The Reporting Project

A fast-moving storm that swept through Licking County late Monday morning left more than 10,000 homes without power – many of them in the Newark and Granville area. And with more storms potentially on the way Monday – and the rest of the week – county residents were bracing for more. The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch and a flood watch for Licking County and a large swath of central Ohio until 8 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 10.

The 168th Hartford Fair opened Sunday with the market-poultry weigh-in at 7 a.m., followed by the dressage horse grading at 8 a.m. and a church service at 8:30 a.m. And from then on, the focus of Day One of “The Biggest Little Fair in the World” was one event after another involving children and youth who spent months working with and grooming farm animals for show.

With well over $1 million at stake, lawyers for Licking County’s Union Township and the Village of Hebron squared off at the Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday, Aug. 6 to argue their positions. The Union Township Trustees filed a lawsuit in April against the Licking County Village of Hebron to try to collect tax money village residents didn’t vote for, the village didn’t collect and for which the village received no services from Union Township.

It appears likely that voters in at least two Licking County municipalities will see ballot issues that would ban large data centers if approved, and it’s possible that petitioners in even more communities could file for similar issues. The Granville Village Council on Wednesday, Aug. 5, heard the first reading of an ordinance that would allow Granville voters to join Pataskala voters in considering whether to amend their municipal charters to ban data centers larger than 25 megawatts.

Few things are more relaxing at the end of a hard day at the office than spending time on our front porch. Just ask Ralph, the guard cat who stands – or sits or lays – at the sentinel position at the top of the front steps overlooking a quiet, two-block-long side street. He seems to enjoy watching the world go by, taking special interest in the humming birds, robins, squirrels and rabbits that wander into or fly within his view.

Grass clippings flew in all directions this week, as did brooms and dust pans, paint brushes and vendors rushing around the Hartford Fairgrounds to set up for the 168th running of “The Biggest Little Fair in the World,” as The Hartford Fair calls itself. Fair Director Roger W. Smith was among those running from pillar to post in preparation for the official opening of the fair in northwest Licking County 7 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9. The fair runs through 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug.

A traffic stop or car crash can be overwhelming for anyone. Flashing lights, loud noises and rapid questions may make the situation even more stressful for someone with a disability or communication difference. A blue envelope available to Licking County residents is designed to make those interactions clearer and safer.

A year after a bicycle crash left him unconscious, erased about 10 minutes from his memory, and prevented him from riding in Pelotonia, Granville resident Mike Rossetti returned to the event Saturday and completed its 100-mile route. Rossetti, 72, rode from downtown Columbus to Kenyon College in Gambier alongside his friend Joe McCoy and McCoy’s cousin, Jason. The three averaged about 14.5 miles per hour. “We rode together the whole way, and it was really fun,” Rossetti said.

All five doors to Newark City Council chambers stood open on Aug. 3. Almost every chair inside was full, so people stood inside and outside of the room. Straight faces and furrowed brows turned toward the council as the crowd awaited a vote that would determine whether the Community Drop-In Center based at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on W. Main Street in Newark would receive $11,000 in federal funding.

The vote was expected but no less exciting to those who spent the last three months making a case against an M/I Homes development of more than 500 homes in the Granville school district and the City of Heath. The city council voted unanimously on Monday, Aug.