County roundup: The Rootstown Lions Club Chili Cook-off, plus news from Paris and Deerfield

Rootstown

Leadership Portage County will host a “Night at the Races” fundraiser at 5 p.m. Feb. 10 at the American Legion Post 496 at 1945 Mogadore Road in Kent. Past televised horse races will be shown, and dinner will be served. Tickets are still available, and there are still horses available to sponsor. The admission fee is $50 per person. For $100, you can sponsor a racing patron, which would be two dinner admissions, and you get to name a horse. If it is just a horse naming, that costs $20. If you want to be a finish-line sponsor, that is two admissions, one race sponsorship and one horse naming for $150. The winner will receive a cash payment.

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The Rootstown Township Lions Club will host its second annual Chili Cook-off fundraiser from 4-6 p.m. Feb. 19 at NEOMED’s NEW Center at 4211 State Route 44. If you are entering chili in the cook-off, you need to contact the Lions Club to let them know. There will be a 50-50 raffle and at least eight different chilis. Admission fee is $15 per person. A table of eight costs $100. 

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The fencing is going up for Rootstown’s dog park at the township park. Ultimately, a sewer and probably restrooms will be installed.

“All of those things should be done by early summer,” Trustee Dave McIntyre said. “The grass was planted last fall. I’m not sure when that will be fully grown. We have two different areas for the dog park — one for large dogs and one for small dogs.”

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The township trustees discussed renewing their partnership with the Rootstown Area Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club about putting flowers up in the center of town again this year.

“We had some grant money from the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council that we chose to put towards that. We authorized a resolution,” McIntyre said. “Last year was the first year we put the flowers up. It really brightens the community up, and we had a lot of good feedback with it. The Lions Club is going to be asking for donations to see if people would be interested to help offset some of the cost of the flowers and the baskets.”

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McIntyre, along with the township’s two other trustees, the township’s zoning inspector, and its roads superintendent attended the recent annual Ohio Township Association Conference in Columbus.

“We were able to listen to quite a few tracks on different aspects of the township — cemetery, roads, zoning, just different things to help us learn new aspects and new techniques,” McIntyre said. “It’s a big training session for us.”  

Paris

The township is working with Ohio Edison to put up a street light at the Gilbert Road and state Route 225 intersection for safety reasons.

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Paris established its annual township cleanup date, which will be May 13. It is an opportunity for the people in the township to bring the trash that they have around their house to the Paris Township Fire Department at 9355 Newton Falls Road.

“We’ll have dumpsters there,” township Chair Dave Kemble said. “From 8 a.m. to noon, they can pull in, and we’ll collect any trash they want to get rid of such as couches, old lawnmowers, stuff like that. We’ll have a dumpster that will have scrap iron in it, and that goes to the scrap yard. The rest of it is trash.”

A list of items that people can bring and not bring can be viewed at paris-township.com.

Deerfield

Deerfield’s ambulance is currently out of service with a bad motor. It needs a new engine and will be out of service for a couple months.

“Right now, we have a loaner ambulance that we’re using. As long as we have that, we still have coverage in our township,” township Chair Ed Dean said. “If we have to give the loaner ambulance back, we have what’s called mutual aid in which Atwater, Palmyra or Edinburg will respond to a call for us.”

Roger Gordon
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