Rootstown
The Rootstown Lions Club’s annual Rootstown Memorial Day Parade and Flag Raising will take place Monday, May 25. The parade lineup will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the NEOMED parking lot. All units must be in place by 9:45 a.m. The parade will start at 10 a.m. Any person, group, organization or business is eligible to be in the parade. The approximately three-quarters of a mile route will travel south on Loretta Drive, then eastbound on Tallmadge Road to Homeland Cemetery, where there will be a guest speaker leading a ceremony and a benediction given by a local clergyman.
- When you arrive, enter the NEOMED south entrance from state Route 44 next to KeyBank and follow these directions:
- Take a left at the stop sign to the lineup area
- A registration table along the way will provide a unit number for judging purposes
- No drive-thrus will be permitted
- Participant drop-offs may be done at either NEOMED Parking Lot B or the parking lot at the start on Loretta Drive
Parade judges will be positioned at the town center. Categories are: Adult, Youth, Business, Marching and Vehicles. To register, contact Parade Chair Doug Matthews at 330-631-2383 or ddmatthe21@gmail.com.
An issue at Homeland Cemetery has township officials scurrying to play damage control. People are putting/hanging decorations such as flower pots by gravestones, making life difficult for the township service department.
“It’s getting out of control,” township Trustee Dave McIntyre said. “When the guys are in there trying to weed-eat or mow, it’s taking them an extra two, three hours to mow around all the extra stuff, and with Memorial Day coming, that’s not good. People are putting hooks out there so when the guys are mowing, these hooks are catching the tractors. The hooks and things like that need to be removed within the next few weeks. The service department will be cleaning things up that are not allowed to be in there.”
The cemetery’s rules and regulations are posted at the cemetery’s entrance and at rootstowntwp.com. If you would like to keep your decorations, contact Service Director Bill Hahn at 330-325-7715.
Rootstown is hoping to have a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) in the near future. The Ohio CRA program is an economic development tool administered by municipal and county governments that provides real property tax exemptions for property owners who renovate existing or construct new buildings. CRAs are areas of land in which property owners can receive tax incentives for investing in real property improvements. The township is waiting for the Portage County Commissioners’ decision.
Paris
Paris’ annual Memorial Day service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 24 at Hawley Cemetery at 5881 McClintocksburg Rd. Highlights include: Reverend Thomas Holbrook of Wayland Community Church giving a speech and prayer; the Newton Falls Veterans Honor Guard performing; and the Suvelis family, which resides right across the street from the cemetery, singing.
“It’s a really nice ceremony to go to,” township Co-Chair Dave Kemble said. “A lot of people come to it.”
The township’s annual Clean-up Day on May 10 at the Shearer Community Center and the fire station was a rousing success.
“There were quite a few people there dropping off a lot of stuff. It was really busy,” Kemble said. “We had vehicles backed up down the road. In fact, we had to call for additional dumpsters. It was just a good clean-up.”
Experienced Roofing recently relocated from Streetsboro to the old Baptist church at 6719 State Route 225 in Paris. The roofing company is open for business.
Edinburg
Edinburg’s annual Memorial Day Parade will start at 11 a.m. on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25 at the intersection of Tallmadge Road and Rock Spring Road. The parade will travel west to state Route 14, then turn right and proceed to Edinburg Township Cemetery, where a service will be conducted by a local preacher. Anyone who would like to be in the parade should arrive by 10:30 a.m. for the lineup. Other highlights of the ceremony: The Boy Scouts raising the American flag, members of the American Legion in Deerfield doing a 21-gun salute, a township trustee speaking, and honoring a township resident who went above and beyond as a volunteer or did something special for the township.
This summer’s chip-and-seal of two township roads will be done by Ronyak Paving.