Celina salutes 2 pool workers who rescued girl, 5

CELINA - City councilors on Monday evening recognized two employees for saving the life of a 5-year old girl at the pool in June.

Parks and Recreation Director Craig McConkey said lifeguard Jace Jackson, 17, and pool manager Shannon Neargarder worked together to help resuscitate the girl on June 21.

The girl was found floating face-down and unresponsive in the pool when Jackson leaped into action, McConkey said. Once the girl was out of the water, Neargarder administered CPR until she regained consciousness.

"By the time she left in the ambulance, she was sitting up and talking," he said.

Mayor Jeff Hazel presented the two with an award from the city for their efforts.

"Jace, I want to give you an award from the city of Celina for a live-saving award because you did exactly what you were trained to do," he said. "There's a lot of grateful people out there, certainly the parents and certainly this five year old girl… You should know how important it is, all those actions. It can be very nerve wracking, but at the same time you responded instantly, and we are really proud of you."

Hazel also spoke highly of Neargarder.

"So often you don't think you're going to get called on for that… but you were able to jump in and use your skills as well," he said. "I'm just really proud of you for being the manager of the pool, knowing what to do, being able to respond. Thank you so much for doing this."

In other business, council members again heard at length from residents about the Small Town Pride festival on June 24.

During the audience communications portion of the meeting, several residents brought up allegations of inappropriate displays in front of children. Sarah Bellman provided pictures to councilors of what appear to be teenagers holding signs in support of the festival, some with vulgar messages.

Bellman provided a definition of child grooming and said she was unaware of any such child grooming at the event. At the same time, she said the exposure of children to sexual or age inappropriate conversations, media and behaviors are red flags.

"Are we justified in broadening our concept of grooming?" she asked. "Small Town Pride's event has done exactly that, in my opinion."

Jesse Francis said he grew up in fear as a gay man in Mercer County and moved away for 20 years before returning a few years ago. He said the treatment of LGBTQ residents and supporters of Small Town Pride proves that fear was justified.

"They are singling us out and they are trying to use governmental bodies to discriminate, to judge, to defame us with claims of criminal activity that is not happening," he said. "And I find it disgusting that they say that we are grooming children. That is absolutely unacceptable."

He also said festival organizers and Small Town Pride should not be held accountable for the actions of individuals who attended.

Kristina Braun-Donley said she felt the event was a time for the community to come together, celebrate and provide education around the LGBTQ community. However, she said her family has been the target of harassment.

She said an unidentified church posted pictures of area children, "one being my own child, making them a target for violence and bullying." Braun-Donley said she didn't think the city wanted to be thought of as closed-minded, "bullying, harassing, partnering with neo-Nazis and the Aryan Brotherhood and individuals in and around this area that has made it their mission to harass and to send out threatening remarks."

Mike Spencer repeated claims of provocative dancing, signs with sexual or explicit language and vendors selling adult items with children present. He said it seems the city council will not fight the "corruption of our children, which violates the most reasonable and the most basic community standards."

He also asked councilman Eric Lochtefeld, who attended the event, if he saw anything inappropriate for children or communicated concerns to Small Town Pride leadership. Lochtefeld said he respectfully declined to answer.

Residents on both sides of the issue said they have been bullied, harassed on social media or had their contact information posted online. Councilman June Scott said there needs to be compromise.

"People are being harassed, people are being bullied or whatever you want to give those terms to," he said. "I think it's a two-way street here. As I said last meeting, there needs to be some kind of acceptance on both sides - compromise, if you will - for how to deal with it. Because I think this only hurts our community."

Council president Jason King said he is troubled by what he has seen and reminded the audience that there will be a committee of the whole meeting at 6 p.m. July 24 to further discuss the matter. Councilors briefly discussed whether to allow public comment at the committee meeting but ultimately made no decision.

Council members also met in executive session to discuss pending or imminent litigation. No action was anticipated after the session, King said.

The next regular council meeting is 7 p.m. July 24 in council chambers on the second floor of the city administration building.