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Mantua township trustees declined to approve a Mantua Restoration Society proposal to renovate the first floor of the Center School building at their meeting Thursday night. They did, however, unanimously approve Trustee Matt Benner’s motions to correct problems with the school’s heating and sewer systems.

In the coming years, Kent’s East Main Street will be undergoing a transformation to address the street’s high crash rate, complete with two roundabouts and crossing improvements for pedestrians.

Cars revved and crowds cheered Wednesday night as the historic East Main Street in Ravenna kicked off the annual CelebratePortage! Cruise-In. Over 1,600 cars were present for the event, after last year’s cancellation because of the pandemic.

Portage County commissioners will soon be livestreaming their meetings, thanks to a $43,466 investment in equipment and software. BIS Digital will install a $38,054 integrated audio/video streaming system in the commissioners’ boardroom, along with $5,411 in related software. The commissioners expect to incur unspecified additional costs to support a second camera to record proceedings. Commissioners did not cite a timeline for when they go live. The Portager has offered a livestream on its Facebook page, free to taxpayers, since the […]

Bill Steiner, director of the Portage County Solid Waste Management District, had petitioned commissioners to close the drop-off service, citing too many people dumping trash and garbage instead of recyclables.

Thanks to a financial windfall in the form of American Rescue Plan funds, Brimfield residents will decided on a 1.95-mill police levy in November instead of the originally planned 2.38-mill levy.

City Council unanimously approved a special event application partnering with Kent State for a 40-feet-by-70-feet rink on Erie Street between the Kent State hotel and the PARTA parking deck. To make it all happen, Erie Street will be closed from Oct. 15 until March 1. The rink itself will be open from Nov. 24 through Feb. 28.

The Davises built this pantry on wheels themselves in the wake of the pandemic and food insecurity crisis that followed. Known as the Rural Relief Mobile Food Pantry, their mission is to meet the needs specifically of rural Portage County, where pockets of the population experience the additional difficulty of living in a food desert.

Community groups in Mantua Township have invested thousands of hours of their time into turning the Mantua Center School into a vibrant community center: volunteering physical labor, writing grants and proposals, hosting fundraisers and chairing committees. Yet two decades after the township acquired the building and at least nine years after the building was cleared for occupancy, it sits mostly empty. Many of those community members say it’s because the township trustees, two of whom have been in office for about a decade, have not followed through on their promises to make use of it.

Two practices a day for a couple weeks, although it felt like a year. One morning practice for several hours, one afternoon practice for several hours, with a couple-hour break in between that seemed more like five minutes where you went home, got out of the sun, did your best to rehydrate and actively dreaded heading back down to the field again.

In-person events have resumed and mask mandates have eased up, yet for some, Covid-19’s morbid arms still hold fast, tearing them away from the privilege of normalcy many now enjoy.

Responding to a “rapid rise” of confirmed Covid-19 cases, the Portage County health department and Kent city officials urged residents to resume precautions that had been largely abandoned after the winter wave and encouraged unvaccinated people to “please reconsider.”

​​This month last year, country singer-songwriter Steve Earle buried his eldest son, Justin Townes Earle. Friday night, when Earle and his band, The Dukes, returned to The Kent Stage, they remembered and celebrated Justin by playing his songs.

The city of Aurora’s pickup service will reduce to every other week, according a statement from the Portage County Solid Waste Management District.

A psychological evaluation has found 18-year-old Zachary Blosser competent to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend, Kaylee Freitag, who was shot to death in Nelson Township in March.

Warm weather, punctuated by alternating downpours and periods of sunshine, makes spring and summer irresistible for a variety of watersports. Their attraction can be mesmerizing. At the same time, they bring serious risks.

The “Highway to Nowhere,” as some Kent townies call it, was originally constructed as a connection to an Akron freeway that never got built. State Route 261 is underutilized and difficult to cross, rendering it a “stroad,” the term for a dangerous, multi-lane thoroughfare, Council Member Heidi Shaffer Bish said.

The Portage County Solid Waste Management District is facing a driver shortage that could threaten to reduce pickups to biweekly service, instead of weekly.

The colonization of Northeast Ohio dates back to the late 1700s, including the settlement of what is now Portage County. To honor the native culture of the land we live on, it is time that our area’s townships consider where we really live.

An August event set to feature U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia as a speaker has been postponed, said Portage County Republican Party Chair Amanda Suffecool.