Episode 27 - John Harper - Batavia Township Trustee Candidate

We've been living in it since so long.

All

Welcome to episode 27

of Let's Talk Claremont. I am your host, Patrick,

and my good fall mood continues. I love this weather. We've got some pumpkins on the porch.

Had a good weekend. I met some old rugby buddies and,

honestly drink

a little more beer than I should have. We also my family

did the, farm tour. We went to Big Fish Farms. Unfortunately, we read the program wrong and kind of interrupted their Sunday.

But we got to meet the owners, and I think we're gonna have them on the podcast in the not too distant future.

We, also took a trip down to Flourish and Rome, Sarah Eisen's place. We've we've interviewed her, so check that interview out. It's a pretty good one. And it was great. She's she's got a great family. We met some of them. We tried some of the beef that she raises there, some of the pork, she there were some sausages that she let us try, and it was it was a really great weekend. So I'm really happy to be here recording this, and I'm I'm happy that you're listening.

And I'll tell you, last week,

last week's episode,

it really, got some traction.

Seems like people are really interested in developing in development

in the county and in particular,

that Baumann development. And I think it brought in a lot of new people. So if you are new,

let's talk about what we're doing here. In the beginning, we're gonna run through some news from around the county, different villages, and townships,

then we'll get into the interview. And at the very end, we'll go over some events that you might be interested in attending.

So with all that said, let's get to it. Our first bit of, I guess, not really news, but our first item

is from the county as a whole. I actually came across a Claremont County resource guide for twenty twenty five and 2026.

It's published by the Claremont Sun, and it looks pretty useful.

And I'll put a link to that in the newsletter, which

is a sneaky plug for the newsletter. So please sign up for that, and, you'll get fun things and different things like that in the newsletter.

Moving on to New Richmond.

There is an unpleasant smell around the village.

The website says that the public works department is working on the issue. I haven't seen any updates. But if you live in New Richmond, maybe you can write in and

let us know what that funky smell is and what's going on.

Next up, we have Pierce Township. There is a board of zoning appeals meeting on October 15

at 5PM.

The notice on the website is sparse. It doesn't really have any more information than that. I do have an email out to the township for more information.

But if you live in Pierce and you know what this is all about, please send in a note.

Moving to Batavia.

Batavia Township Zoning Commission is holding a public hearing on Thursday, October 9

at the Batavia Township Community Center. Now this is to rezone 425

acres from agricultural and a, state residential

to a planned development district.

The primary address is 4632

Ross Ross Road.

And if you're unfamiliar with that address, it's right across from Lexington Run.

The planned development is going to be a little over 800 homes, so it's pretty big.

And I think importantly,

there is no plan as of yet for the township to provide tax incentives

for the project.

Karen Schwartz, the township administrator,

did an interview with WCPO, and she said the development as proposed

would be about half the density of the Lexington Run development.

She also said it's a very large project and will probably take close to ten years

to complete.

So if you're in the township and you have an opinion on this or you just wanna know what's going on, I would plan on attending the meeting. I plan to be there just to hear what's what, see what's going on.

I don't have many of the specifics about this development, but I did request

more information from the township.

And right before recording this,

Taylor Corbett, the director of zoning,

got back to me. So I haven't had a chance to look at what he sent, but I will look at this more and tell you what what we find.

Also in Batavia,

it looks like channel nine had a Let's Talk Batavia event at the Bean and Brew last week.

And they found out that the big topic in the county

is increased development and urban sprawl. Surprise. Surprise.

And, honestly, they could have saved themselves, the trip out here if they just listened to this very

podcast.

I'm not

gonna say that they're ripping off the name of this podcast, but I do

find the name interesting.

So I'll wrap that up with a with a PSA. You know, there might be imitators and copycats out there, but accept no substitutes

for the one and only Let's Talk Claremont.

What makes this podcast and and what we're doing here special is you are not a listener. You are a producer.

No matter if you donate or write in or whatever, you are a producer.

You listening on your way to work or doing the dishes or cutting the grass, you're a part of this podcast.

And that is why we are a value for value podcast. We're supported

by our producers,

not advertisers,

not investors,

you. It's what keeps us independent and focused on the issues that really matter from around the county.

Really, at the end of the day, this is as much your podcast as it is mine,

which I think is the best segue yet for

we are a value for value podcast. And what that means is that if you find value in what we're doing, all we ask is for a little value in return in the form of time, talent, and treasure.

For time and talent, get in touch. Let us know what's going on in your community. Let us know who you wanna hear from, and we'll do our level best to

talk about those things and get those people on the podcast so you can hear from them. And in particular, I wanted to to

throw this out there. In looking at all these developments

and development plans and zoning,

a common phrase comes up. Preserve the count the character of our county.

And it got me thinking, what is the character of our county? I I don't know if I can articulate that particularly well. And I think it's important because

if it's something we wanna preserve, we gotta know what it is. So

write in. Let me know what you think the character of our county is and what is it specifically

that we're trying to preserve,

in the face of all of this development pressure.

I'd really like to hear from you.

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So before we talk about this week's interview, let's talk about who who we're gonna be talking to next week.

And, actually, before we get into that, we are definitely gonna have to do two episodes

a week. I don't know if it's gonna start next week. It'll probably be the week after. So pay attention,

to see those changes, and I'll publish all this on Facebook. And, hopefully, everybody will have enough lead time to know that they'll be I'm looking at Tuesday. I think Tuesday

will be we'll do one on Tuesday and one on Thursday,

leading up to the fourth. But

next week,

we're talking with Rich Glisson, who is a candidate for West Claremont School Board, and we had a really great conversation.

Very you know, I've I've done a lot of interviewing, you know, for my job and for this.

I'm very rarely am I caught off guard in an interview, but Rich managed to do it.

When I asked him, you know, why he decide what was the moment he decided to run for school board? He started bringing up some very interesting things, and he brought receipts. I was completely unprepared for for the conversation. So

tune in next week for that. I think you'll enjoy it.

Today, though, we are talking to John Harper, who is a candidate for Batavia Township trustee.

And I found him to be a really interesting guy. He even brought some three d printed gun parts, which I won't say caught me off guard or surprised me, but it was certainly,

certainly something I wasn't expecting.

And, unsurprisingly, development is gonna be a big focus of this interview.

You know, that's kind of the hot topic around town.

And I think it was a good conversation. Win or lose, I think we're gonna try to have him back on after the election just to hear his views on certain things. He has he has very distinct views,

and it's and he seems to know what's going on around the township. So,

I really enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy the listen.

Alright. Well,

you've listened to the podcast, so you know how I start all these things. We'll just ask you to tell everybody who you are and what you are doing. Alright. My name is John Harper.

I am running for Batavia Township trustee.

Excellent.

So what I'm assuming you have a day job. What do you what do you do for for I

I tell everybody when they ask me I tell them two things. I'd I'm a drug dealer. Oh, yeah? Legally. Legally. A legal drug dealer. And I'm also a glorified babysitter. Oh, nice. So I'm the lead tech at my store.

In the pharmacy. In

the

pharmacy. Yeah. It's it's like babysitting adults. Yeah.

Or herding cats. Yeah.

But, I mean, it's I've been doing it for fifteen years. I mean, I like what I do. I I like the customers. Yeah. I like helping people Yeah. Their medical stuff. You know, some people don't understand what's going on, what their drugs do, whatnot. Yeah. So I I thoroughly enjoy that. Yeah. Every time I go to the pharmacy, the farm the techs and the pharmacists are Yeah. It's always nice to talk to them because they always Right. You know, set you straight, honestly. Yeah.

So you're running for Batavia Township trustee.

Yes. I guess my first question is gonna be, what prompted you to do that? Why why why go into the political

realm? Because,

frankly, it doesn't seem like a very thankful job.

Thankfulness job it is. Not at all. Like, I I don't I don't know. There's very few politicians I would think highly of, to be honest. That's fair.

Honestly,

from my point of view, I see a whole lot of nothing going on. Mhmm. And

if nobody else is gonna do it, I figured I'd try it. Sure. I mean, that's

That's about the American way, really. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So how long how long have you lived in the township?

I was left at my grandparents when I was six. So

let's see. Thirty

thirty two years. Thirty two years. So you've been here quite some time. Over those years, have you seen the the township change? And what have you liked and what haven't you liked?

Well,

there's a lot of things that are, you know, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, I'd I just hate driving down,

you know, back roads that I've been driving down my whole life. Mhmm.

They you they all used to be farms, and all you see is a bunch of bulldozers. Yeah. All the trees are gone. You see bulldozers coming in.

I mean, I know it's just nostalgia, but Yeah. That's I I just I don't I don't like it. Like, I just don't like I I know you can't stop it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But

at the rate we're going,

I just I just don't like the rate. Yeah.

So development's a good thing to talk about because we are developing. So what would your what would you say your vision

for the township is? Because, like you said, development's coming. Mhmm. And there's really not a whole lot we can because, you know,

farmers aren't their kids aren't taking up the farms. It's true. They've gotta do something with the land. Yep. So I I understand all that, but I'm probably in the same boat as you as, you know, I'm I'm skeptical of development. So

what would what would you envision for the township? How should how do you think the township should approach it?

I would say

so I actually saw this in a comment on Facebook on something. Somebody was saying something about Preble County has a,

some sort of ordinance

where they if if you own a farm, it's it's agricultural land. It has to be sold as agricultural land. Mhmm. No. I don't necessarily agree with that. Sure. I'm big on property rights. Yep. I live in an HOA.

I don't do. I don't think I'm on the board. Okay. So

I I don't If you're gonna live in an HOA, you better be on the board. Exactly.

I I mean, I honestly don't believe you should have to ask anybody to build a shed on your property. Yeah. I mean, if you're renting,

and you're throwing away your own money because you're gonna move and it's gonna stay there, but that's up to you. Yeah. I mean, if you that's your yard and you wanna put a fence on your property,

you shouldn't have to ask anybody. Yeah.

So, I mean,

as far as developments,

before we court any of the, you know, MNI homes,

any of these companies,

they should be paying for the infrastructure updates. Mhmm. If they're bringing in 800 houses, which I understand, you know, they can that we could turn them down. They can sue us. Mhmm. They should be paying for the infrastructure

before the neighborhood goes in.

You drive down Apple Road. There's a new neighborhood Mhmm. Right next to a couple farms. I've heard about the Apple Road one. I've talked to the guy that lives across the street.

He gets offers daily, and maybe not daily, probably weekly

to sell his property. They wanna build another neighborhood across from that neighborhood on Apple Road. Doesn't even have lines on the road. Yeah. It's a little tiny two lane road. You gotta pull over and let a school bus come past. Yeah. I hate that. Yeah. I mean, if if you were going to build a neighborhood and you're getting a huge amount of traffic,

the builders should be putting up some of that money.

Well, what would you say to somebody who would take the position that if we don't help these builders with infrastructure with different

mechanisms for economic development, then that will stifle the growth, and nobody will want to come to the township and build and grow.

There are other townships that they can go to. Yeah. They can go to Bethel. They can go to Mount Orbe, Williamsburg.

I don't care if they bypass us. Yeah. Doesn't bother me. That's fair

enough.

So then

how would you

and I guess this is really a township matter. Mhmm. Well, let me back up.

So that's residential development. What about, like, industrial and business, you know, attracting those those types of things? How do you feel about that? I'm perfectly fine with any business once come in. Yeah. What kind of businesses would you like to see here?

I don't know. I haven't thought about it much. Yeah. I know, like, Maddox is growing.

It's industrial.

It's all transformers. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, we we have so many, like like I mean, I I work retail. Yeah. We have so many retail places, retail jobs, fast food.

I mean, the the more people we get, the more retail we need. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I mean, I mean, grocery store would be one of those things. I think I was talking to Karen Schwartz the other day. Yeah. It's like

I think I think

grocery stores have done

their research and realized that it probably wouldn't be feasible at this point. But that kinda goes back to the, you know, it's a chicken and egg problem. Right? Right. You wanna grow businesses, but you need people here. So how do you balance that? Oh, we have plenty of people here. We have plenty of people.

Well, I think some people would disagree with you on that. You know, they'd want more. Yeah. So

Go ahead. The the more people you have or I'm sorry. So if if businesses come in and they're willing to pay more,

they will pull people from other businesses. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, so it's not like we need to

bring in

thousands of new people.

There are people looking for jobs. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean,

I don't have all the answers. Well, I mean, well, I don't think anybody's expecting to have all the answers.

So outside of development,

what are the kind of things that that you're looking at at the township and you're thinking could use some work?

I don't know. Transparency.

I mean,

they don't

I I know,

one of the Danielle Wessel, she's actually running also.

She got up at the last meeting and said, you know, we need to record these meetings. Like, more people need to see Yeah. What goes on here.

I mean, prior to running, I'd never been to a meeting. Yep.

I had no idea, you know, what what the township even did. Right.

So, I mean,

I don't necessarily think that the people currently running the township are, you know, nefarious nothing nefarious going on. Yeah. Like, I would just like to know more. Sure. You know what I mean? So and that was actually something that,

Deirdre brought up. Loveland was communications

and Yep.

And trying to

communicate to the population better Right. What's going on. Do you have any kind of solutions

or any any way that you might try to do that?

Most people are on social media Mhmm. Which I understand,

like, even myself

as a candidate. I have to watch what I say. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, the I have personal opinions and beliefs on things

that I know as a candidate.

Some things you can't legally put out there. Yeah.

So I mean,

I I understand why, like, the township, you know, they do

releases of information.

Mhmm. You know, I'm sure the township's lawyers look over it to make sure everything looks good before it's released. Mhmm. But, I mean,

it's it just seems

like not enough is put out there. Yep.

So what kind of things would you like to know more about from the township?

It's a good question.

Sorry. That guy's got his leaf blower going.

I don't

I haven't really thought about that. Oh, that's fair enough.

I mean, I can't say I disagree with your trans oh, transparency is a is a good thing.

You know, it's good to have things videotaped and Yeah. And stuff like that. I mean, honestly,

like

like, I know nothing about

the views of the township trustees.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, on the township's website, you know, it tells you a little bit about them, their career, you know, how long they've been married or whatnot.

But, like, there's nothing about, like, what they believe in. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And, I mean, from what I'm seeing,

if a neighborhood

wants to be built I mean, you know, a company wants to build a neighborhood,

it's just being done, and they say, well, if we don't do a Batavia, well. Yeah. The village. The right. The village of Batavia.

So you you've talked a lot about beliefs and stuff. I guess the next logical question would be is what what do you believe? You know, what

what's what's the core that makes John Harper tick?

You mean, like, personal life? Like Politically or otherwise. Politically.

I would say I'm I'm pretty libertarian, like I said, about property rights. It's your property. I think you should be able to do whatever you want. Mhmm. I mean, within reason as long as you're not affecting other people.

So, I mean, that's that's that's pretty libertarian.

Well, I gotta ask you a question about property rights too. And, again, I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

I'd I also

very much like property rights.

So

if you look at a farmer selling his property,

he's got property rights, and there's many mechanisms

by which he can be annexed or he can go somewhere and he can get that development done.

So

how would you,

I guess,

balance or at least,

reconcile those two Mhmm. Those two ideas. The well, on the one hand,

property rights and you can do what you want with your land. On the other hand,

you know, let's be slow and think about development and and not go crazy with it.

So

you can sell the land to anybody you want. Mhmm.

That does not mean the township has to authorize a rezoning of it. Mhmm. I mean, they could sell it to MNI, and the township could say, we don't wanna rezone it. It's farmland. Yeah.

They can sue us. Mhmm. That's they're right. Perfectly, perfectly acceptable,

but at least then we've tried. Mhmm.

That's I So it seems like you just want to put up more of a fight. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So what are

the

what are the avenues that a trustee could take to actually

stall out some of the the developments? Or I guess

no. We'll we'll go with that one. Yeah.

So the zoning board. Mhmm. The meetings that I've been to, a lot of times, the trustees will say, well, it's the zoning board. They did this. Mhmm. Do you know who appoints the zoning board? I'm guessing the trustees. The trustees appoint the zoning board. Yeah. They have a lot of say in it. Yeah.

And the the meetings that I've been to, it's it's been, you know, the zoning board or, you know, somebody else did this. Mhmm.

I just that's not transparent enough for me. No. It's fair. I I would like

actual beliefs,

not

lawyer speak. Mhmm.

I I don't know.

You think there's too much lawyer speak going on?

Yeah. I'm I'm I'm not a

I'm I'm nowhere near as, vocal as some other people are, with some of these issues, but, like, I'm

I'm not

it's it's hard to put it in words. That's right. I just This is a long podcast. You can take your time. I don't like

some of the wishy washy

speak that I hear from a lot of people. Yeah.

You know, they they leave it kinda vague Yeah. So they can backtrack later if necessary to further their political agenda, that kind of thing.

So I think I'd probably be remiss if I didn't ask you about and I never can remember the name of the development, but I'm sure if I say the CRA development in the village, everybody's gonna know what I'm talking about.

Which one? No.

The one by the airport. The one by the airport. The one that's part of the Isn't that airport airport views? Is that it? I can't remember the name of it. The newest one? The newest one. Yeah. That they so they That seems to have gotten everybody up in arms. The village annexed the property. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I mean, I'm assuming from my understanding, the owner wanted them to because the township probably turned them down Mhmm. Which I believe the my opponents,

voted no on that. You know?

I can definitely support that.

So he went, contacted the village. They annexed it. I honestly don't understand how the village can annex something. Like,

I

I think they call it, like, shoe stringing or something. Like, how do you just send a tentacle up the road? Yeah. There's nothing like, hey. We're taking this piece of property that's not attached to us. Yeah. I don't get it. That's there's a I don't know if you're familiar with it. I think it's hospital one sixteen.

So or representative Adam Byrd at the state house.

It's a piece of legislation. I don't know if it's gonna pass, but it would essentially limit

that practice. How they're able to do that? Because if people haven't seen the village on a map, it looks kinda crazy. Right. Because you'll have the village center, and then there's, like, a strip of road that's been annexed.

And then there's a development, you know, another strip of road that's been annexed and another development. It's like gerrymandering of congressional

districts. It looks like that. Big streets, and they just go wherever they want. Yeah. So if you were a trustee,

how would you,

I guess, how would you have handled that? I mean, obviously, you wouldn't have wanted the development to go.

What are the things that you think the township

should be doing

to, I guess, limit those kinds of

conflicts

or have more of a say in how development goes?

So,

like, with that one specifically, obviously, the village stepped in, took it over, which they're being sued twice now, I think. Mhmm. I believe they lost both of those.

So, I mean, the township

could do nothing after after that. You know, it's in the hands of Batavia. Right.

So, I mean, it's

Which is, I guess, from start to finish. Like Yeah. What are the things because I think that's a good example Mhmm.

To to work from is, you know, people are obviously upset about it.

And just how would you navigate that, I guess, is what what the question is.

What would you do differently than from what the trustees the current trustees have done?

In that situation, I don't know if there's anything you could do differently. Yeah. They voted no.

Now it's a strange situation whereas you had another jurisdiction that steps in and takes it. Yeah. Yeah. If it was just Batavia Township involved Mhmm. And the township voted no, and it's not rezoned. And, you know, they can sell it as agricultural land, but it doesn't get rezoned as, you know, a new development.

So, I mean, that's I would have done the same thing as them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's fair enough. It's just a you know, it's a it's a different situation because of the village. Yeah.

Yeah.

So what do you think about the tensions between the village and the township? I guess in an ideal world, you'd wanna work together.

But we got here's the question that I'm trying to form.

What would you do to foster a better relationship with with the village so that something like this isn't as contentious in the future?

I I don't know that there is anything that I could do.

The reason I say that so I'm I'm not the type to like things like

like the bait and switch they did. Yeah. Were they, you know, the Well, you might have to pull that apart. Yeah. No. I won't. Okay. So the residents

passed circulated petition. They got enough votes to get it on the ballot. Mhmm.

The village

then pulled

the I'm sorry. What what's the word I'm looking for?

I think it's Was was it the zoning request? Was it the zoning on that? I can't remember what they it might have just been the the measure or the They pulled the plan. Whatever whatever the plan was for that. So they pulled it Mhmm. And then readmitted it,

negating what the residents wanted Mhmm. And then readmitted it as an emergency to bypass the residents. Yeah.

I cannot support that in any way. Yeah. I mean, if if the people who elected you are fighting you on something

and you just do it, pass it in as an emergency to bypass them, I don't even wanna talk to you. Completely legal to do, though. Right?

I guess it depends on your definition of emergency.

I mean, is it legal? Maybe. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Is that an emergency?

Yeah. So, I mean, did they do anything illegal? I don't know. Yeah. Is it morally wrong? Absolutely. You think so? Absolutely.

Yeah.

So

outside of development and things like that Yeah. What are some of the other things that that you'd like to see the township either change or keep doing?

I mean, like, I I don't really have a lot of things that,

you know, like, I go against the current

township administration on except for developments. I mean, that's that's my big one. So then if you don't go against them, what do what do you think they're doing well?

I mean, we we're growing,

like, as far as parks. You know, they they keep developing our our local parks.

There's been some things, like, they're trying to

revitalize certain parts like one twenty five up there. Mhmm.

They're passing some some new, regulations on, like, signage, that kind of thing. Mhmm. I mean, I kinda get that kinda goes against my

libertarian thing on,

doing what you want on your property. Yeah. However,

I don't know. It's it's probably easier to to mention the things I I dislike that they're doing. Sure. Just because, you know, that's Yeah. If you dislike it, it's Well, that means more to you. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, you feel like they're doing a good job keeping the roads plowed.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't have any choice with any of that. Things like that.

Now I mean, one

one thing I mean, you know, this isn't anything like I I notice,

but, like, things that I hear a lot of this is the village, but,

you know, like, as far as funding of the schools Mhmm.

Fire, EMS, that kinda thing. Yeah.

I don't understand the fight with that. I mean, if if EMS needs something, I don't understand why we would not pay for it. Yeah. I mean, I've

Yeah. Well, I think that's one of the big issues, at least from the township's perspective with Mhmm. The CRA CRAs

is that the village uses emergency services,

but they're not gonna get the township won't get reimbursed

for them. Right. But and, again, that's from the township's perspective. Right. I'm still trying to get somebody on from the village to talk about this this whole mess. Yes.

Which the village,

I've talked to a few people. There's gonna be a big push

about you can't dissolve a county seat.

No. You I mean, you can't You absolutely can. Yeah. Yeah.

So, actually, let's talk about dissolution a little bit. Yeah. Because I'm not I know I I went over it a little bit in a I think it was Rex's podcast

about

the dissolution of I think I remember that in that podcast. Yeah. Yeah.

So in case people don't know, you can actually dissolve

a township. Do you know about that mechanism or or how they would go about doing it?

So

well,

like you had mentioned earlier, there are certain things that get it to be automatically put on the ballot. Mhmm.

I don't know

I don't know if Batavia

they may offer all those services that are required. It's like Do that? What you said is, like, five of 10 or something? Yeah. I guess, because we've talked about this often. Yes. Yes. There's

every ten years now because of a new bill,

it's during census years. That's right. If a township it's like there's a couple different criteria.

Like, if they if they can't pay their bills, then it just obviously,

I think that's what happened in Amelia.

Like, they couldn't pay. We got that on the we got that put on the ballot. Oh, you did? Yeah. That wasn't anything to do with the state. I think you you said you were involved in that. Right? A little bit. I was you know, I wasn't in the leadership of all No. No. No. No. So you but, I mean, you've actually

so you've been through something like this? Yes. What was that like?

It was very contentious. Yeah.

Like, you know, we went out. We did some protests and stuff. Mhmm.

Ultimately,

residents voted to dissolve the village. Mhmm. We we had also ran several people

to take over the village Mhmm.

Which they all won,

but then the village dissolved. But then the village dissolved.

Ultimately, though, it was very strange. The people who were voted out of office were in charge of the dissolution.

Heard of the state. Yeah. Yeah. It was very strange. Interesting. Like, the mayor that we fired was put in charge of Of dissolving the village.

Dissolving the company and got fired from essentially. It was it was kinda strange.

But, I mean, the Emilia was about to become a city. Mhmm. And,

a bunch of us saw the things we didn't like, things that we saw as corruption. Because it's not as easy to I I don't even know if you can dissolve a city. And right. Exactly. Yeah.

So that's that's gonna be the big push come spring for Batavia. And so you feel like the village residents, that's something that they're interested in. Because that's I'll tell you the honestly, the one thing that I haven't really heard a whole lot with

the CRAs and and just,

I guess, local government in general is the voice of the voters. You know, like in marketing, you call a voice of customers. You send out surveys. Right. You take the temperature of your customers to find out what you're doing well, what you aren't doing well. So I guess I don't I don't know if I have a particularly good pulse on what the village of Batavia even wants.

Do you do you have an idea? Like, apparently, it seems like they might want it to be dissolved.

There's an awful lot of signs out there. Yeah. That's true. You've I mean, even in the township, I'm seeing those dissolve the village signs in the township. I've seen them too.

Which, I mean, we have no say in it, but we can tell them that we support them. Yeah.

So, I mean,

just seeing the signs, I I think there's a lot of support behind getting rid of the village. Yeah.

Do you think that's a good thing? Yeah. You do? Yes. I do. Why do you think that's a good thing?

I

I'm I'm the type who thinks that

government is a necessary evil. Sure.

I'm not very libertarian. The the less of it, the better. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

if the township can handle everything the village can Mhmm. Do it. Well, that's actually another question I would have. So, you know, hypothet because it sounds like they're trying to get petition, so it Right. Very well could happen. Yes. It's not like a crazy hypothetical. Mhmm.

How would you see that integration

going? Like, integrating

the village into the township.

It would be a lot easier than Emilia.

With Emilia

It was three different townships. Right? I think it was two. Two.

It was Pierce and Batavia, and they had to split the assets. Yeah. They had to calculate up, you know, how much each thing was worth Mhmm. Divide the assets. Mhmm. So now Pierce Township is everything south of 125.

Yeah.

So, I mean, it'll be easier with Batavia. Batavia just gets everything. Yeah. Gets, you know, the police department, which they'll probably shut down. Mhmm.

I do worry about shutting things down like that.

Nah. Like

like, obviously, I don't want, you know, Batavia PD and his cops to be out of work. You know what I mean? Certainly. I don't think anybody want anybody to be out of work. Yeah.

However,

I mean, as far as emergency services, no. We have sheriff's department. Mhmm. I could walk there from here.

Yeah.

So, I mean,

I think the township could can and should do the job. Yeah.

So what if

because

and I these are honestly, I don't know anything about this. So I'm just trying to think through my head how that would logistically work because you'd get how many people in the village? About 1,500, 2,000? I think it's doubled Okay. In the past couple years. Okay. So, I mean but it's about, let's call it 2,000, something like that, people. I think it's, after well, after these new homes are done and moved into, it's gonna be 4,000. So, yeah, it's probably right now about 2,000. 2,000. Okay. So roughly that. Yeah.

And so now I get you're already giving them fire and emergency services from the township.

Now you'd have to police them. I mean, I guess I'm wondering,

do you think that would stretch the township's resources too thin? The township would be getting that money Okay. That the village used to get. I mean, obviously, not the 1%. Right. Right. That would be going away. What is that's not property. That's income. Right? Right. Right. Right. Right. So 1% income tax. Like like the township doesn't get that anyway. Correct. So yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the township would then be getting, you know, funds from the village. And, I mean,

a lot of, like like, the farmland that has been annexed and they're building neighborhoods Mhmm. That was township already. Yeah. That's true. And it's been taken by the village. Right. So, I mean,

do I think they can handle it? Yeah. Yeah.

Excuse me.

So

I

this might be a

I don't know if this is gonna be an unfair question at all, but I I wanna ask it. Yeah.

Because we both know well,

I don't wanna say his name on the podcast, but,

one of the things that I've heard

as, I guess, a pro for the CRA

is that property tax is theft anyway.

So

why why wouldn't we want everything to be a CRA? Nobody to pay property tax. Well, how would you respond to that?

I mean, I I do agree. I mean, I do agree. I do agree. I was gonna say, I think I just put you in a bit of a pickle there.

I'm not trying to be a jerk. No. No. You know? I mean, the question has to be asked.

So no. I I do agree with property tax. If if you own your property, she you should be done. Mhmm. I mean, it should be outright.

Now here's here's a way around that, though.

If you go to the store and you buy something, you're paying sales tax. Certainly. So maybe if you have a house payment,

you pay sales tax. Okay. In some I'm, you know, I'm just I'm just thinking out loud. Yeah. But,

I mean, I understand the township needs money. Yeah. And there has to be a way of getting money. Yeah.

But yeah. No. You're right. I mean, property taxes theft.

Well, again, I didn't say that. I'm I don't know if I necessarily disagree with that. I'm trying to remain impartial. Right. I gotcha.

But, yeah, I mean, it's it's kinda one of those things that

we need to fund services.

But, I mean, I I guess I don't need to be impartial, but I don't like property tax. I don't think anybody does. But,

you know, what it

how do you I don't know. It's just it's one of those things where it's like, how do you really get around it? Well, so

so

every time they

like, throughout my life, like, I'm I'm

I grew up in, like, the nineties and the early two thousands. Yeah. Yeah. Every time they legalize something, they're like, oh, we're gonna give this money to the schools. Yeah. This money is gonna go to your roads. Yeah. And, you know, they'll they'll charge all this money, like, with gambling. Mhmm. They're like, oh, this is gonna fund the schools. Mhmm. Where did that money go? I the schools still need money. They legalize weed. Mhmm. Oh, we're gonna give money to these programs,

and then these programs still don't have money. Yeah. They come crying for more money. Yeah. I mean, is it

the the problem is with any government,

you give the money if you give money to government, they're going to find a reason to need more. Yeah. Every time. Yeah. The government is just there to grow itself.

So if you do get it as a trustee,

how would you look at because and I don't know the the township's finances to be completely honest. But,

I'll just throw a scenario at you.

If I mean, let's say you're

because I do know, like, the price of fire trucks and and ambulance outrageous. It's through the roof. Yeah. And I think there's actually a couple of reasons

couple of odd reasons for that, not just inflation. Yeah. But Yeah. Regardless, it's still through the roof Mhmm. And you still need to fund these emergency services. So,

I guess, how do you

how do you fund those things?

From what I've noticed

going to township meetings Mhmm. No matter what they're doing, they have a guy

who's looking for grants for everything. Yeah. Yeah. Like, they go to the feds, they go to, you know, the state, and they're looking for grants for things. There's grants for, like, everything. From the state and federal level. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, from my understanding, I mean, that's a lot of that

is coming from grants anyway. Okay.

So

oh, grants.

I used to write grants. Uh-huh. Oh, man.

It is painful. I hate paperwork. It is. Oh, and grants are the worst kind of paperwork because you

it's like with a grant, you have to it's like a proposal or something like that. Yeah. You never 100%

match up with what the grant needs. So you're always trying to, like, can we stretch it here? Can we stretch this here? Like, we don't really do this, but we can kinda say we do. Let's say with the advent of ChatGPT

That's true. You tell it what you want the grant to be for, it'll write it for you. Do you like ChatGPT? Love it. You do. So I I was not a good student. I went to a meeting in high school. Yeah.

I was a terrible student. Yeah. I'm I'm friends with some of my old teachers.

They're like, we can't believe you're still alive.

Listen. I think a lot of people from my youth would be surprised that I'm alive.

I I took Spanish one twice. Yeah. Somehow, I passed it both times. I don't know what happened.

Oh, and you passed it both times. I got a 69.5,

and they counted

I got the credit for it, but it was an f. So I had to take the class again. I don't know. I don't know how all that works.

But I mean, I was I was a terrible student. Yeah.

So my grammar is not great.

I don't like doing paperwork. Yeah. I write like a toddler Yeah. Sometimes.

You know?

But no. Chad and, actually, I I have found, like, chat g p t instead of just firing off an email or text. Mhmm.

I'll tell it what I wanted to say. It'll write something. Mhmm.

And I'll read through it. Mhmm. And I'll end up reading through it three or four times, and I'll be like, change this. Mhmm. I don't like this. Change this this line here. Get rid of that. And you end up putting so much more thought into it Yeah. Than you would have if you just fired off a text message. I'd agree with that. So mean, that's that is that is great for me. I,

professionally, I'd I'm like a copywriter in marketing and stuff like that. Okay. I use it so much because people have me write about stuff I have no idea. So I just go in there and it's like, give me an outline Yes. Or an article about this. And then I can look at it, and it gives me a direction to go. Yeah. So it's

and a lot of and I'm pretty sure I've talked about this. But so if there's, like,

township meetings or because I'm sure you've read the minutes and things like that. And reading those minutes, I mean, it's like

to take a line from Beetlejuice. It's like trying to read a stereo manual or something. You know? I mean, it's just like, what about I have no context for any of this. I have no idea Yeah. What people are talking about or why they're because it's it's completely

not contextual.

I wonder who writes this. Can you imagine how boring that job is? Oh, I'm sure it's some recorder or something like that. Man, I couldn't imagine. It's somebody's job to do it, though.

But I'll take those minutes, and instead of just, you know,

reading through them for five hours Yeah. I'll throw it into GPT and just be like, why don't you summarize this for me? And if anything's interesting, we'll do that with state bills too. Yes. Because I don't know if you've ever tried to read a a legislative bill, but it's worse than than minutes. And these things have to be like that. It's not like I'm grumpy about the way that they're written. They have to be like that. But it's it's a really great tool.

That really is.

So,

I'm sorry. I had a question in my head, and I've completely forgot it.

Oh, it's oh, this is terrible.

This is absolutely terrible. I'm sorry.

Oh, there it is.

So the township has to work with, with a lot of different like, the schools aren't with the township, so we gotta work with the schools and Yeah. There's just services and things like that and other townships.

What do you think that relationship should look like between the well, let's start with the schools and then just other entities that Yeah. That you have to you know, we obviously have to cooperate with.

I mean, obviously, you should have a good working relationship.

Like, as as far as to what extent to that relationship is, I mean,

shouldn't have people, like, fist fighting in the parking lot. Yeah.

But I mean, like Was somebody fist fighting in the parking lot? Well,

no. Not recently. Not recently.

There's,

there's been a few times, you know, like, Batavia Township,

or not township. I'm sorry. Batavia Village board members will get get into it with

my buddy William. Oh, yeah.

But no. Not

he's just a resident. He's not on any kind of

a sword or anything. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, obviously, they should have in interaction.

Mhmm. They should discuss

because if the,

township is funding Mhmm. The school in any way, it's gotta discuss money.

So what are

let's see how I

what are some of your favorite things about the township?

Like, just in general, just living here. What do you what are the things you like about it?

I mean, you gotta like something about it. Right. Yeah. I mean well, I mean, like, I've been here all my life.

I mean, I've I've been I've been other places

and just nowhere else feels like home. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know.

A lot a lot of people say people from a higher route. I guess I'm just used to it. I've I've I was in the military. Oh, okay. And, you know, they would get something were you in the military for? Eight years. Eight years? Which, branch? Air Force. Air Force? What'd you do in the Air Force? Scop. You were an Air Force cop? Yeah. What's that like?

Was it are they MPs? Is that the same thing as No. Okay. It used to be before the Air Force split off from the army.

No. It's called security forces now. Okay.

You're a glorified gate guard. Okay.

Or if you're in a deployment situation,

you're in, like, a tower Mhmm. Watching the fence, that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah.

I think have you ever seen doctor Strangelove?

Long, long time ago. I was a kid. I won't go into that. There's a part where they have to storm

an air force base, and the army's guy like you guys like, well, we'll just wipe away your security forces. That won't be a problem. Yeah. And they offer stiff resistance, so it's funny. Yeah. It's a very dark movie, actually.

But so what

what are the things that you learned in the military that you that you'd apply to the to the township,

if anything,

From the chair force, if you don't have a little bit of a No. No. That's oh, that's absolutely true.

That had to play as a township.

Or, like, how does it shaped you as a person?

You learn to be patient Mhmm. Dealing with the government in any fashion. Mhmm.

I

I mean,

they always used to say hurry up and wait. Yeah. You know, you'd show up somewhere four hours early. Yeah. I have a couple friends that were in the, like, different

branches of of the military, and that's what they all say. You'd show up four hours early for a meeting with the commander,

and the commander would show up ten minutes late. Mhmm. You know?

I don't know.

Obviously, anything with government takes a lot of time. Mhmm. So, I mean, patience to wait.

It gives you more time to think about it anyway,

but,

I I would say patience is a big one.

Did you like your time in the Air Force?

That's debatable.

Yes and no.

What'd you like about it?

The guys I was with Yeah. Over there. Yeah. Good guys. Yeah. That way Most of them. Were you deployed overseas?

Yeah.

I was in Iraq in 2010. Okay. When did I'm sorry. When did you I'm assuming you enlisted. When did you enlist?

In the o seven. Okay.

In the o seven, I joined. I was in, like, this delayed enlistment program the Air Force does. So it's, like, four or five months before I actually left.

And then 2030,

it was actually 01/01/2010,

we landed in country. Okay. Yeah.

How was that?

It it wasn't bad. I mean

I'm sorry. Was it I could was Afghanistan or Iraq? Northern Iraq. It was a city called Kirkuk, about 40 miles off the Iranian border. Okay.

You get used to, like, what they what they ended up doing. They would

roll up in trucks, and they'd shoot missiles under the base. Really? So they hid these old Like RPG type things? Or No. They were modified French rockets. Okay. They were designed to be shot from a helicopter

straight at something. Yeah. So they would make, like, these sleds in the back of a truck,

and they would just light them off

somehow like a it was I mean, it's like a bottle rocket. Yeah. They would just lob it into the base, and it would just wherever wherever it hit it hit.

And, I mean, you get used to that. We had bullets.

The air force is the only branch that has, like, hardened buildings. Mhmm.

Everybody else stayed in tents Yeah. Even on our base.

Which makes sense because I imagine there's some expensive things in air force buildings. No. It was just our housing. Oh, really? Well, why is the air force the only one that gets hardened buildings then?

We don't know. We

the the army I'm sure you're not complaining about it. No. No. The the army on our base slept 50 guys to a tent. Hell. We were four guys to a room, hardened buildings with bathrooms. No wonder everybody hates the air force.

I I mean, I don't blame them. I I don't know why they treated us better. I mean,

they didn't have any reason to. So how long were you there?

Air Force says six month deployments. Six months? Yeah. And did you have to go back a couple of times?

No. No.

At my base so I'm I was a reservist for years.

So at my base,

my wife was actually pissed when she found out about this.

They came in. We did, you know, the one week in a month, two weeks a year thing. So we'd go in. It's called a UTA weekend.

We'd go we'd go in, and they're like, hey. We've got a deployment.

Our base has been tasked with sending 14 people. Mhmm.

And,

they're like, does anybody wanna go? Me and a couple of my friends are like, yeah. Yeah. So we volunteered to go.

And Is that what pissed your wife off? I did not tell my wife that,

which actually we weren't married at the time yet. We've been dating for years.

But, so I didn't tell her that. When I got the paperwork, I'm like, oh, man. I gotta go to Iraq. Oh, no. Oh, no.

And,

afterwards,

she finds it was after I was home, fortunately. Yeah. Oh, she was pissed.

Yeah.

Still haven't lived that now.

How long have you been married?

So

as of August 8, it was sixteen years. Congratulations. That's I think we were together for twenty

somewhere around twenty years now. Now did you meet her in High school. High school. High school sweethearts. Yeah. Nice. Very nice. Yeah. You don't see that often. No. And I'm assuming she's from the area as well. Oh, yeah. I mean, if she went to high school. Whole life. Yeah. Obviously. Awesome.

And you've got you is your fifth kid coming? Four now. One on the way. Yeah. Oh, yeah. How's that?

It's great.

Yeah.

No. They're

I got good kids. Yeah. Yeah. They're all good.

How old are they?

13, 10, eight, 20,

and then the newborn. And then the newborn? Yeah.

Oh, 13, 10, eight, newborn.

And your wife is expecting?

Well, no. I'm sorry. 13, 10, eight. This is the three oldest. Yeah. 20.

20. The baby is 20 old currently, and then we're having another one. Yeah. So you're gonna have two under two almost. Yeah. We got ourselves in that situation.

Yeah. Buckle up because it's,

our son

is

oh, how old is he? He's always gonna be two in December. Mhmm. And our newborn son is, like, a month old. And, man, I don't know what's happened or Dominic's his name, the middle child. He's into everything. Mhmm. Everything. He's climbing on stuff. He's pulling things out of drawers. Yep. That's how the baby is right now. Yeah. Yeah. And then you have a baby with that, and his baby's crying, and you're chasing after Dominic.

Luckily, our five year old is kind of a a bit of a

what'd you call it? Mother hen. Yeah. I got one of those. I have one of those. Yeah. He's great. No? Yeah. Is your 13 year old is that a boy or a girl? My oldest is a girl. Is a girl? Yeah. How's,

this is this is all just for my knowledge, to be honest with you, because

I'm gonna eventually have a teenage daughter.

How how is that? You're gonna air this? Yeah.

Yeah. I am. I

oh, yes. This is all getting air, my friend. It's,

the rumors are true about how teenage girls are. I mean, I grew up with a younger sister, and I remember from about 13 to

oh,

how old is she now?

Maybe 30.

Yeah. It it was insanity.

See, the problem is

she's very intelligent. Mhmm.

She takes after me. Mhmm. And I was a horrible kid. Yeah. I was. I I know I was. Like like we talked about off air.

You you learn as you get older. Mhmm. You get to

usually, you get smarter. Sometimes age comes by itself Yeah.

Without the wisdom.

But

she takes after me, and that's what scares me. Yeah. That's what scares me about my daughter. Yeah.

Yeah. Because she's so

willful

and stubborn. Mhmm.

And sometimes,

she'll just say things or just get stubborn about something. They're like, you know, I can't I can't let you win this. Yeah. But I completely get it. Yes. Because I would do the exact same. Yes.

Like, I've gotta die on this hill. I'm sorry, honey. I've gotta die on this hill. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. But

I completely get it. I completely get it. Yeah. Yeah. I I see her point of view on things. Yeah. And I'm like, but but I cannot let you win.

Can't can't do it. Yeah.

So, well, to to bring it back, sorry. We took a bit of a tangent. No. You're good. I love talking about my kids, to be honest with you.

So we talk about kids. What kind of things

let me see how I wanna phrase this.

Because, obviously, you wanna leave the township a better place for your children. Yes. And

so fifteen, twenty years from now,

what what would you like the town where where would you like the township to be? Because as we've said before, you know, developments come and you really can't slow it. Right. What what do you want the township to look like for your daughter, for your sons, for your children?

I would like it to look more like

I mean,

can we rerun can we rewind the clock about thirty years? Thirty years.

Like,

I don't know. I mean, I'd like it's like you said I mean, you can't stop progress. Mhmm. But I can try to slow it down. Yeah. I mean, even if I'm up there, just vote no. Yeah.

At least I tried. Yeah.

I I I don't wanna see Batavia turn into Anderson. Yeah.

I just I I hate driving through, like, the kinda urban area. Mhmm. It's all

everything paved over. Like, I just hate it. Yeah.

That's fair enough.

Do you do you wanna talk about any of these props you bought?

You brought? Yeah.

So you three d printed all this stuff. I guess it's Yeah. It's a shame I don't have video,

but this is kinda wild. Yeah.

So why don't why don't you tell people what you brought?

So I'm sure everybody's heard

of Ghost Guns. Mhmm.

That's,

so you can, I mean, you can find these prints online anywhere?

But, I mean, you can you can three d print about anything these days.

So first of all, how do you even get into three d printing?

You heard of Fastrack?

I have. Oh,

brother, have I heard of Fastrack?

I was addicted to Fastrack for a long time. So was I. Yeah. So was I. My wife hates it.

My wife actually loves it, which is the problem.

Because we both we'll both just feed into each other. It's like, oh, do we need this thing? Oh, well, I bought this. Okay.

Do you have an Instant Pot?

Oh, yeah. I have four. You have four Instant Pot? I have four Instant Pot. I love it. It's the best kitchen gadget.

I buy them for relatives. Yeah. Like, you can get an Instant Pot on Fast Track for, like, $5. Oh, yeah. You just gotta know what you're looking for. You get crazy. Sometimes you can get a broken one, but Yeah. Yeah. No big deal.

I mean, if it's $5, who cares? Yeah. Just use it for parts, sort of, whatever. I've seen those three d printers on there all the time too. So I bought a three d printer. It was an $800 printer. It even had it was a return Amazon return. Somebody's parents bought it for them. It still had the Christmas tag. It said happy

merry Christmas, something from mom and dad or something. Did it really? And it was returned as an $800 printer. Yeah. Yeah. $200.

That ain't bad. Not bad at all. No. I used that thing for, like, four or five years. They've came out with some firmware and bricked it. Yeah. I ended up getting a different one. And,

done. I just tinker around in the basement. I

print weapons,

prosthetics. Yeah. Yeah. There's actually a group online that does prosthetics for, like, charities. Yeah. Because you have, explain to people. You have, like, a a

pretty much a functioning prosthetic

hand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's got movable fingers.

It all runs on, you know, like, just cords up the fingers. Mhmm.

Yeah.

Printed this fur. It was it was kind of like a prototype. I've got a buddy who's a Korean war vet. Okay. He's a he lost an arm and a leg in Korea. Okay. And, he's in his nineties,

but he

the the VA actually lost his hand.

So all he had was a hook. I had a buddy I worked with. He was in the army. Guy used to work on oil rigs down in Texas and stuff,

and he worked with me.

And he would always say, if the army doesn't kill you, the VA will. Yeah.

That's that's what he would always say. And not to be disparaging against the VA. I don't wanna make people I don't know anything about the VA, to be honest with you. So I have

so I've been going to the VA for a while. I recently got back in. I've I've got commercial insurance because of work, so I didn't I wasn't going to the VA. But I recently started going back. I have had no issues. Really?

Like Oh, this guy also said this maybe twenty years ago or something. Yeah. There were there used to be a lot of horror stories, but I haven't had any issues myself. Sounds good.

And speaking of the Korean War, not to plug my own podcast, but if you're going back through the podcast,

there's one with,

I'm gonna forget his name.

Gary Knapp. Gary Knapp.

He's he's a guy just in Claremont County,

but he's a he's a he's a historian. I think his father was in Korea. So So I think I did listen to that. Okay. Okay. I remember because he talks about the Korean War and the vets from Claremont. Yeah. Like, sorry. I don't mean to plug my No. You're good. But so what are the things do you do besides three d printing? I mean, it seems like you were talking to me about my board over here and how to solder stuff. I mean, you seem like a pretty handy fella.

I I repair things. Yeah. Like, I I don't throw anything away. No.

And ever since I was a kid, like, I've I just like problem solving. Yeah. So before I throw something away, I'll take it apart, see how it works, that kinda thing. What what other kind of projects you got going on? Oh, man. Seem like a project guy.

My wife likes to call me a hoarder. Yeah. That's fair. I like to call my wife a hoarder. So But and it's not, like, you know, it's just

it's random useful things. You know? Yeah. Every time I do throw something away a couple months later, I'll be like, now I need this. Are you one of the are you one of those guys that has, like,

a box full of oddly shaped wood

that I have a small pile of oddly shaped wood. A small pile of oddly that that will be I need to burn it. I need to take it out and burn it. I'm trying to clean the garage. Oh.

Yeah.

But, no, I've and you know that, like, the box of cords everybody has? Oh, yeah. I've got one. I have three of those. You have three boxes of cords? Like, two totes in the basement, just full of random cords. Listen. I'll agree with you on the cords because you never know when you're gonna need one of those cords, and you're always losing them. Yes. At least that's the argument I make Yeah. For my boxes of cords,

For cords that have been outdated for twenty years.

I've looked into selling them on eBay. Like, I don't need them. I know I don't need them. Yeah. But it's,

I it's I know it's a mental thing. Yeah. I can't throw away something that's useful. Yeah. Even if it's not useful to me. Yeah. Like, I could invite you over. And if you needed it, you can have it. I don't care.

I just can't throw things away. I don't know. I have a private

I have a problem with books. I joke. I call my wife a hoarder.

But

I'm the same way with books. If somebody comes over and they're like, oh, that looks I'm like, here, take it. Yeah. Just take it. I

don't need it. I've read it. It's good. Get it out of my house. Right. Exactly.

So what are the projects do you do? You take stuff apart. What's what's, what are you working?

What's your what's your favorite project outside of?

I don't know. We've been busy.

So, actually, I do wanna ask you more about these if that's alright. Yeah. And if there's more stuff you wanna talk about the your campaign and stuff like that. So, yeah,

well, I have heard of ghost guns.

How I mean, are these these are functional. Right? Like, you can You could make that functional. Yes. You could make them functional. What what's the legality

of it? I mean, I'm assuming you didn't bring a bunch of contraband to a

no. No.

So this you guys said this is, for an AR. Right? Yeah. AR lower receiver. Okay. I mean, you would definitely take some work. Sure.

You do you would need to drop in

trigger group. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You would need which I've

assembled this the back end on it. Yeah. So, I mean, it would need a lot of work. You would need an upper receiver, you know, all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, you could make a lot of receiver is the it was pretty much the functional part of the gun. Yeah. That's what you need. That's that's what they serialize.

But you are legally allowed to make your own weapons.

That's wild.

And have you made a a okay. I I hope I'm not getting you in trouble here. But No. Have you made a full,

like, a functioning

No. No. No. No. Like, I you know, I would like bar buy parts kits. Like, I've I've built ARs. Yeah.

How do I building an AR? I've always I've toyed with the idea, but I've never it's like building your own PC. You know? It's like It's like LEGOs. Okay. It's like LEGOs for adults. Well, I've heard that you've gotta try a couple different components out. Like, if you can't just

buy a bunch of parts, slap them together, and hope they work. Well, so you can buy

so they sell what's called an 80%

Yeah. Kit. Mhmm. And you have to machine yourself like the like, these holes Mhmm. Would be missing,

and you have to get a jig and make those holes yourself, that kind of thing. Do you have, like, a drill press and everything at home?

Not currently. No? No. I have access to one, but I No. No.

I was just curious. Yeah.

But, like,

the 80% kit, like, once you get all that together,

you can purchase, like,

whole carrier group that just drops in. Yep.

And then you you can buy a fully assembled upper receiver and just slap it on Yeah. Lower. Like, you get a barrel and all that stuff. Yeah. It's because every time I look into doing something like that, I I start going down rabbit holes, and it's like barrel twist and

length. And then it's like, what is the barrel coated with? And I it's like, oh, I can't. No. You gotta watch yourself with the length. Okay. If it's too short Oh, did you get SBR? Is yeah. You don't wanna build an SBR and not have a tax stamp. Yeah.

That's a whole another rabbit hole. You don't wanna go down with me.

I don't know. I might want to. I'm

a libertarian.

Yeah. I was gonna say I have a feeling I I know what your opinions of the ATF are. Yeah. You know, in this area, we might both get ourselves on a list. Hey. They they can come look all they want. I don't care. I got nothing to hide.

So what else do you three d print? Is it just I'm assuming it's not all just toys. Like, I got a, you know, knife here.

Honestly, I'll three d print these for my kids. Yeah. You know? I mean, it's I'm gonna play with it. Say knife and so people at home. It's not like it's gonna

it's not great. It's not, like, shaving sharpness. Yeah. No. I mean, it You could poke somebody with it. You could poke somebody with it. It ain't gonna feel good, but Wouldn't I don't think it breaks again. I don't know if I would classify this as, like, a dangerous weapon. Right.

Although that's just me. Yeah. Although if somebody came at me with this, I'd pay attention to what they want to do. Yeah. And from a distance,

somebody you don't know Yeah. They could hurt you. Yeah.

Actually, let's bring it back to the campaign just a little. Yeah. Because you mentioned you go to East River. Yeah. And I know a bunch of guys that go to East River. And

I do

firmly believe in separations of churches and states and things like that. So I say that because

if you don't wanna answer the question No. You're good. Fine. Yeah.

But but how does faith play into and not just your run for,

trustee, but just your life in general. Like, what part does faith play in your life?

I mean, it's it's it's definitely a big part. It's it's something that I have struggled with Sure.

Throughout my life. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, if you're not struggling with your faith, I think you're doing something wrong. Right. Yeah.

So

I mean, I I had a kind of a rough childhood.

But, you said you were dropped off at your grandparents. I don't wanna Yeah. Pull too hard of that. No. No. No. Talk about that. That's fine.

I mean, I won't go super into detail.

My parents were 17 when they had me. Mhmm. Neither one of them were ready. Yeah.

Few years later,

I was left with my

dad's parents who raised me. Mhmm.

Which,

I mean, honestly, that's that's what saved me. Yeah. I I would be dead or in prison Yeah. By now. I was not a good kid. I was I was six when I got dropped off, and I was I was already getting into trouble. Yeah.

So, I mean, they they straightened me out. Are you still around? I don't know. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Still live in the same house I grew up in.

Saw them yesterday.

I guess if your parents were 17, they were probably pretty young.

Yeah. They were they were in their early late forties, early fifties when I or 80. Yeah. 80

now.

Yeah.

What are we talking about?

Our faith. That's right. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, you're good. So, I mean, with grandma and grandpa,

they were very religious. We went to Forestville Baptist down in Anderson Mhmm.

Which we still kinda go down there. I know a ton of people down there because I went there for, you know, fifteen, twenty years.

So, I mean, I kinda fell away from church. Mhmm.

How'd you come back?

My wife. Yeah. Yeah.

She's she's kinda the anchor,

that keeps me grounded. Yeah. As all good wives are, that's exactly what my wife does. If it wasn't for my wife, I'd probably

I don't know where I'd be. Right. It wouldn't be good. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No.

If if it wasn't for her,

you know, steer steering me,

I would be I wouldn't be where I am. Mhmm. Not at all.

But I mean so she's kept me grounded. We actually found, our current church. We hadn't been going anywhere for a long time.

We found it by accident. How'd you find it?

I didn't know there's a church there. Yeah. I mean, it's it's kinda well hidden. Right. Yeah. If any people who are listening don't know, in the village of Batavia, that Redbourn,

there is a

pretty large church called East River. Yep. And I know a bunch of the guys that go there lift with me at the gym. So that's how I that's how I have an East River connection.

So there's this grocery delivery service Mhmm. And it's called Azure Standard.

What's it called? Azure. Azure. Okay. It's a a z u r e. Okay.

So it's it's basically, like it's it's where the Amish would probably buy their food if they were on the Internet. Yeah. You can buy in bulk. Yeah. And, I mean, any it's it's like a farm out in, like, Kansas or something. Okay. And they put it all on a truck. Okay.

You you ordered online. They only send it once a month. I think I've heard of this. It's like you order a whole bunch of stuff and then you have to go pick it up. Yeah. So I mean, you can buy, like, 50 pound bags of wheat, that kind of thing. Make sure you're ready. Pound bags of wheat? I bought 25 pound bags of wheat.

What did you do with 25 pounds a week? Bread. Okay. Yeah. I got a bread maker. Yeah. Got it on Fastrack. You got it.

Hey. It's a $200 bread maker. I got it for, like, $15.

It is awesome.

You you are you are in deep to Fast Tracks.

Yeah. Hey. I have taken a, like, four month break. Yeah. Well, that's

I can't remember the last thing I bought. I'll tell you off the last thing I bought on Fast Tracks.

But so I started we we started ordering stuff from Azure, and it would show up at the Redbarn flea market. Mhmm. Like like, we quite literally found it on the map, and there I figured, okay. There's some truck. There's this trucking company that trains people there. I didn't know there's anything else there.

So I show up, and I'm I'm looking at all these vans. You know how the Amish have people drive drive them around in these 15 passenger vans? I didn't know the Amish. You never see that? Like, you roll up at Walmart and a bunch of Amish people get out of the van? No. What? Are they allowed to do that? Yeah. They have they have somebody else drive them. Oh, okay. I mean, that seems like a bit of a loophole. Oh, it is. For sure. Okay.

I don't know how I feel about that. But, like, it's it's so they don't, you know, they don't break their Right.

Can't think of the word. What is it? Like a covenant or Something like that. Yeah. Not to use modern technology. Yeah.

So so what they'll do is they'll hire another guy I mean, I don't know. To just drive them around. The technology.

I don't know.

Well, what what happens Unfortunately, no Amish are gonna listen to this podcast, so he could say whatever he wants about the Amish. Never know. That's true. That's true.

So so I show up

and, I'm, like, waiting.

What happens is the truck pulls up at a certain time and,

everybody there has to unload the truck. Yeah. Like, the driver doesn't do it. He just So everybody's gotta get out and take the stuff out. Everybody's gotta get out. I mean, obviously, women and kids don't have to do a lot. But,

so we we all unload our stuff, and they just sit it out on the ground. It's all labeled with your name. You just get your stuff and leave.

So I do that for a couple of months. It's, you know, three or four months. And the first time, I'm like, I had no idea there's a church here. Yeah. So a couple months, well, I found out it wasn't Amish people. Yeah. It was just people from this church. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. They're buying food in bulk. Mhmm.

They've got tons of kids. Yeah. I'm like, these might be my people. Yeah.

So I'm

like, I was never the type it was always my wife that wanted, you know, wanted to go get into church. Mhmm. I wasn't against it. You know, it just wasn't a priority for me. Yeah. Yeah. And, I'm like, we need to try this. Mhmm. Like, I read the website. I got on the website, and I read up. And, I was like, you know, I really I really wanna try this. I've I've never been like that. Yeah.

And, we go and we try it, and, we've been going there about six months now. Nice. Yeah. Looking into membership.

I do membership classes every once in a while. We're doing can do the next one. I think it's next weekend.

John? John Weiss. Yeah. Yeah. Which That makes a lot of sense. I need to text him again, and he was supposed to send me an email about that. Yeah.

I really like Johnny. He's well, interviewed for the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. I listened to that one. Yeah. Yeah. I really like him.

But, yeah,

I actually found out I know people,

like, from work Mhmm. And some some people, like, I went to high school with, that kind of thing. So there's a bunch of people there I knew. Oh, yeah. I mean, they're they grew really good. Yeah. And I think are still growing. There's more kids at that place than adults. I don't know if you know this. I didn't know that, which is bodes very well for church. Yes. Yes. It does. The common phrase is if a church isn't crying, it's dying. Yes. Yeah.

Yep. So, I mean, yeah, there's more kids at our church than there are adults. Yeah. And, like, there's no,

like,

separate children's church Mhmm. Kinda thing. Because a lot of churches

I'm Catholic. Yeah. So

we don't do that either. But Right. There are some churches where they'll separate out the kids. Right? That's what I don't like. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't I don't care for that either. Right. One, because

I mean, a Catholic mass is much different than the service over there. Right. But, you know, my kids have to learn to be able to sit through

an hour long whatever and behave. So and

I'm not a big fan of

this might sound odd, but treating kids like kids. Mhmm. You know? I mean, I I feel like a lot of people treat them

maybe

as if they're, like, less intelligent. I think they're just little people. They just don't have the experience that we have. Right. Right? Yeah. So I'm just not a fan of, I guess, treating a kid like a kid. I mean, I'm not trying to, like, steal her Right. Youth from her or something like that and make her get a job or something. But, you know Right. My wife and I make it a point to talk to our children like like they're the little adults. Right. You know? Yeah. Sorry. I went off over No. No. You're good. There, but

so what else do you like about East River? Because if I wasn't Catholic, I'll be honest with you. That'd be high on my list of places to go.

I mean, honestly, community.

Yeah.

They

they prioritize,

like, getting together with people from the church. Yeah. I've never been to a church that had done that. Yeah.

You know, a lot of places like we used to go. I forget the name of it now. It was up on the hill next to the college in Metavia. Mhmm.

We went there.

My my grandma was going there for

years. And, I mean, other than the pastor,

we didn't know anybody's names. Yeah. Unless they were related to us. There's, you know, a couple distant relatives that went there. And,

then it started getting weird, and we quit going. Yeah. The the pastor bought a Dodge Hellcat

and started wearing

bedazzled $200 jeans, and I'm like No. We didn't. Yeah. Really? It was strange. Yeah. I know. Weird. And I'm just like, I'm I'm not That's one of the things I like about being Catholic. The priests have a uniform. Right. Yep. And they give up most of their possessions. Right. You know, typically, you have to worry about other things. Well, we won't get into, but,

and not our priest. We we love father McCarthy.

He's a I think I've met him. Yeah. He's a really good guy. Yeah. I really, really respect him. Yeah. Because that's that's one of the things about being Catholic. It's, like, a

I don't wanna sound like I'm speaking bad against Protestants because I'm not.

But,

you know, as a Protestant, it's it's kind of easy to move to different churches. You know, like, your pastor started doing strange things, and so it's saying, okay. Well, maybe we'll find a different Baptist church or a different whatever kind of church.

When you're Catholic,

it's your parish and they just kind of put a priest there. Right. And then, you know, I always tell people, you know, the

you're not there for the priest, you're there for the Eucharist, you're there for the mass. Right. Like the priest, it's it's nice if you have a good priest and it's nice if you have a priest that, you know,

gives good sermons and is very involved, which father McCarthy is and does. Right.

But sometimes you don't get that. Mhmm.

So

I'm always a little bit jealous that, you know,

as a Protestant, you can you can really go to the place that you like. Right. You know, and find the pastor that you like. Yeah. But, again, I always go back to, you know, the point of mass isn't necessarily the priest. It's Right. The Eucharist. Right. That's why we're all there.

So Yeah.

So what else have you liked about Easter? And I guess we'll bring it back to the original question.

How was that so you you came back to to your faith. How was that, I guess, changed you, or have you seen positive changes? Because I think that I actually think because I'm a bum 40. You're more than 38, I think you said.

I think there's a lot of people who are coming back

to faith Right. At least from our generation.

How has that affected you? How's how's that changed you as a person?

I was actually talking to somebody from the church about this.

So the church, you know, goes and does events, you know, like, couple couple nights ago.

Bunch of people from the church met up at the Beachmont World Arena. Okay.

And That's by the Loews. Right? Yeah. Down by Loews. Yeah. I didn't know that place was open. Yeah. Roller rinks are strange places sometimes. They're always in, like, seedy locations. This one is for sure. Yeah. I know. Now the Loveland Skate Castle is great. My wife talks about that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Which I'm actually distantly related to them. Are you really? The family So you're royalty. You're skating royalty then? I mean, I'm not that good at skating, but sure.

No. Your family owns a castle? But it's the it was the Harper family. Okay.

And distant

distantly related,

they were related to the

mayor and blacksmith of Loveland.

It was, like, the eighteen fifties, 1816. Blacksmith. There was Yeah. Okay.

So, you know, they're distantly related. I don't get a discount or anything. That'd be nice. But,

well, if you if you went to a roller rink enough to get a discount, I I think I would have other questions. Alright.

No. 38 year old man just going to a roller rink because As long you got your kids with you. It's not weird. You know? Man, the last time I went to a roller rink, it was for my daughter's birthday. She would desperately wanted to go. She can't skate. She was, like, four. Yeah. Skate with anything. Yeah. So I put then I'm a decent skater. At least I was when I was younger, mostly rollerbladed.

I played roller hockey for a little bit, but

it been so long. And I got these skates on, and I'm going up to the concession stand to, like, grab a pizza or something like that. Oh, no. And it the transition from the carpet

to the, like, slick

place in front of the concession. I hit that with those skates, and I'm not even kidding. I was probably parallel to the ground and just

nailed the ground. And the worst part of it was is I look over, and there's just all these 13 year old girls, like, laughing at me.

And it just brought up so many

old terrible memories of women laughing at me. This is high school. Yeah. Exactly.

Exactly.

It's like, oh, great. This is awful.

It turns out no matter how old you get, 13 year old girls will always laugh at you.

Yeah.

So, anyway, you went to the skating.

Yeah, we were talking about how,

coming back to your faith has changed you and what that's done for your life. So

being around

people you want to be like,

it changes you. You know what I mean? Absolutely.

I don't know. In in my day job, you know, it's not always

godly people. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And that changes you. Mhmm. No matter how hard you try to fight that, you know, there's Yeah. Yeah. There are things that happen.

So, I mean, it's it's just very nice

being around like minded people. Yeah. It it just helps you stay grounded. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that that's one big thing I enjoy about going to East River. Mhmm. Yeah.

What are the other things? And just faith in general, not necessarily East River.

I don't know. For a long time, like, I've I struggled with,

you know, like, I'm I'm sure the question a lot of people have, you know, is God really there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know?

Again, I think if you're not may if you're not asking those questions, I'm not sure how serious you're taking your faith. Yeah. You know?

But, you know, there's been things over the years,

you know, where,

you know, you'll be you'll be wondering

and then just

something something happens. Yeah. You know? And it's nothing

nothing that you had any control over,

you know, and it's something that shouldn't have happened Yeah. Otherwise.

And you're like, there's there's no way. Yeah. There's only one thing that could happen here, and that's God. Yeah.

So, I mean, that that has happened

a few times in my life. Yeah. Mine too. And,

Even when I wasn't Yeah. Particularly on the path. Right? Right. Like, I look back, and I think,

oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's that's exactly a moment. Like, a very crisp Right. Moment in my life that I remember

that something just very bizarre. Like, out of nowhere happens. Yeah. And I've taken a completely different route for the better. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. That's happened that's happened a few times. And, I mean, it's it's like

in that moment, you're just like

and, you know, I I know I was questioning this,

but, I mean, this, like, this answers that question. Yeah. So, I mean

yeah.

I always say, you know, god will always talk to you. You just gotta listen, and sometimes you gotta listen really hard. Uh-huh.

And sometimes it you get just hit over the head.

You know? Yeah. Like, there's there's definitely been those moments in my life. Right. Yeah. And you're yeah. I mean, you never understand, you know, why things are happening. Yeah.

I think I told you on the phone.

My my wife

was in a a really serious car accident probably three years back. Mhmm. And it was, I mean, it was rough. It was, like, six months, and

she couldn't walk for a lot of it. Had to, like, learn how to walk again, stuff like that. But that whole time, you know, you you're just questioning, like, why is this happening? Like Right. But, you know, we get through that, and our marriage is stronger. Our faith is stronger. Our family is stronger. Right. I mean, the whole thing was just like a a crucible

that really that really forged

our marriage and our family. Makes you stronger. Yeah. Fighting fighting through something like that together makes you stronger. Absolutely. It does. And, I mean, it was a terrible thing to go through. Right. And I I never wanna have to do it again. But,

you know, we came out

okay on the other side. Right. You know? And we're stronger. We're better. Yeah. Much better. Much better.

I don't know. I'm I'm assuming you've had plenty of things like that. But, I mean, maybe not that because that's kinda an extreme example. But Yeah.

Let's see what

before I I wrap it up because I'm coming out of I'm kinda out of questions. Yeah. You can.

You should come to the gym if you know all those guys. Have they been trying to get you?

So at church,

they do something on Friday mornings. They call kettlebells. Yeah. Yeah. It goes to that. Right? Do you know Claude?

Claude Rogers?

I probably met him. Yeah. Yeah. Claude Claude's the guy that,

he does a lot of three d printing. Oh, does he? Okay. Yeah. If you don't know Claude, you should you should try to find him on Sunday. Okay. Talk to him.

You and Claude, I think, would get along really, really well. He's got CNC machines. I've probably met him.

There's so many Yeah. I know. There's a lot of I've only been going there for, like, six months, and there's so many people. Yeah. Which I know a lot of them. Yeah. But, no, I I don't I don't know that I've I'm pretty sure his last name's alright, dude. Claude, if you're listening, I'm sorry if your last name is Rogers.

I've probably seen him pop up. You you friend one person. Yeah. And then there's, like, 30 others, and you're like, I think I know them, but I'm not sure. So you don't wanna friend them. You know what I mean?

Yeah. No. I know it. But now no. Now, you know, every day

pops up, and here's a new friend. Yeah.

But, yeah, I'll have to, I'll have to look into that.

You should come. So it's it's not the thing they do on Fridays.

It's they go

Monday, Wednesday, Friday to advocate Yeah. In the morning. Yeah.

And if you like more if you don't like working out, then, you know I got out of the military,

and I have done nothing

since then. And that was ten years ago.

As

Yeah. That's fair enough. I hate PT.

Like, I hate running. Well, I don't run. I mean, look at me. I don't My metabolism

like, I have such a high metabolism.

While in the military, you know, I'd I would run. I do push ups, sit ups. If I stopped even for a couple days, all my gains are gone. Yeah. I mean, it's just so I just That that happens to a lot of people.

Sometimes over the course of my life because I've always been kind of a I guess people don't know what I look like. I'm

a pretty I'd call myself burly.

I'm a bigger fella.

And, you know, over the course of my life, I've always like, man, I gotta lose weight. I gotta lose weight. I really

but every time I get in the gym and I start working out, you know, I can put up some good weight, and it doesn't take a whole lot for me to grow muscle and Right. And fill out and get bigger. Yeah. And I'll look at some of the guys that go there, and they have these smaller frames. And no matter what they do, they could eat, like, 8,000 calories a day. Yep. And they just don't grow. And it's it and I think to myself, you know,

I think I'd rather be a little on the heavy side than, you know,

have to eat 8,000 calories a day just to, you know, get a half an inch on my arms or something like that, you know, or to, you know, increase my bench press by five pounds.

Like, because some guys are like that. Yeah.

And they have their own strengths. You know? It's like guys that are typically built like that, they can do pull ups for days, push ups for days, and things like that. Yeah. Run miles and miles and miles. I can't do that. Not this guy.

I did a my friend, a good friend of mine, I've known him,

jeez, probably since the seventh grade.

So quite some time. Yeah. He texted me and said, hey. Do you wanna do an ultra marathon? Oh, no. Yeah. It was like a 25 k

run. I only got one Oh, there's, like, a 100 miles? Some of them are. Yeah. He's actually I need to text him back because he wants me to do another one November 1.

November 1? November 1. Yeah. That's I did this one.

So I did this August 16 ish, something somewhere like August. Yeah. And our son was born August 1. Oh. So I'm sitting there in bed, and I get this text message from him. And I'm like, I don't really wanna tell him no because I don't get a lot of chance to hang out with him and see him.

I'll just ask Katie, my wife, what she thinks. And clearly,

she's not gonna want me, like, two weeks after we have a newborn

to drive up to Dayton to run, you know,

what is that? 25 k, like, 15 miles or something?

I think I think that the whole thing was about fifteen, seventeen miles something. Okay. Yeah. In miles. Yeah. But clearly, she's not gonna want me to do that because that's insane. Yeah. So I I get the text message. I look over at my wife and I go, Jeff's trying to get me to do, like, a 25 k run. That's crazy. Right? She goes, I know you should do that. I'm like, boy.

Because it's, like, two weeks after sick. No. We'll be fine. Go hang out with your friend. It'll be fun.

It was terrible. I only got halfway through, and I looked at him. I'm like, brother, I gotta I gotta bow out.

I don't know that I could do a five k right now. Yeah.

I can't remember the original question I asked you. Oh, I'd I'd invited you to the gym. Oh. Yeah. So if you wanna come, it's a good group of guys. I showed up at kettlebells once. Yeah.

And I was like, guys, I

the only reason I did is because the baby kicked me Yeah. And woke me up on a day I happened to be off work. Yeah. And I'm like, I'll go. I'll see what's going on. And, I mean, it like, it was nothing strenuous. I mean, we'd you know, we did worse in the military.

And, I'm just like, I I can't do this. Yeah. There's no way.

Like, I woke up at nine this morning. No alarm or nothing because I was off. Yeah. And, I wake up, and I'm like,

you know, the I got, like, blackout curtains. I'm like, I don't know what time it is. I'll see, you know, because they get together, like, seven. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Somewhere when I think seven. And I'm like

I'm like, I'll see what time it is. You know? I'm awake. Yeah. Somebody woke me up. I'll I might go. And I look and it's nine. I'm like, oh, thank you. No. I don't I don't wanna go, but

yeah. My daughter pulled it on us. It's like because I get home from the gym this morning. I come to the bedroom, and

my wife's in bed. And she goes, our daughter's name is Olive. She goes, Olive hasn't woken up, and we gotta get her to school at 08:00. It's, like, 07:15. Yeah. So we go I go up there and I roust her out of bed. I get her down. She's going to the bathroom,

and she just admits to us. She's like, yeah. I was trying to skip school. She woke up, shut her alarm off, and went back to bed. Like, honey, you don't don't tell on yourself.

Like, that's maybe not the best thing to tell her as a parent.

Like, don't snitch on yourself. Like, what if my kid would have done the same thing? We homeschool, but Oh, you do? Yeah. Yeah. I know I have some questions about that. How do you how do you like that?

How do you juggle that?

I don't. You don't? I don't. Fair enough. My wife does all of that. Yeah. I mean, we've been doing it since,

it's been years. I think my daughter's in eighth grade. Mhmm. Going to ninth, maybe. You take advantage of any of the because I know the parks will do

a lot of different programs. No. No. No. We don't do any of that.

I mean, I take them out, you know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love to hike. I love to But the parks, I think, specifically have Yeah. We don't own Different classes and stuff. Well, they'll do, like,

like, creek days or something like that. Yeah. You bring your kids out and they stomp around the creek and I take them down there anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I take my daughter down there too.

We got no.

Like,

homeschooling,

it's easier than they make it out to be. Yeah. Obviously,

they want you to send your kids to school. Yeah.

But, I mean, there there are so many resources out there. Mhmm. For For a while there, we were doing the same thing that the Amish do. Mhmm. I forget the name of it.

But, like, the Amish, they only

they only go to school to the eighth grade. Mhmm. And then they work on the family farm. Yeah.

But, But, I mean, you know, that that was some very good there's a lot of, like,

history,

a lot of good history in there.

But, I mean,

you can you can graduate

very early and start college classes.

Yeah.

Like, if you if you burn through all your work, you can go take GED test, and you can start college

at 14, 15 years old if you want to. And you probably

I I mean, I don't know what college is like these days, but, I mean, that's probably Oh, I'm talking online. I would never send my kids to a college. Yeah. Yes. Never.

I probably should've guessed that. Yeah. I'm I'm not a I was never a fan of education. Yeah. I mean, I've learned. Oh, yeah. I mean, I well, it's I do nothing but read nowadays. You know, I I think I talked to John about this a little bit.

You know, I I went to public school. I went to college. Yeah. And it was probably the right path for me because I did well in school. Like, I I was kinda built for school. Yeah. I like it.

I like the structure of it and all that stuff.

But some people aren't. Right. And I'm not one of those. And that model that we have is really only built for, like, one

kind of person. Yeah. Like, somebody like me that likes kind of the structure and likes to be in a classroom and and do that kind of work

for the online. And then I think especially a lot of young men. Mhmm.

Like, you you lose them

because they're just not built to sit in chairs for eight hours

being talked at. You know? Like, they want a lot of young men wanna be out in the world doing something with their hands and working on projects. Learn. Yeah. Exactly. And the the modern schools aren't really set up for that. Yep.

So I I'm completely with you. I

I don't have a fix for it, but I I certainly think there's

models that should be explored,

especially with things like GPT and and just the Internet in general. I can't tell you many things

I've learned

just by going on. You'd like, I want to do something. I was like, I don't know how to do it. University YouTube?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, people make you know, they joke about it. It's like, oh, I watched a YouTube video, so I know everything. But

the process of watching the video and then doing and then running into a problem Yeah. And then finding out how to overcome the problem and then going back Right. Like that whole process is

that's how you learn stuff. Yep. You know?

So Hands on.

Well, like I said, I'm I'm kinda out of questions for you, but I wanna give you the last word and give you just however long you want to make a pitch for Batavia Township trustee. Yeah.

I mean, as far as Batavia Township goes,

I know

my message isn't for everybody. Yeah.

I I would really just like everybody to know that

if you

don't

like, like, you know, if if you want the developments or, you know, if if you don't like anything, you know, that I have put out there Mhmm. You don't have to vote for me. I don't you know, if I get this grade, if I don't, it doesn't matter to me. Mhmm.

As far as,

you know, doing the job, like, I don't

I've never worked in worked in government. Sure.

Oh, for some people, that might be a plus. Well, that and that's

like, I have enough going on in my life. Like, do I need this? No.

Like,

I just

I see something I would like to see changed Mhmm. And that's why I'm doing this.

One one thing that I I want everybody to know, like,

I hate when I see, like, elected representatives

put something out there, get in office, change their mind. Yeah.

Like

and and I understand why a lot of them change their mind. They'll get in.

They'll get a vocal minority call in their office yelling and screaming at them, and they'll change their mind or, you know, they'll have

companies Yeah. Yeah. You know?

There's lots of reasons to change. There's lots of reasons. Some good, some bad. Now the way I see it, the way I see the job,

the people who elect you for the things you said at that time Mhmm. Are the ones that you answer to Yeah. Four years from now. Yeah. So, I mean, vote on what I'm saying now, and in four years, we'll reevaluate that. Yeah.

That's it. That works for me. Pretty straightforward. Yeah. Well, I wanna I'm gonna call it a successful podcast,

and I wanna thank you. Yeah. No. Thank you. It's been great.

Well, thanks again to John for sitting down with me, and we're gonna wish him the best of luck come November.

Like I said in the beginning, win or lose, I think we're gonna have him back on just to talk about, you know, what's going on in Batavia and his views in general.

So let's get to the events.

The forty ninth annual pumpkin run nationals is gonna be October

at Clermont County Fairgrounds.

It's a large multi day classic car show and swap meet, Southwest Ohio's largest fall car event featuring thousands

of pre 1974

classic cars, hot rods, and trucks.

The show includes live music, food, and craft vendors.

Also a swap meet for auto parts and family friendly contests.

Gates open early each day. On Friday, they start at 06:30AM,

and Saturday and Sunday, I believe it's 8AM.

And events run through the day and evening.

And all proceeds benefit children's and veterans charities, which is really nice.

Next up is Clermont County Museum Day. This is gonna be October 4 from 10AM to 4PM.

And it's gonna be be museums across the county. Think, you know, history museums and I don't know what other museums there are, to be honest with you. But all the museums in the county, it seems like, are gonna or at least most of them will be participating in this.

It's a free passport event. All sites are open to the public with special tours, exhibits, and hands on activities.

You collect stamps at each location

and learn local history and enter drawings.

It also looks like the Bethel Historical Society is participating.

So, if you do drop in there, say hi to Susan and Judy. They're they're really fun ladies. And, you won't be disappointed with the museum. I like I said, I haven't been to that actually might be the only museum I've been to in the county. Plan to go to more, but,

I've been to plenty of museums in my life, and they do a a very good job there.

Next is Yoga in the Park, October 4 at 9AM at Sycamore Park. This is a free outdoor yoga session for adults and teens.

Certified instructors lead gentle

nature inspired

yoga.

You are encouraged to bring a mat and some water and enjoy a morning of relaxation and gentle exercise

in a natural setting.

Milford Fall Festival, October 4 from twelve to 3PM,

5 Points Landing Park. This is a family friendly

free fall festival,

which is a lot of f's.

The event features autumn activities and entertainment for all ages in a community park.

Oh, boy. So the next one I really hope I'm not pronouncing this wrong.

Wild Day second annual inclusive

craft show. This is gonna be October 4 from 9AM to 1PM

at the Thomas a

Wild Day School. I hope that's a a man. If I'm pronouncing that wrong, somebody please tell me.

A community craft fair featuring vendors who create items for friends with unique needs and works by artists with disabilities.

The show raises funds for special programs and experiences for Wilde Day School students,

things like puppet shows, dances, and special visits,

and showcases handmade crafts supporting the school's inclusive mission.

Next is Union Township

Fire Department open house, October 5 from 11AM to 1PM

at Station 51.

This is a family event kicking off National Fire Prevention Week with station tours, a cookout,

touch a truck vehicles,

demonstration, and information

on lithium ion battery

buyer safety, which is very important if you don't know.

When lithium ion batteries, which are more and more things when they catch on fire,

it is not like a normal fire. It is very, very, very dangerous.

Next up, full moon paddle, Hunter Moon on October 7 from eight to 09:30PM

at Shiloh Lock 34.

This is a free guided moonlit canoe trip on the Ohio River. It's gonna be about one mile round trip. You'll paddle upriver near the Crooked Run Nature Preserve to observe nocturnal wildlife

by the light of the hunter's moon.

It's for ages 14 and up. All the equipment is provided, but you do need to register, and you can do that at the park's website.

We have a landowner conservation chat, invasive plant removal, October 8 from six to 7PM

at Clingman Park. This is an educational talk on identifying and removing invasive plant species

from your property. It's It's gonna be led by park district naturalists. It's free, and it covers techniques for restoring restoring

native landscapes.

Fall color family bike night, October 10 from six to 7PM

at the Williamsburg

Batavia Trail.

This is a casual scenic bike bike ride to enjoy peak autumn foliage.

Riders of all ages meet on the multi use trail. The route is still to be determined

and pedal together for about an hour. Bring your own bike or scooter and helmet.

Composting

one zero one workshop, October 11,

ten to 11AM

at Clingman Park. It's a free outdoor workshop on home composting.

You'll start with a guided tour of the park's compost site to learn methods

from backyard bins to indoor composting, which is interesting,

and get tips on how to start composting

at home.

Last but not least, Heritage Crafts fall stained glass,

October 11 from twelve to 2PM. That's gonna be the I'm sorry. There are two sessions. The first is going to be from twelve to 2PM,

and the second is going to be from three to 5PM.

This is gonna be at Clingman Park.

It is hands on stained glass making with an instructor from the Glass Garden Club, who sounds like they'd be interesting to interview. So if anybody knows them, get in touch.

You're gonna foil and solder your own fall themed glass mushrooms.

Preregistration

is required. You can do that on the park site. And there are limited spots. So if this sounds interesting to you, I would go sign up for it as soon as you can.

So that's all the events, and we're gonna wrap up with another quick note about events. I do my my I really do my best to try to find as many as I can. It is very difficult because there are so many different events, and there are so many different websites that house these events. And I know I don't get them all. So if you have an event or an event you'd like people to know about, just send us an email. Info@let'stalkclairemont.com.

I'm not gonna promise I'm gonna, you know, read out every single event that there is.

But, you know, within reason, I'm happy to include you in this event readout at the end of the show.

And that'll bring us to our final plug for we are a value for value podcast.

That means if you find value in what we're doing, all we ask is for a little value in return in the form of time, talent, and treasure.

In terms of time and talent, let us know what's going on in your neighborhood. Let us know who you'd like us to talk to. And also think about that question I talked about in the beginning.

What is the character of our township or I'm sorry. Your township or your village or the county as a whole? What is that character? What are we trying to preserve

in the face of all of this development

pressure?

For treasure, go to the website, www.

Let's talk claremont.com.

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Helps us keep doing what we're doing here. But for producers that donate $50 and above, you will get a special show mention.

And for producers that donate $200 and above, you will become an executive producer for that episode, a title I will vouch for, and I'll read a note. And I'm really gonna push these nasty grams,

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Well, that's all we got for you today. I really appreciate you listening, and we will see you next

time.

Let's Talk Clermont