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As the abandoned buildings posed a problem for cities fighting urban blight, developers began restoring and repurposing the sturdy brick buildings for museum, residential and commercial use. The conversions often preserve or restore the historic structures and bring new life to the buildings and their neighborhoods.

One of the nice things about local news is that it helps us to remember how far we’ve come. Without a chronicle of the time and place we inhabit together, it would be easy to think we collectively accomplished very little this year. 

At the urging of several community leaders, Kent City Council pledged to consider forming an anti-racism committee as part of its February committee meeting.

At Monday night’s meeting, the Aurora City Schools’ Board of Education approved a new policy that will make mask wearing optional in the school system effective Jan. 25. The resolution was approved in a 4-1 vote.

Remembering those we’ve lost in Portage County

The Aurora Board of Education will vote Monday night on a resolution that would make masks optional starting in January, according to an agenda posted on the district website.

By Brad Bolton Downtown Kent was going to dramatically change in 2010, and I wanted to photograph that area before and after the construction. All the empty lots north of Haymaker Parkway were slated for new buildings in the next couple years, and the best place to photograph the change was from the top of the Star of the West mill. I knew the manager, Red Michel, through music. Luckily he agreed to take me up to a high window […]

Remembering those we’ve lost in Portage County

I see Christmas every time I walk into our bedroom. In this instance, Christmas is personified by a decent-sized panda bear stuffed animal that sits on the bottom of one of our nightstands next to the bed. There is a drawstring in the back of the panda that, when pulled, would prompt it to “speak” one of several phrases.

Franklin Township trustees voted Tuesday night to continue operating under their existing contract with the county recycling agency and said they expect the county to do the same.

Renovations are complete on one Airbnb unit in the historic Riddle Block 9 building, the largest commercial building in downtown Ravenna.

On Wednesday, Kent City Council earmarked $1,391,300 of its 2021 share of American Rescue Plan Act money to repair and replace equipment at Kent’s water reclamation facility. The city’s total ARPA share for 2021 is $3,755,140, with an identical amount due to arrive next year.

After losing about $60,000 a year since it opened in 2013, Kent’s Fitness Center is slated to close by the end of the year.

Remembering those we’ve lost in Portage County

Like many of you, in the late fall and early winter of 2020, we watched and waited as life came to a standstill and uncertainty became the new norm. We watched the news and wondered how bad it was going to get, how many lives would be lost to or forever changed by the Covid-19 pandemic. We had seen the long lines of folks waiting for boxes of groceries in other states on television and knew that the need must be here in our own community. We had to do something about it. It was in this moment that Rural Relief Mobile Food Pantry was born.

If I don’t like the characters in a novel, I usually don’t care what happens to them. But I love the characters in “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” by Robert Dugoni, and consequently, I eagerly followed their escapades.

The steering committee for a proposed housing development on Kent State land will require developers to follow the same zoning regulations as a nearby neighborhood, if the project happens at all, officials said at a community meeting Monday.

As a Franklin Township resident, I’m frustrated but not surprised by the issues with the Solid Waste District. We went from weekly collections to every other week, from small containers that were convenient for those of us with really long driveways to massive containers that were impractical eyesores.

Remembering those we’ve lost in Portage County

Franklin Township, the only one of 10 communities to miss a Dec. 1 deadline to continue curbside recycling service, is considering legal action against the Portage County Solid Waste Management District.