Iva Walker

So…I’m thinking that my gardening endeavors are in need of divine intervention—for the fungus or whatever it is that’s devastating the hollyhocks and the tomatoes, the slugs and/or whatever is feasting on the berry bushes, the infant poison ivy that seems to be popping up all over the place, the ”sweet violets”, AKA Chameleon plants that are sending out their smelly but vigorous roots everywhere but in the “dead zone” where I’d like them to move in—and I was reading a murder mystery involving a public garden with a statue of a holy fellow called St. Fiacre(Irish--Fiachra, Latin—Fiachrius) patron saint of gardeners (…and maybe cab drivers…who knew?). Why not give him a shot?

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club members wished their local Rotary Student Exchange participant, Rachel Schwan, good luck and Godspeed on her adventure in Thailand for the coming school year. They also welcomed visitor Skip Schweitzer, columnist for The Villager.

Busy time for the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club at their meeting on July 28, 2014 at Cal’s II.  The monthly list of program responsibility was reviewed.  President Delores  McCumbers spoke of the benefits of the PETS (President Elect Training Sessions) program and of a Rotary Honors Vets event coming up...

The Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club welcomed several guests at the July 21 meeting at Cal’s II—Erin Koon and Jessica McKnight from Huntington Bank, sitting in for Tanay Hill, Evelyn West, local delegate to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) and  her mother, Sandy West.  The club also welcomed the return of...

Savings were realized in the bidding process and have been re-invested in upgrades throughout the James A. Garfield campus, for all buildings. This includes more efficient windows, security upgrades (also utilizing funds raised initially by Dee Synnestvedt for parking lot security cameras), digital signage for the high school and elementary school campus—5’x8’, wireless, , kitchen improvements, carpeting in the new elementary band room, furniture upgrades…the whole shootin’ match…looking good.

Garrettsville - Anyone with some spare time and a sense of humor should make a beeline for the Iva Walker Theatre this weekend for the final performances of “Little Shop of Horrors” by the thespians of the Garrettsville Curtains Up Theatre company. The plot revolves around an alien plant that...

The Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club will be sponsoring a hole at the G-Men Football Golf Outing coming soon AND contributing to a fabulous New York learning experience for the Candance Academy, involving master classes, a lesson with the Rockettes and the new version of “Cinderella” on Broadway. Supporting the community is what it’s all about. Light Up Rotary!

“Back in the Saddle Again…Out where a friend is a friend…Where the longhorn cattle feed on the lowly Jimson weed…We’re back in the saddle again….” (Was that Gene Autry?.  Gene had a sidekick named Pat Butram,  I think, who always says said his name so that it sounded more...

The latest update, delivered June 19 in a presentation and walk-through to an interested and inquisitive group disclosed the various contracts and contractors involved, from sitework and concrete through structural steel, lockers, HVAC, building electric(Scotchman Electric),painting and wall covering(Doug Seaman Decorating), technology and paving. Not to mention kitchen equipment, carpentry, flooring and plumbing. Every one of these contracts was bid out and issued keeping both the cost and the time constraints in mind. The intricacies of scope in such construction are quite amazing, involving the “breathability” of a building combined with building efficiency, updating of the utility functions for the entire campus, the element of “Seek and ye shall find,” in discovering an Insinkerator in the bus garage attic, brick types and so much more.

Are you tired of tooting your own horn? Here’s your chance to try playing your own pipes.  Well, not YOUR pipes exactly, but they’d be yours if you’d like to stop by the Garrettsville United Methodist Church and pick up an octave or two.  Here’s the deal : When the abovementioned...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary entertained their soon-to-depart Rotary Student Exchange ambassador, Rachel Schwan at the regular  noon meeting  at Cal’s II on June 9, 2014 for questions about her preparations for the big adventure.  This included getting through the visa process and a convention of exchange students coming up at Otterbein,...

You know those orange and white saw horses that the ODOT crews used to have marking off forbidden territory when the summer construction season started? (They have up-dated all that now with tall, skinny cones and plastic tape)  An ironic gentleman of my acquaintance once proposed that they  ...

Well.  Don’t miss the next one. The next “do” at the Candlelight Winery, that is.  The recent evening featuring food trucks and other festivities was an unqualified success, with  only the Premier Crepes truck left standing by the end of the evening—the others had run out of food, they were...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary will be entertaining their Rotary Youth Exchange student, Rachel Schwan, next week to hear more about last-minute preparations for her departure for Thailand to spend a year as an informal ambassador of our community under the auspices of Rotary International.  What an adventure! Evelyn West will be the...

It’s not “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Longest Day” or “Band of Brothers” but it is a commemoration of one of the greatest military operations in the history of warfare, which we all know, to our sorrow, has stretched across millennia.  D-Day, June 6, 1944 brought together Allied forces...

Garrettsville - The May 19, 2014 meeting of the James A. Garfield Historical Society was focused on three main items : ***The Mott building will be open on May 24 during the Main Street CAR SHOW and on June 7 for the regular, first-Saturday-of-the-month Open House from 10:00 to 2:00. ***Many...

Garrettsville - Take THAT, Creepy Karpis! A northeast Ohio tornado watch didn’t stop interested folks from turning up at the Iva Walker Auditorium on Wednesday, May 15, 2014 to get the low-down on “Two Grants, and Three Giant Leaps” for the James A. Garfield Schools and the Garrettsville Communities. ...

If Jack-in-the-Pulpits are any indication, my yard is a veritable vegetation revival!  Nothing in the bulletin  tells  what the message is.  They’ve popped up in the front, the back, the side lawns.  They’ve out hustled even the ferns.  They’ve beaten the trilliums, hands down.  Wonder what got into them...

Garrettsville - Sunday, May 18, 2014 was the BIG SHOW (Anybody remember Ed Sullivan?  Never mind). Opened with the High School Concert Band’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” and proceeding through the presentations of the Intermediate School Fifth Grade Band, the Middle School Concert Band and the Intermediate School...

Garrettsville - The  Campus of Excellence steering committee met on May 15 (third Thursday of the month, MS Library/Media Center) for a progress report and quick look at the construction of the new elementary school addition to house the fifth and sixth grade, come August. The first question had to...

The new, Cal’s II meeting place for the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club is proving popular and conducive to getting things accomplished.  Those things at the May 19, 2014 meeting  include : Planning for the presentation of a wreath at the cemetery on Memorial Day Invitation to celebration of Dr. Lynn Newman’s steadfast ...

Garrettsville - The Friends of the Garrettsville Library (PCDL) met recently—May 13—to confirm the dates of the next Big Book Sale, which will be held from June 16 to June21.  Monday , June 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 will be the Preview Event for Friends members ( to pick...

Garrettsville - The James A. Garfield Marching Pride has been having a spring banquet since the year 2000 and this year was no exception, a great evening of awards and recognition…and some pretty fair food, prepared by Guido’s Catering and presented through the good offices of Marianne Norris and...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary, at their meeting on May 12, 2014, entertained Ms Evelyn West as an applicant for attendance at this summer’s RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award)activity to be held in June at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea.  She is a participant in Interact, does volunteer work at the James A....

Garrettsville - Six shiny, brand-new TRUPER shovels.  Hard hats.  A pile of dirt brought in and lined up especially for the occasion.  Students, educators &  administrators, township trustees, construction officials dignitaries interested citizens.  Photo opportunities—with or without dirt—of all sorts.  A backdrop of soil on the move, big machines,...