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LORAIN COUNTY
AMHERST NEWS-TIMES • OBERLIN NEWS-TRIBUNE • WELLINGTON ENTERPRISE Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020
www.lcnewspapers.com
Volume 7, Issue 3
BULLETIN BOARD Thursday, Jan. 16 • OBERLIN: “Heat, Fire, Water: How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency” will be presented at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16 at Kendal at Oberlin’s Heiser Auditorium. Kendal resident Alan Lockwood, emeritus professor of neurology at the University of Buffalo, will speak. He is past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. • AVON: The 11th Annual Pajama Party to benefit the Genesis House will be held from 5-9 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16 at the Emerald Event Center, 33040 Just Imagine Dr. Tickets are $35 and are available at www.eventbrite. com or on the Lorain County Safe Harbor Facebook page. Ticket sales end Jan. 10. The event will include dinner, dancing, and a game like heads or tails with a grand prize of a ring donated by Vandemark Jewelers. There will also be a cupcake challenge where local bakers face off to see who has the best cupcake; 50-50 and basket raffles; and vendors from all over Northeast Ohio. You get to do it all in your pajamas — there will even be awards for the favorite pajama ensembles. All proceeds benefit Lorain County Safe Harbor/ Genesis house, Lorain County’s only domestic violence shelter. Genesis House provides 24 hour hotline and shelter services, and offers an array of domestic violence services including support groups, an aftercare program, prevention education, legal advocacy, child advocacy, community education, intervention and more. • SHEFFIELD: The Women Business Owners Network will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16 at Sugar Creek Restaurant, 5196 Detroit Rd. The speaker will be Jody Wolford, owner of Northern Ohio Beauty School in Lorain. The business spotlight will be Mary Lou Kendeigh of DoTerra Oils. Take enough business cards and literature for an exchange. Contact Karen Cheshire at 440-967-5503 and leave a message or email her at wbonlorain@gmail.com. For more information about the group go to www.wbonlorain.org. • OBERLIN: The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee will screen a documentary at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16 at the Oberlin Public Library, 65 South Main St. “Talking Stick” tells the story of a native-led community access television show that interviews activist Three Eagle Cloud of the American Indian’s Issues and Action Committee. Three EagleCloud, of Oberlin, works to dispel stereotypes surrounding native people and to promote and advance the issues that affect them. All are welcome. BULLETIN BOARD PAGE A3
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Kristin Bauer | Chronicle
Meijer, located just over the Amherst border and inside Lorain at Cooper Foster Park Road and Route 58, has a completed parking lot and building. The new location is set to open later this year.
It may look close, but Meijer opening is still months away JASON HAWK EDITOR
When is the new Meijer on the border of Lorain and Amherst opening? It won't be this week, or this month or even this quarter, no matter how nice the walls and signage may look. "The reason we've got the walls up so fast is so we can do work through the winter," said Meijer
spokesman Joe Hirschmugl on Friday. "It's kind of like building a house. You get the frame up but then you work on HVAC, the electricity and registers," said store director Cassandra Robinson. Robinson is already in Lorain County, working out of the Meijer that opened last May in Avon. She hasn't been inside the Lorain store yet either, but hopes to do so in the next few weeks. For now, it's
still a hard hat area. "It's a great opportunity. I've always wanted to open up a store from the ground up. It's something I've wanted to do for 26 years in retail," she said. Robinson said a 3,735-square-foot convenience store near the corner of Route 58 and Cooper Foster Park Road will open first, and the 159,000-square-foot Meijer will trail by about four weeks.
Already, about 1,000 people have applied for jobs at the retail store, she said. A hiring event will be held the first week of March at Lorain County Community College. You must apply online and be scheduled for an interview — no walk-in applicants will be considered. While it's far too early to speculate about an opening date, Hirschmugl said the Michigan-based retailer MEIJER PAGE A2
Auditor: Most taxes same or lower JASON HAWK EDITOR
Property tax bills were mailed out Friday, and for many people they bear good news. Most residents shouldn't see a hike, and a lot can expect their taxes to ease off a bit, said Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass. "This year is a little bit of a lull," he said. That's because homes and businesses were reappraised in 2018, and won't be again until 2024. There will, however, be a market analysis next year that will affect bills in 2022. There are still several reasons why your property
tax bill might be different this year. New construction, demolition or appeals to the Board of Revision could cause your taxes to shift, Snodgrass said. The biggest changes are due to levies being passed or expiring. There's a lot of red ink on a list of the county's tax districts. It signals reductions. For example, the Amherst school system's two tax areas each saw taxes decline by about 0.29 mills. That's because the schools retired some bonds and an old levy came off the books. The same happened in the Bruce Bishop | Chronicle southwest corner of the city Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass talks of Amherst, which is in the about changes to the property taxes for some TAXES PAGE A4 county home owners.
INSIDE THIS WEEK Amherst
Oberlin
Wellington
Library levy campaign swings into action • B1
Smooth jazz musicians learn from a living legend • C1
McCormick Middle School already needs fixes • D1
OBITUARIES A2 • CLASSIFIEDS A4 • CROSSWORD B3 • SUDOKU B4 • KID SCOOP C4