Today is Aug. 15, 2024.

• Good morning! The Dog Days of Summer are over — they officially ended Aug. 11 — but summer itself isn’t going anywhere for awhile, and today will be Exhibit A. We’re going to have a high of 85 degrees with intervals of clouds and sun, with a low of 68 tonight. The weekend won’t be quite as warm but it’s going to be humid with thunderstorms, particularly Friday when storms could bring flooding downpours and localized damaging wind gusts. Not what we need after last week’s deluge.
  

• ATTENTION GHOSTS AND GOBLINS: Trick-or-Treat 2024 will take place in Munroe Falls, rain or shine, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26. The city asks residents and trick-or-treaters to follow a few simple guidelines: 1. If you want to participate in handing out treats, please turn on your porch light; 2. Watch for traffic when crossing roads; 3. Consider handing out treats to children instead of putting out a group bucket. The Munroe Falls police and fire departments will have extra patrols out in the community during Trick-or-Treat. The Spotlight will publish Stow and Silver Lake trick-or-treat information as it becomes available.
  

• MUNROE FALLS POLICE OPENINGS: The City of Munroe Falls currently has openings for full- and part-time police officer positions. The Full-Time Officer pay range is $52,186.41 to $75,051.73 at the end of the contract (Jan. 1, 2025). The Part-Time Officer pay range is $22.72 to $26.25 per hour, with double time on holidays. Go to this page for more information. Go here for an employment application.
  

• WERE YOU A VICTIM OF THE RECENT STORMS? IF SO, FINANCIAL RELIEF IS AVAILABLE: The Summit County Fiscal Office is offering real estate tax relief to residents whose property suffered damage in the recent storms that battered Northeast Ohio. Go to this page to see if you qualify and what financial assistance might be available. You can also receive help via the Summit County Emergency Management Agency. Residents and business owners can submit a damage assessment at https://crisistrack.juvare.com/public/summitOH/request.html. The submission deadline is Wednesday, Aug. 21.
  

• ABOUT THOSE LOW-FLYING AIRCRAFT … : If you happen to see or hear low-flying aircraft buzzing through our skies over the next few days, there’s a good reason for it. The Props and Pistons Festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 17 and Sunday, Aug. 18 at Akron Fulton Airport — which means there will be low-flying, high-speed aerobatic and military aircraft in the area from Thursday, Aug. 15 through Aug. 18 as they prepare for and perform in the festival. All activities have been approved by the FAA. If you plan on attending the festival, it runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday at the airport, located on Triplett Boulevard in Akron. Go here for more information.
  

• FREE ADOPTION WEEKEND AT THE HUMANE SOCIETY: The Humane Society of Summit County is taking part in the national “Clear the Shelters” campaign, which runs through Monday, Sept. 30. The HSSC is joining the campaign by waiving all adoption fees on all animals Saturday, Aug. 24 and Sunday, Aug. 25. Adoption applications are still required. The shelter, located at 7996 Darrow Rd. in Twinsburg, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. Walk-in adoptions are welcome, or you can call the Humane Society’s Adoption Team at 234-212-9843.
  

• WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THE SMF SCHOOLS BOND ISSUE? The Spotlight is taking the pulse of the Stow-Munroe Falls community on the upcoming $238 million, 35-year bond issue the school district is putting on the November ballot. If passed, the 8.89-mill bond issue would increase property taxes for owners of homes valued at $200,000 by nearly $622 annually. Send us your comments on the issue, and we will publish them as we get them in our “Reader Spotlight” feature (detailed below).
  

• “Reader Spotlight” is a forum where you can send us your comments, concerns and suggestions on anything going on in our communities of Stow, Munroe Falls and Silver Lake. Send your email to [email protected], put “Reader Spotlight” in the subject line, and please include your name and town (recommended but not required for publication). We will publish comments as we receive them.
  

• If you just subscribed or missed something in an earlier newsletter, don’t fret: Subscribers have access to every edition of The Spotlight at www.stowmunroefalls.com. Check out back issues to catch up on everything that’s going on in our communities — you never know what you might have missed!

⭐ Several stories in this issue are only available to premium subscribers: More on the StowNut fire, blood drive, puzzle sale, Stow-Munroe Falls Hall of Fame, lyme disease and much more local news. Full access is just $2.99/month.

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Crime

Shooting leaves 2 dead in apparent murder-suicide in Taco Bell drive-thru

A shooting Aug. 14 at the Taco Bell at 993 Graham Rd. in Cuyahoga Falls, on the border with Stow, has left at least two people dead in what several reports say is being investigated as a murder-suicide.

The incident happened just after 7:20 p.m. in the drive-thru lane at the restaurant. Officers arriving at the scene found two people dead from gunshot wounds.

According to timesnownews.com, one witness wrote on Facebook that the “shooter got out of his car in drive thru, shot up the car in front of him at the speaker, got back in his car and shot himself.” Other witnesses also described seeing a man in the drive-thru exit his vehicle, approach the car in front of him and shoot both the driver and the passenger, then return to his car and turn the gun on himself.

The shooter and the driver of the other car, reportedly a woman, were pronounced dead at the scene. The condition of the passenger is unknown. It’s also unclear if the shooting was a random act of violence or if those involved knew each other. The names of the individuals have not been released.

Cuyahoga Falls and Stow police as well as fire and emergency personnel responded to the scene, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been called to assist in the investigation, according to police.

Anyone with information about the incident can call Stow detectives at 330-689-5770.

Stow

Stepping up: Here’s how you can help StowNut Diner recover from Aug. 7 fire

The community is quickly coming to the aid of the StowNut Donut & Diner, which suffered a devastating fire Aug. 7 that has forced the popular eatery to close for an indefinite period of time as it tackles clean-up and restoration efforts.

There are several ways you can help:

• From Friday, Aug. 16 through Sunday, Aug. 18, Edible Arrangements will host a fundraiser for its Crossroads at Fishcreek Shopping Center neighbor, with 50% of the profit from every cone and 20% of the profit from every fast fruit purchase going directly toward supporting StowNut. This offer is available at the Stow location only at 3059 Graham Rd.

• Young’s Screenprinting is helping to raise funds for StowNut by selling T-shirts, with 100% of the purchase price going to the diner. The online store will be open until Sunday, Aug. 25; at that time, all orders will be printed and ready for pick-up at Young’s in Stow, located at 4299 Kent Rd., #3. Go here to order your shirt.

• The Rotary Club of Stow-Munroe Falls will match the first $5,000 in GoFundMe donations to help fast-track StowNut to reconstruction and support its staff of 14 employees while the business is closed. Go here to donate. Eric and Denise Green, the owners of StowNut Donut & Diner, are also members of the Rotary Club of Stow-Munroe Falls.

Read more details about the StowNut fire further down this issue.

Stow

Circle it on your calendar: The Stow Harvest Festival is coming Sept. 28-29

The fall community events are now starting to pop up on the horizon — and that means the Stow Historical Society’s annual Harvest Festival is drawing near. This year’s festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Sept. 29 at the historical society’s Heritage Reserve Park, located at 5120 Young Rd. in Silver Springs Park.

Admission is free to the event, which will include activities for adults and children alike:

• Take free tours of three historic houses and a one-room schoolhouse.

• See the blacksmith, join in the apple butter stirring, and enjoy free musical entertainment.

• Art, handmade crafts and food will be for sale both days.

Proceeds from the festival go toward preservation of artifacts, maintenance of archives and supporting the history of Stow, Ohio.

Reader Spotlight

— From Larry Duncan: “Maybe the Stow city school board should go to this and learn how to manage their money”: Thurs., Aug. 8, 6:30-8 p.m.: BUDGETING WORKSHOP. What: Explore the power of budgeting at this interactive Financial Fitness workshop presented by Edward Jones. Where: Stow-Munroe Falls Room at the Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library (3512 Darrow Rd.). Registration for this free program is required and can be done by going here, calling 330-688-3295 ext. 4 or stopping by the library.

Editor’s Note: Larry is referencing the library’s program on budgeting that published in The Spotlight the past few weeks.

— From Jean Szalay: “I feel like I will be talking out of both sides of my mouth on this subject [of] New Schools. I am also speaking as a senior citizen who really doesn’t want her taxes raised. I had 4 children who went through the public school system. If it had not been for the high school taxes we paid I don’t know if my children would have succeeded as they had. [But] I am not sure that Stow is looking for money in the right places, or looking at the city as a fully grown city. The sports center should have had more involved donations from companies in this city. Were they called to help? Do we need [5] new schools? I am not sure that’s the right way to go. Are we going to grow more? I don’t think that we are going to be doing that. Big houses aren’t adding more children, just more revenue.”

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