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A sign reading “We miss our students” is seen on the front of Waterloo Local School District’s K-12 campus. Atwater, Ohio Monday, May 11, 2020. Carter Eugene Adams/ The Portager Waterloo has little else to cut and no choice but to keep putting levies on the ballot An ‘fiscal emergency’ looms if voters reject another tax effort in November ATWATER — Meaghan McIntosh is a lifelong resident of the Randolph-Atwater area. She’s a K-12 alumna of Waterloo Local School District, and so are her mom […]

The Reed Memorial Library opened its doors to the public last Monday. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager Pandemic drives Portage libraries to the brink As local libraries come back to life, they are making changes to the way they serve visitors and adapting to major budget cuts On one of its last open days in March, Carolyn Andrews Schlemmer walked into Kent Free Library. She carried a stack of books to return, had an idea for books to check out and sported her […]

Photo by Brian McGowan Covid-19 Portage County scales back emergency Covid-19 response Portage County’s emergency operations center switched from full to partial activation this week, said Ryan Shackelford, the county’s emergency management director. The center has 15 emergency support functions, each of which represents a specific discipline that can lend resources and expertise to the county’s overall Covid-19 response. The center has scaled back to just four emergency support functions as of this week. “Because we’ve moved to partial activation, that does […]

Greg Johnson, now the Democratic candidate for Portage County sheriff, speaks with LuAnne Kiefer of Kent at a League of Women Voters town hall in February. Carter Eugene Adams/ThePortager Portage County elections Johnson says virtual town halls and social media will define his campaign for sheriff An interview with Greg Johnson, Democratic candidate for Portage County sheriff Voters narrowed the crowded Democratic primary race for Portage County sheriff to one candidate Tuesday. Greg Johnson, a 24-year veteran of the Portage County Sheriff’s […]

Elmedin Beganovic, a 26-year-old EMT, uses a modified paint sprayer to spray down the interior of an ambulance in the vehicle bay of the Windham Fire Department. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager News feature Windham first responders brace for the coronavirus peak ‘I haven’t been to my house in three weeks’ WINDHAM — The alarm at Windham Fire Station 28 is low and continuous, a few seconds of electronic bass, before a dispatcher’s voice breaks through and describes the latest emergency. It’s a tone […]

What is a nursing home? It’s where the hospitals discharge people for rehabilitation. It is where the frail and elderly live their last days with dignity and comfort. It’s where the most vulnerable with dementia rely on the facility to keep them safe. Families must put their full trust in these facilities to take care of their loved ones and protect them.

Nursing homes are navigating a new terrain we have never experienced before this new pandemic of Covid-19 that is tragically taking the lives of our loved ones. This virus is very serious for the elderly population and immuno-compromised patients. We are now seeing it affect healthy younger members of our population, including healthcare workers and physicians.

‘You can revive a cafe, but you can’t revive someone back from the dead’ Kent State epidemiologist Dr. Tara Smith breaks down the Covid-19 crisis in Portage County Photo submitted by Tara Smith Last week I talked with Dr. Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State. She specializes in infectious diseases transferred from animals to humans. At Kent State, her lab studies the transmission of staphylococcus aureus, staph, in communities. Smith and I talked — at a socially safe distance of dozens of […]