Today is June 19, 2025.

• Good morning! With yesterday’s rough weather (more on that a little further down today’s newsletter), we could use a calmer day today for Juneteenth. But right now, that’s 50-50: The forecast is calling for times of clouds and sun (OK, not bad there), windy and not as warm (getting iffy), with a couple of showers and a thunderstorm (and there it is). Today’s high will be 74 degrees and the low will be 60. So … expect anything.
  

• THE LONGEST DAY: Summer arrives in the Northern Hemisphere on Friday, June 20, with the solstice occurring at 10:42 p.m. EDT. This is the day when the Northern Hemisphere is most tilted toward the sun, resulting in the longest day of the year — in our neck of the woods, we’ll get a total of about 15 hours and 8 minutes of daylight. From here we go the other way, losing daylight every day until the winter solstice Dec. 21 — the shortest day of the year. Go here for all things summer solstice.
  

• WANT TO BE PART OF PAW FEST?: The Stow-Munroe Falls Lions Club is preparing for its 18th Annual Paw Fest, which will take place Sunday, Sept. 21 at the City of Stow’s Bow Wow Beach Dog Park. Businesses, nonprofits, rescue groups and food vendors that are interested in being a part of this popular community event can contact Marty Dennis at [email protected].
  

• SMF LIBRARY HIRING: The Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library is hiring a full-time Human Resources Specialist. Pay starts at $18.86 per hour. Go to this page for more information and an application.
  

• CALL TO ARTISTS IN STOW: The Stow Arts Commission is providing an open art call for a new city beautification project. The commission is seeking proposals from artists to provide artwork for wrapping the restroom doors at the SKiP Playground at 3870 Darrow Rd.; door size is 37 inches wide by 85.5 inches high. Go here for more information.
  

• “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!

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Stow-Munroe Falls

Celebration! SMF Chamber has big day planned as grand marshal of Stow Fourth of July Parade

[The content below was provided by the Stow-Munroe Falls Chamber of Commerce]

The Stow-Munroe Falls Chamber of Commerce is honored to announce its selection as the grand marshal of the 2025 Stow Fourth of July Parade, in celebration of the Chamber’s 60th anniversary of serving the business community.

Founded in 1965, the Chamber has been a cornerstone of commerce and community, supporting businesses of every size — from the area’s largest manufacturers to its smallest micro-businesses. Over the past six decades, the Chamber has remained committed to its mission: to support all businesses in our community by providing networking opportunities, marketing and promotion, professional development, and cost-saving benefits.

“We are deeply honored to be recognized in this way,” Julie McLain, executive director of the Stow-Munroe Falls Chamber of Commerce, said. “This milestone is not just about our history — it’s about the future of local business and the strong, connected community we continue to build together.”

The Chamber invites community members, partners and local businesses to celebrate this milestone at the parade and throughout the year at a variety of special events commemorating the 60th anniversary. Members and their families are welcome to a special watch party at the parade which includes reserved seating, catered breakfast items and kids’ activities, to name a few (see www.smfcc.com for information). Sponsors for the watch party event include: Stow-Munroe Falls Community Foundation, Bella EyeCare, Arbors of Stow, Larsco Construction, Cvrk Hair & Co, StowNut Donuts, Apex Skin, We Rock the Spectrum and Great Lakes Honda.

The Fourth of July Parade will step off at 10 a.m. Thursday, July 4 from the Target plaza parking lot and travel west down Kent Road through the heart of Stow, ending just past Holy Family Church. Paradegoers can look for the Chamber as it leads the parade as well as its members in and along the route proudly representing the legacy and future of business in our community. Our diverse member list represents the best of the best of Stow and Munroe Falls business. They are the employers, owners, entrepreneurs, community leaders and the flavor of both of our communities, which makes this area such a great place to live, work and raise a family.

Weather

A wild evening: Torrential downpours, high winds and lightning — but no tornadoes

It looks like we came out relatively unscathed from the waves of severe thunderstorms that battered Northeast Ohio last night. FirstEnergy reported that tens of thousands had lost power in the region, including over 13,000 in Summit County, but there were no reports of outages or significant structural damage in Stow, Munroe Falls or Silver Lake.

Multiple watches and warnings were issued throughout the evening, including at least two tornado warnings in Summit County that prompted the activation of the City of Stow’s tornado siren. The National Weather Service has not confirmed any tornadoes touching down in Northeast Ohio.

All in all, we got off fairly lightly compared to some other storms that have ripped through our area in recent years.

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