- Roger Gordon. Hiram Village Council has rezoned two properties in the village to allow for college properties to be sold and transitioned out of the institutional district.
- Wendy DiAlesandro. Hoping to generate a mutually beneficial revenue source, Garrettsville is shopping the idea of a Joint Economic Development District to its neighboring townships.
- Roger Gordon. Garrettsville Village Council President Tom Hardesty and Council Member John Brachna recently presented the opportunity to form a Joint Economic Development District between Garrettsville and Nelson Township.
- Roger Gordon. The Village of Hiram’s Downtown Revitalization Spring Fest will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 26 on Hayden Street. Approximately 25 vendors, five of which are food trucks, will be selling a variety of goodies.
- Roger Gordon. Brad Ehrhart, president of the Portage Development Board, spoke recently to Garrettsville Village Council about the village’s interest in perhaps at some point becoming part of a Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) with other communities.
- Roger Gordon.
The Mantua Village Council will hold an open meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21 and welcome your comments on the DORA proposal. The Mantua-Shalersville Area Chamber of Commerce has requested that the downtown area be designated as a “Designated Outdoor Recreational Area,” which would exempt that area from open-container laws.
- Roger Gordon.
A fundraising dinner for the Mantua Restoration Society will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8 in the Mantua Center School gymnasium at 11741 Mantua Center Rd. in Mantua Township.
- Roger Gordon.
The 2025 Garrettsville Summerfest will take place downtown from Friday, June 27 through Sunday, June 29. There will be two stages of live music and entertainment.
Hiram Village Council passed legislation for the village administrator to build a structure to be able to sell water. Currently, the village does not sell water.
The Village of Hiram Council formed a task force a while back for the revitalization of the downtown. That group continues to meet. Two Hiram College student groups — a total of five students doing a senior capstone project and also a semester project — will be contributing to the venture by collaborating with the task force.
The second annual members-only “progressive dinner” for the Mantua-Shalersville Area Chamber of Commerce will be at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20.
Windham Township was successful in getting a grant obtained by the Portage County Land Bank to have the structure at 9092 state Route 303 razed and the property cleaned up.
- Ryan Lind.
Two new construction permits were issued Nov. 4 and Nov. 5. Kable presented a pair of communiques regarding potential prosecution, and brief discussions followed.
Hiram council is overhauling the village’s zoning code, and a public hearing about it will be held Tuesday, Nov. 7 at Village Hall at 7108 Wakefield Rd. The key aspects that will be discussed are parts of Phase 1, including adding a mixed-use zoning code to the books and village council’s proposal of changing from a college research district to an institutional district.
A public hearing will be held regarding implementation discussions of the pay-to-park that was passed last October at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25 at Village Hall, located at 11617 Garfield Rd. It is being implemented to cover the rising costs of having police, fire and EMS.
- Jeremy Brown.
A 175-year-old timber frame building that once served as a church, a school gymnasium and, more recently, a general store and a bakery, is in the final phases of restoration before its official opening as Nelson Township’s new wedding and events venue: Bella Dawn Events.
The long-awaited time capsule opening took place July 6. Inside the time capsule were, among other things, old newspapers, an old book from the Garrettsville 120th Centennial and a song written about Garrettsville called “Old Garrettsville” that was sung by two girls, according to the James A. Garfield Historical Society, when the time capsule was buried in 1924. Two women sang the song at the time capsule opening.
The Portager will run a series of three articles detailing each community’s response, the first one focusing on northern Portage county, the second on central, and the third on the county’s southern townships.