Lima woman leading the way for good neighbors

LIMA - It seems that Jan "J.R." Riestenberg spends a great deal of her time getting dirty: Ottawa River Cleanup, neighborhood cleanups, community gardens.

Getting in the muck isn't an issue for her, but it's not really what she brings to the volunteering table.

The winner of Lima Allen County Neighborhoods In Partnership's 2008 Good Neighbor of the Year can be, well, a little bossy. The world, especially the volunteering world, needs bosses at times, Riestenberg, 59, figures.

"As with many things, what you really need is someone who says, ‘OK, we're going to do this. I need four people here,'" Riestenberg said. "If you can tell someone what you want of them, they can tell you pretty quickly if it's something they're interested in or not. I don't like to use the world, ‘leader.' I'm more of a commandant, giving a little direction."

Riestenberg has been in Lima since 1997 when she moved here from Cincinnati. She was involved in a neighborhood association there and Lima's Riverside North's "very fun group" fit well with her interests.

Since then, there's been cleanups, and more cleanups, tending to the St. Rita's Medical Center community garden, neighborhood surveys, fish fries and blues festivals.

"I feel like I do things, but I certainly don't feel like I'm above and beyond the call of duty at all," she said. "It makes you realize we're all just part of the same community. We're all part of Lima. It's just doing little things that make it nicer for the next person."

Riestenberg works as a mobile X-ray technologist, going where the patients are, most often nursing homes.

"The seniors are a joy. They might be in nursing homes, but boy, they ain't dead," she said. "They've got a lot of spunk. And, oh, the stories, memories that flow."

Lima has been decidedly good to Riestenberg, who enjoys living about a mile from just about anywhere she needs to go.

"The people I've met in Lima are just wonderful," she said. "In the summer, a few neighbors will walk to the farmers market, we'll walk to the rallies. This seems pretty perfect."