Village of Hiram
The Village of Hiram is looking to implement a boot system rather than towing vehicles parked illegally.
“Instead of towing a vehicle, you attach a boot to one of the tires, which locks the vehicle in place, and the car owner can’t move the car,” Mayor Anne Haynam said. “It’s safer, more efficient and less costly than having to pay for a tow. Sometimes you can’t tow a vehicle because it’s parked in between two other vehicles, so it just creates another option. It’s the equivalent of towing to another site, only the car just stays where it is. When the driver pays the fine, the boot is removed.”
The village has had a process where if you don’t pay your parking ticket in 24 hours the fine doubles. Village council is considering extending that time period to 10 days.
Village council is in the final stages of legislation regarding starting a parking bureau, which will allow various village employees to write parking tickets.
A public forum will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 at the Kennedy Center Ballroom at 11730 Garfield Rd. There will be a 20 minute Q&A regarding the speed cameras that will be implemented in the spring. The event is open to the public.
A “Village Night” was held Jan. 31 at the Hiram College women’s and men’s basketball doubleheader. There was a meet-and-greet for village residents designed for residents to meet each other, there were raffles and people got to meet the Terriers women’s players after their game. If people wore Hiram gear, they got in free.
“It’s all part of our work in trying to bridge the relationship between the college and the village,” Haynam said. “It was a great opportunity for us as a village to reach out to the college and support our student-athletes. We had a good crowd. The athletic director said that was the most people he’s had at a women’s basketball game.”
Village of Windham
The Village of Windham will soon be getting a hand-held speed camera that will be manually operated by one of its police officers.
“The camera takes pictures, so it will be able to get images of license plates,” Mayor Lawrence Cunningham said. “We’re going to see how it goes.”
The Windham Police Department will be relocating from its current location on North Main Street to a building on Maple Grove Road. The administration offices will remain at the North Main Street location and will expand due to more space being available.
The village changed its gas supplier to Interstate Gas Supply.
“We went from residential to commercial,” Cunningham said. “Everything we had that was residential is now commercial.”
Farmers National Bank on East Center Street will be closing its doors April 26, leaving the community without a bank.
“That’s challenging for the people in the community, so I’m working to try to replace the bank with another bank,” Cunningham said. “With the state of online banking, it’s going to be a little rough to try to get a brick-and-mortar here, but I’m going to try.”
Katherine Thomas Elementary School will be getting rid of some of its playground equipment and getting new equipment in June.
“They’re donating the old equipment,” Cunningham said, “so we’ll either be taking that equipment to Windham Village Park or finding another location for it.”
Windham Township
Windham Township has been awarded the old Windham Alloy plant property on state Route 303. A paving company is going to purchase the property for $350,000. The township will keep the rights from the royalties from the cell phone tower.
The township is doing a nuisance abatement for a house on state Route 303 that has been declared deplorable by the health, fire, zoning and building departments. The Portage County Land Bank received a grant to raze the home. The Land Bank will then clean the property up and likely enter it in the market as usable land again.
Garrettsville
The Garrettsville Fraternal Order of Eagles will present its annual Cupid Shuffle Crawl Saturday, Feb. 10. Registration is at 2 p.m. at the Eagles club at 8149 Water St., and the Crawl starts at 3 p.m.
“You walk around town to the different bars and taverns and collect a playing card at each one, and the best 5-card poker hand wins $100. There will be some giveaways too,” Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors member Aaron King said. “You can stay awhile and eat and drink at the establishments because you have three hours.”
A catered dinner will be held at the Eagles club at 6:30 p.m., which is also when the winner will be announced. Entertainment after dinner will be provided by Crazy James and the Plaid Sandwich. There will also be a Chinese auction and a 50/50 raffle. The cost is a $25 donation per person to the Eagles club. Reserve your spot by calling 330-527-2330.
The Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce will hold a Scotch Doubles tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17 at Sky Lanes Bowling Alley at 8307 Windham St. The cost is $50 per couple. Proceeds benefit the Buckeye Block.
Chris Knop retired from village council and was replaced by Deborah Wordell, who had been on council several years ago. Sherri Johnson was an incumbent re-elected to stay on council.
Freedom
Charter Communications, a telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum, announced at a special meeting at the Town Hall recently that it will be completing a rural broadband expansion project connecting hundreds of Portage County residents, including many in Freedom, to high-speed, reliable broadband.
The fire department is currently interviewing in-house employees to be volunteer officers.
The township trustees passed a resolution a while back to redo the kitchen at the Town Hall.
“They’re working on it right now,” township Chair Tom Mesaros said.
Village of Mantua
The next Mantua-Shalersville Area Chamber of Commerce meeting will be at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15 at the TL Service Center at 4626 state Route 82. The meeting is open to the public.
