Bowling Green City Council and Mayor Mike Aspacher made a special presentation at last week’s meeting.

Vassiliki Leontis, wife of the late councilman Neocles Leontis, was presented with a copy of the
resolution honoring his service at the Feb. 2 meeting.
“This is a really bittersweet presentation, quite honestly,” Aspacher said.
Neocles Leontis died in a car crash in December. He was in the first year of his first term as an
at-large member of council. Vassiliki Leontis was in the car and injured in the crash.
In addition to a framed copy of the resolution, which council passed on Jan. 4, Vassiliki Leontis was
presented with two framed photos – one depicting Neocles Leontis being sworn into council, and a second
photo showing the then-full roster of council members together.
Vassiliki Leontis offered her thanks to the mayor, council and city administration.
“Please know that the year 2020, taxing and tragic though it was for us and so many others, had otherwise
been a very productive … year for Neocles. And I won’t exaggerate in saying that I had never seen
Neocles in all our life together so happy and satisfied as during that year, because he was immersed in
his political and activist sphere.
“Everyone involved can take great credit for making Neocles so happy,” she continued, thanking those who
had visited her. “And lastly, most importantly for me, I want to express my love and profound gratitude
to the entire community of Bowling Green for the esteem they have expressed for my husband and also
their concern and support for me when I was at my lowest levels. It’s this community that I and Neocles
have always called our one and only home and I personally embrace it with … all the loyalty I can
muster.”
She further said that a memorial scholarship in her husband’s name is being created at Bowling Green
State University to fund students who study the sciences, the humanities, and art.
Also at the meeting, council:
• Unanimously passed two ordinances rezoning the first parcels to be included in the new Gateway Zoning
District. Creating the district has been a major focus for council’s work and discussion in recent
years, and has been considered an opening step to revitalization work and new development in the city.

Council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee held a public hearing earlier in the
evening concerning the two zoning ordinances. One was for approximately 2.76 acres at the northwest
corner of Thurstin Avenue and East Wooster Street including a public parking lot on Manville Avenue
currently zoned S-3 Planned Institutional and R-2 Single Family Residential zoning; and the second was
for .14 acres located at 518 and 522 E. Wooster St., currently zoned as B-5 Transitional Central
Business District Zoning.
Each of the committee members – Chair Rachel Phipps, Greg Robinette and John Zanfardino – expressed
support for the changes.
“I think these are important next steps in what we’ve been doing with the Gateway District,” said
Robinette.
“Glad we’re getting started,” Phipps said.
• Heard from resident Joseph DeMare, who expressed concerns about two changes in policy from Bowling
Green Municipal Utilities regarding solar power. DeMare said that he has solar panels on his home and
that “installing solar panels on our house was actually part of our retirement planning.” He said he
received letters indicating that the solar energy credit they would receive would no longer be based on
how much the city pays for wholesale power, and that the city had instituted a fee for solar energy of
$4 per installed kilowatt. “What this does is really discourage anyone from putting solar panels on
their house in the city of Bowling Green,” he said.
“This is not what a progressive community does,” DeMare said. “Bowling Green has often said that it wants
to market itself as a progressive community, but progressive communities allow their citizens to put
solar panels on their houses.” He asked council to reverse these changes.
Later in the meeting, Council President Mark Hollenbaugh asked Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter to
have Utilities Director Brian O’Connell provide information about the issue to council.