Granger Township

The final plat of the Granger Meadows Subdivision has been approved by the Medina County Board of Commissioners.

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Medina Township

The Rustic Inn has closed. Long a favorite pizza parlor and family restaurant in Medina, closed late last month after more than 20 years.

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City of Medina

The debate over rezoning on Washington Street continues.

A citizen’s group has formed in an effort to prevent the property across the hospital to be rezoned from residential to commercial.

More than 1,000 signatures were gathered during the summer to put the issue on the November ballot.

Lee and Shirley Kahn live on one of the properties in question and have stated a "major medical group" is interested in creating a clinic in the area, if rezoned.

Mark Cowen, however, director for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation has denied any interest by the Clinic in this Medina property.

The Kahn’s have been accused by their neighbors of giving a false impression of the Cleveland Clinic’s interest in the hopes of swaying rezoning votes in November. The Kahns deny the accusation.

A rezoning would allow for commercial development along the stretch of East Washington Street.

The Liberty Woods Subdivision Phase 5 has been approved by Medina City Council. The Subdivision, owned and developed by the North Marks Road Land Company sits off of Marks Road west of Reagan Parkway and is part of the upcoming East Reagan Parkway extension. The North Marks Road Land Company, in the agreement with the city, will install sanitary sewers, storm sewers, sidewalks, street name signs, street trees, water lines, street lights and pavement. This phase of the development includes the addition of 15 lots to the city.

Contaminated soil at the Medina City Garage was removed by Maintenance Unlimited at a cost of $14,000 last month.

Litchfield Township

The church council of the Litchfield Community of Our Lady Help of Christians is holding their Famous Spaghetti Supper on Sunday, October 15 at the Litchfield Town Hall from noon to 6 p.m. Ticket prices are $5.50 for adults, $2.75 for children ages 2 to 17 and children under the age of two are free. The Spaghetti Supper coincides with the Fall Foliage Tour. Litchfield is a designated stop this year.

York Township

A third-grade boy threatened to use a gun to harm another student at York Elementary School last month.

The boy was suspended for three days. The boy was also not allowed to carry a book bag to school for the duration of the week.

There is a toll-free phone number for any information which could negatively impact Buckeye School District students.

Information could be related to violence, theft, drug or alcohol abuse, sexual harassment or weapons.

The information is given to an anonymous service. The service will pass the information along to the school who, in turn, can investigate.

After three school days, callers can check on the status of their report by redialing the number. A recording will tell the caller whether there was a request for further information.

The number is (800) 4-1-VOICE, Ext. 359 or (800) 418-6423, ext 359.

The Litchfield PTO Playground Committee is selling Dairy Queen cards. The proceeds from the sales will go toward adding new equipment and improvements for the Litchfield Elementary School.

Buckeye School District’s annual State of the Schools Breakfast will be held on October 13 at 7:30 a.m. in the Buckeye High School Cafeteria.

In addition to a free breakfast, Superintendent Craig Bailey will speak to the audience.

In addition, the Buckeye’s "Employee of the Year" will be named for the 1999-2000 school year.

Anyone interested in attending the breakfast, should call Buckeye’s Board of Education by Wednesday, October 11 at (330) 725-3735, ext. 244 for a reservation.

Village of Lodi

Costs for the engineering required in the Village of Lodi’s electric upgrade came to approximately $503,000. Engineering costs for the new sewer plant, thus far, have reached $600,000

The use of jake brakes has now been outlawed within the Village of Lodi.

On October 16, there will be a public hearing on the subject of 69.21 acres of land in Harrisville Township up for annexation by the Village of Lodi.

The Village of Lodi has authorized the Superintendent of the Board of Public Affairs to enter into a service agreement with AMP-Ohio.

Two businesses have applied for tax abatements in The Village of Lodi, the Knott Brake Company and the Lodi Foundry.

The Foundry is considering the construction of a new 12,000-square-foot building. Both would be located in the proposed 77-acre business park on West Drive.

The Village of Lodi has agreed to spend $1,848 for the purchase of 24 catch basin grates.

For October, the Lodi Community Hospital Auxiliary will host its second annual variety show titled, "Is There a Doctor in the House?"

The show will begin at 8 p.m. on October 6 and 7 at the Homerville Community Center Auditorium.

Doctors, nurses, administration, staff, family and friends of the hospital will be featured in skits and musical selections.

Lodi’s Halloween in the Park will be October 14.

Requests have been made for the purchase of a four-drawer filing cabinet for zoning files, not to exceed $115, $400 for repairs to a Village police cruiser and $250 for Scott Kunkle to attend Rescue First Responder School.

The Medina County Board of Commissioners has approved the annexation request for the DeLong property on Buffham Road. More discussions on the proposed annexation will occur this month.

Bear Swamp Dragging quoted the Village of Lodi $68,000 for the dragging of the lake on Young and Lakeview Drive.

Three cars have been seen parked at the Letha House Field on the newly refinished tennis courts. The Village of Lodi Police Department has been notified.

The Village of Lodi Safety Committee is considering an ordinance which would allow the police department to enforce underage smoking.

The Village’s attorney, Ted Lesiak was asked to gather information on the City of Medina’s underage smoking offense program.

City of Medina’s underage smoking programs.

The discussion was spurred by a complaint from a resident about teens smoking in the Village.

The Lodi Community Hospital Auxiliary recently donated 500 children’s coloring books to the hospital’s emergency room.

The books follow "baby bear’s visit to ER" with a diploma and metal of bravery at the back of the book.

The Auxiliary also purchased 15 children’s cots for the Century of Love Child Care & Preschool Facility, a division of the hospital.

In addition, September sported a doll show and clothing line sale sponsored by the Hospital Auxiliary.

How much to build in Medina County?

BY Heather L. Berry

According to the August statistics from Medina County’s chief building official, Bill Cooper, the average home in the county costs an average of $198,782.

For the year-to-date, the average cost of new home is $191,000, up from the $175,000 last year.

Still, the cost doesn’t seem to be slowing growth.

Montville continues to lead the pack with new homes, showing 27 in August and 145 since the beginning of the year.

Brunswick Hills has seen 81 new homes go up, Medina Township has 57 and Liverpool has 50.

In the month of August, 88 new homes were constructed in the county, up from 78 in August of last year.

A total of 586 homes have been constructed since the beginning of the year up from 539 at this time last year.

New commercial building permits, however, are down.

Last year around this time, the county had 688 new commercial construction permits verses 570 this year.

August showed the highest in estimated construction costs at $32 million. Last year at this time, the figure was $30 million.

Wadsworth has had the highest in commercial construction permits this year with 37, Medina Township followed a close second with 36 and Brunswick Hills had 20.

Two cell towers were constructed in the county in August, one in Granger and one in Hinckley.

MTD has also obtained a permit for $11 million in improvements to offices and production areas.