Thank you, volunteers from Dominion

BOUQUETS>> To the team from Dominion Ohio who volunteered several hours to help plant an estimated 11,000 native species at the Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve.

Such volunteer efforts are all part of the company’s Energizing Our Communities program.

The program also donated $2,500 to the cause, which was another step in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s plans to restore the marsh to pre-phragmites days.

Ten species of historical Mentor Marsh wetland plants (based on Museum Herbarium records), were installed, including marsh milkweed, blueflag iris, giant bur-reed, bluejoint grass, soft-stemmed bulrush, and several sedges.

A similar planting was done by volunteers in 2017, when 19,000 plants were installed.

The work is part of a plan to “take Mentor Marsh from the biggest phragmites marsh in Ohio to the biggest marsh milkweed marsh in Ohio,” said Museum Biodiversity Coordinator David Kriska. That in turn will help ecotourism in Mentor.

Funding support also comes from Sustain our Great Lakes and the locally based Wild4Ever: Wildlife Conservation Foundation.

It’s great to see a local project getting wide support. And we’re grateful to the Dominion group for getting their hands dirty to make our community better.

BOUQUETS » To the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, commonly known as NOPEC, for offering new U.S. Department of Agriculture low-interest loans for owners of commercial property for energy efficiency property improvements.

NOPEC is the first Ohio organization to offer the loans called the Saving Through Efficiency Program, or STEP, which are made available through the USDA’s Rural Energy Savings Program, to help small businesses lower their energy consumption and costs through energy-efficient upgrades.

The program can finance projects from $5,000 up to $100,000 with a fixed three percent interest rate.

Examples of eligible projects include interior and exterior lighting, windows and doors, insulation, and HVAC, as well as other renewable energy projects such as geothermal and solar water heating systems.

The program is open to commercial properties located within a NOPEC member community, including private sector office, retail and industrial and public-sector facilities — such as government, health care, education — as well as apartment buildings with more than four units.

Georgine Welo, vice chairman of NOPEC’s Board of Directors and mayor of South Euclid, said, “This is another community and economic development tool NOPEC offers our member communities and businesses.”

For larger projects at commercial properties, NOPEC offers financing of $100,000 to $500,000 through its PACE lending program, also known as Property Assessed Clean Energy.

This is an exciting program that property owners and governmental agencies can utilize to upgrade their facilities.

We applaud NOPEC for making these loans available.

BRICKBATS» To Rocky River business executive C. David Snyder who was convicted on six charges related to embezzling $126,000 from an employee retirement fund and collecting nearly $860,000 from employees but not paying the money to the IRS.

As chair, president and chief executive officer of Attevo Inc., a technology consulting company headquartered in Cleveland, Snyder withheld payroll tax from employees but failed to pay it to the IRS. He failed to pay more than $328,355 of employees portion of payroll taxes in 2010 and about $530,778 in 2012.

Snyder created a 401(k) and profit-sharing plan for Attevo employees in 2009. Ruralogic in Bryan — where Snyder served as chairman and primary shareholder — was added to the plan in 2010. Between 2010 and 2012, Snyder failed to pay into the plan approximately $126,000 in contributions and loan repayments withheld from Attevo and Ruralogic employee wages.

During those years, Snyder was paying paid $20,000 per month for the rental of a personal residence in Lakewood and a vacation home in Chautauqua, New York, leases on four vehicles and other personal expenses.

Said U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman. He “took taxes out of their paychecks, but instead of paying the taxes of the IRS, he used the stolen money to pay for his vacation, pool renovation and otherwise fund his own lavish lifestyle.”

That failure to pay the withheld tax “results in the loss of future Social Security or Medicare benefits for employees,” said Ryan Korner, a special agent with the IRS.

The 61-year-old Snyder is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 9. We hope his sentence is a harsh one.