WESTMINSTER, Ohio (AP) - Officials in six northwest Ohio counties are planning a $1 million project to clear logjams and leaning trees from a 76-mile stretch of the Auglaize River.

They tell The Lima News that goals are to reduce flooding, encourage recreation and create a maintenance fund for the waterway.

The stretch involved collects water from an area of about 216,000 acres and about 12,000 property owners. Funding will come from assessments of $1 to $10 per acre on those property owners in Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Putnam, Shelby and Van Wert counties.

The project requires approval from commissions in the six counties, and public meetings are scheduled for next month.

(Information in the following story is from: The Lima News)

Poor Will’s Almanack for the second week of Late Summer

As Late Summer deepens, then catalpas start to pale. Buckeye leaves turn brown under the high canopy. Black walnut leaves trickle to the ground. Patches of scarlet appear in the sumac and poison ivy.

Along the freeways, beds of white boneset have come into bloom beside the drifts of Middle Summer’s blue chicory and silver Queen Anne's lace.

Throughout the countryside, you can find tall ironweed, wingstem, small-flowered agrimony, white snakeroot, wild lettuce, sundrops, heal-all, wild cucumber, jumpseed, tall coneflower, clearweed, touch-me-not and goldenrod. Wild plums are ripe for jam, and woodland grapes are purple. Elderberries are dark and sweet for wine.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - State officials and advocates say available funding limits how much testing is done to identify Ohio lake pollution and problems in several areas.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the amount spent on testing is less than $200,000 a year.

The Environmental Protection Agency has about $80,000 for testing annually. Officials at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources say they spent nearly that much last year to test for toxic blue-green algae at 20 areas, including the troubled Grand Lake St. Marys between Dayton and Toledo.

Clean-water advocate Kristy Meyer of the Ohio Environmental Council says increased funding could help identify problems before they grow.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state has found the actions of an Ohio prison doctor problematic following an investigation into the suicide of an inmate under the doctor's care.

Dr. Myron Shank resigned during the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's review of Gregory Stamper's suicide June 1.

In a report obtained by the Associated Press Wednesday, the department cited several issues with Shank's work at Allen Correctional Center in Lima.

The state says Shank failed to follow up with patients and discontinued medication without first meeting with patients.

A prisoners' rights group says Stamper was in severe pain from damage to his nervous system but had been refused medication by Shank.

Poor Will’s Almanack for the first week of Late Summer

In Middle and Late Summer, the fat, green, annual cicadas come up from the earth where they have spent the last eleven months. They leave their ectoskeletons behind on twigs or walls, fly out into the sun and begin to sing.

If science offers facts about all this, a little cultural entomology may help to interpret those facts.

According to Greek mythology, Tithonus, a Trojan, fell in love with Eos, goddess of the dawn, and was rewarded for his love with the gift of immortality. Immune to death, the body of Tithonus withered until it became a cicada that reappeared each year.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The federal government is giving out $4.5 million to clean up Lake Erie.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the grants handed out Monday are part of nearly $30 million that will be announced for the Great Lakes over the next few weeks.

Just over $1.3 million will go to the University of Toledo so that it can build a wetland.  Money will also go to state and local agencies to combat invasive plants and fish and cut down on pollutants.