News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • A3

NEWS JOURNAL II 3A LOCAL Science Saturdays planned at Springmill MANSFIELD Students in third through eighth grades and their families can join in on hands-on, interactive science-related activities from 9 a.m. to noon the last Saturday of the month, January through April. These will take place at Springmill Learning Center, 1200 Nestor Drive. The first event is Jan. 28.

Activities are led by professors from The Ohio State University at Mansfield in the galleries, which include alternative energy, chemistry lab, CSI, earth studies, feathers and flight, gears, levers and pulleys, measuring mars, number sense and ecology. Students and their families will visit four of the galleries each month, with new activities scheduled each visit. Students who participate all four months will receive aprize. Free child care for children ages 3through second grade will be provided on-site. Science Saturdays are made possible through a partnership between the Mansfield City School District, The Ohio State University at Mansfield and through a grant by the Connections Fund with Richland County Foundation.

To register, visit go.osu.edu/ sciencesaturdays. For details, call 419-525-6348 ext. 2. 17th annual chocolate bake-off set SHELBY The Friends of Marvin Memorial Library are sponsoring the 17th Annual Chocolate Bake-off at 6 p.m. Feb.

13 at the library, 29 West Whitney Ave. The bake-off will feature three adult categories cakes, cookies and bars, and desserts and one kids category where kids may bake anything chocolate. Two prizes will be given for each category. Participants must register by 5 p.m. Feb.

10. For details, call 419347-5576 ext. 1 or email skrysto- Upcoming meetings The Richland County Transit Board will meet at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 17 at the bus garage, 232 N.

Main Mansfield. The Board of Trustees of North Central State College will take place at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Gorman Room of the Fallerius Technical Education Center on the Mansfield Campus. The Franklin Cemetery Association Annual Lot Owners Meeting will be at 7 p.m.

Jan. 24 at the Weller Township Hall, 3517 Ohio 545. Plymouth-Shiloh Board of Education will meet at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at the administrative office building, 365 Sandusky Plymouth.

Ontario Board of Education will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Ontario High School Library, 467 Shelby-Ontario Road, Ontario. The Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center Board of Governors has scheduled the February board meeting to take place at noon Feb. 15 in the Mid-Ohio ESC board room, 890 W.

Fourth Mansfield. BRIEFS MANSFIELD Public radio station WKSU added a new station to Mansfield. The station went live Dec. 27 and airs public radio news and entertainment programming, as well as classical music, said Ann VerWiebe, WKSU communications specialist. is just an under-served area as far as public radio she said.

It can be heard at 94.7 on the FM dial.The broadcast airs using a translator, or a small antenna. It has a five-mile radius, with the center just north of U.S. 30. new call letters are W234CX. people in Mansfield should be able to hear she said.

VerWiebe said the station, which is located at Kent State University, received requests for a station to be added in Mansfield after the Ashland translator was added in 2006. station only has a five-mile radius, so it was difficult to pick up in Mansfield. is just a way for us to serve that area VerWiebe said. NPR news programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered and entertainment programs like Prairie Home Companion and The Best of Car Talk air from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday through Saturday and 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Classical music plays from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Monday through Saturday and 10 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday. The station broadcasts both local and national news during the week and entertainment programming on the weekends. The station broadcastson 89.7 in Kent; on repeater stations at 89.1 in Thompson, 89.3 in Wooster, 91.5 in New Philadelphia and 90.7 in Norwalk; and on translator station 95.7 in Ashland.

419-521-7205 Twitter: WKSU adds public radio transmitter in Mansfield EMILY MILLS REPORTER GALION Trains blocking railroad crossings in North Central Ohio create potential threats, say officials tasked with monitoring the situation. The safety of drivers and those who live nearby are in the greatest danger, according to Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent. Concerned citizens tend to report such incidents to local law enforcement agencies. do get calls a Kent said. almost seems like a normal thing anymore that we get a Kent said most calls come from people who live near railroad crossings in rural areas, but that trains do sometimes stop within the limits of area cities.

Officers visit the location to confirm the blockage, and record the date, time, location and various pieces of information from the train. law says five minutes is all allowed to stop and block the Kent said. usually give them about 15 Trains are allowed to move very slowly across intersections without fear of penalty. Those that remain stopped longer than the allowed time are given a $1,000 fine. been rare, but seen trains with no crews on them at all blocking the Kent said.

call that an abandoned train, and that carries a $5,000 Emergency personnel cannot use roads blocked by trains. Galion Police Chief Brian Satterfield said officers can call the railroad and ask them to send a crew to the train, which creates a gap across the crossing once the cars are disconnected. But since trains are very long, that process takes time. we had some sort of serious emergency, it would still be faster to go around Satterfield said. Kent said school buses will wait at blocked crossings for a little while, but will occasionally be forced to turn around and find a new route.

He said he recently read a report about a bus that was stopped by a train for more than an hour. always have to worry about a safety if the bus has to back up to a place where it can turn Kent said. The Angels on Track Foundation, which supports rail safety, has recently received several calls about trains stopped in Galion, according to Vicky Moore, the director. gentleman who called says this has been an ongoing Moore said. Moore said trains have also stopped very close to the crossings in Galion, which afraid will tempt motorists to drive around the gates, exposing themselves to being struck my trains on the second set of tracks at the intersection.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission is aware of that situation, according to Julie Kaercher, the public information officer. you are caught going around a gate, you will absolutely be Kaercher said. course, nobody should be going around the gates anyway why there, to keep people from having a Kaercher has asked the railroads to place their stop signals farther away from the crossings so that the trains will not activate the gates while stopped. (the trains) can stop sooner, then the gates will never go down so people see the stopped train and go around the Kaercher said. But no way to force the railroads to stop further back from crossings, since they are a private business parking their trains on land that they own.

trying to alleviate some of that problem Kent said. real problem is that trains are longer now all the roads are roughly one mile apart, and these trains are all over over a mile Until a solution is found, officials can only remind people to drive safely while fining the railroads when necessary. The Richland County Office filed five such charges on Dec. 27, and Kent said his office is preparing a few that he plans to take to court later this spring. 419-564-3508 Twitter: Caution required at railroad crossings ZACH TUGGLE REPORTER BRIAN J.

TODAY NETWORK-OHIO Cars cross over the CSX Transportation railroad tracks on Harding Way East in downtown Galion. The following is a listing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations planned for Sunday and Monday. MLK celebration is at Oasis of Love Church MANSFIELD The annual Martin Luther King celebration service, sponsored by Mansfield Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (MIMA) is planned to take place at 5 p.m.

Sunday Jan. 15 at Oasis of Love Church, 190 Chester Ave. The guest speaker will be Overseer Rev. Clarence J. Sanderfer, Pastor of New Life Baptist Church and vice president of MIMA.

Peace advocate to speak at AU celebration ASHLAND The Ashland Center for Nonviolence at Ashland University will sponsor a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Celebration with speaker Donald Miller at 7 p.m. Monday in Myers Convocation Center on the AU campus. Donald message, which is titled will highlight Martin Luther condemnation of militarism and advocacy of creative alternatives. Professor Emeritus at Bethany Theological Seminary and former general secretary of the Church of the Brethren, Miller was involved in the to Overcome initiative of the World Council of Churches.

The event is free and open to the public. Multi-faith service planned on MLK Day MOUNT VERNON A multi-faith community service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is planned for 7p.m. Monday at First Congregational Church, 200 N.

Main St. Speakers for the event include Dr. Sean Decatur, Dr. Schoenfeld, Jerry Bell, Tamara Anderson and Pastor Eddy Massey. The service theme is Does Dr.

Martin Luther King, Legacy Offer Hope Participating faith communities include First Congregational United Church of Christ, Gay Street United Methodist Church, St. Episcopal Church, Apostolic Faith Church, All Souls Unitarian Universalist, Harcourt Episcopal Parish, Mount Vernon Zen Community and Kenyon College Spiritual and Religious Life. Other holiday notes The Little Buckeye Museum, 44 W. Fourth Mansfield will be open Monday. Snow Trails will be open Monday, peak rates and hours on the slopes and Vertical Descent Tubing Park will be in effect.

MLK CELEBRATIONS MADISON TOWNSHIP The Madison Local Board of Education elected its 2017 officers at its meeting Wednesday night. The five member-board re-elected Jeff Meyers board president with a 3-2 vote over current board member Murray Konves. John Luedy was re-elected as board vice president. The board also includes Konves, Jane McGinty and Amy Walker, all of whom were already on the board. The members also voted to hold 2017 board meetings the last Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m.

at Madison Middle School. In December, the meeting will be Dec. 20 instead of the last Wednesday because of the holidays. EMILY JOURNAL Robin Klenk, far left, swears in Jeff Meyers, right center, and John Luedy, far right, as president and vice president, respectively, of the Madison Local Board of Education on Wednesday. Board member Murray Konves stands in the background.

Madison school board elects officers STAFF REPORT.