Making my 800 gal bigger.
- Thread starter MonsterFishResc
- Start date
good luck with the the zoning issues, i know thay ban bee a real pain. last year i had some family friends who where trying to open a veterinary hospital and had to go though alot just to get zoning permits in the area because it we residential. the kicker is that most of the homes in that area also have businesses in them, one is even a walk in salon and another is a dog groomer. amazing tank btw and you doing a great thing with Monster Fish Rescue.
also would stop by for the meeting if it wasn't on the other side of Ohio for me.
also would stop by for the meeting if it wasn't on the other side of Ohio for me.
Nice fish! The tank turned out great. I can't believe the zoning department is doing that to you. If Monster Fish Rescue is an LLC you are considered a business legally. Can you disolve the LLC and keep performing your good deeds?
No, I cannot. The mission is to become a non profit organization with a tax exempt # and to be able to offer a tax deduction to donators. According to Ohio law one must be an LLC before attaining "organization" status.
Here's what I'll be reading and handing out at the meeting:
Monster Fish Rescue.com
Pertaining to the matter of the Monster Fish Rescue.com sign that was in the front yard of 113 South Maple Street, where I, Jonathan Strazinsky reside, I would like to clarify (1) the signs purpose, and (2) Monster Fish Rescue as a business.
1.) I contacted zoning the week of March 9th to ask about placing the sign in my front yard as a simple land mark for fellow board members of the Ohio Cichlid Association so they could easily find where our board meeting was going to take place. Each month a board member of the OCA volunteers to host a board meeting at their residence. I volunteered to host Marches meeting. I wanted to make sure there were no issues with the village of Orwell with me wanted to put the sign up. Vicki Thomson informed me that I could set up the sign on the day of the meeting (March 14th 2009) and she then would bring it up to her boss about possibly keeping the sign up on a permanent basis which I was told would cost $10. Initially I just wanted to have the sign out to use as a land mark for when people would come over for any reason what so ever. Then Vicki told me that it was only $10 for a sign permit.
Admittedly I forgot to take the sign down. The meeting ended late and we had family over the following day. My priority was not to get the sign down but to prepare our home for visitors. I apologize if the sign offended someone in the village but I find it interesting that the first time I bring the sign up to a village employee all of a sudden there’s “Complaints about the sign” when last year I had a 4’x2’ blue box with the exact same wording on it out in the front yard for a few weeks and never had a single complaint.
As for the sign it’s self it is simply an advertisement for a website, my website. No where on the sign does it say “open for business” or “please come in”. In short, I am willing to pay the $10 permit fee in order to be able to have the sign up in my front yard on a more permanent basis even though the sign is easily removed.
2.) Reasons why I will NOT be asking for a conditional use permit:
Monster Fish Rescue has been registered with the state to eventually be a non profit organization. According to state law an organization seeking non profit “organization” status needs to register its name as an LLC before the process can start. Fred Green is my lawyer and has been in the process of attaining Monster Fish Rescue’s status as a non profit organization. His number is (440) 286-4770.
Monster Fish Rescue is an internet based non profit LLC that I run to rescue fish and reptiles. Ninety-nine percent of these rescues are orchestrated via the internet or by phone. Our home is not open to public traffic. Friends that I have met online do stop by from time to time to view my aquariums as I’ve got a 1500 gallon aquarium that I built myself. This is exactly the time I would like to have the sign out so these people can find the house easily. The last time someone was here dropping off a fish in need of rescue was some time in October of 2008. If a fish or reptile needs to come here it’s because all other options have been exhausted and there’s no other place for it to go. Owners of these fish have driven here from as far away as Long Island New York to ensure their fish will have a proper home. Monster Fish Rescue is not a pet store or any sort of public arena. People simply bring me their fish to give them a good home or to allow me more time to place the fish into an appropriate home. I see no difference between this and someone wanting to take their dog to a farm because they don’t want it any longer or can’t keep it any longer, much like freecycle.org. If you were to walk into our residence you would not see for sale signs on my tanks or price lists or a cash register.
On a side note and to have it on record I was personally offended that the Zoning inspector (Vicki Thomson) insinuated that the dead fish found in the water treatment facility was mine. I am 100% confident that we are not the only residents in the village of Orwell that own aquarium fish. I do not typically dispose of dead fish by flushing them down the toilet. Fish are frozen triple bagged then added to the out going trash early on Tuesday mornings. Although it is common practice for aquarists to flush their dead fish, especially the concerned parent of a child who owns a goldfish that has passed on. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns and please consider the points I’ve made before deciding to shut down my internet non profit LLC on June 16th 2009.
This was written and posted on another forum I belong to. I , of course think it’s excellent! Feel free to do with it what you please.
[quote name='BenPursglove' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:55 PM' post='2317586']
OK if anyone wants to help support the MonsterFishRescue.com project please see the email at the bottom of this post.
I'm sure a little spammage from this site will soon sort them out and we can enjoy some more vids. Replace the "etc" at the end of the mail with your name...my mail is going as soon as I post this.
Dear Sir / Madam
It has recently come to my attention that you have recently served Lora& Jonathan Strazinsky (address unknown) with a “stop zoning and/or building violation” order via:
Orwell Zoning Commision
c/o Vicki Thomson
179 West Main Street
Orwell Ohio 44076
Whilst I understand that the laws of your county must be upheld, I think I must internationally state my disagreement regarding the issues surrounding this zoning order. Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky, in my opinion, do a particularly great service locally and to the wider USA community, as they re-house large to very large tropical fish that any negligent previous owner did not realize would grow so big for their fish tank upon buying them. This negligence is routed in fish shop supplying these creatures but there is no jurisdiction in place to stop these shops from doing so.
Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky do not ask for any profit nor recompense for their valued service and seek to further re-house said rescued fish into local attractions and beauty spots that will accommodate them comfortably in time.
For some while now I have been an admirer of Jonathan Strazinsky’s excellent work online, as I believe it embodies the true meaning of the word charity. Charity that is aimed at ***********s less knowledgeable than himself, who, in the act of fish keeping, and who decide to try to keep large adult fish in an uncomfortable, near death state in their homes wish to re-house their mistakes. I do not belive he seeks recompense from your juristiction nor from the USA government in the upkeep of these animals, yet.
In short, Jonathan’s work, in my opinion should be admired by your community and much more widely appreciated also, as he is running a non profit organization, I implore you to remove the zoning order. I am a fish keeper and animal owner / lover myself and cannot abide when a creature is destroyed because the owner is negligent. I hope that you will have the good sense to understand the work of Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky, understand what they do and therefore remove the zoning order and uphold the removal as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
etc
If you want to support this guy email the above code to:
cindy@orwellvillage.org unfortunately poor Cindy is the only point of contact on their contact page... she'll be busy then...
[/quote]
[quote name='BenPursglove' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:55 PM' post='2317586']
OK if anyone wants to help support the MonsterFishRescue.com project please see the email at the bottom of this post.
I'm sure a little spammage from this site will soon sort them out and we can enjoy some more vids. Replace the "etc" at the end of the mail with your name...my mail is going as soon as I post this.
Dear Sir / Madam
It has recently come to my attention that you have recently served Lora& Jonathan Strazinsky (address unknown) with a “stop zoning and/or building violation” order via:
Orwell Zoning Commision
c/o Vicki Thomson
179 West Main Street
Orwell Ohio 44076
Whilst I understand that the laws of your county must be upheld, I think I must internationally state my disagreement regarding the issues surrounding this zoning order. Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky, in my opinion, do a particularly great service locally and to the wider USA community, as they re-house large to very large tropical fish that any negligent previous owner did not realize would grow so big for their fish tank upon buying them. This negligence is routed in fish shop supplying these creatures but there is no jurisdiction in place to stop these shops from doing so.
Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky do not ask for any profit nor recompense for their valued service and seek to further re-house said rescued fish into local attractions and beauty spots that will accommodate them comfortably in time.
For some while now I have been an admirer of Jonathan Strazinsky’s excellent work online, as I believe it embodies the true meaning of the word charity. Charity that is aimed at ***********s less knowledgeable than himself, who, in the act of fish keeping, and who decide to try to keep large adult fish in an uncomfortable, near death state in their homes wish to re-house their mistakes. I do not belive he seeks recompense from your juristiction nor from the USA government in the upkeep of these animals, yet.
In short, Jonathan’s work, in my opinion should be admired by your community and much more widely appreciated also, as he is running a non profit organization, I implore you to remove the zoning order. I am a fish keeper and animal owner / lover myself and cannot abide when a creature is destroyed because the owner is negligent. I hope that you will have the good sense to understand the work of Lora and Jonathan Strazinsky, understand what they do and therefore remove the zoning order and uphold the removal as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
etc
If you want to support this guy email the above code to:
cindy@orwellvillage.org unfortunately poor Cindy is the only point of contact on their contact page... she'll be busy then...
[/quote]
Ok, what do you say we get this thread back on track with some VIDEOS!!! People have asked about my other tanks and what fish I keep. So I took the camera down stairs to do a little tour of the basement…
Vid #1 is of some small tanks in the back behind the 240
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKEJuILRLFw
Vid #2 is more small tanks behind the 185
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix8zhy2jAew
Vid #3 is the 185
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDvAIVHfNJY
Vid #4 is the 240 (wifes frontosa tank with no frontosa in it at the moment LOL)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAlHcLurM_w
Vid #5 is the 1500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShOpQTHhkxQ
Vid #6 is of the mechanicals of the 1500 (filter and heating system)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAV2f8Rp9A0
I’m working on some statistics of the 1500 and I’ll post those later today ;-)
Vid #1 is of some small tanks in the back behind the 240
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKEJuILRLFw
Vid #2 is more small tanks behind the 185
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix8zhy2jAew
Vid #3 is the 185
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDvAIVHfNJY
Vid #4 is the 240 (wifes frontosa tank with no frontosa in it at the moment LOL)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAlHcLurM_w
Vid #5 is the 1500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShOpQTHhkxQ
Vid #6 is of the mechanicals of the 1500 (filter and heating system)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAV2f8Rp9A0
I’m working on some statistics of the 1500 and I’ll post those later today ;-)
Awesome! That's a great collection of fish you have. Now we just need to see a video of the 1500 at feedin' time...
Hey J, do the youtube tags not work for you? To make the videos inline, just paste the youtube video code like ShOpQTHhkxQ for vid #5 then highlight the the code and click the YouTube icon on the tool bar.
You'll get this instead of a link.
[yt]ShOpQTHhkxQ[/yt]
If it doesn't work for you or you have some other reason for not using it, ignore this post.
