Bear seen near Springboro dialysis clinic

Hear the call: 'We just had the black bear circling the building...'

Board may move for Kettering AD's dismissal
New 11 min. ago
Fairborn Sweet Corn Festival violated religious free speech, court rules
11:53 a.m.
A third of Bellbrook students absent
10:58 a.m.
New State law gives school districts reach to punish cyberbullying
10:42 a.m.
GE plans to hire 5,000 veterans
10:38 a.m.
> More headlines

By Lawrence Budd, Staff Writer Updated 5:18 PM Wednesday, June 24, 2009

SPRINGBORO — State wildlife officials urged residents to give the bear roaming Warren County the time and room needed to find its way back to the wilderness.

“It is more scared of you than you are of it,” Todd Haines, district manager for the state’s Division of Wildlife, said Wednesday, June 24. “This bear will eventually make his way down to suitable habitat.”

About 6 a.m. Wednesday, wildlife officials suspect the same bear sighted over the past two weeks wandered across the parking lot of a medical clinic in Springboro, near the Ohio 73 interchange at Interstate 75.

Patients and workers at the Dialysis Centers of Warren County were starting the day when a bear wandered across the parking lot between wooded areas on the western edge of the city, just south of Central Avenue and east of Interstate 75.

“Our patients were out in the lobby. Our patients saw it,” nurse Sue Watts said. “I said, 'You’re kidding.”

Watts walked into the waiting room with windows onto the parking lot.

“Sure enough, there was a black bear walking across the parking lot,” she said.

Watts said employees and the bear exchanged glances through an open door. Then the bear, which emerged from woods along the interstate, wandered into woods leading back toward Springboro.

Police responded, but the bear hasn’t been sighted since.

Although the state had not been notified of Wednesday’s sighting, Haines predicted it was the same bear reported in Waynesville and Clearcreek Twp. in early June.

Based on experience, Haines also predicted the bear was a two-year-old male recently run off by its mother, as she went into heat, to protect it from older males likely to seek her out.

Haines urged people to secure their trash to discourage the bear from remaining in the area.

“We obviously don’t want him in an urban environment,” Haines said. “He’s getting an education.”

Share this article