The year 2007 brought an up-beat beginning for the North Royalton City School District. They were rated excellent for the sixth consecutive year, accepted a “State Superintendent School of Distinction Award, recognized one student who had a perfect ACT score, the NRHS women’s soccer team made it to a final four at the State Tournament level, the NRHS Marching Band got another excellent state rating in competition, and two teachers participated in NASA’s zero gravity project. North Royalton Schools maintain a high expectation for everyone. Superintendent Randy Boroff said the district continues to look for ways to “Increase student achievement in all grade levels, maintain fiscal responsiveness to our constituents and exhibit a ‘passion for excellence’ in all that we do.”
Reaching for and maintaining a level of excellence is what 22-year-old Kevin Andexler did. Mr. Andexler graduated with a 3.6 average from ITT Technical Institute, overcoming all odds because he was born with arthrogryposis a defect that made his legs useless and left him with very limited use of his hands. His grandfather, Ron Andexler, drove him to class each day and helped with his note taking.
Both McDonald’s and Subway were robbed at gun point. Both restaurants are on Royalton Road; Subway was robbed on January 9, McDonald’s. January 24.
Ohio has a pain in its ash trees and it is heading for North Royalton. The Emerald Ash Borer, a distractive beetle that came from Asia, is boring its way through Michigan and is now making its way across northern Ohio. EAB is a small bug that burrows under the bark of the tree. When the eggs hatch to larva they eat the main water channels up the trunk of the tree eventually killing it. Estimated losses to state and local governments due to the tree destruction is upwards of $7 billion over 25 years. There is no way to treat for the pest that causes tree death.
There is gas and oil under the properties of several home owners in the area and well drilling had commenced. “Oil and gas production has been found in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties,” reported the Recorder on March 8. Drilling commenced on Carrie Cerino’s property on March 1.
North Royalton celebrated the 50th anniversary of Buzzard Day in Hinckley. Most NR residents can see the large birds wobbling in the air as they glide on the thermals in the warm weather doing their job to keep the environment clean.
Compost happens so residents were being invited to come get some. The yard waste collected through the year is turned into compost. The residents were advised to check for availability lest they pull up to the compost center and find there is no black gold. In addition to picking up compost, residents could now recycle paper, glass, cardboard and plastic at the NR Compost Facility. The recycling bins were moved to the compost facility on July 24.
NR Police nab two bank robbers on August 18. The robbers, both Russian nationals, were apprehended at the US Bank on Sprague and State Roads. A passer-by in a funeral procession noticed something fishy in the parking lot and called police. The alleged assailants were both in the U.S. on religious visas.
The September 20 issue of the Recorder featured not less than ten local restaurants and their specialties. All the restaurants advertising in the Recorder were just a tummy rumble away.
Harvest Fest on Sunday September 23 brought lots of people to the Community Green. The money earned by the Harvest Fest goes to fund the Christmas tree lighting on the same Community Green that took place November 25 that year.
A portion of Ridge Road between Sprague and Royalton Roads was named the “Corporal Jeffrey A. Boskovitch Memorial Highway.” Corporal Boskovitch and five other Marines were killed in action in Haditha, Iraq, August 2, 2005. Jeffrey was part of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve from Brook Park Ohio that lost fourteen Marines to fighting within one week.
The year is coming to a close but the band marches on. The NRHS Marching Band headed for New Orleans for the January 7th BCS College Championship Bowl Game, OSU v LSU, one year after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The Marching band was one of only ten high school marching bands selected from the hundreds that applied to play from across the country. NRHS Marching Band has consistently earned Superior Ratings from the Ohio Music Education Association. While in New Orleans the band got a tour of New Orleans, ate Cajun food, listened to Cajun music, toured an alligator swamp, and participated in hands on community service work cleaning up a nature trail almost erased by Hurricane Katrina.
2008 is happy to report that Sam Petros, owner of Timber Ridge, announced that he has secured a lease with Rego’s Grocery Store to open the 52,000 square foot store where TOPS used to be. “I’m excited to see the shopping center at Timber Ridge come back to life,” said Mayor Bob Stefanik.
The School district joined more than 2000 school districts across the nation. The
A district started to use a service called Alert Now, which is a more efficient system of parent notification in case of emergencies. Parents can be contacted on the home phone, cell phone, text or email. In addition, parents can go to the AlertNow website, access their student’s information, edit and correct and keep things up to date.
Just one more punch, and another, and again! That’s what Mother Nature gave Northeastern Ohio. Extreme bouts of snow fell on February 25 then again on March 6 with more predicted. That snow caused a semi-truck to go over the guard rail on the Turnpike heading toward Akins Road. Luckily the truck got stuck. Emergency crews got the truck out of the mud after many hours of work. The emergency crews had just finished cleaning that mess when another 20 inches of snow fell between Friday, March 7, and Sunday, March 9. Everyone in North Royalton was told to stay off the roads unless it was a true emergency. The police were extra busy with auto accidents and pulling motorists from ditches on the sides of icy roads. The fire department had metal detectors ready to find the fire hydrants if needed. The good thing was the snow melted by the first day of spring.
Cleats Club Seat Grille announced it was proud to be the official supplier of chicken wings for the 2008 Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. The same delicious wings are still available at Cleats North Royalton, 5267 Wallings Road.
What could be more taxing? On April 15 the City Council unanimously approved legislation limiting smoking on all city-owned properties. The city joined the school district which installed a “No Smoking” policy. “You can’t smoke at Jacob’s Field, the Browns stadium or on North Royalton school property,” said Mayor Stefanik. “This is no different.”
A call no parent wants to receive came to Tony and Jen Dumm in January. Their son, 4-year-old John Owen, did indeed have Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal muscle wasting disease. Life would now be an adventure for John Owen and the rest of the Dumm family including older brother Rutger, 6, and little Wade 1-1/2 . The Dumm family and friends established John Owen’s Adventure to raise awareness and raise funds for research into a successful treatment(s) for this devastating disease. The June 19 Recorder reported that the first fund raising event would be on August 21, at Camp Cheerful for “A Picnic in the Park.” John Owen continues to fight his disease and JOA continues to fight for research for him and others. www.joainc.org.
Enough is enough. Five North Royalton homes that were purchased by the City through FEMA Funds were burned to the ground during several days in June in a controlled burn by the NRFD. The homes had been repeatedly flooded making them uninhabitable. The controlled burn was used as a training exercise for the Fire Department which was able to use a variety of firefighting tools. The burn also gave residents a glimpse of how powerful a house fire can be. The last house was scheduled to go up in flames in July.
Nicholas Lascko, a second grader at Albion School, won the Channel 19 Action News Weather Kid Contest. Nicholas won a $4600 playground World Set for his backyard. Nick, who was six, was the youngest contestant picked. He did the weather with Jeff Tanchak on the 6 o’clock news in June.
Look who’s coming to dinner, right through the dining room wall. A driver lost control of his car on August 25 at about 9 p.m. plowing right into the dining room of a Ridge Road family. The family, which was home at the time, and the driver were not hurt.
We get snow, we get sleet, and we get wind, and rain, and a hurricane. Hurricane Ike, a huge powerful category 4 storm blew onto the East Coast and continued inland up toward Ohio. Hurricane Ike contained substantial winds that downed power lines leaving millions of people in the dark on September 12. Fire Chief, Mike Fabish, reported that downed trees smashed into a car, garage, and a house and literally smashed a house in half starting with the upper floor.
Royalton Farms is one of the city’s best kept secrets. Royalton Farms offers apples that are picked from the orchard right next door. They press their own apple cider which has all the antioxidants naturally found in the apple. The apples won’t last long. When they are gone they are gone. Royalton Farms has been around for more than 25 years. Come in and get reacquainted.
Ending the year on a sad note; it has been less than a full year but Rego’s at Timber Ridge closed its doors. Owner Sal Rego said that the pull out of financial backing has forced the shut-down. The Rego’s at Bennett’s Corners on W 130th will remain open.
By LINDA KWARCIANY
Contributing Writer