Staff Reporter

Rotarians of the Garrettsville-Hiram persuasion were beavering away with last-minute preparations for their annual Reverse Raffle/Silent Auction fund-raiser.  You can still get tickets from any Rotarian for the bash on Thursday, November 11--that’s today!  Proceeds go to fund local , district, state and international projects of Rotary...a lot of...

Middlefield – If you are looking for a unique place to buy locally-made, handcrafted gift items, you need to stop by Amish Home Craft & Bakery.  They are located at 16860 Kinsman Road in Middlefield, just 1 1?2 miles east of downtown Middlefield.  Their regular hours are Monday through...

Garrettsville - “People are flying blind,” says financial planner Chris Perme of this generation of retirees and those soon approaching retirement. “We are living through the Great American Retirement Crisis -- a perfect storm for Baby Boomers whose retirement benefits got whacked 30-40 percent at just the wrong time, thanks...

Nelson Township - Nelson Township Trustees met for their regularly scheduled meeting recently. Items on the agenda were website update, neighborhood watch program, and fuel tank situation. Trustee Joe Leonard updated the board on the website. The website domain NelsonTownshipOhio.org will be free for a year if they purchase a...

Newton Falls - Newton Falls Exempted Village School District has released the Calamity and Weather Delay Information for the 2010-2011 school year. New rules on calamity days are as follows: The State of Ohio has mandated new changes on school closings. Beginning this school year, 2010-2011, each school district is...

Newton Falls - Cloey Essa is all girl. She loves wearing dresses and her pageant crown; however, there’s more to this 7-year-old first grader. Cloey is “Little Miss Buckeye Tourism”. She and her mom decided to use the title to give back where they can. One way they are doing...

Garrettsville – Main Street has avoided the wrecking ball and will retain its storefront profile, thanks to action taken by Garrettsville Village Council and Mayor Craig Moser. “We are moving ahead with needed repairs on the Irwin Hardware Building,” Moser reports. “Council authorized the mayor and clerk to do so...

Garrettsville - Garrettsville Village Council wrestled with the pros and cons of either demolishing or repairing the Irwin Hardware Building, with several members initially hesitant to allocate public monies for a privately-owned building. Despite the controversy, detractors had to agree that the privately-owned building has become a very public...

Windham - Windham Village Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting with all council members and the fiscal officer in attendance. The council approved the fiscal officer’s expenditures, and the September bank reconciliation. Items on the agenda were: the purchase of new cruisers, revisions to income tax filing requirements,...

Garrettsville - The November 3rd Garrettsville Area Chamber Meeting was held at the Nelson United Methodist Church. Thank you to Pastor Rick for hosting the meeting and a big thanks to Pam and Norma for the tasty breakfast. Ruth Simera gave the treasurer’s report and was happy to announce that...

Garrettsville - Where? Garrettsville. You know, north of Ravenna, tucked up in the corner of Portage County. And for the many who didn’t know we existed, or barely gave us a passing notice, we are definitely on the map now, thanks to the election last week. James A. Garfield graduates,...

Newton Falls - This election season residents of Newton Falls visited the polls, not once, but twice. In addition to the usual opportunity to vote for various state officials and cast a yea or nay toward potential levies, a special election was held on Thursday regarding what could arguably be...

Freedom Township - A large portion of the November 4 Trustee Meeting was a presentation by Mr. Ratiff of Western Reserve Farm Co-Op regarding changes being made in diesel oil used for equipment requiring its use. These changes include cleaning out or replacing storage tanks as well as potential...

Hiram - The Eastern European Ensemble, Turli Tava, will perform at Hiram College on Thursday, November 18 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.  The location is Frohring Music Hall, 11746 Dean Street.  The free concert is part of the College’s convocation series. Turli Tava plays energetic and creative music strongly rooted in Macedonian...

Area residents who have lost someone to suicide will gather Nov. 20 to find support and to honor their loved ones at the 12th Annual National Survivors of Suicide Day sponsored by the Portage County Suicide Prevention Coalition. “What we know is that every 16 minutes someone in the United...

Newton Falls - June is widely known as the typically popular month for wedding bliss, but November turned out to be the special time for one lucky local bride and her adoring groom. Last fall, Rob Lee, the owner of Roby Lee’s Restaurant and Banquet Center in Newton Falls, announced...

On Thursday of this week our country will observe Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor those who have served or are serving this country in the armed forces. The origin of the holiday was the signing  of the Armistice with the Germans that ended World War I...

Barn-Building Hiram Farm Living and Learning Community is looking for volunteers to help out with construction of a new barn at the farm. Hours are Saturday 9-6 and Sunday 1:30 - 6. Hiram Farm is located south of  the corner of 700/82/305 in Hiram, OH.  All are welcome. For more...

The old cliché, “on any given day” never rang truer than last week. The 1-8 Newton Falls Tigers traveled to Orwell last week to take on the 8-1 Grand Valley Mustangs. The score was what everyone expected, the winner was not. The Tigers roared into Grand Valley’s stadium and...

The caller on phone line number two wanted to know, “Why is a new ship christened with a bottle of champagne?” This is one of those practices that the Newton Falls Public Library staff is aware of, but never really thought of the reason behind it. Page 791 of Popular...

It’s beginning to look a lot like....O.K., who left the Clint Eastwood glam pin-ups on the fridge?  Get them down right now and put them with the Chuck Klamer voodoo figurine...the one with the pins in it.  Put a red bow on the top; it’ll work. Yes, Virginia, there IS...

I recently had the chance to go back to Walt Disney World to check out the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT. I have read many reviews and blogs discussing the festival but I never expected so much! If you ever get the chance to attend this festival, I highly...

Since the election season has just passed, more attention than usual may be focused upon our government.   In Ohio, our state and local governments are an “open book” and the business of each governmental board is open to the public.  You may have heard references to the “sunshine...

Costumes, candy, pizza, music....and bowling.   The Youth Leagues celebrated Halloween on Saturday and everyone had a great time.   Michelle Tushar and Jenny Wampler passed out Halloween candy, Aaron King served up pizza (yes, even at 9:30 in the morning), and coach Kenny Brigham turned on the music...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary members were awed by the scope of initiatives, activities and programs outlined by their speaker, Fred Youngen, of the Windham Bible Church, also a moving force in the Renaissance Family Center, which was the topic of his remarks. Virtually no age group in the community would fail to...

Garrettsville - The James A. Garfield girl’s Middle School cross country team made school history by winning the PTC Championship meet on October 16, 2010.  Scoring for the team were Mariah Coulter, 2nd in the county with a time of 13:16 followed closely by her teammates Shian Penna...

Newton Falls - During the October meeting of the Newton Falls Chamber of Commerce Association, holiday planning was the main topic of conversation. With Halloween just around the corner and organizing for the Christmas season in full swing, there was much to be discussed. Starting off the meeting, a proclamation of...

Garrettsville - On November 27 the Garrettsville Eagles Club,   F. O. E. 2705 presented a check for $2,000 to National Diabetic Research Center generated by the Club-sponsored golf outing. The donation was accepted by Matt Eisemann and Brian Mullins who ran the event. The Fraternal Order of...