Council learns about Agenda 21, sirens

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

It was an informative night for Van Wert City Council, as members heard presentations on the United Nations’ Agenda 21, as well as an update on the city’s siren system from Van Wert County Emergency Management Director Rick McCoy.

Council also adopted legislation to place the aquatics center issue on the November ballot, as well as a measure to approve a cell phone tower lease and legislation approving the city’s annexation of property adjacent to the Kennedy-Kuhn implement dealership on Van Wert-Decatur Road. A public hearing has also been scheduled on a related zoning change request for that property.

The UN’s Agenda 21 initiative was the topic of discussion during a Judiciary and Annexation Committee meeting held prior to the regular City Council meeting.

Committee Chair Stan Agler led a discussion of the UN proposal, which includes nine general points:

• Move citizens off private rural land and into high-density urban housing
• Create vast wilderness areas as wildlife preserves
• Reduce traffic congestion and fossil fuel use through creation of walking spaces in urban areas
• Private business-government partnerships: “sustainable development.”
• Make policy decisions based on the great good over individual freedoms
• Reduce the world’s carbon footprint
• Use bureaucracy to make decisions that override the legislative process
• Increase taxes, fees and regulation
• Introduce population control policies

The Rev. Keith Stoller, one of the founders of the local Heart Land Patriots group, noted that much of the Agenda 21 initiative could be put in place using federal funding as a carrot-and-stick to get local governments to agree. “When someone gives you money, it always comes with strings attached,” Stoller said. “We need to look at the motivation behind it.”

While Agler added that Council members need to be educated on Agenda 21, Law Director John Hatcher rightly noted that, although several presidents have signed the proposal, beginning with George H.W. Bush, the initiative has no legal standing in the U.S. because it is not a treaty or related legal agreement.

McCoy came to City Council to provide information on the city’s five tornado sirens, which are currently located at Jefferson Elementary School, Smiley and Jubilee parks, The Times-Bulletin office on Fox Road and at the Van Wert County Engineering Department’s building on Kear Road.

McCoy noted that some residents on the city’s east edge had complained that they could not hear a siren when the system was tested at 10 a.m. each Monday, nor could they hear sirens recently when a tornado warning was issued for the county.

McCoy said the problem was at Jefferson School, where the siren recently installed had developed a glitch that prevented it from sounding. That problem has been corrected, McCoy said, and urged city residents to call him at 419.238.1300 when they don’t hear a siren sound during Monday morning testing.

The EMA director did also note that tornado warning sirens are made to be heard outside as a warning to those outdoors to go inside for protection, not necessarily to be heard indoors. McCoy recommended that local residents obtain low-cost NOAA weather radios that are battery-driven and alert people when the National Weather Service issues severe weather advisories.

Also Monday, Council introduced and read for the first time legislation amending water and sewer fees.