Forget the lake and wineries and covered bridges and all of the cliché tourist attractions Ashtabula Countians expound on.

What will get people into the area, and Ashtabula specifically is a desire to learn if we are as rude and crude as we appear on Cleveland and Erie newscasts.

Consider the no-plowing controversy last weekend in Ashtabula.

You know the story. Ashtabula City Manager Anthony Cantagallo wanted to cut $862,000 from the city budget, so he cuts overtime for the Public Works Department. (He also says he will take a pay cut but takes a pay increase instead.)

That means when it snows on weekends, there’s nobody to plow from 3 p.m. on Friday until 11 p.m. on Sunday.

The decision may save money, but it created lots of anger and inconvenience for people living and driving through Ashtabula.

So apparently John Ginnard, owner of e-Comm Cafe on Main Avenue, decided to plow snow along Main Avenue, and somehow a Cleveland television station showed up to chronicle the event.

While talking to a reporter outside his establishment, Ginnard said Cantagallo drove by and gave him the finger.

Ginnard made the statement at Monday’s City Council meeting. Cantagallo denied making the gesture.

Ward 2 Councilman August Pugliese wanted more details of this so-called hand gesture. He then suggested it be investigated by the Ohio Highway Patrol or Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department.

Just when you think an idiotic situation can’t get any more idiotic, we get a suggestion for another investigation.

Remember all of those so-called investigations instigated by council over the past years that were so ridiculous nothing ever came of them? Remember when council voted to investigate a Web site that criticized former City Solicitor Tom Simon? Or when it decided to investigate sewer tap-in fees or the housing department or whether City Solicitor Michael Franklin’s votes while on the school board count?

What’s worse, is Pugliese aware of current events? Does he know the sheriff’s department has been slashed to the bone because of the county’s financial plight? There’s no longer a detective bureau. There’s only two deputies on a shift, riding in one car, covering the entire county.

How would you like to be someone in Hartsgrove calling because somebody is trying to break into your home and the dispatcher says she’s sorry, but the officers are taking depositions on whether the Ashtabula city manager flipped the bird.

If Pugliese is interested in learning more about the situation, instead of trying to burden the OHP or sheriff’s department, he could call the TV reporter and see if he will corroborate Ginnard’s story.

And besides, even if it is true, what difference does it make?

Cantagallo is an elected official, just like council. Council has no powers over the city manager. All the investigation will do is remind everybody how crude and rude Ashtabula can be.

That doesn’t mean Ashtabula has an exclusive on rude city managers. Conneaut’s manager, Robert Schaumleffel Jr., is appointed, not elected. But last year when a Conneaut resident, Katie Schwartz, created a Web site and included information about city officials, Schaumleffel asked her to remove the information, stating people may think it is the official city Web site.

She sued in federal court, saying it violated her First Amendment rights. In a settlement, the city must apologize to Schwartz in both the Star Beacon and Conneaut Courier.

So Ginnard should file a federal lawsuit, alleging seeing Cantagallo make that gesture so shakened him, he is forever traumatized.

Then let the attorneys feed at the trough. When it is all over, Ginnard can at least get an apology from the city and maybe frame it.

Or better yet, forget it ever happened and hope the rest of the region eventually does, too.

Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com.