Are There Restrictions When Donating Blood?

"I'm considering donating blood.  Are there any restrictions?" The Newton Falls Public Library staff knew that the  American Red Cross is the local organization which sponsors blood donation collections, so we accessed their website to see if we could find the information needed by our patron.

At www.redcross.org, we selected Give Blood and then For First Time Donors. There is a great deal of useful information on this web page, including tips for successful donation, what to bring, and what to expect. The basic requirements state that "In most states, donors must be age 17 or older. Some states allow donation by 16-year-olds with a signed parental consent form. Donors must weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health." Donors are given a mini physical that includes a check of your temperature, pulse, blood pressure and hemoglobin level present in a sample of blood. They will also be asked some questions during a private and confidential interview about health history and places traveled. The site gives some common reasons for not being allowed to donate which include low hemoglobin /hematocrit, and cold, flu or other illness symptoms. Temporary deferrals are given for certain travel locations and some medications. Permanent deferrals may also be given because of travel as well as some medical conditions. The site did not list what these locations or conditions were, so the staff encouraged the patron to contact the American Red Cross at 1-800-RED-CROSS.

I Want to Find Information About My House

"I recently purchased a home in the city of Newton Falls.  It is over 100 years old and I'm trying to find more information about it. Does the library have anything that can help me?" The Newton Falls Public Library staff has several resources for assisting patrons with a question such as this one.

The first is the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. These are large scale street plans produced by the Sanborn Fire Insurance company from 1867 to 1970.  They may be accessed for free through the library's website, www.newtonfalls.org.  Once there, select Ohio Web Library, then Resources.  The maps are in the subject category Genealogy. Below the list of recent submissions, there is the option of searching within this historic map database.  Typing in the street address and Newton Falls, we found maps back to March of 1889. A great deal of interesting information can be gleaned about the city over the years, such as there was a well and pump at the intersection of Broad and Canal Streets. A notation on the August 1908 map, by the Klingensmith Bro's Flour Mill, says that the mill is to be moved that year from its site by the W. Branch of the Mahoning River.  It is to be replaced by a fire proof electric power plant of the Peerless Electric Co. Sometimes there is information about the materials used in the construction of the buildings or if there was a night watchman. Looking at the maps over the years, it is also possible to see when additions or changes were made to buildings. Viewing these maps, our patron was able to see how her home had changed over the years.

We next viewed the Trumbull County Auditor's property search site. This website includes useful information about some past sales of the property, improvements, and a sketch with construction information.

The library's Local History Room has city directories from 1963 to present which are useful for tracing ownership of houses. The collection of old photographs may also be examined to see older views of some of the homes in the community. 

There is also available a copy of the 1856 map of Trumbull County, Ohio.  Homes are marked on the map, along with the names of the property owners. While the  Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps only include homes within the city limits, this map includes township homes.  The map may be viewed by going to the library's website, selecting Local History and then 1856 Trumbull County Map.

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.

What is the Smaller Light on the Horizontal Pole on the New Optic Traffic Lights?

“I’ve noticed that on the new style of optic traffic lights in town there is also a smaller light on the horizontal pole.  It is encased in wire.  Do you know what it is called and why is it there?” The Newton Falls Public Library staff had also noticed the bulb about which our patron was asking and like him had no idea.

These are very new lights, so we began our search online using the terms “traffic light components.”  The website, www.autoevolution.com, had interesting information about how traffic light control systems work. Others had the field components of traffic systems, but not the information wanted by our patron.

We did find the website, www.trafficparts.com.  The company, Traffic Parts, Inc., supplies traffic control equipment. Having been unsuccessful in our search so far, we emailed the company to ask them if they knew the name and purpose of this smaller light. Danny Miller, Regional Sales Manager, contacted us back with an answer, but also asked for a photograph to make sure he was giving us the correct information.  Our patron was so curious, he was more than happy to take one to attach to the responding email. It is “a confirmation light. This light is used to indicate that the signal is red. With this light, police enforcement can tell if someone is running a red light even if they cannot see the face of the signal to see that it is red.” Mr. Miller also passed along some additional information that he felt our patrons would be interested in knowing: “The cameras that are on the horizontal arm that point down at the vehicles (usually they are mounted on a pipe that extends 2 to 3 feet above the arm) are there to tell the traffic controller that there is a vehicle present and it needs to give that side of the intersection a green light. The other thing that might be mounted on the arm is a dome type camera like the ones you might see at a department store. These cameras are for the traffic control centers to monitor traffic.”

An interesting bit of trivia about traffic lights can be found in World of Invention: History’s Most Significant Inventions and the People Behind Them.  Garrett Augustus Morgan of Cleveland, Ohio developed “the automatic three-stage electric traffic light . . . This was the precursor to the red, yellow and green lights in use today. Morgan patented his traffic light in 1923, and then sold the rights to General Electric for $40,000” [p.535]. How Ohio Helped Invent the World: From the Airplane to the Yo-Yo by Curt Dalton states on page 58, that Morgan also invented an earlier signal that was “the first electrical traffic light ever built to control conflicting streams of traffic.”  It was erected on August 5, 1914 at Euclid Avenue and 105^th Street in Cleveland. 

Update:

The City of Newton Falls Electric Department requested that we clarify the information in the article about the new traffic lights.  When Mr. Miller of Traffic Parts, Inc. spoke about cameras, it wasn’t meant to imply that there were cameras monitoring the traffic in Newton Falls. He thought our patrons would be interested in the many uses of the horizontal bar.

In Newton Falls and the surrounding communities, the additional items on the horizontal bars are used for emergency traffic control.  They pick up information, from the GPS in emergency and police vehicles, that there is a situation needing other traffic to be stopped. When this occurs, the traffic control system is informed to turn all the lights to red, with the exception of lights in the direction emergency vehicles are traveling. The confirmation light informs the drivers of the emergency vehicles that the information has been received, and the lights have changed to ensure that they can safely travel through the intersection.

What Was the Name of the Drug Store Near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.?

“I’m trying to remember the name of a drug store chain from the 1950s, 1960s.  There was one near where I lived in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., and I remember there was also one in Youngstown.  The one in Washington was replaced by Gray Drugs. Can you find the name of the store for me?”  Questions such as this one are always intriguing, requiring extra thought as to how to approach finding something which has since been replaced by something else.

Initially our online search took us to the article, GRAY DRUG STORES, INC. - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.  This was a joint effort by Case Western Reserve University and Western Reserve Historical Society.  According to the article, Gray Drug purchased Rinks and Drug Fair, before it was taken over by Sherwin Williams. Their Gray Drug division then took over Cunningham Drug Stores. None of these chains were the one for which our patron was looking.

Continuing the search, we changed our focus from the history of Gray Drug, to the 1950s drug stores located in Dupont Circle.  The website greatergreaterwashington.org has the article, Then and Now: Dupont's drug store by Kent Boese  [March 25, 2009]. Boese writes about the Peoples Drug at P street and Dupont Circle in 1968. Another site, www.streetsofwashington.com, posted the article The Once-Ubiquitous Peoples Drug Stores on December 5, 2011. In 1974, the Ohio-based drug store chain, Lane Drug Corporation, not Gray Drug, gained a controlling share of Peoples' stock. These stores have all been renamed and are part of CVS. Streets of Washington has some wonderful photographs of the old Peoples stores. We spoke again with our patron and as soon as we said Peoples, her response was positive.