Brimfield
Brimfield Township will hold its annual Brimfest from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22 and 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 on the Kelso House grounds at 4158 State Route 43.
“It’s our biggest event of the year, a big two-day festival,” township Trustee Nic Coia said.
The festival will feature concerts, activities, bounce houses and a video game trailer. Food-wise, festival-goers will not go hungry: There will be several food trucks, the Brimfield Police Department will sell hot dogs, the fire department will sell Italian sausage sandwiches, and the Kelso House will put on a beer garden.
The police department will have a paper-shredding event Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in which people can drive up and have papers shredded.
Saturday’s schedule includes a free pancake breakfast from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Brimfield Historical Society, and a veterans parade sponsored by the Brimfield Lions Club and the Kelso House will start at noon on Falcon Drive across from Brimfield Elementary School and McDonald’s. The parade will head south on state Route 43, travel east on Tallmadge Road, continue onto Pembroke Drive, travel up Kelso Road and conclude back on Falcon Drive across from the elementary school and McDonald’s. A fireworks show at 9 p.m. Saturday will bring the festival to a close.
The township passed a resolution to purchase an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to replace the current UAV at the Brimfield Police Department.
“The police will be using the UAV to help with search and rescue,” Coia said. “The UAV also has the [ability] to assist the fire department in identifying hot spots inside houses, and we’ll also use it for marketing purposes throughout the township – photographing parks and construction, things like that.
“The reason we’re doing the upgrade is that the other UAV is a few years old, and also there’s going to be a change in regulations, so now the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring that all drones have to project their location and also the operator has to have that module now.”
The township could be getting the new UAV, which will cost approximately $11,000, as soon as this week.
Kenda Tire will soon relocate from its Tallmadge location to Brimfield. The business has submitted plans for a 192,000-square-foot building on Maplecrest Parkway behind Menards and Meijer.
“They’ve paid both their zoning and fire certificates,” Coia said, “and they’re submitting to the Portage County Building Department.”
Joe’s Barbeque currently operates out of a food truck at 1299 Tallmadge Rd. But bigger things are ahead for the small eatery: It was granted approval for demolition of two buildings on that property, and a new building will be erected there as a restaurant. The name of the restaurant will remain Joe’s Barbeque.
The Mr. Jeff Children’s Concert on Aug. 12 at Brimfield Lions Community Park was a success.
“There were about 50 people in attendance,” Coia said. “Mr. Jeff sang, played the guitar and danced and got the kids involved in singing and dancing.”
Suffield
The brand-new Dollar General at the corner of Waterloo Road and state Route 532 will open soon.
“They’re in the final stages,” township Chair Jeff Eldreth said. “The parking lot is paved, and they’re planting the grass.”
The striping of Heinbaugh Road and Congress Lake Road was recently completed.
Suffield resident Harrison Blay, 18, continued his family’s tradition of success in winning the grand champion steer at the Portage County Randolph Fair. The Blay family has dominated the steer competition over the last decade.
Atwater
Atwater Township passed a resolution to stream its trustees meetings starting the day after the meeting on YouTube.
“We’d been streaming the meetings on our Facebook page, but due to peoples’ comments on Facebook that [meetings] are public records that we have to retain as a township, we’re switching to YouTube,” township Chair John Kovacich said. “If people comment on somebody else’s comment about something that we did, we don’t know how far along the line are the records we have to retain. If people want to reach out to us, they have to come to a meeting or write us a letter with their concerns.”
