Streetsboro
Streetsboro’s summer Brew & BBQ Bash Festival will take over Streetsboro City Park from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17. The park is located at 8970 Kirby Ln. Admission is free. Backyard and professional grill masters will come together for a day of family summer fun, ice-cold beers and BBQ.
There will be more than 15 BBQ and traditional food trucks, eight BBQ teams competing, 15 craft brewers from Northeast Ohio, more than 20 craft vendors, live entertainment on the Woodsy’s Music Stage, kids activities and animal attractions.
Local BBQ teams will compete in five different “Best of…” categories in hopes of being named Brew & BBQ Grand Champion: Best Ribs, Best Sauce, Best Chicken, Best Exotic Dish and Best Dessert. The additional vendors in BBQ Alley will compete for the People’s Choice Awards. The competing teams are: Chasin Tailz (Ravenna), Caleb Blythe (on behalf of Ace Hardware of Aurora), Jay Rhea BBQ (Aurora), Jason Vaughn BBQ, Sucka Bone (Ravenna), John Hejduk’s BBQ Crew (Streetsboro), MoonShine Q BBQ (Beloit), Pink Piggy BBQ (Macedonia), Pig ‘n Nancy “That Punk from Cleveland” (Aurora), Sir Porkalot BBQ (Homeworth), Hatfield’s Good Grub (Cleveland), Ross Mountain BBQ (Sherrodsville), Smokin T’s BBQ (Youngstown), Stray Dog BBQ (Akron) and Rak’s BBQ (Akron). A portion of the proceeds from the BBQ competition will benefit the Special Olympics “Portage Grin and Bear It” organization and the Streetsboro Heritage Foundation. Three judges – Mayor Glenn Broska, well-known Streetsboro resident Chance Singer and Cleveland sports media personality Ken Carman – will crown the king of the barbecues.
You can purchase craft beer discount ticket bundles online and save 15% (15 tickets for $30 in advance or 15 tickets for $36 at the gate). Participating craft breweries include 21st Amendment, Aeonian Brewing, Broadview Brewing, Brooklyn Brewery, ESP Brewery, Garrett’s Mill, Hoppy Dude Brews, Lock 15 Brewing, Lost Coast Brewery, North Water Brewing, Paradigm Shift Brewing, Phoenix Brewing, Rogue Brewing, Schnitz Ale, Victory Brewing and Working Class Brewery. To purchase advance tickets, go to https://stage-a-stellar-event-temp-78209.cheddarup.com.
Live entertainment will be Ohio & Michigan’s ultimate party band, 56DAZE, and Streetsboro’s own Mother Ale.
Kids attractions will include face painting, visiting the Pure Passions alpacas and the Foam Zone, and a huge inflatable roller coaster called “The Wild One.” Don’t miss a photo opportunity with “Lola Oink” pig, with proceeds also benefiting the Special Olympics.
The Streetsboro Area Chamber of Commerce will partner with the chambers in Kent and Stow-Munroe Falls to present the Holiday Weekend Kickoff from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 29 at the Kent State University Hotel & Conference Center. The hotel and conference center is located at 215 S. Depeyster St. Enjoy appetizers and cocktails on the terrace. Register early as space is limited to 75 attendees.
Legislation updating a nuisance ordinance is under consideration. It is going to define and cover what are considered nuisances.
“We hadn’t updated this in quite a long time,” Mayor Glenn Broska said. “The planning and zoning department put together an ordinance, and we submitted it to city council. We’re in the process now of discussing with council how it should be formulated. It’s a good look at the cooperation between the administration and council, to make sure we put something out there that’s relevant and effective and is fair to all. Council, because it’s the legislative body of the city, reviewed it and had some thoughts and ideas that they’d like to see incorporated or changed. We, as the administration, are listening to those thoughts and ideas to come up with something that is acceptable and that we can enact and that we can then enforce.”
There is a whole litany of things that define a nuisance, such as tall grass in somebody’s yard and building materials left out in view in someone’s yard.
“People who live around those homes complain about those things,” Broska said.
“Probably 99 percent of our zoning violations are generated by neighbors. We’re trying to define what are considered nuisances and also give ourselves the ability to address those issues in a timely manner.”
City of Ravenna
The City of Ravenna’s annual car show – the Octane Nights Mongoose Powersports Car Show – will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7 on East Main Street. There is no entry fee, and there will be no awards given. Food trucks and local merchants will be on site. A 50-50 raffle will be held, and a disc jockey will provide music.
“The car show is very well attended,” Mayor Frank Seman said. “We had more than 3,000 cars and 15,000 people attend last year’s car show.”
The annual Ravenna Rocks Concert & Fireworks Spectacular will be from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10 on West Main Street. The event is sponsored by the Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce. There will be six bands performing all day long: DJKrooze, Kendall Chalkwater, the Back Alley Relics, Matt Carson, the 1052 Band and The Michael Weber Show, which is the headliner. There will be food trucks as well as local restaurants, a live disc jockey from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., a chalk fest for kids from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., a cornhole tournament from 2 to 9 p.m. and a cruise-in from 2 to 9 p.m. A fireworks show will close the day’s activities.
Every six months, a Ravenna citizen is selected to have Honorary Way (the road that City Hall is on) named after them. The latest Ravenna citizen to be so honored is Julie Piccione Beach, who will be honored at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10 at the annual Ravenna Rocks Concert & Fireworks Spectacular. Piccione Beach, a lifelong Ravenna resident, has taught in the Ravenna school system for 30 years. She has won numerous awards, including Teacher of the Year from Ravenna Schools and Volunteer of the Year from the Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce. She serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including Ravenna Parks & Recreation and the Friends of the Library. Her newest adventure is serving as a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer. Piccione Beach has dedicated her life to making Ravenna a better place for all.
A throwback party with 1990s and 2000s music will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10 at the Big Dog at 432 W. Highland Ave. The music will be provided by disc jockey Easy B.
Join the Ravenna School District and Leslee Keegan’s I’MPOWER Fitness Center at the second annual Raven Athletes of Honor 5K & 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk on Sunday, Aug. 18 at Ravenna High School at 6589 N. Chestnut St. The race begins at 9 a.m. Proceeds will be used to provide opportunities for students such as field trips and exploratory activities that the district could otherwise not provide. For more information, email [email protected].
The paving of Main Street is nearing completion. It’s a $2 million project, of which the city paid $650,000 and the State of Ohio paid the rest since Main Street is a state route.
“The project is 95% complete,” Seman said. “They’re putting the final layer on now. All they have left to do is a little bit of work on some of the side streets so there aren’t bumps. It looks very nice.”
Reed Memorial Library recently had its reopening open house. The parking lot was redone so that cars and pedestrians do not have to be mixed together, and a large gazebo was built so classes and events can be held outside.
“The library is one of the better-looking buildings on Main Street,” Seman said, “and this just enhances it even more.”
A community meeting hosted by Friends of Ravenna Schools will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13 in the community room at Ravenna High School. The school is located at 6589 N. Chestnut St. Learn about the November levy in support of the Ravenna School District and find out how you can get involved in strengthening Ravenna’s students, families and community.
Join the Portage County Historical Society for the rededication of the Salmon Carter House from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17. The Salmon Carter House is located at 6549 N. Chestnut St.
Have extra produce? Here’s your chance to share! A produce drop-off will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays Aug. 8, 15 and 22 at Raven Packs, which is located at 5581 S. Prospect St. Donations will be used for free farmer’s market giveaway events at low-income Ravenna communities.
Aurora
Aurora City Council authorized the purchase of a new ambulance for $347,000 for which there is more than a two-year lead time.
“We rotate the ambulances,” Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin said. “When they reach a certain mileage level, we may still use them as backup for a little while, but we eventually sell them.”
City council approved two contracts related to its Geauga Lake stormwater mitigation project for which it had a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.
“One contract is for the design of the stormwater infrastructure and the green space that we will be providing,” Womer Benjamin said. “The other contract is for asbestos abatement in the homes that we’ll be taking down in the Geauga Lake area.”
City council approved a contract with Ronyak Paving for some additional paving that the city had money left over for. The roads that will be paved are Oak Hollow Road and East Pioneer Trail from Page Road to the Mantua Township line.
City council approved a contract with Emery Electric for lighting at the Aurora Cemetery, specifically the American flag. Emery Electric donated $5,000 to the project, and the VFW donated $10,000 to it. The city paid $14,000 toward the project.
The city enacted legislation prohibiting the cultivation and selling of recreational marijuana for retail or commercial purposes. It is in effect now.
On June 24, the Mantua Township Board of Zoning Appeals issued the conditional zoning certificate to Aurora for the Aurora Trail along the railroad right-of-way. Part of the trail will be in Mantua Township, and the City of Aurora needed to get zoning permission to construct it from Mantua Township.
City council approved the City of Aurora’s leasing of the historic building that the city purchased at the corner of state Route 82 and state Route 306 to Senior Helpers, a nationwide provider of in-home senior care. The address is 10 S. Chillicothe Rd.
City council put 13 charter amendments on the November ballot. The amendments are generally procedural, including providing electronic options for city advertising to adapt to the shift from print to online media, standardizing titles of employees and departments, adding alternate members for two committees, specifying that charter amendments must be approved by voters and increasing the spending authority of the city by $5,000 to reflect inflation.
The annual National Night Out and Truck and Tractor Night will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6 at Kiwanis-Moore Park. The park is located at 35 W. Pioneer Trl. There will be food and prizes, and there is no admission fee.
Said Womer Benjamin, “It’s always a lot of fun.”
David Benjamin, the husband of the mayor, passed away July 8. Benjamin was Aurora’s law director for 12 years and was also the law director for a number of other communities.
Shalersville
Shalersville’s $225,000 grant for Shalersville Park is now complete and will fund improvements in the new section of the park.
“We are in the beginning stage of planning for a new pavilion, gazebo and walking trail,” township Trustee Jack Bias said. “The original section of the park will have improvements to the existing trail.”
By the way, dirt bikes and 4-wheelers are not permitted at the park.
As of July 29, Coit Road is closed for repairs north of state Route 303 at the Ohio Turnpike bridge. It will be closed for two weeks.
The township now has a money market account to take advantage of the high interest rates that are being paid.
