Now the 419 with Gretchen.

De Bakker.

Might kill.

Them.

And Kevin Mullin up.

Welcome in to a Monday edition, a mega Monda edition of the 419, powered by and presented by Retro Wealth Management.

I'm Kevin Momen alongside.

Gretchen de Becker.

And I tell him.

It's our first Mayor Monday edition where we're going to bring on, as we do this throughout the season, we're going to bring on different mayors from throughout the region.

To give us an update, I think, you know, what we like to do is learn a little bit about kind of their background what got them into that space, but then also take some time and talk about their vision and their goals for for their region.

Yeah.

It's not an easy gig, right.

And a lot of people sign up for it on a volunteer basis, if not all of them.

So how do you vacillate between the micro and macro needs of, relatively small community?

In the Midwest?

It's a tough gig.

And so we're going to have Tim Pedro, the mayor of Waterville, is going to be joining us.

And then we'll also have, Nick Kaufman, a third generation, business owner that, is in Waterville.

Kaufman Engineered Services, i going to be joining us as well.

Just to talk about, kind of his, I'm always fascinated to to talk to, you know, busines owners, not to especially from.

The family business.

Kind of perspective to thin about that generational piece.

I know in my own family, you know, my dad was an insurance talked about this, and he was very intentional about, like, pushing us away from financial services, so that if we chose it, it was our own choosing.

My parents are attorneys, and what distance me from that is, my intellect.

That's not.

And they didn't like that.

Gretchen, you've got, we got some, some publicity, from th from the first week of the show.

Yes.

We were, featured on the Weekender.

Which you are now.

You for.

Radio.

Listeners.

Right.

Which is a I'm going to say it's a pretty good picture of the three of us sitting on our set, but, very exciting.

With thanks to the blade for you.

Do not like the picture.

I love the picture.

In full candor, we've talked about this or you've talked about that a lot at nauseam.

I think it's a very charming way.

That is you laughing.

I think you look great.

Kevin, is looking through me as he does on the set, with his a dead dull eyes.

But certainly nice thing.

Again, based on even the interview, I hope it came through tha we were a little uncomfortable because the show is almost nothing to do with us.

But we do like bringing people o and hearing what they're doing.

We do a lot of learning.

At least I do.

Even for peopl who we claim to be our friends.

But selfishly, it it's it fills our buckets as well to hear all this great stuff.

It will never leave me.

When we had John Amato on the podcast, that he's talking about, going to Notre Dame and, you and him are close and you're like, wait, wait, what?

What?

Yeah.

What about, and but I think that's I mean, it's true to the way that we, we move about our, our lives.

Sure.

And I think even more so you know, it's, you know, we're, we're six years away from it.

But like, in this post-Covid world, you know, we're pre-COVID.

I cross somebody on the sidewalk right in Old Orchard walking the dogs.

We cross them on the sidewalk anymore.

We're we're getting to opposite sides and side, opposite sides of the road.

Yeah.

And so I think it's, you know, we don't take the time to really get to know somebod and, and ask in-depth questions.

And I think I enjoy that, that piece about it.

I've also, you know, I've really enjoyed the feedback, that I've I've heard from, from friends.

It's, it's it is it's really encouraging when what they're saying about what they like about the show is the reasons why.

We're actually trying to do.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

It's great.

It's been a lot of fun.

So we're going to have Mayor Tim Pedro, the mayor of Waterville, join us here on our first, mayor Monday edition here in 2026.

And then we're also going to have, we will have Nick Kaufman from Kaufman Engineered Services.

Join us as well.

This is the 419 powered by.

We'll be right back.

Support for the 419 comes from we True wealth management, where we understand tha your financial path is personal.

Advisory services are offered through Capital Investment Advisory Services, LLC.

Securities offe through Capital Investment Group member Finra and SIPC.

More information at Retro advisors.com.

The 419, powered by GT is made possible in part.

By supporters.

Like you.

Thank you.

Introducing the Local Thread, a community news series uniting voices and storytellers from across the region in partnership with La Prensa, the Toledo Free Press, the Sojourner Truth, Toledo Public Schools, and veteran journalist Jerry Anderson.

The Local thread brings you stories and conversations that connect our community here at weeknights at seven on FM 91, with early access on podcast platforms each morning.

The local thread only on GTV.

Welcome back into the 419.

It is a mayor Monday edition of the 419, and what better way to kick it off than with Tim Pedro, the Mayor of Waterville?

Welcome, mayor Pedro, thank you for joining us.

Well, it's great to be here.

And, I think Waterville can blaze the trails being the first Monday with the mayor.

So I'm glad to be here.

And, I'm gonna take my hat off.

I just brought it because w have a great police community.

Fire public works.

So I brought that along jus to let you know what I believe.

And all I do every day for our great city and.

Anyone that knows you, there's no doubt.

No doubt of.

That.

What are you introduce us to?

To Waterville, Ohio.

If folks, you know, again, you know, this program is on FM 91 in Toledo, Brian, defiance and Lima.

If folks may not be familiar with Waterville.

Tell us about it.

Well, John Perry, who was the founder of Waterville, he and I were buddies way back when, back in the 1800s.

Yeah.

But you grew up next door to Gretchen, right?

Gretchen.

So it's a great community.

Historical.

Right along the Miami River.

We share the Miami River with Toledo Metroparks.

We got an excellent, park system and a walkable city.

We got a lot of shared paths, to various, spots in the community.

And it's a desirable place to live.

In what are we, an excellent school system, Anthony.

Many schools.

And even in Waterville, the primary school has been recognized nationally for the success.

All of our parks are my favorite, right?

I don't hav a favorite.

Has to do children.

But I will tell you two during Covid, my one of my offices, was at Farnsworth.

Oh, yes.

Quickly.

Which is the park in Waterville.

It's a beautiful place, Ben view along the river there is one of the most iconic, places in, the Metroparks system.

And it probably, would be new to most or unknown by others.

We would we would regularly.

I mean, again, I'm talkin about, we live in West Toledo.

Yeah.

We would drive out to Farnsworth.

Would love i for.

The, you know, playground.

Yes.

It's so unique.

Yes.

And the kids just love kind of running.

Running down into the valley and right back.

Up all age playground to.

I would be able to bring my youngest kid, and they could just fall into this awesome area.

So I This is not a Metroparks promo.

But it is one of the highlights.

And Waterville regularly kind of punching above its weight in in industry as well.

Yes.

Perfect.

A very, very successful business community.

We have Kaufman Engineering Systems, Nick Kaufman, that's going to be with us a little later.

Third generation, family busines and just done remarkable, job.

And matter of fact they're just doing an expansion due to be open here in the next few months.

Surface combustion joins them next door.

A very well known furnace company.

All over the world.

They manufactured pieces and parts, and there's others, too.

And it's just a great business community.

And I brought some things along that I want to share with you along the way.

All right.

We'll get we'll get into that at the end, why don't I?

I'm very curious, Tim, kind of your background, are you originally from northwest Ohio?

So?

So I grew up in West Toledo.

Nancy's restaurant was my, local, Neighborhood, if you will, and grew up on Berkeley Drive Saint Agnes Parish, near 5.51.

Right?

Yeah, yeah.

And, Pete, the cop was the, police officer on the corner, but, grew up there on Berkeley Drive.

Ten brothers and sisters or small family?

Yeah, sure.

Where did you fall in the line?

Right in the middle.

Middle of the pack?

Yeah.

The negotiator, they say.

Yeah, they go to you and Kevin and I, our families go back a long way as well.

But, so Karen and I, married to my wife, Karen.

We moved to Waterville about 35 years ago.

We have four sons, and, I would say that I got involved in politics back in high school.

Actually, back in grade school, seventh and eighth grade.

You have, you know, student council contest.

I think I still have one o my posters from way back then.

Where'd you go to grade school?

Did you go to high school?

Senior Agnes grade school, and then Central Catholic High School.

Me too.

It's a good school.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

This is not their fault.

You know, I do remember.

I feel the need to, to to mock you for that, but I'm gonna let it go.

Do you remember any of your campaign slogan from elementary schoo to, Man, I'll tell them to you.

I don't know, I'm sure.

Yeah.

All right.

But, and then I, you know, progressed in and then and then I worke at Central Catholic High School.

I worked at the Toledo Blade for a while.

I was a paper boy also but I worked at the headquarters as well at work.

They actually wit John Block way back in the day and then moved on to other work experiences.

But I've always had that political, idea in the back of my mind.

So when I moved to Waterville, we were a village and I ran for, village council and was successful.

And then I was a Waterville Township trustee, a little larger area out there.

And then, got on city council and then the mayor spot opened up, and it was a natural progression.

So I'm in my second term there, four year terms, and then my second term, I have two more years to go.

And, I love it.

It's a great community.

We got excellent citizens lots of community organizations.

It's just a great place to raise a family.

What do you love and and maybe hate about campaigning, about being on the campaign trail.

So the campaign, it's, I look at it this way.

It's a way to meet the people.

And in my day and running, I knocked on almost every single door in the community the old fashioned way.

Talked to people on their doorstep, and also went to the various community events.

What I like, dislike the by.

I did a lot of time consuming, but at the end of the day, it's part of the process.

For an example, next Monday the 12th, we have two seats that need to be filled because we didn't have enough qualified candidates to run in the last election.

So now we have seven folks that have put in their letters of interest.

We're going to select two of them.

Gretchen accepts.

But but to me, those folks may have missed out a little bit because they didn't campaign.

1 or 2 of them did because they ran before.

So that's the that's the piece of what I like about it.

You get a chance to really talk to people who are small community grocery store in Kroger.

Meyers come in the hardware store you just talk to your neighbors.

And you like people.

I mean, I. I, I think I'd yeah, I do I get along do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What do you remember kind of what kind of happened or what kind of caused you to say tha first time you ran for office?

What had you wanting to do that became.

In the conversatio around your kitchen table two.

Yeah.

And what the kitchen table is at the restaurant.

But, we had just moved to Waterville.

We were a village.

My sons were small, and I wanted to get involved.

And it was I was involved already in their sports.

And there's Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, and I just felt the next progression was to get on city council or village council.

But that in itself isn't necessarily you.

You're seeing i as if that's all you have to do.

You naturally ascend into this, but this is you.

You have four kids and a wife, and I kno you was a professional as well, so it's not like you're sitting around at home twiddling your thumbs.

That progression is something that you have to commit to.

So what is in your DNA that makes you want to raise your hand?

Yeah, there's a lot of peopl that move out, you know Anthony Wayne that don't say I'm going to move here.

And then what do I do to plug into the government?

Yeah, that's a great point.

So I guess it was, kind of a balance of, of activity.

And don't get me wrong, there were probably some days where things got short changed at home, but, you make up hour on the other end, and I I had my kids somewhat involved in some of the campaigning and some of the, Activities that they had whole time.

Yeah.

And, and then I called by saying, what's really cool is now I'm able to, officiate at, the elementary school when they have their student council election, the fourth graders, and they get to talk about it.

And so those are our future leaders.

And I tell each one of them, I said, you can be the mayor.

You can be the president someday.

Yeah.

And we want to keep them.

Right.

I think we're prior shows that we've talked a little bit about brain drain, and I'm not suggesting that we are a positive turn in that direction.

But to your point, those fourth, fifth, sixth graders or whatever age group we want them to call Northwest Ohio home, right?

We want them to choose a place to live, work and play so that that resonates.

Matt mentioned kind of having a relationship with yo from a professional standpoint.

You know, let's talk a little bit about the structure of mayor and the structure of government in Waterville.

It's not a full time, full time job, right?

We have it's a full time job.

It's not a full time position.

Yeah.

That's right.

So, an important distinction.

We have an administrator, John Gorka.

Now.

He runs the day to day operations.

There's six council members and the mayor.

We're all equal in terms of one vote.

And we.

Vote really matters.

The waste.

Are we celebrating that time and tim where we vote actually matters the least?

I'm just kidding.

Let's see why.

No.

Yeah.

So so it's, governed by that.

The seven of us.

And we have a charter.

We follow that.

And sometimes folks, can get, oh, maybe misinformation.

And we need to go back to the charter.

That's what we're governance and we need to follow their Northstar.

You're right.

Sir.

Do you participate in any regional government organizations?

U.S.

Conference of Mayors.

What is your relationship with other, working relationship with other regional mayors?

So, I am the president of Noma, Northwest Ohi Mayors and Managers Association.

I've got a meeting coming up at the end of, January.

Everybody knows th Noma meeting.

You'll have that.

Yeah, that's a big doing.

It's a it's on my calendar.

It's a collection of mayor and management council members and meet at least twice a year or sometimes three.

And it's just a collectio of of folks that come together and talk about common, issues in their community.

And it's a resource also involved in North and Northwest Ohio Economic Development Association.

I do participate in some of the group meetings around the area.

And and you can't do it alone.

That' why you have these, association, these professional organizations to help you.

As you see.

I mean, how do you balance all of that?

Right?

So you've got all of these your committee meetings, all of these, you know, community wide regional meetings, to be able to do the job and do it well.

And those are the meetings.

You have to be prepared, the information that you're responsible for.

Although I do know your other, your other career on top of this as well.

So you you have a background in a lot of things that some, council members may not, but, you know, the stack of information that you have to have some leve of expertise on is staggering.

So how do you manage this?

How do you manage the time, space?

And more importantly, to me, the information.

You'r an excellent person to person.

That's something that's in your DNA.

But Mayor Pedro, how do you know about construction?

And, the managemen of a city and all these things?

How do you stay on above water?

So know I also, didn't manage a team of cog in other organizations.

So you try and get, a lot of material.

You read at night, and when you go to the meetings, you're prepared to answer the questions.

And we have a team.

We have a vice mayor, other council members.

Sometimes they're assigned or asked to go to these other meetings so we can balance it.

Bringing that back to Waterville, in this case, we mentioned it to the council members.

And then we, take some action.

So it is a little bit of a balance.

Sometimes you short, but you try to get resources.

We have an excellent and excellent volunteers in our community.

Various committees, Parks and Recreation, public Works Tree Commission, probably one of our probably one of the best tree commissions in, in northwest Ohio, always winning awards.

So we balance of that all.

The vacillation between micro and macro.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

I mean, you are talking about speed bumps and, small construction project and then you have to go macro.

I mean, you're also charged, I assume, presumably the growing, the pot as well.

So can you talk a little bit about the challenge or opportunity or how you vacillate between those two concepts?

So we have a land use plan.

We just finished it up, a couple months ago.

Communit members said in, in about a 15, 16 month process, looked at what was done.

You know, years ago, the left the plan and then where it was today updated.

That's the guide.

That's the, How many Halloween spirit stores can we have?

And the answer is we get to decide.

At the time.

That's right.

But, you take that as your blueprint, and sometimes you have to make some adjustments in between.

But, that's kind of the, the high level.

And then some day to day things sometimes.

I got a call yesterday, you know, snowing right.

Leaves come down.

Well they didn't come down this year until late, late in the season.

And so then we got snow.

We had a fella call me yesterday and had some issues with, a clog in the, sewer, the drain, you know, calle our public works in there on it.

So that's the simple ones.

But we try to let the administrations.

Exactly.

I mean, might be the macro, but but.

You're I mean, this is in a community as close knit as Waterville.

You know, I think back to I manage to college department Cummings years ago.

Who hasn't?

Yeah.

That's right.

And and once people figured out where I lived at 3:00 in the morning, I've got somebody, you know, knocking on my door to tell m that their pilot light is out.

Yeah.

And they want to make cookies because they just got home from the bar.

Right.

And I. Think.

I didn't mean to bother you.

Yeah, yeah.

Right handed me the bar, but I'm sorry.

I didn't know what a pilot was.

But but, Tim, I mean, I got to believe in a community that siz when you're just wanting to be Tim Pedro, dad, husband, Waterville resident and go to the grocery store.

Grandpa, go to the store or go to the bar, you know, and have a drink.

Somebody there is going to want to talk to you about roads and sidewalks and leaves and and and stuff.

Absolutely.

And and sometimes that's the best time to, get at it.

And, they may have wanted to call me, but we're such a small community.

It's okay to do that, but I immediately get all the administrator and then they handle it.

I try not to do it ourselves.

I love so much that I asked a question about you being overwhelmed in your personal time, and you got excited about it right?

Is that right?

Yeah.

That's that's what that' what you signed up for, right?

You know, in your life, at the risk of asking your personal question, your wife is like, yes, please leave the house.

I mean, to literally anyone else.

But how does she how does she enjoy being the first lady of Waterville?

That that is something that she signed up for.

Two.

She likes it.

She hates it.

She wants you to talk about it live on the air.

What?

Talk to me about.

Well, Karen, Karen is very, reserved, and she participates in this, but, you know, she has her space.

She lets me have mine, and it's a good balance.

It sounds like it.

Met sort of mentioned, you know, some of the kind of the macro thing that you've got to work on and, you know, economic development, growing the city.

I know there's been a lot of conversation around data centers and obviously trying to balance, you know, how do we grow the city with respect that we're a small community that's that's tight knit.

I want to talk about that more when we come back.

This is the 419 powered by GTI, presented by Retro Wealth Management.

We'll be right back.

To me, community means connecting to others.

And what will it really take to bring peace to Toledo's neighborhoods?

I love city action.

We're a community committed to education.

Discover new ideas, dive into exciting subject, and engage with the world around you.

It's all chapters in a book.

I would send them personally a t shirt crime doesn't pay in the Old West.

Pass it on.

That's how we.

Cleaned up the neighborhood.

Bring you back memorie that you don't think are there.

You know that the public media invites you to get out and play day.

The people of Toledo have really become family.

You know, they walk in and it was just like, hey, it's so good to see you.

Hello there, and welcome to a public media town hall meeting.

The where you come to watch, listen and learn.

I love PBS kids.

Hey, welcome back to th 419, where it's a mayor Monday, and we are talkin with Waterville Mayor Tim Pedro.

I've got a quick question for you, mayor, is you, I have no idea what you're doing right now.

But can you tell me your favorite fictional mayor in the history of fictional mayors?

I can't think like I can't think of a fictional name.

The mayor of Gotham.

Mayor.

Mickey's mayor.

Mickey.

Oh, that's a real person, too.

Well, you get me.

You stumped me on that.

I could I. Got 17 minutes to feel, brother, so.

I can deviate a little bit for that.

Do it.

My, recollection when I decided to run for village council.

Young, And got involved, I got a hold of our mayor at the time, Dave Michaels.

And, gave he gave me some some tips.

But then as I got into the campaign I remember him telling me, Tim, you were new to the community.

He said, don't run for one issue.

And sometimes people get involved.

There's just one thing that really, are excite about, positive or negatively.

And they run, they get in there and the realize they're one vote, right?

And so Dave said, just run with, the idea you're going to have a lot of opportunity.

And that's stuck with me over these years.

Dave Mayoral, I. Have to tell you that, if I can expand upon that jus a little bit, it is refreshing.

Any time anyone starts out a conversation and discriminative the core of it to talk about what they ar as opposed to what they are not.

There's sort of the essence of the show, right?

When you ask people what they're interested in, are things about.

Right?

Sometimes they talk about things are not interested in.

I'm like, that's not what I asked you.

Right.

So, that that resonates with me, but.

I also when Tim, when you and I met, you know, it was through the Orego Economic Development Foundation.

In your work out there, I was working at a Cardinal Stritch at the time, and, people referred to Tim as the mayor of Waterville.

And I did not, like, realize that that was actually his title.

Like, I just thought that was more of a, a term of respect or just the way he carried himself.

Right.

You know, here' a guy that lives in Waterville that knows every.

Represents it.

Naturally.

He' the mayor of Waterville.

Yeah.

And then it was years later.

I mean, I'm an entire.

And embarrassing amount of time.

Oh, my gosh, that's the kind of cutting edge thinking that made this show.

Yeah.

That's right.

You know.

You talk about, you know, you don't run for a single issue.

And I think it's because you realize that, you know, communitie are more complicated than that.

But obviously at various times, in your tenure as mayor, different issues are going to pop up and be the hot button issue that everybody wants to know about, that everybody has an opinion on.

And right no it seems like that that moment, that conversation right now is around data centers.

Admittedly, is somebod who doesn't live in Waterville.

I feel fairly confident that they're not going to put make plans to put a data center in West Toledo.

And so there's some of the out of sight, out of mind for me, that I don't pay as much attention to it.

Can you can I explain to me what is the conversation?

What is the you know, what's what's going on.

Right.

I'd like to take a step back because it's kind of a cycle.

When was, first moved to the village, the, topic then was the 24 bypass.

That was very, very, much in the center of news.

A lot of meetings and a lot of ideas, and they came t some resolution, and we have 24.

The next one was a, development just outside the village limits and there was a lot of, issues with that very, much in the news.

And we they talked about it and they got through it.

We had an amphitheater a couple of years ago.

I'd say the market played itself out.

We'll have.

No we have no data center or.

Excuse me, no amphitheater today.

We have the data centers.

I mentioned this to the community.

I believe Waterville does not have the space to house the data center.

A few of us, including the fellow council member and our administrator, we went to New Albany.

There's other places that have data centers and talked to the city leaders there and get.

I got a feel for what's there.

So we're trying to bring information back to citizens.

We're talking about 4 or 500 acres.

Yeah, that that was that.

That's even even, like six and 700 acres.

And we just don't have that in our community.

So a lot of folks think that that could be a data center.

And and honestly, I don't think industry would support that.

Now, having said that, we are aware in our neighborhood, Waterville Township, my clover, my Clover Township, rather there are some talk about a data center there.

So actually, as we sit here today, there's no plans to have a data center in Waterville, Ohio.

We did pass a moratorium back in December for six months.

And the reason for that was just to give all of us a chance to go to New Albany or wherever and learn about them.

But honestly, I just I don't see it happening.

What you mentioned, you know, 24 and obviously you're going to have people that, you know, are see i and say, hey, I'm excited about, you know, helpin move people through our region.

And folks say, I don't wan a highway in my backyard, right.

And so all of these issues and you say that you've gotten through all of them.

What has been consistent for you in in your process of approaching something like this?

You mentioned you know, visiting New Albany.

I mean, is it is it community meetings?

Is it, you know, hang out at Biggby coffee and and chat with, you know, the folks in your community.

I think it's a combination of all those things.

But at the end of the day, we have to talk about things.

These things.

And one of the reasons why the moratorium was passed was there was so much, controversy and noise.

We just couldn't have a conversation.

And I'm okay if someone wants data center or doesn't want it.

But we need to be respectful of how you communicate it.

And I think those, folks know who they are, and they've crossed the lin and you lose some credibility.

On the other hand, we got some, solid people that don't want.

And they give factual information.

We had to deal with the facts.

My predecessor, Lauri Brody, told me on her way out.

Tim, there's going to be a lot, of lot of, items on your agenda.

You got to separate the motion and deal with the facts.

And I try to do that.

I'm human sometimes by, bus, myself, but recognize it, own it, and then move on.

It's a good mantra.

What?

As you look to the future of Waterville.

What are your som some of your big plans and goals for that community?

So, I'm glad you brought that up because I'm preparing my remarks for our meeting January 20th with the Chamber of Commerce.

But you provide all of them right now.

Right now we're.

Going to get it started very early.

But I can tell you just take again, take a step back our community.

If you go back to the bypass and now you go with the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is going to open up momentarily.

You got traffic coming down 75 to Toledo and then maybe down to Findlay or over to defiance, to Fort Wayne.

We are at the hub of that development.

We need to be prepared for that kind of activity.

And I think we are with a land use plan.

We we, partnered with Tilly a little with the county port authority recently, a couple years ago.

They purchased some land in ou adjacent to our business park, where our friend Nick Kaufman has a business and Surface Combustion and others.

And they are helping to develop that.

We have, some other space on 24 and 64 that will probably become, developed soon.

And we've had Meyer, grocery store bought property probably 20 years ago.

They just announced they broke ground, if you will, in November, I believe.

And that's going to be happening.

So that intersection is going to grow.

We got great housing.

We got great stock.

We got builders, developers that do a quality project.

Pride, pride homes for for our community.

And, I believe that, we we have a balance.

We try to balance things.

So back circl back to your original question.

We got to sit down and talk about this things.

And, the land us plan is one of those, outlines where if we're going to hav some industrial businesses there or over in this corner, if we're going to have homes or short over in this corner.

Now, they're all it'll be exceptions.

But we got to talk about it.

I like the idea that, you know, at the end of the day, we're going to be neighbors.

Right?

Sure.

It's, you know, we ca we can disagree on this thing, but the reality is in in 18 months, in 18 years, we're going to see each other, you know, walking down the aisle of a grocery store.

And we've got to live together, so.

Well, that's the good news is, based on your leadership, there's not going to be two major grocery stores that it will cut down o the potential of running into.

You know, one other segway on that.

But again, it goes back.

You, you got to do a scorecard.

But we in the community, we have a cooperative effort with, white House, our neighbor down the road, Waterville Township.

During Covid of all times, we started a fire co-op.

Basically, it was the two communities, including Waterville, had.

All of your arsonists together.

Yeah.

Got together and say, how can we plan this?

Because we don't.

Do we need two ladder trucks, right?

We need three of this and training.

So that's well on its way.

Additionally, we have a cemetery district, and we came together as a, the region of communities to work together.

And it's very successful.

So we are doing those things already.

I've been talking with our community members and Waterville Township and and the village, white House.

How can we be more cooperative?

Well, I don't want to I don't we are going to do an entire show to cemetery district.

So I don't want to talk too much about that.

But you have brought in true Tim Pedro fashion.

Yes.

You have brought a cornucopia.

Yes.

We also demand gifts.

Of items from your beloved, of Waterville.

So walk us through what you brought up and the story behind it.

First of all, I want you to know we have great coffee shops at Waterville, and I'm drinking out of the Waitrose coffee cup, but in here is Biggby Coffee.

Great family business.

Right in the water.

I'm gonna take a sip right now.

Okay, good.

Just take a minute.

I noticed you didn't bring any from for us.

Well.

Easy, Gretchen.

Additionally, if I run liquids, I want you to know that I brought along some items that, we're proud.

And then we have Buffalo Rock, which is a brewery, owned by, two brothers and their friend that started this.

This was an old, gas station.

Excuse me?

An old car wash that was dilapidated for many years.

These guys rehabbed it.

I've never I've never been more excited for more ca washes in our region than I am.

Yeah, we've see buffalo rocks transitioned into.

That's right.

Very nice.

And and I brought some samples of Buffalo Rock, brewery beer.

I know you can't have it till noon, but it's there for the, like.

A river fog, I love it.

So it's.

And then the other thing.

Is we.

We have a very, cool business in Waterville.

Really cool, cool studio.

Yes.

Now, George and Deb, they have moved on, but the, current ownership continues to make products like this.

It's really a tourist attraction.

It is.

It is a destination for sure.

And, we've got a showroom.

You can buy them online, but, crew studio.

There is a radio portion of this.

Of course.

Tim.

So can you talk a little bit about what they make and what they're known for?

So, George Carruth and his wife started the business many years ago, and they have, various stones, if you will.

George will commission 1 or 2 pieces of the year.

But if you go out there, there's all kinds of, memorabilia like thi for your homes in the sundials.

And it's a it's a grea all of the all over the country.

And in no relatio to the murdering wide receiver.

No, I don't.

No, you're right.

I think you're right that we know.

That's right.

We don't know.

Where did we get by using that.

Right.

This, is is a destination.

And it is a big part of gift ideas.

It's truly unique.

It's really all.

Kinds of.

Yes right thing.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you That's incredible.

Additionally.

Oh, boy.

Additionally, we have, I didn't bring the whole cigar box, but 33 cigars in downtown Waterville.

Now, in itself it's just a great place to go.

Buy some cigars or enjoy some refreshment.

But John Henry and his team they give back to our community.

So often, they help run the, the various festivals in downtown wall, with rotary rats and blues and and Oliver has it.

We have a great.

We have a great program.

You're back there on tour to go on.

Yes.

To Europe.

Yeah.

So that's another piece of our rock.

I got a couple more.

Okay.

Oh my.

Goodness.

All right, we got it.

We got to mov because I also want to get you with our 419 quick.

Right in front was cocktail lounge.

I brought you something over there.

And what I. Can learn, you.

Can go right from Carruth and then have lunch or dinner at Fern's.

You can.

And the other thing is they just announced, I was with Josh yesterday.

They just announced a brand new menu that they're going to be, put down as of yesterday.

I want you to have that.

Thank you.

Additionally.

Kevin, you're the lead here.

Cut this guy off.

We can spend.

We can spend all day talking about.

But we got to put you on the hot seat.

We got a great chamber, camera come out and enjoy Waterville.

I love it, I love it.

Mayor Tim Pedro from Waterville.

Thank you.

All right.

It's time for Gretchen's wacky quiz.

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

All right?

Gretchen's going to ask you your favorite thin in the region.

And Matt's going to have you describe the region in nine words.

What's your favorite Halloween costume, Bozo.

Love it.

What was the worst purchase you've ever made?

My second Bozo costume.

Pair of shoes.

That I thought fit.

But they don't.

Don't.

That's not too bad.

What's something you would not do for $5 million?

Nothing.

5 million?

That's a lot of money.

Exact.

Exactly.

We said off camera.

Yeah, yeah.

I think I'm, I think I do, bu I never put the 5 million aside.

I'm willing to take a chance or risk.

I would study it.

I would try and analyze it.

So I don't have a answer for you in.

That you've already answered.

You can be born.

Are you more of a morning person or a night owl?

Morning.

What is your number one favorite thing about, northwest Ohio region or Waterville?

Honestly, the Waterville, River, mommy River and the peace when I get, rallied up with a lot of noise, I go down the river.

I might tell my wife I'm going down the river this summer, I because the water was so low I would walk out into the river with my little stool from the LPGA, tournament, and I sit there and just chill out.

I love it.

Brought to you by your Metroparks.

All right, nine words describe Waterville, your region.

We've got a roll from fast.

All right, so you do tell me the words that describe the region to you.

We need nine.

Safe.

Good.

Keep going.

Education system.

Good.

Third community.

Spirit.

Yes.

Willingness to succeed.

Yep.

Volunteers.

Great.

Community members step up.

To do the job.

No.

Where do these words keep going?

All right.

I, I think we have we have, decent we have these we have a good governance.

Good governance.

Step two more.

We're a welcoming community.

Absolutely welcoming.

And it's a desirable community.

Desirable?

That's not.

Mayor.

Thank you.

He drove for being.

Here from Waterville, Ohio.

Mayor, thank you so much for taking the time with us.

When we come back, we are going to be joined by a great local business in Waterville.

Nick Coffman, third generation owner of Coffman Engineered Systems.

I gotta make sure I get this right this time.

We'll be right back on the 419.

Support for the 419 comes from which row wealth management, where we understand that your financial path is personal advisory services are offered through Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC, securities offered through Capital Investment Group member Finra and SIPC.

More information at Retro Advisors.

Dot com works bring HR issues and employee well-being.

Go hand in hand.

Work spring supports employers through compliance, training and wellness because healthy workplaces don't happen by accidents.

Learn more at work.

Spring Dawg Toledo Refining Company, a subsidiary of PDF Energy Toledo Refinin Company is a supplier of fuels that keep our region moving.

Located in Oregon, Ohio the refinery processes crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other petroleum products.

And today, celebrating its 55th year of connecting Northwest Ohioans to their community.

More information@tada.com.

Welcome back to the 419.

It's a Bear Monday and we'r talking all things Waterville.

We're joined now by Nick Coffman, a third generation owner.

I here for our Kaufman Engineered Systems.

Now I heard it was, services.

No no no no no, I said.

That is it.

Is that.

No, don't don't don't put that on me.

Yeah I, I said it during the break.

If I'm going to get part of the name wrong, I got the Kaufman.

Right.

That's right.

Tell me about credit for that I do.

I set the bar as low as humanly possible.

I got yeah, literall two thirds of your name.

Right?

Come on.

67% is failing in every school in America.

Tell me, what is Kaufman engineered systems?

We're, automation manufacturin company located in Waterville.

We've, you know, been there since, 1994.

We moved to Waterville.

Yeah.

So.

Where'd you move from?

South Toledo.

Here?

Yeah.

Yep.

Sure.

So we've always.

We don't give an indication of this recording.

That's.

We don't want to.

We don't want our fans.

Sure.

Both of them to show up here.

That's right.

Both.

Gretchen's mom.

What is I mean, what does that what does that actually mean?

When you say, you know, we're an auto automation company?

I mean, what are you what are you producing?

What are you automating?

Yeah.

So, again, manufacturing at its heart.

So, we, you know, weld, fabricate, build, machines, material handling machines, and then again on the automation side, automating, that equipment for our customers that are in the line.

So what is that exactly?

So, a good example would be, for fortune 100 companies out there across the nation.

We call end of line automation because we typically are at the end of a production line.

So, all around stacking, packing and wrapping stretch wrapping products that that to get ready for shipment.

So, you know, it can be your water bottles or, you know, a majority of, like, food.

Think of all the different food, people around.

Is it any industry focused or is it is it automotive?

Is it retail?

Is it primarily is everything but automotive.

So food beverage, container building products.

It comes just in the region or all over the country.

All over the country.

We had done a little bit, international, but we backed off of that.

We're so busy here in just the US.

We, we kind of revert and so on that.

Your grandmother or grandfather started this business.

What was the first widget?

What what started Kaufman from, from the very first day.

What is it in the garage?

Is it?

And, yes, it was not.

Not far from where we're at.

Is what I tell you.

I mean, I mean, droves of people are gonna be driving here.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it was the old fashioned, you know, my grandfather, grit and started the business and industrial heat treat furnaces and ovens and out of his garage was building the first, you know, oven.

And actually, it was built righ out of the garage in the city.

Shut him down because it was going across the sidewalk.

And.

Yeah.

That's exactly that' the kind of governmental stuff.

That's what we got Pedro off the street, right?

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Tell me about that guy.

Your grandfather was tinkerer was gene was a genius.

Was a was an alpha male.

What was his character?

Well, of course, you know.

So I was young, he passed, you know some time ago, when, you know, I was still probably in grade school.

High school?

Or actually just graduating college.

So, you know, at that age, you get to know your grandfather, but not, you know, through adulthood.

And so forth.

Right?

You're not.

But, you know, my understanding and knowing and who he was was, you know, he's just a loving person.

I mean the greatest guy in the world.

And everything you hear about him and how he treated the employees.

Yeah.

He was just a top notch guy that cared about, the employees, his family, everybody around him.

And that's kind of what we try to model today.

You know, he to to do what he did.

You know, he was the guy that forged the early years.

Just sacrificed a lot to make this business happen because it's not easy.

Any any business, right?

That's right.

It is hard in that to establish it.

The time it takes th sacrifices, family make a stand.

So I just appreciate everything he did to give, you know?

Second was it was taken over.

So it's Larry Kauffman, was my grandfather and then succeeded by Larry Kaufman, Jr.

Charlie Kaufman and Bob Kaufman, who took over the company from him.

And then now myself and my cousin Brian Kaufman, and then Larry's two siblings, Sean and Ted Kaufman.

And now we actually have fourth generation, my son, Nicholas Kaufman.

How old are your son?

He's 24.

Okay, that's.

That must feel wonderful.

So you go to work every da with your family and your son?

Yeah.

And we.

Get along.

Yeah, sure.

Family business is.

That is not always the case.

All right, so that is.

Talk to.

Me.

Talk to me about that piece.

Right.

I mean, I think it's, you know, growing up, was there always an expectation that you'd get into this line of work?

No.

You know, Right.

I think the way I see it, when a lot of us follow our parents footsteps, it may not be in.

They're in the same business, but they're in the same line of work.

So insurance I heard you talk about or financial or any type of business.

We grew up with our family and our parents around how they work and what they work in.

It could be medical too, right?

I see a lot of my friends and their dad was a doctor, so he's a doctor or, you know, vehicle sales, going to vehicle sales.

So we follow our mother's footsteps.

I if you took a stand, I bet you it's like at least 50%.

Sure.

But anyways, there was that the business was there.

Like, I grew up right around it.

My dad would take me to work on Saturdays to get me out of my mom's hair.

Right.

And, she'd been with us all week, so he'd take my brother and I over there, and then.

Yeah.

Give her relief.

Whatever.

So.

And then, you know, grew up.

I'm cutting the grass.

You know once we get time to start doing work and out in the shop clean, sweeping the floors.

And you guys together as a family on the weekends, or how do you how do you get away?

Do you have a hobby or something that allows you to?

I got lots of hobbies.

Tell me, tell me the number one on your list right now.

My number one hobby.

Yeah, well, it's winter, so you know, I love winter sports.

So whether that's skiing or snowmobiling.

Yeah.

That's why.

Yeah.

Snow is just my biggest passion.

Probably.

How about.

That?

But the family business can and does have a tendency to sort of consume the whole family.

You know, everyone.

You go to family gatherings, you're talking about meetings that you had during the week.

You know, it's it's it's a pervasive part of the family life.

What happens to the other peopl that choose not to become part of the company?

There is.

Yeah.

Some have, you know, again, so my dad had five siblings.

My mom's side the same way.

And then so then all of us cousins, there was three kids per sibling.

So that expands out and keeps going pretty big right.

So there's a majority, right, that are not in the business.

Both m my dad's siblings that weren't you know there was the three boys, right.

The two girls, my aunts did not.

And and that continues on.

So there's a big majority that that aren't involved.

And, you know, we try and respect in family events and gatherings tha we don't do the business thing.

Well, that's not.

Thanksgiving or.

Yeah, it's not it's hard.

That overtone is always around.

But yeah, you you just try and throw it away at that time and just focus on you being a family.

And I don't know if it's a fair question, but in terms of products or partnerships, because I'm sure you think of them as partnerships, right?

I mean, you do build for, in conjunction with others.

Is there something that you're particularly proud of or something that you've been able to execute, or as a company that represented the growth that you were like, okay, now we're at the next level.

Anything like that, that that sticks out to you.

While there's a lot of them.

Sure.

You know, stick around this long by having just one.

I'm sure.

Yeah.

The the sticks out to you.

That's not your favorite.

But, I it's hard.

You know, we've just buil we build these systems, right?

These large automation systems.

And when you enter into them, some are more challenging than others.

And sure, the R&D that goes into them.

But, you know, just reinventing, you know, one of our key products is our stretcher.

Ever.

Okay.

And that's really from the oven business.

We moved into the stretcher being automation more.

So much stretch wrapping is.

Stretch wrapping is where you, you guys go, okay, we go to Costco and there's an end dial display, we call it, and you're going by and there's all those granola bars and they're sitting in your face.

I'm going to get some granol bars that stack on that pallet.

That whole pallet got there and it was wrapped.

So we put the film around the load to contain it for shipment.

So it gets picked up at whatever the manufacturer manufacturer was, right.

That produced it.

And it has to get shipped to a DC.

And then that DC goes to your grocery store.

Well, it has to be contained, otherwise it's all over the truck.

And then we.

Apply the film to the load.

Is that the same machine that's going to everybody that does it or are there are you dialing in certain pieces of this machine for the specific customer?

Yeah, there's lots of so yes, here's a stretcher.

But then there's lots of different add ons that you can have to that stretch hyper.

This person ships on a pallet.

This person slips ships on a slip sheet.

This has this person has nothing.

Oh we want to put a corrugated sheet on top of the load.

Only we need corner boards to protect the load.

There's lots of options.

Nick, are you.

And what do you think in terms of this way?

I mean, is I was.

Just going to ask.

This is your house now?

You were on.

Is your house organized this way?

Do you think about how you put things in your kitche to make sure that's efficient?

Is that how your brain works, or did you coach if.

You're a systems guy, you probably across the board, right?

Yeah.

You mean or am I organized of.

Yeah.

I'm probably, you know.

Family asked us to have you on the show.

If this is this is.

No.

No.

Does.

Yeah.

I'm a little Type-A.

Yeah.

You know, there's just my wife.

Type.

In.

Yeah.

I'm okay.

I'm a lot of Type-A, but there's certain things that I'm not Type-A.

She's like, well, how come you leave your shoes in the middle of the room every time, right?

Yeah.

You know, but everything else I want.

That's right.

Just waiting for someone to wrap them in plastic.

Obviously.

So let's, let's I want to talk about community, right.

Obviously we're we're focused on Waterville today.

Yeah.

Your business has moved to Waterville.

Talk to me about kind of responsibilities of being a business in a community and, and the role that that you guys play as a neighbor, not just as a business.

And have you ever wante to wrap a neighbor in plastic?

We've done that.

We've at different.

Different shops.

Yeah.

You know, I think, you know, it's we want to support our community, all the local businesses, you know, and like Tim was saying, we've got lots of great local businesses, you know, Water Body Works down there.

So if we have a car, somebody's got a hits their car or whatever.

Hey, go, go see John and Randy down there and, get the car fixed.

So it's, you know, I actually when I first came in, you don't think about all that at first, but then what?

You know, you're our whole, you know, all our employees and the whole community.

Toledo.

Not just Waterville, but all th surrounding terrain, you know.

You know where our employment comes from.

Even Michigan you know, outside a little bit.

We got people commuting an hour away.

You're contributing to all of those communities.

Yeah.

So, you know, we like to just be a good employer and for for our people, you know we're a family business, right?

I mean How many employees do you have?

We're almost a 170.

I think it's been.

From garage to 170.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sur there's been some vacillating.

And there's been an explosion like the last four years.

There's got to be like 110.

And now all of a sudden it's like one seven.

Well that doesn't happen on its own to anything that as you expand.

Right, is tha that's based on obviously need hopefull and presumably but or demand but any growing successes or like I said, something that came in or a big clam.

What what is the reason for the growth other than just your genius?

Well, no, no, no, I'm not far from that.

But, the growth, I think, you know, once again, the automation industry.

Right.

And, robotics, we, we have our whole material handling that Kaufman manufactures and have manufactured.

So we have this custom niche, if you would.

Everything is not just a widget.

It's always unique.

A joke is the standard.

We really want a standard but we can never have it.

Yeah.

But we the manufacturing and then the robotics, it's just very prevalent today.

It's needed.

And after Covid, the lack of labor force, number one out there, our customers, everybody in the manufacturing industry right now, all these plants are challenged because the lack of labor.

Sure.

And they're forced now to automate if before oh, we'll just get by and we'll still hire a bunch of people for that, which was difficult.

But now so after Covid, it was just like, I mean, it was always really good and consistent and busy.

But after that, the throttl went down and it just blew up.

If your if your grandfather was able to walk into, walk into the warehouse, walk into the office today, what do you what do you hope he'd say?

Great job.

I mean.

Nick Kaufma with Kaufman Engineered Systems.

Nick, thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

And thanks for joining u for our first ever mayor Monday.

This is the time in the program where we ask you to tell you, we ask you to tell us all of the dirty secrets about Tim Boudreau.

Yeah, yeah.

36 that's right.

Now, we we appreciate your time, being a part of this and the work that you're doing in the community.

Three generations is that' that's that's hard work, right?

That's not a given.

That's not, you know, the business may be passed on, but the growth is not, that's that's hard work.

So nice job.

We'll be right back to close out this Mayor Monday edition of the 419.

Every day when you left with us, you learned with us a neighbor.

We made sure your child had with special memories that could only be provided by PBS.

And for generations, we'd given you programs that made a difference.

Programs that entertain.

Inform and inspire.

And today is no different.

This is public media in Toledo.

It's where you belong.

Introducing the Local Fred, a community news series uniting voices and storytellers from across the region in partnership with La Prensa, the Toledo Free Press, the Sojourner Truth, Toledo Public Schools, and veteran journalist Jerry Anderson.

The Local thread brings you stories and conversations that connect our community here at weeknights at seven on FM 91, with early access on podcast platforms each morning.

The local thread only on GTV.

Welcome back into a final episode of final segment, and that final episode.

Will be.

A little foreshadowing.

Yeah, it's the 419 powered by GE.

The end of our first mayor Monday.

What a charmer that that Mayor Pedro is.

We have had the mayo on on a number of our adventures and the wagon of trinkets that he brings in.

Yeah.

It's charming.

He's a good ambassador and mayor to the area.

To you at your point, because you mean he I. He brings this stuff because he's out doing the stuff?

Yeah.

He's it's.

And there's two main reasons why he brings all of this stuff, right?

Me one, he's jus an incredibly kind individual.

And he's also incredibly proud of his community.

And we also demanded presence.

Okay.

That's that's the third one, that one.

More important than the other.

Yeah.

And I really enjoyed the conversation with Nick Offerman as well.

I think, you know, I it's, you know, you think abou the responsibilities that come with being a family business and carrying on that legacy.

And so every day you go to work and you're thinking about your employees, but I think you're also you got to be thinking about your dad and your grandpa and saying, yeah, you know, they're they're kind of what would what would grandpa do, right?

Yeah.

I love that question.

And it was sincere and I'm glad he was able to say the answer to that.

He did?

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, so Mayor Monday is in the books.

Tomorrow, our friends with community Foundation are going to help us have a conversation with some incredible community leaders.

Where are we talking with Zac vasser, from Live Arts Toledo.

And we're also going to b talking with, Principal Dancer.

Yes, as well.

So that'll be an incredible conversation.

And, of course we appreciate the opportunity, Monday through Frida to be able to have conversations with folks in the community that are making an impact, making real change and making this, a better place.

And so, we appreciate certainly I appreciate the opportunity to do this, with you guys every single day.

I appreciat you guys not letting me in that you're going to wea coordinating outfits today, so, for ou for our YouTube and TV audience.

Let's wear denim every Monday.

Well, it's denim Monday.

I don't know about that.

But if you missed any portion of the show or you missed Gretchen's fashion advice, you can catch it.

Like we said Monday through Friday, thre different opportunities, 7 a.m.

on YouTube is YouTube channel.

It is, 3 p.m.

on FM 91 and Toledo, Brian, Defiance and Lima.

And it is at 6 p.m.

30.4 connects.

It's the 419 powered by presented by Riccio wealth manager.

The 419 powered.

By WPT.

Is made possible in part by supporters like you.

Thank.