Where Should I Live and What Can Live Here?

The Newton Falls Public Library staff is asked questions about places to live and what is allowed to live in places. One patron was thinking about her future retirement. She didn't need to know financial information, but about lifestyle, and where she and her spouse may consider relocating. Our second patron wanted to know if people are permitted to keep a monkey in the city limits of Newton Falls.

Searching for "best places to retire in the United States" brings up a long list of websites for our patron to examine.  One site, www.topretirements.com  offers not only the top places to retire but also a list of the worst places. It also had links to other sites including: CNN Money Magazine 2011 Best Places to Live, Wall Street Journal -MarketWatch  "Top 10 Places to Retire", Kiplinger's Retiree Tax Heavens (and Hells), Forbes/MSNBC Best Places to Retire,  AARP 10 Best Places to Retire Happily, and US News Best Places to Retire. www.bankrate.com also has a whole section on retirement as well as a cost of living comparison calculator.  This is very useful when considering relocation, to compare how much purchasing power an individual's income will have as compared to where she is currently living. The patron's final decision will be determined by her personal lifestyle choices, preferences, and finances.

We were able to give a second patron a more definitive answer to the question. Going to Community Links on the library's home page, we selected Newton Falls City. From the city's website we chose Mayor,City Council and Legislation. On this page one may select CODIFIED ORDINANCES – Including Charter. These have a search function. There were no results for a search of "monkey," but the term "exotic pets" brought up Chapter 505. 505.13 is Report of escape of exotic or dangerous animal addresses the escape of animals not  indigenous to this State, but not specifically monkeys. Under "505.16  Certain Animals Prohibited (a)     No person shall keep or harbor any horses, cattle, sheep, ponies, mules, goats, pigs, hogs or poultry in the City." We informed our patron of this list. Our staff remembered that several months ago an article appeared in one of the local newspapers listing individuals in Newton Falls who had applied for exotic animal licenses for a variety of animals including monkeys; unfortunately we were unable to locate the article

Can Professional Athletes File Workman’s Comp Claims?

“Can professional athletes file workman’s comp claims?” Watching hard hitting football games made the Newton Falls Public Library staff wonder about the answer to this question as well.

 Online searching of the terms “professional athletes workman’s comp claims” brought up a wide assortment of websites and articles.  The April 6, 2010 New York Times article, Teams Dispute Workers’ Comp Rights by Alan Schwarz discusses this issue, the legal cases, and their implications. According to the article, “California provides the only worker’s compensation system that allows retired pro athletes to file claims for long-term injuries sustained on playing fields years and even decades before. . .many of them by satisfying California’s unique requirement that they played at least one game within the state borders.” At present, teams are trying to have their cases taken from California and moved to their own states.

The Ohio Revised Code 4123.54 also addresses this issue: K2b) "The professional sports league at all times maintains workers’ compensation insurance that provides coverage for the players and coaches of the sports league.”

Questions Asked Are Interesting and Varied

The questions asked of the Newton Falls Public Library staff can vary according to difficulty and time needed to locate the needed answer.  We recently received two questions that were interesting, but not time consuming.  “Eldrich Woods is an alias for whom?” and “What is the shift pattern for a 1978 1500 Chevy truck?”

An online search for “eldrich woods alias” took our staff to crosswordtracker.com. This is a site for individuals completing crossword puzzles, which our patron admitted to be doing. The answer is: Tiger. Once the answer was found by the staff member, who does not pay much attention to golf, she realized that it was a clue people more interested in the sport probably would have found fairly obvious.

 The answer for the second question was a little more difficult to locate, but was found using the terms “1978 chevy truck shift pattern.” The online discussion forum, ChevyTruckWorld notes that there are several possibilities.  With the patron’s assistance we were able to locate the proper shift sequence for him.  The shift positions are, from all the way forward nearest the dashboard to the back, 4Lo-N-2Lo-4Hi.