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City Council unanimously approved a special event application partnering with Kent State for a 40-feet-by-70-feet rink on Erie Street between the Kent State hotel and the PARTA parking deck. To make it all happen, Erie Street will be closed from Oct. 15 until March 1. The rink itself will be open from Nov. 24 through Feb. 28.

The Davises built this pantry on wheels themselves in the wake of the pandemic and food insecurity crisis that followed. Known as the Rural Relief Mobile Food Pantry, their mission is to meet the needs specifically of rural Portage County, where pockets of the population experience the additional difficulty of living in a food desert.

Community groups in Mantua Township have invested thousands of hours of their time into turning the Mantua Center School into a vibrant community center: volunteering physical labor, writing grants and proposals, hosting fundraisers and chairing committees. Yet two decades after the township acquired the building and at least nine years after the building was cleared for occupancy, it sits mostly empty. Many of those community members say it’s because the township trustees, two of whom have been in office for about a decade, have not followed through on their promises to make use of it.

Two practices a day for a couple weeks, although it felt like a year. One morning practice for several hours, one afternoon practice for several hours, with a couple-hour break in between that seemed more like five minutes where you went home, got out of the sun, did your best to rehydrate and actively dreaded heading back down to the field again.

In-person events have resumed and mask mandates have eased up, yet for some, Covid-19’s morbid arms still hold fast, tearing them away from the privilege of normalcy many now enjoy.

Responding to a “rapid rise” of confirmed Covid-19 cases, the Portage County health department and Kent city officials urged residents to resume precautions that had been largely abandoned after the winter wave and encouraged unvaccinated people to “please reconsider.”

​​This month last year, country singer-songwriter Steve Earle buried his eldest son, Justin Townes Earle. Friday night, when Earle and his band, The Dukes, returned to The Kent Stage, they remembered and celebrated Justin by playing his songs.

The city of Aurora’s pickup service will reduce to every other week, according a statement from the Portage County Solid Waste Management District.

A psychological evaluation has found 18-year-old Zachary Blosser competent to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend, Kaylee Freitag, who was shot to death in Nelson Township in March.

Warm weather, punctuated by alternating downpours and periods of sunshine, makes spring and summer irresistible for a variety of watersports. Their attraction can be mesmerizing. At the same time, they bring serious risks.

The “Highway to Nowhere,” as some Kent townies call it, was originally constructed as a connection to an Akron freeway that never got built. State Route 261 is underutilized and difficult to cross, rendering it a “stroad,” the term for a dangerous, multi-lane thoroughfare, Council Member Heidi Shaffer Bish said.

The Portage County Solid Waste Management District is facing a driver shortage that could threaten to reduce pickups to biweekly service, instead of weekly.

The colonization of Northeast Ohio dates back to the late 1700s, including the settlement of what is now Portage County. To honor the native culture of the land we live on, it is time that our area’s townships consider where we really live.

An August event set to feature U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia as a speaker has been postponed, said Portage County Republican Party Chair Amanda Suffecool.

Money, lots of it, is headed to every city, village and township in Portage County, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion economic Covid-19 stimulus package signed into law March 11.

Time will tell if Indians fans who dislike the franchise’s choice of Guardians for the new team name will ever take to it. They have no choice, obviously, because that’s the nickname going forward when the 2021 season is in the books.

The Flower and Art Show on Tuesday went off without a hitch. The gardeners displayed garden and flower themed paintings and photos along with floral arrangements.

Having secured zoning that will allow an apartment complex to be built next to the Marc’s shopping plaza in Kent, MVAH Partners is forging ahead with its plans to provide affordable housing for working families and independent senior citizens.

The Kent Environmental Council presented Kent resident Doria Daniels with the 2021 Edith Chase Conservation Award for her work in Kent’s Historic South End.

That’s what seems to happen in Ravenna: We tear down the beautiful symbols of the city’s former ambitions and put up cheap, functional boxes, like the county courthouse. Or we replace them with parking lots.