure to appear on a felonious assault charge.

The pursuit began at a little before 9 a.m. when a Williams County deputy saw the Reynolds vehicle run the stop light at the intersection of U.S. 6 and State Rt. 2. The driver refused to stop and fled into Defiance County, where sheriff's deputies and state troopers stopped the vehicle by puncturing its tires. He is to appear Monday in Bryan Municipal Court.

The birth of Fort Defiance State Park

2011-01-08T06:50:00.001-08:00

Estherville Rotarians Thursday learned how the unique geological formation known locally as Fort Defiance State Park formed - not recently but starting as long as 3.5 million years ago.

Gary Phillips, Iowa Lakes Community College environmental studies professor, told how repeated geological events created the deep-valleyed park populated with a variety of unique flora and fauna.

Starting 3.5 million years ago, the first retreating glaciers left glacial deposits, forming much of the current topography today.

Meanwhile, north of Windom, Minn., in the Jeffers, area, Sioux quartzite surfaced, pushing glacial waters northward from Sioux Falls, S.D., to New Ulm, Minn.

Then, between 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, glacial moraines left by the Wisconsin glacier left a pathway for the Des Moines River to divert from the Iowa Great Lakes watershed to the east, forming the deep-clefted valley that exists today.

With the west bank 300-400 feet higher in some places, strong erosion cut from the uplands toward the west fork, creating the valley for which Fort Defiance State Park is so well known.

Phillips said much later, probably the early 1830s when the state was first settled by Europeans, 80 percent of Iowa was prairie while the remaining 20 percent was forest, with virtually no forest in western Iowa.

With its unique west-east drainage, Fort Defiance was sheltered from prairie fires, unlike streams flowing to the southwest which were prone to summer fires coming with the southwesterly winds, Phillips said.

As a result, the park is home to many species unique to northwestern Iowa, such as red squirrels, flying squirrels, ferns, black maples and quaken aspen - the latter which is found no closer than northern Minnesota and Colorado.

Iowa's rapid population growth has left less than 10,000 acres of native prairie in the state, said Phillips. The land was either used intensively or else that which was set aside has had no management at all. As a result, many trees have populated the south and west sides of the park - areas which before World War II had few if any trees. Unfortunately, said Phillips, many things need to be done at the park that are beyond the DNR's resources.

A big reason for what ecologists term the "benign neglect" of the Fort Defiance ecosystem, similar to that of other parks, is that park stewards did not understand the same ecological concepts they do today.

As a result, the park is losing bur oaks and red oaks. A big question that park resource management faces, then, is whether they want to retain the species that are indigenous to the park or let nature take its course.

Phillips said anyone who wants to help with park projects can do so through the Friends of Fort Defiance.

Defiance - A Great Place To Live

2011-01-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

As Mayor of Defiance, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the official City of Defiance Web Site.

Defiance is a community nestled in the northwest corner of Ohio with an estimated population of 17,000. We are located 55 miles southwest of Toledo, Ohio, and 45 miles east of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The City of Defiance was recognized for the seventh consecutive year by Site Selection Magazine as one of the Top 100 small towns in the United States. The City of Defiance serves as the county seat for Defiance County. Ours is a strong mayor/strong council type of government.

With the ongoing Fort to Port project which consists of the widening of U.S. Route 24 from Ft. Wayne Indiana to Toledo, Ohio, the City of Defiance is experiencing a growth in the development of its community. In 2007, the City had over $19.8 million dollars in construction projects either completed or underway. The City’s continued growth in 2007 can be viewed below in my State of the City address.

The number of new businesses to the area demonstrates the progress being made in our City. The U.S. 24 expansion includes the development of three interchanges for the roadway within the City limits and 3 under/over passes as well. The City is also in the development stages of widening the St. Rt. 66 bridge as it crosses U.S. 24. This $12 million project is being completed in coordination with ODOT District 1 and is expected to begin in 2009 with completion in 2010.

Since the passing of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the establishment of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program in 1972, local governments and industries throughout the Maumee River Basin have been mandated to eliminate pollutants to their water and sewer.

We support the clean air and water acts but it must be affordable. The combined effects of aging infrastructure, diminished federal funding, increasingly burdensome regulations and increasing population have increased our burdens. Local governments have provided 95% of the funding for clean water in recent years.

Several communities have joined to form the Maumee River Basin Partnership of Local Governments (MRBPLG) as a partnership of local governments. Their goal is to publicize and expose the magnitude of the financial burden that these water and sewer quality directives imposed on all of us and to secure federal funding that will allow communities to effectively address these issues without bankrupting our local cities. If you would like to contact your local representative regarding these mandates, please see this sample letter and contact information (.doc).

Defiance is proud to be the home town of 2006 Indianapolis 500 Champion Sam Hornish Jr., LA Dodges pitcher Chad Billingsley and minor league players Jonathon Niese and Chad Reineke.

The City of Defiance’s Home Page serves as a link to valuable government information, activities, and services by division. Each division profile contains an educational background to help citizens and students learn how our form of government works.

Please use this site not only to learn about the governmental activities within Defiance, but also to find out how to communicate with the proper personnel within City government.

Mayor Robert Armstrong
View the Mayor's Biography