Wounded Ohio Division of Wildlife officer released from hospital after 39 days, sent to rehab center

 

After a 39-day stay in the University of Cincinnati Hospital following being shot in the abdomen, Ohio Division of Wildlife officer Kevin Behr was transferred several days ago to a rehabilitation facility.

Behr is said to have been shot about 4 p.m., December 20th – the last day of Ohio’s so-called bonus two-day firearms deer-hunting season - while participating in an anti-deer-poaching assignment in Clinton County.

The 25-year Wildlife Division veteran was then life-flighted to the Cincinnati hospit. There he remained hospitalized that included a lengthy period in intensive care, and underwent multiple surgeries.

In a Facebook posting January 27th, Behr’s wife, Kathy Garza-Behr – herself a Wildlife Division employee – and Berh’s sister stated “Goodbye UC! Kevin got the best care in the nation while at UC!

“After 39 days he made his trip to rehab! Arriving by helicopter back in December, last night he got an escort surrounded by the glow of cruiser lights.

“He starts his long journey home now and couldn’t have done it without your loves, prayers, and support. Endless thanks from the Garza-Behr families.”

The escort was proceeded by a contingent of about two dozen local and Ohio Department of Natural Resources law enforcement vehicles that were assembled in the hospital’s parking lot, overlooked by Behr’s room. The various cruisers’ lighting systems were illuminated.

A scene of people waving to Behr with him waving back was also posted on the social media site.

And as Behr was wheeled through the hospital’s corridor, both sides were lined by police officers standing at attention as well.

One of the popularized law enforcement black-and-white colored flags served as a blanket for Behr with the addition of a green stripe, said to signify his association with the Wildlife Division.

Meanwhile, charges have been brought against three defendants accused in the matter.

Among the defendants is Brian R. Liming, 44 of Jamestown. Liming is alleged to have discharged the firearm that led to a projectile striking Behr.

Liming has been charged with a fourth-degree felony that alleges he recklessly caused serious physical harm to a peace officer. Such a charge potentially carries a maximum penalty of up to 18 months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. (Liming’s case number is CRA2001604, as identified in the Clinton County Clerk of Courts.)

The other charges Liming faces and their maximum punishments are: having a weapon while under disability (up to 36 months prison and up to a $10,000 fine); no deer or wild turkey permit (up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine); and hunting without permission from the landowner (up to 30 days jail and a $500 fine).

Also charged in the alleged incident were Bryan Achtermann, 36, of Midland and Thomas J. Davis, 35, of Jamestown.

Donations can be made to help with Behr and his family.

Send to5/3 Bank; Kevin J. Behr Account; Routing Number 042202196; Account Number xxxxxx2403.

Also, by check and made payable to: Ohio Wildlife Officer Lodge 143, denoting Kevin Behr on the check’s memo line. Mail to: Tim Rourke, PO Box 4333, Sidney OH 45365.

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Ohio Natural Resource Department has big plans for $322.6 million in approved Capital Improvement funding

 

Infused with approximately $322.6 million the Ohio Department of Natural Resources can begin the long process of infrastructural upgrades, improvements and construction that were falling way behind in necessary course correction.

The monies are earmarked in the legislatively-gubernatorially approved biannual Capital Improvements Budget.

For the Natural Resources Department, direct outlays are found on pages 153 through 155 in a document provided by Ohio’s Legislative Services Commission.

Sarah Wickham – the Natural Resources Department’s chief of communications – also says that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s across-the-board budget cuts did not impact any of the approved capital improvement budget expenditure appropriations.

For the Natural Resources Department’s share of the budget, the document contains 13 topics ranging from a low of $1 million for improvements and upgrades at the agency’s hugely popular Ohio State Fairgrounds area in Columbus to a near catch-all $81 million for work to be done at state parks.

The laundry list is extensive too. Among the items: Maintaining compliance with EPA permitting requirements to upgrade water and wastewater facilities at various locations, “such as Pymatuning, Dillion, West Branch, and Punderson State Parks,” Wickham points out in requested remarks.

Addressing structural and mechanical issues - such as heating/air-conditioning and electrical - at Mohican, Salt Fork, and Hueston Woods State Park Lodges, are necessary also, Wickham said.

“These projects are essential to keep our lodges warm, safe, and dry, while also reducing the ongoing maintenance and utility costs,” she said in her comments.

Not lost, either, is the need to add more full-service campsites along with park renovations to various parks’ restrooms and paving work.

“In order to meet the huge increase in demand for camping opportunities, we will be expanding and upgrading to more full hook-up sites at locations such as Kiser, Barkcamp, and Shawnee State Parks,” Wickham said.

“The increased use of campers and recreational vehicles also requires us to upgrade electrical infrastructure at our campgrounds. We will continue cabin renovations to meet customer demand at locations such as Lake Hope State Park.”

Other topics cover the Natural Resources Department’s wide ranging field of activities. Among them are purchasing various types of necessary equipment for Forestry ($1.4 Million), and helping with the state’s “Healthy Lake Erie Initiative ($2 million).

Also, the budget will provide for the assessment and improvements to Natural Resources-owned dams and locks along the Muskingum River ($13.4 million).

“The Muskingum Locks and Dams project will address interim risk reduction measures to bring the dams into compliance with Ohio dam safety laws and rules and preserve the historic value,” Wickham said.

Other essential work is slated for building and telephone improvements to the agency’s Fountain Square headquarters in Columbus ($4 million), and $4.9 million for renovations at various Natural Resources Department facilities such as at Magee Marsh, the Chillicothe Forestry District Office, and Blackhand Gorge.

“Continuing a project to replace the HVAC system at our (Fountain Square) offices on Morse Road, which are original to the buildings,” Wickham said.

Likewise, “protecting the essential ecosystem and habitat at Magee Marsh, where the embankment is eroding threatening the wetland system,” is essential as well, Wickman continued.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio Division of Wildlife continues to work at balancing its fiscal books

 

In Fiscal Year 2020 the Ohio Division of Wildlife had revenues of nearly $5.4 million more than expenditures: that is something of a reversal from Fiscal Year 2019 when expenditures exceeded revenues by about $8.3 million.

Yet such swings are typical for a budget that has largely predictable income but sees expenses fluctuate due to completion of projects along with other commitments.

In all, for Fiscal Year 2020, the Wildlife Division scored $80.5 million in income with expenses of about $75.2 million. For Fiscal Year 2019, those numbers were $72.6 million and about $81 million, respectively.

“Expenditures depend a lot on when projects are wrapping up while revenues generally are more consistent, but we did see increases in revenue due to increases in license and permit fees,” said Kelley Moseley, the Wildlife Division’s executive business administrator, in effect, its chief financial officer.

Moseley said expenditures were down initially in Fiscal Year 2020 as COVID-19 impacted any number of on-going projects. And these items still flourished in the budgetary scheme of things, Moseley said.

Among those items were the fulfillment of the agency’s promise to complete the shooting ranges at the Delaware Wildlife Area and the Spring Valley Wildlife Area.

“Those projects came back to normal so there was little impact (by COVID),” Moseley said.

Not featured in the agency’s fiscal “pie chart” - which is found in the annual Wild Ohio magazine 2021 calendar - was the $15.6 million the Wildlife Division received from the state’s General Revenue Fund.

This notation is further explained as going for land acquisition for the formerly called AEP land; now known as the Appalachian Hills land in southeast Ohio.

Likewise listed separately are moneys for Governor Mike DeWine’s much vaunted “H20” initiative, Moseley said.

“That is funded separately,” she said.

Yet while the actual total dollars in revenue and expenditures are different between Fiscal Year 2019 and Fiscal Year 2020, the percentages dovetail very tightly.

For instance, in Fiscal Year 2019, fish management consumed 17 percent of all expenditures (nearly $14 million) while in Fiscal Year 2020 that category was 15 percent ($11.5 million).

The same went for wildlife management: 20 percent in Fiscal Year 2019 ($16.5 million) compared to 18 percent in Fiscal Year 2020 ($13.6 million).

Similar mirror imagery is seen with the other seven categories with some – such as law enforcement at eight percent for each fiscal year being identical.

On the revenue side of the ledger for Fiscal Year 2020, fishing licenses accounted for $16.4 million while hunting licenses generated nearly $11 million. However, deer tags more than equaled hunting licenses with $11.1 million.

As for fines? That saw a generated revenue of only $265,749 in Fiscal Year 2020; the smallest dollar amount of any of the 12 categories of income the Wildlife Division received.

Of chief importance regarding income received by the Wildlife Division are dollars from the federal government in the form of both fish and wildlife aid-to-restoration funding sources. In Fiscal Year 2020, this income receipt totaled $24.6 million, or 31 percent of the agency’s total revenue stream (and 33 percent in Fiscal Year 2019).

Not included in that aid money is income derived from the explosive increase in the sale of firearms and ammunition.

An excise tax on these products is levied by the federal government which in turn then doles the money out to the states, territories and such using something of a complex formula and arrives for reimbursement of approved projects.

“We really won’t see the bulk of this money (from firearms and ammunition sales) for two years though we might see a ‘bump’ this year,” Moseley said.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's deer hunters take something of a breather during the just-concluded muzzle-loading season

 

Following on the heels of a very good general firearms deer-hunting season and an exceptional two-day bonus firearms deer-hunting season a just so-so four-day muzzle-loading season hardly came as a surprise.

In all, 9,708 deer were checked in from Saturday, January 2 to Tuesday, January 5. Over the last three years, an average of 12,695 deer were taken during the same four-day period.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife is now using a three-year average as a more reliable comparison than using a previous year’s figures.

“It was a pretty uneventful season,” said Mike Tonkovich, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s deer management administrator.

“As we’ve discussed before, the only way the final firearms season would have attracted any attention is if we had snow on the ground again. Instead, most of the state was blanketed in fog, and cold damp weather on the Saturday opener.”

Thus, “it would take much more than” fog and damp cold to motivate many this late in the season, Tonkovich said also.

“Hunter’s love snow and for good reason – its not only fun, but it most certainly makes it easier to see and track wounded deer.  Plus, and this is paramount – the cold and snow discourage sedentary behavior; hunters move, and move deer in the process,” Tonkovich said.

However, Tonkovich said, the muzzle-loading harvest did lift the total harvest for our last two firearms seasons of the year to what seems to have become a rather predictable benchmark of 25,000 deer between them.”

The total number of deer taken in Ohio during all 2020-2021 hunting seasons is 187,883, with one month remaining to hunt with archery equipment. That number has already surpassed last season’s final tally of 184,468.

The Top 10 counties for deer taken during the 2021 muzzle-loader season included: Coshocton (367), Tuscarawas (344), Licking (290), Guernsey (279), Muskingum (263), Meigs (260), Knox (256), Carroll (249), Holmes (243), and Ashtabula (238).

Here is a county-by-county list of all white-tailed deer checked by hunters during the 2021 deer muzzleloader hunting season. The first number following the county’s name shows the harvest numbers for 2020, and the three-year average of deer harvested in 2017, 2018, 2019 is in parentheses.

Adams: 166 (220); Allen: 39 (54); Ashland: 195 (227); Ashtabula: 238 (284); Athens: 201 (326); Auglaize: 34 (54); Belmont: 223 (268); Brown: 178 (189); Butler: 79 (91); Carroll: 249 (325); Champaign: 89 (75); Clark: 32 (47); Clermont: 120 (141); Clinton: 33 (58); Columbiana: 169 (240); Coshocton: 367 (455); Crawford: 46 (68); Cuyahoga: 3 (2); Darke: 26 (42); Defiance: 82 (104); Delaware: 65 (66); Erie: 41 (40); Fairfield: 84 (136); Fayette: 14 (27); Franklin: 21 (37); Fulton: 22 (41); Gallia: 154 (165); Geauga: 91 (89); Greene: 41 (49); Guernsey: 279 (397); Hamilton: 17 (37); Hancock: 52 (64); Hardin: 71 (99); Harrison: 215 (310); Henry: 23 (32); Highland: 179 (192); Hocking: 135 (282); Holmes: 243 (282); Huron: 105 (131); Jackson: 154 (222); Jefferson: 136 (160); Knox: 256 (331); Lake: 27 (25); Lawrence: 100 (97); Licking: 290 (367); Logan: 105 (132); Lorain: 105 (127); Lucas: 10 (21); Madison: 33 (31); Mahoning: 90 (121); Marion: 29 (52); Medina: 132 (130); Meigs: 260 (309); Mercer: 31 (36); Miami: 25 (39); Monroe: 174 (222); Montgomery: 26 (29); Morgan: 201 (292); Morrow: 73 (107); Muskingum: 263 (423); Noble: 171 (247); Ottawa: 22 (28); Paulding: 41 (71); Perry: 149 (222); Pickaway: 37 (59); Pike: 118 (153); Portage: 80 (109); Preble: 50 (68); Putnam: 31 (23); Richland: 187 (238); Ross: 171 (231); Sandusky: 53 (56); Scioto: 103 (149); Seneca: 106 (101); Shelby: 50 (63); Stark: 150 (178); Summit: 24 (34); Trumbull: 122 (178); Tuscarawas: 344 (391); Union: 46 (54); Van Wert: 10 (24); Vinton: 134 (218); Warren: 42 (75); Washington: 226 (317); Wayne: 100 (158); Williams: 86 (93); Wood: 49 (50); Wyandot: 65 (88). 2020 total: 9,708. Three-year average: (12,695).

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio wildlife officer recovering from being shot as three suspects face charges in the incident

With the continued hospitalization of 25-year Ohio Division of Wildlife veteran officer Kevin Behr, more than a little legal attention is being focused on three suspects alleged to have been involved in the shooting.

Behr is said to have been shot in the abdomen about 4 p.m., December 20th – the last day of Ohio’s so-called bonus two-day firearms deer-hunting season - while participating in an anti-deer-poaching assignment in Clinton County.

He was life-flighted to a hospital in Cincinnati and remains hospitalized there and has undergone multiple surgeries.

The latest information says Behr is no longer on a ventilator and is responding to treatment.

Meanwhile, charges have been brought against three defendants accused in the matter.

Among the defendants is Brian R. Liming, 44 of Jamestown. Liming is alleged to have discharged the firearm that led to a projectile striking Behr.

Liming has been charged with a fourth-degree felony that alleges he recklessly caused serious physical harm to a peace officer. Such a charge potentially carries a maximum penalty of up to 18 months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. (Liming’s case number is CRA2001604, as identified in the Clinton County Clerk of Courts.)

The other charges Liming faces and their maximum punishments are: having a weapon while under disability (up to 36 months prison and up to a $10,000 fine); no deer or wild turkey permit (up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine); and hunting without permission from the landowner (up to 30 days jail and a $500 fine).

The December 29th hearing was attended by three Ohio Division Wildlife officers working with the Clinton County Sheriffs Office on the case: Wildlife Dvision Investigator Joel Buddelmeyer, Wildlife Officer Supervisor Dave Warner, and Officer Jason Keller.

Also charged in the alleged incident was Bryan Achtermann, 36, of Midland. An account in the “Wilmington News Journal” said Achtermann waived his right to appear at the December 29th hearing. However, a document was filed December 28th by his attorney that entered pleas of not guilty to the charges of allegedly hunting without a license and allegedly not having a permit to hunt deer, these accounts say. (Achtermann’s case number is CRB2001601).

Likewise charged was Thomas J. Davis, 35 of Jamestown. The single charge against him to which he pleaded not guilty was for unlawfully aiding an offender (allegedly Liming, some news accounts say) in prohibited activities, “to wit, hunting unlawfully on land without permission from the land owner,” one account reads. (Davis’s case number is CRB2001601).

In court, City of Wilmington Chief Prosecutor David Henry said that though Davis’ 2015 GMC Sierra pick-up truck was impounded, the Clinton County Sheriffs Office was not interested in seeking eventual forfeiture of the vehicle.

However, news accounts said that Henry was informed by legal consul with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would likely seek such forfeiture; a point the agency was less than actually willing to commit to seeking.

“(The) ODNR supports any of the legal avenues the prosecutor deems appropriate to ensure justice is served in this matter – this includes forfeiture of the vehicle,” said the Department’s chief of communications Sarah Wickham in a prepared statement.

The Clinton County Prosecutor's office has not yet returned telephone inquiries regarding these cases.

By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com