Bill honors Miamisburg man, missing kids, more
Ohio lawmakers COLUMBUS — voted Thursday to set a day to honor missing children, designate former Sen. John Glenn’s home a historic site and honor a Miamisburg man who drowned after having a seizure in 2016.
In a time-honored legislative tradition, Ohio lawmakers gave final approval to a catchall bill that creates new specialty plates, designates days and months and renames roads and bridges.
The Ohio House voted 78-0 in favor of the loaded-up bill Thursday. It now heads to Gov. John Kasich for consideration.
It will create 14 new special designations, 12 new specialty Our Columbus Bureau reporter Laura Bischoff has been following all of the action in the state Legislature to keep you informed on key issues. Follow her on Twitter at @lbischoff plates and rename 16 highways and bridges.
State Sen. Bob Hackett, R-London, originally introduced the bill in 2017 to designate May 25 as Missing Children’s Day in Ohio. May 25 is already designated nationally to draw attention to the 465,000 missing children listed in the FBI database.
The bill is supported by Greg Baker, father of Erica Baker, who disappeared in 1999 when she took the family dog for a walk.
The bill was merged with other ideas to designate days or months for specific causes and add specialty license plates.
Ohio has a specialty license plate for just about anything you might want to support if you are willing to pony up some extra cash when you renew your plates each year. There are also a variety of no-cost specialty plates for the military, people with disabilities, transport companies and government or publicly owned entities.
The bill also calls for designating John Glenn’s childhood home as a state historic site. Glenn died two years ago at age 95.
It also would designate Jan. 30 as “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Awareness Day” in memory of Cody Hamblin, a 22-year-old former Miamisburg High School football player. Hamblin died May 29, 2016, in a drowning, during which he suffered a seizure that CTE — caused by blows to the brain — contributed to.