The Observation Deck

County Executive, Lakewood resident and ex mayor Ed FitzGerlad speaks at the
groundbreaking of the Towpath in Cleveland.


Nate Kelly, always in the County Execs shadow.


Congressman Dennis Kucinich who has an office in Lakewood.


State Representative Nickie Anotinio.


With the i-phone and back to the camera is Marty Gelfand, Council-at-Large in South Euclid
and right hand man for Congressman Kucinich in his Lakewood office.


Senator Sherrod Brown going "American Gothic" with me.

The towpath will soon connect Wendy Park with Metro Parks in Brecksville, and Parma,
which makes for a great bike ride for all.

photos courtesy of the Great Lakes Courier.
.

_________________
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Not for much longer...

_________________

Thanks for posting this, Jim.

As an aside, some of you may know I had the pleasure to work for – er, be yelled at by – Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum in D.C. between 1990 and 1995. (He was really a nice man and only yelled at me once or twice.) I worked as his mailroom manager for a couple of years then became a legislative assistant and mentee to the legislative director. This meant I developed responses to constituent letters and calls (pre email) while the LD would send me to attend meetings for him while he ate the poppy seed muffin I regularly brought in for my second breakfast.

In 1994, however, I did meet this crazy guy from Cleveland named Tim Donovan who wanted Sen. Metzenbaum’s help to establish the Ohio & Erie Canal as a National Heritage Corridor. Well, Metzenbaum just hated “pork” and always wailed against such pet projects. Two lines the Senator could be counted on as saying on the floor while trying to kill such expenditures were, “This is a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and “It’s nothing but a raid on U. S. taxpayers.” Heck, he wouldn’t even allow our office manager to have our Russell Senate Office Building office walls painted although the money was distributed to all Senate offices. “Don’t spend it, just give it back at the end of the year” he would say.

To his credit, Tim convinced us that establishing this designation would cost next to nothing and could pave the way towards a grand multipurpose 90-mile long path/historical corridor under the National Park Service umbrella.

Former Representative Regula was sponsoring designation language for that side of the Hill and I was assigned the task to work with his office to write a companion bill for the Senate. Rep. Regula was minority chair of an important subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee back when Republicans and Democrats did things for and with each other on occasion.

Yes, the legislation was introduced in the Senate (and the speech I wrote for the Senator is in the Congressional Record – cool!) but, most every piece of legislation in the summer of 1994 was filibustered leaving this effort high and dry.

However, Tim continued with Rep. Regula and worked with Senators Dewine and Voinovich to eventually get this through both sides of the Hill a few years later.

What we know now as the Ohio Canal Corridor is largely due to the 20-years of work and dedication put in by Tim. It is truly exciting to see the Towpath get closer to Lake Erie. Well done, Tim. Well done.