Archive

Outdoor seating is coming back to Franklin Avenue, giving Kent’s downtown businesses another season of reprieve from the economic fallout of the pandemic’s social distancing requirements. Kent City Council approved the road closure from Erie Street to Main Street effective May 7 to Oct. 4, tentatively.

A long-time eyesore in Suffield will be cleaned up and given new life as a mulch production site, promising to create 40 jobs in Portage County. Oldcastle Lawn and Garden, an international wholesaler of mulch, soils and decorative rocks, has agreed to purchase the former property of a tire manufacturing plant at 61 state Route 43, at the corner of Manning Road.

I’m a sucker for books with “library,” “book,” “reader,” “bookstore,” etc. in the title. So when I noticed two novels recently on the bestseller list with “library” in the title, I had to check them out.

Bumble bees are among the best pollinators around — even better than honey bees. They can pollinate many different species and genera of flowers, actively pollinating gardens and crops from April through mid-October.

Brimfield police officers Matt Kennedy and James Carrozzi each received a Life Saving Award after rescuing an allegedly suicidal woman who was hanging from an interstate bridge.

Lynda is a football mother who is about to send her son to one of the nation’s blue-blood collegiate programs, the end of a lengthy and trying process for a player who was recruited by schools all over the country. Here is her story, in her own words.

The Portage Soil and Water Conservation District helped Skeels residents and community leaders stock the pond at the Skeels-Mathews Community Center on Wednesday.

NAACP of Portage County president Dr. Geraldine Hayes Nelson and Ravenna activist Rev. Dennis Richey, Sr. released statements last night in response to the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

A section of Mantua’s historic Main Street commercial district will soon be officially “blighted.” Under new legislation the village council is considering, a section of the downtown would receive the designation and become eligible for Ohio’s Target of Opportunity Grant Programs. Property owners could unlock funding to repair and rehabilitate their buildings.

Facing a deepening financial crisis, Waterloo Local School District is asking Atwater and Randolph residents to pass an earned income tax in Portage County’s May 4 election.

The Crestwood Local School District is looking to pass its first operating levy since 2012 and only the second since 1992 during Portage County’s Primary/Special Election on May 4.

A renewal tax levy to generate $1,045,000 per year for the Rootstown Local School District will be on the ballot at Portage County’s May 4 election.

The Windham Exempted Village School District is hoping to pass Issue 10, an additional tax levy, to raise funds to replace an aging heating system.

Waterloo Local School District has selected Angela Terella to replace outgoing superintendent Shawn Braman, who departs this summer to take a job at Northwest Local Schools in Canal Fulton.

Mantua Township is going ahead with Memorial Day services led by Mantua American Legion Post 193. The ceremony at West Lawn Cemetery’s flagpole will feature a speaker or reader, the Crestwood High School Band, the playing of “Taps” and a 21-gun salute, coordinator Ray Corbett said.

Trustees approved chip and seal projects for Gilbert Extension from Kestrel Road to Cable Line Road, and for the post office on Wayland Road. The township owns the property the post office is on, so it is their responsibility to maintain it, Trustee Dave Kemble said.

Suffield Township trustees are seeking participants in Suffield’s Memorial Day parade, which is set for 10 a.m. May 31. The parade will start on Catherine Street and end at Suffield Elementary School, where a ceremony will be held.

With no livestreaming yet available, and with council chambers so small that meeting attendees are severely limited, county commissioners announced the creation of an overflow room. Instead of being ejected to the hallway because there are more than 10 people (including the commissioners, their clerk and public officials presenting information to the commissioners), attendees may now hear and view commissioners’ proceedings in a nearby room which has been outfitted with a large screen.

Diamond’s Moon Farm is building a new greenhouse with a 6,000 gallon aquaponic tank. Aquaponic farms are able to grow a high yield of crops without soil, using the natural fertilization from fish living in a constantly-recycling, highly-controlled aquatic environment.

Streetsboro’s City Council discussed waterline improvements and how to pay for them at its meeting, with council eyeing multiple projects that could cost about $9.1 million.
Council will consider the project design during its April 26 meeting. If approved, the project will go out for bid, with construction planned for Spring 2022.