The 490 with Gretchen de Becker, Matt Killam, and Kevin Mullin all.

Welcome into the 419 powered by GT and presented by Witcher Wealth Management.

I'm Kevin Mullin Gretchen de Becker, Matt Killam.

Did you hear him scream in my ear?

Yes, I heard him say something.

Happy Monday.

He's so excited.

Yeah.

And you know why he's excited?

Because today is Mayor Monday.

I've said it before, I get stopped.

Was a regular by the show.

And people do love Mayor Monday.

And we will.

We've got a great show today.

We're going to be visiting one the village of Swanton, city of Swanton, village of Swanton, right now.

Okay, I'm sure the mayor has got a lot to talk about.

A lot of lot of big plans.

That's right for sure.

So we're visiting Swann.

We'll be talking with Neil Teepee, the mayor of Swanton, but we'll also have Scott Yarnell from Ernest Brewer's a great Toledo area business but they've got perhaps one of the most unique locations potentially in the state of Ohio in Swanton at Oak openings in the in the wheelhouse.

Agreed.

Yeah.

Can I can I ask, what are you wearing?

So yeah, I'm wearing you.

Who are you wearing?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking.

I'm wearing Kevin Mullane jacket.

And underneath that, I'm wearing a T-shirt.

Yeah, I'm more interested in what the shirt says.

So for our radio folks, the shirt says cat person.

It does.

So this is new information to me.

Are you?

I'm not a cat.

You're not part cat?

Yeah.

I'm not.

There's no feline.

I haven't got my 23 me in back.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Part.

Tabby.

Did you.

Did you have a cat growing up?

Yes.

Did you like the cat?

No.

Okay.

Yep.

No, I have cats now.

Also don't like them.

So this shirt.

I guess.

It's ironic.

It's a couple of things.

First of all, we lov and support group mode.

Right?

So this is John Amato, and I need a shirt one day.

And I was like he cat.

So much.

So I bought thi because I want them to trust me.

Is it crop.

So I can drown.

It's going to be.

Yeah.

For those who don't know, there's a long running joke on the show.

The group mode is partnered with wget for their I'm a Public medi nerd or public radio nerd shirt.

John was gracious enough to gift it to everyone, and he gave me a crop top.

Yeah.

So if you need your screen printing done, don't go to group mode.

I also want to say that at our live event last week, John made me a loaf of sourdough bread.

Delightful.

I very delightful.

I'm glad.

Thanks again to John, because you didn't give it to Matt or Kevin.

That's right.

I would not know if it was delightful or not.

Because I didn't share it.

But we do know that cats are not delightful.

No they're not.

I will agree with that.

We have a cat.

What's his name?

We've talked about the cat.

The cat?

The cat's name is officially Eliza.

But unofficially.

Unofficially.

Remember, we have some FCC regulations.

Okay.

And what's that stand for?

Yeah.

You can check out the original podcast to hear the actual thing, and I won't.

Yeah.

You're not going to get.

No.

You shouldn't.

All right.

We are going to take a break.

When we come back, we're going to ask mayor the hard hitting questio about how he feels about cats.

That's a great thing.

Yep.

Talk to me about the cat problem in Swan.

Yeah.

All right.

We're going to talk about cats and all kinds of great things happening in the Swanton area with Mayor Neil Teepee.

And of course, then we'll bring on Scott Yarnell from Ernest Brewer to highlight some of the great new things comin this summer to The wheelhouse.

And its cats.

And the musical.

The musical cats will be performed live at Oak Openings with Idris Elba.

I don't think that's true.

We'll find out on the other side of the break here on the 419.

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Welcome back into the 419.

It's a mayor Monday edition, and we're taking a trip to Swanton, Ohio with Mayor Neil.

Mayor, thank you for being here.

Well you're welcome.

Glad to be here.

The question of the day.

Are you a cat person?

The.

We love cats.

We love cats to be taken care of.

Yes.

We don't like them making messages in other people's yards.

So I made a joke about the cat problem in Swanton, to which you said you've heard about it, and I hadn't.

I was just purely joking.

But you guys have actually taken some steps as a as a local government to address feral cats in Swanton.

This is a real thing.

That is, is in fact a real thing.

We had we have an ordinance that says don't feed the feral cats.

The there was a rather strong uproar from a number of folks in the community, as well as concerns expressed us fro as far away as Dublin, Ireland.

Oh my gosh.

Expressing concern about how we treat feral cats.

I mean, we'll dive in.

I mean, we talk abou kind of the role of the mayor, but like in your time as mayor, I mean, what has been the most like really kind of moment of mayor, like, this is this is what we're spending our energy complaining about.

Well, before the cats we had to worry about chickens.

Sure.

So we.

Maybe you just let them duke it out themselves.

Yeah.

The pay per.

View.

We have you know, the great cat debate.

We had the great chicken debate.

Sure.

So?

So we.

Those are interesting concerns for people to have compared to issues that people are dealing with in the major citie New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.

I'll take those problems.

Take the chicken.

Go out.

Yeah.

That's right.

Well, I do want to talk about we've got you on for for two segments.

We're going to ask in the second segment more about you personally.

But I do want to talk about Swan.

It's a small town but there's a lot going on there.

It will be my guess is a city soon.

Talk to me about the momentum of your great village.

Well, th we have seen tremendous growth over the last several years and a number of areas.

One, the number of residents moving into town.

Second on economic development front.

We have recently people have said we couldn't grow economically, bring businesses, and because we're surrounded by the township, so we can't grow out.

But over the last few years, we've had some folks with getting out of the farming business that have come to the village and said, we would like to annex into the village so that we can develop this, these, this property industrially.

So we have in the last year of been approached by on large family that has annexed in just under 200 acres of land into the village, which is increases the the land mass of the village by 10%.

So that gives us tremendous opportunity for growth.

Can you tell us what the geographic markers are for the city?

For the village of Swanton?

We if you had west out of Toledo Valley, would golf club.

Is that th the eastern end of the village?

And then you go out about five miles to the west from there, airport Highway, and then we extend over to roughly to our the Metroparks oak openings preserve the, the.

Yeah.

We have problems with those folks.

Yeah.

So we just we just met with the Metroparks last Thursday to talk about an economic development opportunity.

So they were very, very welcoming to that idea.

And then to the east or to th north, roughly Central Avenue.

Okay.

So we use the term, you know, town, village, city.

Regularly on our Monday episodes as we're talking about different communities around Northwest Ohio.

But can I ask what what is the difference between town, village, city?

I know that the village is less than 5000 people.

So we are less than 5000 people.

We are incorporated.

So we're a municipality.

Then you have township that roughly that do not have.

Are not regulated the same way villages in cities are.

So cities are greater than 5000 people.

Typically, townships interestingly overlap into the villages.

So people within a village typically are also residents of a township.

So it's like the city county sort of relationship in the village township relationship.

Yes.

Okay, so.

Speaking of the residents, I think one of and this isn't by any means to sound condescending.

One of the charming backbones o a village is local businesses.

I won't call them smal because they are the backbone.

There's nothing small about the economics of that.

Talking about Swanton or local businesses and the people that own them.

Well, interestingly, you see a lot of small towns villages have over the years have seen their small businesses disappeared.

That's right.

You see a lot of towns with empty storefronts because with the growth of of large shopping centers, shopping malls and the advances in transportation, every family has two cars.

Kids have a car.

So.

So access to transportation extends the range of people t go shop and visit and so forth.

The that tends to dry u a lot of the local businesses.

Swanton has been very fortunate.

There's been a a before being there.

I was head of the Chambe of Commerce for about 20 years.

So during that time we saw our main street grow.

So we have now got a robust main street.

Many small, I don't know, 102 hundred small businesses in the Swanton area.

The clearly those businesses support not only providing services to residents, but they're the ones that provide support to local schools, to to teams to every local community event.

They provide that with without any particular recognition.

They do that because they are part of the community.

That's right.

And when you're dealing with a small business, you're dealin with the owner of that business.

So they want to make sure that you're happy.

That talk to me a little bit.

I guess it's a nice dovetail to that, talking about the quality of life in the community that you serve and have served for 20 plus years.

But more than that, the quality of life is one.

We talked a little bi before the show or joked about.

Nice to have a cat problem as opposed to big city problems.

And too often I think we talk about the comparative state of our region to larger ones.

We don't talk about the benefits or the highlights of it.

Tell me about the qualit of life at the Village of Swan.

Well, th we are so fortunate that we have a very good fire department, full time fire department that staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The we have probably more paramedics in our department than there are in any place in Fulton County.

That department responds to roughly 120 calls a month.

Most of those, 80 to 90% of those are EMS calls.

So that's life saving.

That's right.

The the other thing that we have is the our our parks, not not part of the metro park system.

No, sir, but great parks.

Yeah, but bu we get to enjoy the Metroparks.

But we also have our own parks for our community, for our playgrounds and playing fields.

So the matter of fact, we have a levy coming up to refund those parks.

So we I fully expect that that's going to pass with a wid margin, because that is so used by all of the youth baseball, soccer, T-ball, families with the playground equipment for the little kids.

They are great parks.

I can tell you, as somebody who's in industry, I certainly described myself as an expert, but your your parks are beautiful and they're well-maintained.

Do you have a particular favorite spot that that you stop by and know you have to?

All your kids are your favorites, but you have a favorite green space that's yours.

The probably the the the place that's most fun to watch is on the upper ball diamonds we've got for small baseball.

No, not small, but for baseball diamonds plus a large soccer field.

So to see all of the kids, all ages, all skill abilities out there running around trying to kick a ball, hit a ball, catch a ball, not just bring joy to your heart and seeing those kids out there.

Can you tell us a little bit about the the organization of the Village of Swan?

How many people work there?

Is there a is there a council?

What and what type of mayor?

Are you a strong mayor?

Is there a city administrator?

The.

We are.

Building physical strength.

Would you describe yourself as physically strong?

Oh, yeah.

I was an athlete.

Yeah.

That the the we have.

We're a village.

We are.

We have a village council.

Six members elected every day every four years to at one time.

And then for at another time, a mayor of a village administrator.

We have a police department, fire department, public service department, water department, sewer department.

So we're a fully functioning municipality.

The 4000 residents, hundreds of businesses, the we occupy roughly about 3 to 4mi, but we serve roughly 14,000 people.

So when you look at the folks that live in the adjoining townships, that takes the the area that we serve to about 14,000.

We're talking about Neal T.P., the mayor of Swanton.

When you're traveling around the country and you're describing Swanton to folks that have never been in Northwest Ohio or maybe ever been in Ohio.

How do you how do you describe Swanton?

The, the I describe it as if you want to go into a small town pretty much like going into a Norman Rockwell photograph.

If you're looking at small town America, where people know each other, where you can walk down the street, I drive down the street and people are waving and that's before I was mayor.

People know.

Each other.

Kind of.

Not with the full hand.

The.

The, the.

So I will tell you, when my sister and brother in law stopped by years ago to visit from Boston, and I was able to take my little nephew over to the fire department where he could climb up in a fire truck.

When my my sister and brother in law, when we drove through Swanton in the evening or about 8:00, just getting towards dusk, and they saw kids walking up and down the street without parents, and they said this does not happen in Boston.

So when you.

Look at it seems like a pretty welcoming place.

Yeah.

So so when you look at Swanton or a small town, people know each other.

I like to think that when when somebody sneezes, starting to get a cold, there' going to be somebody out there organizing a fundraiser for the family.

Right, right.

So tell us a little bit abou your path to to becoming mayor.

You said that you used to work for the Chamber of Commerce.

How long have you been the mayor of Swan?

I'm in my seventh year.

Okay.

Before that, I was th then of the Chamber of Commerce.

Before that, my professional life was the.

I worked for AT&T as a manager there, retired there after 30 years.

Then I had my own consulting business.

I worked for some other folks.

When we my wife tells me now that I'm a failure at retirement, the I. Was kind of right.

So we we had a condo over on Maui for a number of years.

I spent the winter over there and the summer over here with my consulting business.

Then I was told we sold our condo because our second grandson had just been born.

So we said well, it's time to be back home.

Yeah.

At that time, the was golfin with a local pastor and his wife and the Chamber of Golf outing, and they said, you know, you're not doing anything right now.

And the chamber is going to be looking for an executive director.

So I told him I'd do that for a year or two.

That lasted 21 years.

Oh my.

God another reason to hate golf.

So.

So so yo know, that's kind of a summary.

So I've had an extensiv experience in the private sector and a fortune 100 company managing and operation.

And now we're going to get to this a little bit more in the second segment.

But I am interested to your to your point, and maybe you're such a perfect example for this.

Transitioning from private to public in this way is a big transition.

I don't just mean the work or the functionality you're providing, processes that maybe weren't there on the public sector, but you'r now stopped at grocery stores.

You'r now waving to people in public.

I know we were joking about that, but it's a vastly different day to day for you and presumably for your family as well.

I mean, you're answering questions, listening, right?

Which I know you to be.

You and I have shared the same space for almost a decade to your point was that it was that a conversation had around the dining room table.

How was it a knee jerk reaction saying, I need to do this?

What?

Talk to me about that conversation.

Well, the process was with the Chamber of Commerce.

I saw that we needed to grow, and the cost of everything goes up in your household.

Cost the government.

Nothing is static.

And inside the village, from the Chamber of Commerce perspective, I saw we needed to grow.

Otherwise the only way that you're going to raise money for the village to operate, provide the services was on the bac of the residents, the taxpayers.

So we needed to bring more businesses into town to help grow that that economy.

The I didn't see it moving fast enough.

So I thought, well, the the I had thoughts on economic development.

I thought that it needed to be a priority.

So over the years, my wife has told me, don't get involved in politics, don't get on village council, don't, don't, don't always listening to my wife.

Yes.

Clearly.

I went down and got my petition for mayor, came home with a. Petition for.

Money and and and told her told her that I had got the petition for mayor.

And she just rolled her eyes.

Like I was attacked.

And given this year.

It was a feral cat down.

So.

So since then she has been a big supporter.

And overall, I will tell you, people just generally don't care what size talent is.

Want to know what's happening, why it's happening and be informed.

That's right.

For example, if somebody has a problem with their street or with their drainage or whatever, as long as we can go back to my ask our public service to people, people call it the problem, get back to them, tell them what we're going to be doing to fix it.

Get back to them telling that we fixed it so they can establish a positive reference point as to what we're doing.

Yep.

We're talking with Neil Tapie, the mayor of the village of Swanton here on a mayor Monday on the 419.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, we'll div into more of his personal life.

And I want to hear more of tha story of that journey to mayor.

I'm always tryin to sell my wife on crazy ideas, so I want to know wha sales pitch you use that worked.

We'll be right back on the 419.

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Welcome back in to the 419.

It's a mayor Monday edition.

We're talking with Neil Tapie, the mayor of the village of Swanton.

You.

Right before the break, you had mentioned the story sort of bringing home the the petition to run for mayor.

The thing that your wife had told you never to do.

Do you remember?

I mean, did you just, like, leave it on the on the kitchen table and hope she discovered on her own?

Or how.

Did you.

Bathroom door.

How did you bridge that conversation?

I came home and just.

I said, you're going to really be pleased.

Yes.

Yeah.

And and she wasn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I. I come home every day and say the same thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tell us a little bi about your family you mentioned.

Do you have grandchildren?

Tell us about your children and grandchildren.

I have we have one son.

He's in his mid 50s, two grandsons.

They're both in their mid to late 20s.

Oh, we were fortunate enough t have them live next door to us.

You're kidding me.

How wonderful.

Four years.

So they.

The grandsons used to help us garden, plant flowers in the middle of the yard or wherever they though was a nice place to plant them.

Yeah.

The grandsons would help us.

Help me mo the lawn on the garden tractor.

So the one grandson, the older one, he nice break lines like I like.

Yes.

The other.

One was a. Little more creative.

Sure.

He liked to do it in S's and W's.

And then you let them both do what.

They want.

They can do what Sounds like a grandparent to me.

Where are you from originally?

Unfortunately.

No group in Toledo went to parochial schools.

Blessed sacrament grade school, central Catholic high school.

That's where I. Went to central.

Yes, sir.

Yep.

Well, I was a member of the class of 63, the first state of Ohio football championship team.

Wow.

From central You guys just missed each other.

That's right.

Yes.

So how did you land in the.

We had.

We're looking for a proper up in northern Michigan for a vacation home.

You missed it.

And that.

And that.

That didn't work out.

So then we decided to move from our home in West Toledo, looking at looking for a place out a little ways.

And so that's when we found Swanton.

In Westerly.

You lived in you old neighborhood or pardon me, when you lived in West Toledo.

Where did you.

Live in on Standard Drive was between just between Sylvania and Berdan and Douglas and Secord.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

We were not too far.

He was born and lived on Sherbrooke, on the wes part of Toledo is a great place.

And then Old Orchard, when we were talking about Central Catholic, your time there Were you on the football team?

I was not.

I was no, I wa I was not on the football team.

I'm sure they wanted me.

Yeah.

I probably.

Did, but I was busy running cross-country and wrestling.

Yeah.

Okay.

Were you involved in student government when you were in.

High school?

I was a student council my senior year.

My my homeroom.

I was my homeroom president.

Yeah, that was my first venture into politics.

So tell me about your folks.

This is in your DNA to serve your community.

This was something your mothe or your father installed in you.

Talk to me about their your upbringing in that way.

What made you the Mariachi Day?

We were raised in a time in the 50s and 60s.

A lot of had a lot of respect for your elders and for authority.

The.

I was on Boy Scouts.

Cub scouts.

Boy Scouts, student government.

The my father served in World War II.

My grandfather maternal grandfather in World war one.

So after high school, I thought it was kind o your duty to serve your country.

So I was in the Air Force an served during the Vietnam era.

Did not go to Vietnam.

They were saving me for later when they really needed me.

Sure.

The but a lot of a lot of my friends and classmates that served there, one perished from Agent Orange.

Another took his life from PTSD.

Oh my.

God, the so serving others I think is important.

There has to be things greater than yourself.

Yes.

Sir, that you need to be part of and contribute to.

And I'll go back to local businesses, please.

These folks do things for the community, not because they have to but because it's the right thing to do.

So to serve others is important.

Let's talk a little bit about the why.

The theme of AT&T customer service.

After you.

Left the what happened to those those people?

Well, you know, the divestiture, the government got involved.

Yeah.

There you go.

Yeah, sure.

Let's talk a little bit about your your your your future plans for the building.

You cannot hear my two host colleagues, so.

I'm sorry.

Sponsored by seasonal allergies.

Kevin has allergies, and I choked on something.

I'm not exactly sure.

So we apologize.

For the time of year when the weather can't figure out what it is.

And it's like I'm a victim.

I love that the sun has come out.

I love that it's blue skies and things are blooming.

But those things that are blowing don't love me back.

Your question.

Let's talk about forward thinking in the village of Swanton.

You're very proud of your economic development record.

What are some things that you're that you're continuing to do or that you hope to do as you serve out this term?

Well, one of the thing that we had to do to begin with was try to understand what is development and what do we need to.

What do we what don't we know which was everything, and what do we need to know to go forward?

So the first thing that I had done was, was established an Economic Development Commission that staffed by members of the community.

One is a school superintendent another is a banker, and another as a guy that was used to was the president of a German operation there, Americas division.

So getting those folks to help and then bringing in experts to bring in small industrial businesse to explain to us what they need, bring in the Regional Growth Partnership team, Acog, the Port Authority, even the Metroparks, to to help us understand what our business is looking for, what do we need to d to position ourselves for growth the so that the.

So that's been an ongoing effort.

Economic development is not easy.

You first need to understand what the market is, what you can provide, where you position in the market, and what kind of businesses do you want to see in the in the community?

I have heard you say in a number of occasions, and I know that you've been hinting at here the concept of smart growth.

Explain to a layperson what that means.

Well, the you need to be able to have a balance between residential and industrial or commercial.

The you cannot be bringing i companies that are going to be that aren't going to fit into the culture of the community, right.

You need to be able to locate those businesses in a place where they are not going to impede the lifestyle of the residents.

So, for example, the the roughly 200 acre that were bring into the village are located away from residential areas.

So whatever growth goes in there, it's not going to have a negative or adverse impact on the residents lifestyle.

We need to to maintain this Norman Rockwell esque community, but be able to bring in businesses that are going to support us economically.

How do you see the your this goal for you administration, in partnership with other regional mayors, with county leadership and with state leadership, and what do you do to sort of foster those relationships?

Well, as a matter of fact, we have a building that was in distress on Main Street.

A roof had collapsed.

The owner was hard to find.

So we finally tracked that owner down to try and figure out what we can do with that building.

We were concerned that that building was going to collapse.

Sure, if that building collapsed in the middle of Main Street, it's going to be u to the village to mitigate that.

It's going to cost us a lot of money, $100,000 or more to clean up the mess.

So what we wanted to do was purchase that building, take it by eminent domain or whatever, so that we could then apply for grants, which would be state county, federal grants to, to help us mitigate that.

So we now have taken ownership, that building.

We're working with the county on that portion on the federal government.

We had a major fire that destroyed our our municipal building, so we had to relocate our police department within minutes, minutes.

That's right.

The the administrative building, the entire staff had to be relocated within a couple of days.

The.

And if you.

Think that fire.

Roughly January 27th.

So that fire occurred and now we have to to to how do you deal with that?

I got a call from Senator Moreno's office saying, how can they help?

So when we look at help from our state, local, county, federal partners they are there generally for us.

So when we if we take possessio of this building, which we have is now in our name, now we we can apply for grants to mitigate those problems.

We're talking with the mayor of Swanton.

We're going to dive int a fun segment here in a minute.

But I'm curious, you're in yea seven of serving as the mayor.

What's what's your plans goals for the remainder of of this term?

And are you planning on going after another one?

Well, the remainder of this term, first we got to deal with the cats.

Yes.

That's right.

Second, second is the and we're hearing now from we got heard from folks from the Cat support group in Bethesda, Maryland that sent us a bunch of stuff that thanked us for the effort that we're doing.

I got a call from the mayor of Tiffin saying they have a problem there, and can they use us as a model to how do they address their problems the going forward?

The issue is really more focus on economic development.

We've worked on two projects for over three years.

One of them is not going to make it.

One of them has made it so.

Economic development is a slow growth process and a deliberate process.

We did have to we did initially just now finally approve a CRA Community Reinvestment area so that we can can support future growth.

Awesome.

All right.

It's now time for Gretchen's wacky quiz.

You're so excited about it, Matt Quinn.

All right, I'm going to ask you for rapid fire questions.

Gretchen's going to ask yo to describe Swanton in one word.

And then you and Matt are going to work together to list the nine best things in or about Swan.

I think the mayor's a Vietnam veteran.

He is not afraid of this.

That's right.

Shape or form?

All right, here we go.

Describe yourself in three words.

Compassionate, caring, and approachable.

I love it.

Who's the most famous person you've ever met?

Oh, well, John Glenn.

I was going to see him.

Or say me.

That's fine.

Gentleman.

Fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's fine.

What's your favorite place?

Where is your favorite place to take a nap?

Oh, man, my lazy boy with the TV on.

Yes, sir.

Yes, that sounds good.

And last, but certainly not least, what's your favorite number?

Seven.

That was my footbal jersey number in eighth grade.

Okay.

I love it.

What is the one?

Blessed sacrament crusaders.

I think that's what they are now.

Yeah, I think that we had a name back then.

We just were.

They were called the winners.

That's right.

Full of BS.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

What's the one word you would use to describe.

The village of Swanton friendly.

Agreed.

All right.

Sir, you and I, for your nine favorite things about Swan or the region?

Fire way.

Oh, the village villages, parks.

Villages, parks.

Villages, library were also was the president.

Of the.

Library board.

The school system schools.

What's the mascot of Swan Bulldogs?

Crusaders.

The Bulldogs.

Favorite things.

Where's your favorite place to eat?

Favorite place to eat?

Wow.

There are so many favorite places to eat in Swanton.

Give me three.

Probably a diner.

Yes.

Mail pouch, of course.

Best teeter totter in the state.

The and Kohl's.

All right, we got two left.

What's your wife's name?

Eileen.

Eileen And what's your son's name?

Joe.

I got him both.

Right.

You got them both, right?

That's a list.

Great job.

Nailed it.

Neil, thank you so much.

If you could wave a magic wand and make anything happen for the Village of Swan, what would you.

What would you use that that wish for?

What would you use that power for?

Wow.

The growth done.

All right.

Thank you.

So nice to meet you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Real quick.

We got a minute.

If somebody' going to spend a day in Swanton.

Right I'm coming in from out of town.

I'm going to spend the day in Swanton.

What are the things that I must do while I'm there?

Where am I?

Where am I eating Where am I?

Where am I playing?

You can.

Gosh you'd start the day on a weekend at the parks, watching the kids play ball.

Yep.

Go to one of the restaurants for lunch and then stop by Benfield Wines Winery on Main Street for some.

Libations.

Food and entertainment.

Yes.

I mean.

Like a good day.

Wine is grapes.

Is made from grapes.

Yeah, it's basically a fruit salad.

That's right.

That's Kevin's science portion of the show.

That's right.

That's what I do.

Neil, thank you so muc for joining.

Us for being here.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, we'll be joined by Scott Yarnell with Ernest Works talking about, amongst other things, the brewery that they've got the bar got out at Oak Openings, Metropark, the wheelhouse.

We'll be right back on the 419.

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Welcome back into the 419 powered by.

We're spending the day in Swanton, and if you're going to do that, a good place to stop by would be Oak Openings Metropark, and you might want to grab a beer at Ernest Brewer at the wheelhouse.

We're joined now by the owne of ours, Berwick Scott Yarnell.

Scott, thanks for being here.

Yeah, thanks for inviting me.

I dressed up for this.

You really did.

Yes.

Yeah.

If if you how would you describe or what is Ernest Brewer's?

Ernest Brewer is a locally owned brewery, I own it, we make a lot of creative beers.

We've been around as our 10th year.

I was going to ask.

Yes.

We started two miles down the road where a burn in Detroit come together.

Then we opened up downtown and West Gate.

It was just across from Cricket West over there.

And then the greatest one we just opened was last year, in the end of July is at the Metroparks.

It's known as the wheelhouse because they have active mountain bike trails.

People come from all aroun the riders mountain bike trails.

It's pretty incredible.

I'll pull in the parking lot.

I think we're really doing some good business today because there's a lot of cars there.

I'll go inside and there's like nobody hardly there because they're all on the trails.

But you're also sort of at the head or the top of where the Treehouse village is.

Right?

Yeah.

So it's a nice place for people that are enjoying either one of those amenities at the Metro Park.

Yeah, the village is really interesting there.

I think there's five actual tryouts you can ren and they have these platforms.

You can put a tent in a hammock and stuff, but I think we almost 100% of the people that go to the treehouses end up in the wheelhouse getting caught.

We have coffee service, we have lemonade.

We also have beer.

But I guess you check in.

You're required to bring your own linens, you make your bed, and then you're like, well, I guess we got 12 hours to kill, so.

Get.

A copy.

Yeah.

And if they didn't bring their mountain bikes, you can walk the trails.

There's the Swanton Water reservoirs right there.

And there's a nice trail to two mile trail to walk.

And I often do that if I'm not riding my bike out there.

What made you want to have another location?

You already have three you made.

You want to have the first location?

Yeah.

I mean, let's start of the origin.

That had to do with the governor.

Governor Kasich at the time signed a set of regulation and that made it so much easier.

Open a brewery was back in 2013.

They pretty much follow the regulations they have in Michigan.

Michigan's got a way better bee culture than Ohio at the time.

Ohio had about 80 breweries and we have over 400 now, and it had all do with making it easier to open a brewery.

Me and my business partner, Keith Snyder.

At the time, we had full time jobs.

We're, you know, I guess relatively happy work in our jobs and but never.

Do before.

Yes.

Oh, I dabbled in x ray repair for for medica.

Yeah, yeah.

Nothing like what I'm doing now.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

My business partner at the time, I since bought him out last year, but he was a patent attorney, so this was a big departure.

We both quit our jobs right away.

It just goes right in.

Were you a home brewer before this?

Yeah I started back in the early 90s.

So, like 30 years ago.

How were you still married to Alex after all this time?

And all of your.

And all of your home brewing nonsense?

Well.

She doesn't.

She did drink some beer when w first met, like, 20 years ago.

But she's getting away from beer now, and basically, she doesn't mind if I'm not home.

I'm not home that much.

Sure.

Talk to us about building out a men or kind of selecting varieties.

What is the the research process behind the variety of beers that somebody would find it earnest.

And what is your liver look like today?

Oh.

That's probably better than it has been.

But no I know when I was a home brewer, some of these recipes did carry over.

Like honey buzz is a home brew legacy recipe.

I had that one for a while.

Smoke with another one.

Chipotle smoked robust porter.

But Keith and you know one of us had like an every man's beer a beer on this end of the spectrum.

So we brewed easy.

We still have it.

It's almost the number one seller every week at beer flavored beer.

It doesn't have a lot of hops it doesn't have anything in it.

And more people are going to.

Lower alcohol on the spectrum.

Any thoughts?

I think that's accurate.

They named that after me.

It's a good beer.

To me about one of my one of my favorite local craft beers is Crunchy Hippie.

Yeah.

Talk to me about the origin.

And the.

Name Crunchy Hippie.

Crunchy hippie is interesting that it was named first I. It was after Ernest Open.

We didn't have that one going into my portfolio.

When we opened Ernest, I was riding my bike along River road and the name Crunchy Hippie just bam hit me.

I didn't know what to do with it.

I didn't want to.

Crunchy hippie beer was.

Eventually we brewed it and I looked it up because this is our anniversary time, so I wanted to see what the history was.

It was our 13th beer we brewed.

We brewed it in January of 2017 and it's really a wacky recipe.

It doesn't make much sense.

I would never create it now it worked.

We've modified it since then, and for our 10th year, I' going to brew the original batch and it's going to be pretty crazy.

I think Kevin asked a little bit of the entry level question, but you just talked about modifying your recipe.

I mean, I am in my old life.

I'm familiar with what a pallet means in the everyday sense, but you are now a commercial pallet to some degree.

How do you think about creating something for the masses?

And I guess also two questions.

What was the first time it so I guess the first one.

How do you think about creating beer for the masses?

I, I. Don't really know much about the chef world for, you know, I watched The Bear and some of those chef show where a yelling at each other.

A lot You're an expert.

Yeah, exactly.

Just like anybody else watching this reality TV.

But when I create a recipe, I create it with a flavor in mind.

I create it with, what am I going to sense from it?

Then I go and build i from the different components.

I know how to build a beer.

Usually nothing starts from scratch.

I suppose it' this way with chefs trying to.

They got a source of mine they want to do.

They already got a source that's kind of close to change it around, and I got some base beers.

And there's also certain techniques that I bring to it as a craft brewer.

You'll if you followed me, which means you were hanging out with me in my garage 30 years ago, you'll see some of these things carry over some of my philosophies.

I like beers, be a little mor crisp, finish a little crisper.

That means IBUs are a little higher.

Than what's an.

International bitter unit.

I don't know how international it is, but it's a measure of Americans.

We ought to worry about that stuff, man.

So the higher the number, the more hops are in it generally.

But there's exceptions of that rule.

So basically I develop a beer.

A lot of people develop a beer in mind.

Like if they're going to develop a course they they research what is a traditional cold shoulder Irish search.

What is my version of a cold going to be?

Then I look back.

Traditionally I don't throw out all tradition, but I really make the beer my own.

And then to get to my consumer taste, I figure, okay.

Is anybody els going to like this besides me?

Sure.

And I have made change because I think my customer base will want a little change.

To one of them kind of default questions I'm going to steal it from him is like when you're when you're designing a beer, who's that person?

So you said you're not you're not designing for you.

But what is who is that person you're designing for?

Someone that generally likes craft beer is what I used to go for.

I used to think of myself more as a product, and now I think of myself more as a place.

Being that when I thought it wa a product, I was trying to be.

Bells.

Ryan.

Guys, Dogfish Head, I mean, those places I named have three locations, I got four.

So I got those guys beat.

You know, I mean but bu but they were making products.

Bell's has one location in Kalamazoo you can visit and then they ship almost worldwide now that they're owned by a worldwide conglomerate.

You know, it's a large, large, multiple hundreds of times larger than mine.

And I used to think that was my trajectory when Ohio only had 80 breweries and we only had like now we got over 400.

It was grew so fast, I figure I got to figure out and pivot.

So I pivoted to be in a place.

So now when I develop a beer, I'm actually in talking to my customers.

You know what they like.

They want to drink.

So now I'm creating beers for people want to drink in my taproom, which is different than if you're going to like, say, harvest and you're looking at al those beers they have for sale.

What do you want?

That's interesting.

I used to try to brew stuf that you would pick off a shelf.

That's interesting.

So that's a Scott and I talked a long time ago about being the first person in wheelhouse.

And at that time you were focused.

We did talk.

Yeah.

You were my first stop, actually.

And and you were talking about being wanting to be on the shelf.

Right.

Both things are great.

And I do think being having a tap room and being present is more your style.

Right?

So I think it is not just marketing material.

Earnest is a great product as a result of listening and experiment and caring.

But that dovetails into my next question.

Do you have an moment?

Meaning, I know that you run a small to midsize business.

So payroll and all these things and the growing cost always is a concern.

But was there a momen that you were sitting on Detroit and burn in?

The place was full and people were enjoying it, where you sold your first case, it was like, this is going to work.

It was almost from day one.

There were hardly any breweries and the craft was growing in this country.

So when we opened in the late, late fall of 2016, I'm telling you, there was a pin up demand.

People were coming right away.

It was very exciting.

It was like it was a hot moment.

But it happened while I was washing glasses and we didn't quite ramp up that.

Yeah, but I do remember even that night thinking, wow, this, this is working because I'm always, even today, I'm still paranoid that when I create an event or something, it's like, oh, no one's going to.

Call me.

I understand.

It starts at five, no one's there.

And it's like, oh, this is a loser.

Did it by 7:00 were packed.

I'm like, okay, okay.

The park system, the park system, opening even parks, if you can imagine it.

Everyone struggles.

When you're okay.

So the business has inevitably changed since since you first opened, you mentioned, you know, kind of that.

Moment happening while you're probably in the back washing dishes, I'm sure there's still some of that that you have to do today.

But but how has the team changed?

How has the business changed over the last decade?

Well, Keefe and I homebrew together.

We found out that we lived just a few blocks from each other here in South Toledo.

And then, of course, then once the governor changed those laws, we could open a brewery.

So then I had a business partner.

We brewed all the beer.

We only had three fermenting vessels, and now we have 11.

And out of 11, six was more triple batch.

So our capacity is much, much larger than we started.

We started hiring guys to work in the back, more people up front.

We changed the ways we manage things.

We actually got some software, seven shifts to do our scheduling, which was a lot better.

Right?

Name on a piece of paper.

It didn't take a picture of it and sent.

Yeah.

Yeah, I bought my partner out last year.

So now Keith and I got along well.

But when you got one idea and you got two people.

I mean, you can only do one thing with it, you know?

So we would go back and forth and it's just I like running it by myself.

Now I'm still catching myself saying, we do this and we do that And I say, well, it's only me.

I, I always like to think that there was a little bit of room if somethin Run the show.

Exactly.

How how you got into the, into the retail side of it.

So you ar you canning your own beverages and you're in retail stores around the region.

That had to be an entirely different type of learning process and operation.

Yeah.

We signed with Heidelberg in 2018, late 2018.

So it was after we were a business for a full year and a half, and Heidelberg has been pretty good with us.

They placed our product, the Heidelberg, we signed for the whole state.

Heidelberg got like ten warehouses, but we predominantly work with the one here that's in Perrysburg, and it's for the 14 northwest Ohio counties.

They got us into grocery stores.

Kroger were in.

Some of those were in Chiefs markets.

We're in all the independents.

We're still really strong with independents.

It's hard for us to get in the chains fully.

But like a place like harvest supports us pork and supports us really well.

How does the sales of.

The canned beverages in the retail stores and in your actual breweries, or the tap rooms affect each other?

Are you do you see the same types o beers being sold in both places, or is it different?

Or does one tell you tha the other one's going to change.

In the taproom?

I saw beers that are more craft, whic is not crunchy hippie correct.

Hippie is a brown ale, but it's done in a manner where everyone can drink it.

If you if you like beer this beer is not that offensive.

It's not that strong And that's the general public.

That's when it sells the best in retail.

In my taproom, it's whatever's newest.

I got a customer base of regulars that come in.

I describe a regular as three times a month you come in and about once a month, which is next Tuesday, we'r brewing or canning a new beer.

Hello?

Beers.

Hibiscus beer.

I like what you're wearing there.

Yeah.

So you could wear that with my beer, but.

So that's new.

And my customers know it.

Pocket might not order it.

It's too far away.

It's too far removed.

But the customers that come in my breweries regularly know it's new and that's what they want.

Cheryl Hardy on the program which party in the park.

And I'm just intereste in kind of your thoughts of over the last ten years, kind of the shift in in craft beer culture in the region.

What have events like part in the Park done for introducing your brand to the broader Toledo community?

Yeah, Cheryl started that last year and she did reach out to me.

I really appreciated that.

Usually beer gets kind of forgotte whenever you're trying to like, develo something like party in a Park.

There's so many other thing porta potties, police, security, everything else get in the action and the beer is like, oh, well, what are we going to do about beer?

But she was thinking about that from the beginning.

She contacted local breweries.

We said, yeah, we want to be part of it.

And she's made a good effort to.

Lido is your hometown for everything.

I mean, so many things talk about hometown, community and all that.

So it is nice to see something like party in the Park actually reach out to the local breweries.

I'm not the only one that's there, and we could be part of it.

So talk to us.

We're got a couple minutes left.

Talk to us about the wheelhouse or events coming up or stuff you're excited about.

I am excited about.

I got to write this down next weekend.

I work with the Metroparks on certain things, and the Metroparks next week is we're considering that our summer kickoff, our seasonal kickoff is May 1st, and we're not.

We're just going to show off a little bit.

We do have coffee service.

Gretchen might know a little bit about coffee.

Yes, we got coffee service lemonades.

We got that kind of stuff.

But we also have a full selection of beer, nonalcoholic drinks.

But really, what I wanted right down is yoga.

Next Saturday, May 2nd at 1030.

And they'll be outdoor yoga, weather permitting.

And that's done by Holly.

She's a really good yoga instructor.

You can just drop in, she said.

So I didn't didn't tell her, I'm going to talk about it.

She thought, three people, but it might be more.

But the coolest thing we'v never done before is to opera.

Reached out to me on Monday, May 11th.

Then the opera will be there from Toledo, and we don't know how big that would be.

Outdoor things bring up blanket to sit on or a chair, but that's I think it's 6:00 on Monday, May 11th.

If you don't know what the real house is, what is it and where is it?

Oh, the wheelhouse is located just about a mile off Airport South.

Airport.

Highway and route.

State route 64.

Or Swan Waterville Road.

Yes.

Oh, it's great for mountain biking.

I brought my I don't know if you can get this or not.

This is what happen when you're not paying attention and you're like it.

This is not liable.

That looks like you.

Know.

It was all my fault.

I was not a. Swallowed a comb.

It does.

It does have nine screws on my collar.

But it is an X-ray of what part of your.

Collarbone.

Right here.

And you still right after this.

That happened late fall.

My wife wasn't too happy about that, but I wasn't paying attention.

And this is on the mountain bike trails.

They are challenging.

And that's what the satisfaction when you complete it successfully.

Like you did something.

Yeah, exactly.

After.

After.

Where can people where.

Can people find information about the schedule out at the wheelhouse and other events?

The Metroparks was a really good job with their social media and their website.

We have our website.

It's not as good as the Metroparks one, but you can see it formation on there.

I try to stay up with my social media, so daily posts about events and creating events like the opera one you can find.

Thank you.

Got your now with Ernest.

Thank you.

Very much.

We're taking right.

When we come back, we will wrap up thi Mayor Monday edition of the 419.

Every day.

When you.

Left with us, you learned with us.

We made sure your childhood was special.

Memories that could only be provided by PBS.

For generations, we've given you programs that made a difference.

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And today is no different.

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It's where you belong.

But you said you were going to take it.

Welcome back into the 409.

Does feel good Yeah.

Gives you extra authority.

Little power there.

You got.

A little tight in the crotch.

Are you wearing that jacket?

To wrap up a mayor Monday edition of the 419?

I, I truly I love getting a chance to see a communit through the eyes of their mayor.

There's somebody who.

I mean, it's a thankless job.

It's a lifetime of service, really.

It's truly remarkable.

Every day can feel like a lifetime of service.

I'm sure.

Well everyone has a similar answer.

And obviously you have to be comfortable with it or have an outstanding of thi some degree if you're doing it.

But that grocery store line we ask almost every one of them, having a conversation with your partner, coming home to say I'm thinking about doing this.

It does affect them too.

I think that when we're finished with the Monday mayors, we need to have Wednesday wife of Mayor Day and so that all of their yeah, all of their.

Therap and we told them not to do it.

We are going to have I think it's next Monday.

We will have the first husband wife duo.

Yeah.

With the mayor of Tiffin.

Okay.

And his wife who's a local business owner.

Join us for that on the spreadsheet.

We will get a chance to.

Not see.

And of course, so we'll get to that next week, but also to Scott Yarnell.

Yes.

He's the greatest.

The wheelhouse.

A really cool space.

And just another unique thing that the Metroparks have done here in northwest Ohio.

If you missed any part of the show, you can catch all of it.

7 a.m.

on YouTube, 3 p.m.

on FM 91 or 6 p.m.

on connects channel 30.4, of course online at the 419 or download the new and improved wget app.

If you've got an idea for the show or, you know, maybe a solution for the cats in Swanton.

Yeah.

You want to, you know, you can email the show for one nine at.

Thanks to our guests, Neil and Scott Yarnell for being on the program.

And thanks for you for being here as well.

We will see you back tomorrow.

When we talk, we'll check the notes.

We're talking with Penny Meeker, Alison Fiscus, Theresa Federer and Candace Buckley.

A heavy conversation tomorrow.

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