In the Nov. 4 election for Medina County commissioner, incumbent Republican Adam Friedrick is being challenged by Democrat Elisa Kazek, an art teacher from Spencer Township.

Elisa Kazek

Elisa Kazek

Kazek, who’s taught art for 23 years, works at Marion C. Seltzer Elementary School in Cleveland. She teaches kindergartners through eighth-graders. She received a master’s in education from Mary Grove College in Detroit and a bachelor’s in fine arts from Kent State University.

Kazek ran for county commissioner in 2012 but lost to Steve Hambley, who won nearly 64 percent of the vote.

Kazek said she battled personal medical issues in the middle of the 2012 campaign and wanted to try running again at full health.

“I’ve always wanted to serve the public,” she said. “People are looking for a change in the way we move Medina County forward.”

Kazek said the big issues in the county this election are care for senior citizens and heroin.

“We are the fourth-wealthiest county in the state, and we don’t have a health and human services levy,” she said.

Kazek said a health and human services levy would help fund better quality of life for seniors and treatment for heroin addicts.

“Seniors need a public advocate to coordinate living arrangements, health care and transportation,” she said. “I think we do a good job for low-income seniors, but we should have the same services available to middle-class seniors.”

As a way to fight heroin use in the county, Kazek said she supports Medina County Common Pleas Judge James L. Kimbler’s proposal earlier this year to reopen the east pod of the county jail to serve as a short-term rehab facility for incarcerated heroin addicts.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “If they’re incarcerated, then they’re clean and sober, which is when treatment is most necessary. If you release them out into the community without treatment, I would imagine most of them are going to go right back to drug use.”

Kazek also commented on the NEXUS natural gas pipeline that is planned to go through the county on its way through Michigan and into Canada.
“I would not want a 36-inch pipeline in my backyard,” she said.

While Kazek said she sympathizes with landowners who may be facing the pipeline on their property, she said it’s a “federal government issue and the county commissioners really have nothing to do with it.”

Kazek said her campaign this year has been busy, but she and Friedrick have remained respectful opponents.

“We’re not attacking each other,” she said. “We’re running on our own issues and letting voters choose for themselves.”

Adam Friedrick

Adam Friedrick

Friedrick has been in office since 2010, when he won nearly 60 percent of the vote against Bill Lamb, who serves Medina as an at-large councilman.

He said his campaign this year has gone smoothly.

“The reason Medina County is the greatest county to live in Ohio is because of its conservative values and principles,” he said. “I think more conservatives will turn out to vote than non-conservatives, and I think that will help me out.”

Friedrick works as a plant manager at Beckett Gas in North Ridgeville.

“Working in manufacturing and having close ties to the private sector is a way for me to keep government limited and advocate for bringing more businesses to Medina,” he said. “Everything about Medina County has to be attractive to businesses.”

Friedrick said this election year, the biggest issue in the county is heroin. Part of the reason, he said, is because “the family unit has eroded.”

“I want to make sure we’re funding within our means as best we can all the entities that are fighting the impact of heroin in our county,” he said. “There’s no dollar amount attached to heroin.”

Friedrick said that while the county needs to come up with the money to reopen the east pod of the jail, it should be used to house criminals and not just used as a treatment facility.

He said the county should try to find a separate location for a treatment or rehab facility for drug users.

“There are definitely some options out there that are potentially workable for a new treatment facility,” he said.

Friedrick also commented on the NEXUS pipeline, saying his biggest concern with it was landowner rights.

“The anti-pipeline and anti-fracking people probably care less about the environment than I do, because I want the gas to be transported in the safest way possible, and the pipelines are the safest way to transport natural gas,” he said.

Friedrick attended the pipeline open house meeting NEXUS officials hosted last week at the Medina Community Recreation Center and said he plans to attend the commissioners’ NEXUS pipeline meeting Oct. 23 at the Medina County Administration Building.

“From a commissioner perspective, I’m going to make sure as much information goes out as possible,” he said.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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Medina High School biology teachers Laura Frawley and Jessica Niemantsverdriet and Spanish teacher Sharon Schorr put on the Junk Boat Float on Tuesday to raise environmental awareness in students. “There are multiple plastic garbage patches floating in oceans around the globe and in many larger lakes, including Lake Erie,” Frawley said. Students had to submit an entry fee, which will be used to buy a water bottle filling station for the high school to cut down on the amount of plastic entering landfills.

Medina High School seniors Haley Wasserman and Sam Tietgen race Tuesday against Ryan Blake in the Junk Boat Float at Forest Meadows Lake in Medina. (ANDREW DAVIS / GAZETTE)

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Five members of a 10-person bid review team spent Tuesday morning interviewing officials of the two companies interested in operating the Medina County trash recycling center.

VEXOR Technology, of Medina, and Envision Waste, the company that now operates the county’s Central Processing Facility in Westfield Township, are two of three companies that submitted bids for the contract.

The third company, the Optiva Group Ltd., of Cleveland, was not included in the interviews because it “didn’t comply with the bid specifications,” county Administrator Chris Jakab said.

Jakab said the bid review team still needs to determine whether the Optiva Group is still in the running for the contract to operate the center.

County Sanitary Engineer Amy Lyon-Galvin said the interviews clarified some issues concerning each company’s bid regarding equipment management and cost and what their recycling recovery rates would be.

“I don’t expect there will be another round of interviews, but the bid analysis is not completed,” she said.

Lyon-Galvin said the team is looking for the highest possible recycling recovery rate at the lowest cost.

Envision Waste had the lowest bid when they were opened Sept. 30, but its recovery rate over the life of its current contract was 16.5 percent.

“The current contract was based on a request for proposals that came out that said we had to recover 13.5 percent, which is what the county figured they needed to meet the Ohio EPA requirements,” Envision Wastes’ CEO Steven M. Viny said. “For this new contract, they want a much loftier recovery rate and in order to get that we are adding equipment to recover a much greater amount of fiber, plastic and metal.”

Lyon-Galvin said all the recyclable revenue money will go to a county-managed fund, and the bidder will be paid a percentage of that based on its performance. If the bidder reaches a 40 percent recovery rate, it would earn 100 percent of that revenue.

Envision’s Option A, a five-year contract with three one-year extensions built in, called for the county to pay $49.84 per ton for the first five years.

The first extension price it submitted was $53.83, which increases to $56.25 the next year and then $58.78 for the third extension.

Its Option B was $49.70 per ton for the first five years and $56.33 for one five-year extension.

The alternative bid it included was for $46.73 the first year of operation, with a Consumer Price Index increase each year for 10 years.

Viny said under the new contract, Envision would be recycling between 30 and 40 percent of the waste.

VEXOR President Steven M. Berry said his company planned to bring in new equipment to achieve a higher recovery rate, which would be a minimum of 40 percent, but “could be as high as 80 percent.”

VEXOR’s Option B, a five-year contract with two five-year extensions built in, called for the county to pay the company $54.12 per ton of mixed solid waste brought to the facility for the first five years. For the two extension periods, it proposed $59.53 per ton for 2020-24 and $66.08 for 2024-28.

Berry said he “feels good” about his chances of winning the contract.

“We’re a Medina County company, we’re Medina County residents, and we’re here to perform a contract and commit the resources to get this job done that will exceed the expectations of the RFP, the county commissioners and the solid waste authority,” he said.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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Carol Prochaska

A Rawiga Road woman was the latest beneficiary of a Rebuilding Together project designed to help seniors and those with a financial need stay safely in their homes.

Cliff Bellar got Rebuilding Together up and running with a project in Sharon Township in April. On Saturday, the group helped Carol Prochaska, 78, with much-needed repairs to her Guilford Township home on Rawiga Road.

“She had some deterioration around her house that she needed help with,” he said. “She had no mirror on her medicine cabinet, so she would comb her hair in front of the microwave.”

The group’s 20 volunteers helped install bathroom fixtures, including grab bars in her bathtub to make bathing safer.

Prochaska uses a cane and has some mobility issues.

“We made sure faucets were no longer leaking and the doors were safe and secure,” he said.

The volunteers also tore off old wallpaper, gave the walls fresh paint and helped with landscaping.

About 20 Rebuilding Together volunteers work to install new bathroom fixtures, tear off old wallpaper and repaint walls at the home of Carol Prochaska, 78, on Rawiga Road in Guilford Township. (PHOTO PROVIDED)

Bellar said Prochaska lives alone and although she has children, they live far away.

This weekend, Rebuilding Together will tackle repairs to two homes in the Lodi area.

Bellar said he hopes to help five to six homeowners with repairs in the spring.

The nonprofit group specializes in helping people who either don’t qualify for government assistance or can’t find any other help making repairs around their home.

“The difficult thing is finding the funding,” Bellar said. “Ninety percent of the people we help are low-income.”

Bellar said he’s still soliciting donations and looking for volunteers.

“We need about 15 to 20 volunteers per house,” he said. “If it’s a big job, we can use up to 30.”

Anyone interested in volunteering or making a donation can call Bellar at (330) 472-1997.

Contact reporter Loren Genson at (330) 721-4063 or lgenson@medina-gazette.com. Follow her on Twitter @lorengenson.

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A 61-year-old Harrisville Township man was found dead Friday at what drug enforcement officials called one of the largest Ecstasy drug labs in Ohio.

Michael E. Sullivan, was found on the floor of the detached garage at 9201 Pawnee Road after Lodi Fire and Rescue personnel responded to a report of a possible drug overdose.

Sullivan’s body was taken to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

The garage was evacuated after rescue workers found materials in the garage consistent with a drug laboratory.

The Medina County Drug Task Force was called. A Medina County Hazardous Materials team also was requested, according to a news release from the task force.

Agents reported finding chemicals consistent with the manufacture of methamphetamine and MDMA (also known as Ecstasy). The clean-up took more than five hours and agents removed more than 300 pounds of hazardous chemicals.

A substance that tested positive for Ecstasy and other possible illegal narcotics were removed from the building.

“It’s an extremely large amount of chemicals,” task force Director Gary Hubbard said. “It’s definitely the largest in Medina County.”

Hubbard said while he’s sure ecstasy was manufactured in the garage, he’s not sure whether methamphetamine also was being manufactured.

“A lot of the chemicals used for making methamphetamine are the same as Ecstasy,” Hubbard said. “We know some of the drugs tested positive for Ecstasy, but we’ve not yet found anything that tested positive for methamphetamine.”

A Drug Enforcement Administration-certified contractor was called to remove the chemicals for safe disposal.

On Tuesday, a search warrant was executed at the Pawnee Road property. Agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted with a search of the contaminated building to locate hazardous materials and any other evidence that may not have been found Friday. Agents also searched the home on the property.

BCI agents told the drug task force this is the sixth ecstasy lab discovered in the state.

The Medina County Sheriff’s Office and drug task force are conducting a criminal investigation into the drug operation.

“We don’t typically find this type of ecstasy in this area. We don’t know if he was selling it here or somewhere else,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard said Sullivan had a common-law wife who lived at the Pawnee Road address. He said she was cooperating with task force investigators.

An obituary for Sullivan said he was a U.S. Navy veteran who served during the Vietnam era. He operated his own business, Endpoint Power Generation Inc., a power equipment sales company in Litchfield Township.

Contact reporter Loren Genson at (330) 721-4063 or lgenson@medina-gazette.com. Follow her on Twitter @lorengenson.

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Medina County has reached a milestone in getting prescription drugs off the streets with five tons of drugs disposed of through the county’s drug collection program that began in October 2011.

Medina County Drug Abuse Commission Director Brian Nowak said the county has been collecting prescription and over-the-counter drugs for three years in 12 boxes located at all of the law enforcement stations and at Medina Hospital. This past month, the commission reached 10,000 pounds of drugs that were boxed up and destroyed, putting them at an average of about 3,000 pounds per year.

“About 70 percent of the youth that abuse prescription medications get them from family or friends. Quite a bit of it is opiate medication that’s no longer being used or has expired. Getting rid of it properly gets it out of the hands of children,” he said.

Nowak said the milestone came at a great time with Red Ribbon Week Oct. 23. The campaign symbolizes a commitment to drug-free living.

He said area schools will participate in assemblies, essay and poster contests and other activities to recognize the Red Ribbon campaign through Oct. 31.

“The campaign is very strong here in Medina County, especially the schools, as a sign for people to live a drug-free life and to commit to drug abuse prevention within their family and community,” Nowak said.

Medina Schools Superintendent Dave Knight said all schools in his district will participate in the campaign.

“All of the buildings will recognize Red Ribbon Week in different ways,” he said. “And we want to be promoting drug-free living more than one week out of the year.”

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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Workers in September repair the South Court Street water main break in Medina. The total cost for the repair to the city was almost $244,000. (GAZETTE FILE PHOTO)

The repair bill for the major water main break that shut down the 200 block of South Court Street in Medina for three weeks last month will total almost a quarter-million dollars.

City Council’s finance committee Tuesday approved paying the eight contractors and vendors with money from the Streets and Storm Water Special Fund.

Council approved the repairs to the water main break, which occurred Sept. 10 during the repaving of the block by the Ohio Department of Transportation, as an emergency measure and without a purchase order.

The contractors and vendors that assisted the city with the repairs agreed to do the work without the purchase orders and worked nearly around the clock for 20 days to repair the water line.

“This was an emergency situation,” city Service Director Nino Piccoli said. “We are still going to go back and verify these numbers, but this will be the absolute maximum amount.”

The bulk of the total $243,933 bill will be paid to Spano Brother’s Construction, of Akron, for installing the new storm sewer, water line, excavation and sub-grade preparation for $124,470.

HD Supply Waterworks will be paid $46,236 for the pipes themselves. Kokosing will be paid $34,901 for asphalt and Crossroads Asphalt Recycling will be paid $15,028 for installing the pavement.

Osborne Medina will be paid $17,790 for stone materials used in the storm and water line replacement.

The city will pay Trumbull Industries $5,365 for the purchase and installation of a tapping sleeve and valve for water line connections.

Wolff Brothers Supply and Cleveland Supply Co. combined will be paid $143 for miscellaneous parts for the water line.

The price tag does not include the cost of city resources used during the repair. The city also may be responsible for extra costs incurred by the contractors when they ripped up the pavement that was laid down the night before the break happened.

The finance committee approved the payment unanimously with Councilman Mark Kolesar, Ward 3, abstaining because of a conflict of interest. He does work for some of the companies involved in the repairs.

“I’d just like to thank everyone for your hard work in making this go as smoothly as possible,” Councilman Dennie Simpson, Ward 2, said about the efforts of the service and engineering departments.

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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Main Street Medina and Boyert’s Greenhouse announce the winners of the 2014 Medina Scarecrow Contest are: 1. A Cupcake A Day; 2. Medina Kennel Club; 3. Perfectly Charming; 4. The Raspberry & The Rose; 5. Chill artisan ice cream. The winning businesses will receive a gift certificate from contest sponsor Boyert’s Greenhouse. Nearly 40 community businesses, organizations, and families created original scarecrows, which were placed throughout Medina’s nine-block historic district. The scarecrows will be on display until Monday. (PHOTOS PROVIDED)

1. A Cupcake A Day

2. Medina Kennel Club

3. Perfectly Charming

4. The Raspberry & The Rose

5. Chill artisan ice cream

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John Kasich Sherrod Brown Jim Renacci Rob Portman

Ohio elected officials are calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to closely monitor Northeast Ohio after learning that a health care worker, who tested positive for Ebola, traveled by air Friday from Cleveland to Dallas.

Gov. John Kasich said the state is using all of its resources to make sure there is no spread of the virus.

“The risk to people who have had no direct contact with the nurse remains very low, but everyone is seeking to apply the lessons from Dallas, and we are responding aggressively to this situation with a priority on public communication that is open, timely and accurate,” Kasich said. “Ohio has a sophisticated state and local public health network that has been preparing for this possibility for several months and those plans are now being activated.”

Kasich said Ohio Department of Health epidemiologists are in Summit County to support local efforts and are in communication with the CDC in Atlanta “to make sure we have the most up-to-date information.”

“Every effort must be taken to identify those at risk, monitor their health and avoid further risk,” the governor said.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, called on the CDC for direct support.

“The CDC must dedicate immediate resources to organize monitoring services in Northeast Ohio,” Brown said. “This includes close coordination with Ohio health officials and medical facilities, tracking and monitoring of Ohioans who may have been in contact with the patient, and the readying and potential deployment of infection experts to Ohio.”

U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth, and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, called on President Barrack Obama to do more to deal with the outbreak.

“It is clear that the protocols the Obama administration currently has in place can be enhanced,” Renacci said. “Our country is equipped with the necessary resources to stop Ebola from spreading further and it is critical that the administration develop and implement a stronger response to the epidemic.”

Portman agreed.

“The latest troubling news regarding the Ebola crisis demonstrates why our government must be more proactive in the fight to prevent the spread of Ebola,” Portman said. “I have been calling on the president to take such proactive measures for weeks and it’s time for the administration to act.”

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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Austin Schindler, a senior at Buckeye High School, gets information Wednesday about Ohio State University’s Mansfield Campus from Natasha Stouffer at the Medina County College and Career Fair. (ANDREW DAVIS / GAZETTE)

More than 80 universities, career organizations, trade schools and military organizations gathered Wednesday at the Community Center at the Medina County Fairgrounds to help high school students decide what to do after graduation.

“Students can go online and get info on colleges, but this gives you a chance to stand face to face and get an impression rather than what is given to you electronically,” said William Koran, superintendent of the Medina County Schools’ Educational Service Center.

More than 800 students and their parents from the county’s seven school districts attended the 18th annual College and Career Fair.

The fair is organized by a planning committee made up of guidance counselors from each high school in conjunction with the Medina County University Center.

“We try to encourage freshmen through seniors to come to this and see what their options are so they can make a good decision going through high school,” Koran said. “We don’t want students making uninformed decisions senior year.”

In Medina County, more than 50 percent of all graduating seniors go on to four- or two-year colleges and universities, according to statistics provided by the Educational Service Center.

Last school year, Highland High School saw the most students go on to college — 86 percent of 2014’s 273 graduates.

Fewer students choose to go to trade schools and the military.

Buckeye High School graduates the most students into the military or trades, with 25 percent choosing those paths.

The Educational Service Center offers students a plethora of resources other than the college and the career fair throughout the year including special education programs, American Sign Language translators, school psychologists, gifted program, substitutes for each school district and nursing services.

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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A Solon company has won a $3 million contract to make Medina County’s 12 administrative buildings more energy efficient.

County Administrator Chris Jakab said seven companies were interested in the contract, but the county narrowed the search to Gardiner Services of Solon.

Gardiner, which specializes in energy, building, and heating and air conditioning services for public and commercial facilities, has had smaller maintenance contracts with the county.

“They’ve worked well for us,” Tom Maupin, the county’s maintenance superintendent, said. “It really had to do with who we felt more comfortable working with.”

Maupin said the contract has not yet been finalized, but Gardiner soon will conduct an audit to determine what upgrades are necessary.

“Primarily, the older lighting technology and fixtures will be converted to newer technology or replaced,” he said.

Maupin said indoor and parking lot lighting will be upgraded at the buildings as well as heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment.

Some boilers also may need to be replaced, he said.

“I think it makes sense to go in a direction that saves energy and install systems that are more efficient and will bring down the long-term costs,” Maupin said.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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Brandon Flemming

Mason Farnsworth

Two Medina men are facing mandatory prison sentences if convicted on charges accusing them of involvement in a theft of guns worth thousands of dollars from a Medina gun shop.

Mason Farnsworth, 21, and Brandon Flemming, 19, were indicted last week on charges of receiving stolen guns and having weapons illegally, fourth- and third-degree felonies. They’re also charged with gun specifications that accuse them of having guns while breaking the law.

The gun specifications mandate a year of prison time. If convicted, they could face up to 5½ years in prison.

Farnsworth and Flemming were barred from having guns because they’d been convicted of felonies as juveniles. Under Ohio law, convicted felons are not permitted to have guns.

According to their indictments, Farnsworth has been convicted of burglary and Flemming has been convicted of sexual battery.

Police arrested Farnsworth and Flemming after a 17-year-old Medina boy said they were involved in the theft of guns from MC Guns, 218 N. Court St. The store’s front window was found broken the morning of Sept. 6, and almost 20 guns were reported missing.

Medina Police Chief Patrick Berarducci said Farnsworth and Flemming are the only two people to be charged so far in the theft, and just one stolen gun has been recovered so far.

Police have said most of the guns are suspected to have been sold.

Farnsworth pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning before county Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier and is scheduled for a Dec. 3 trial.

Flemming is scheduled to enter a plea today before Judge James L. Kimbler.

Both men are being held at the county jail.

Contact reporter Nick Glunt at (330) 721-4048 or nglunt@medina-gazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @ngfalcon.

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The Cleveland Clinic’s Medina Hospital is taking precautions after a Texas nurse who visited her family in the Akron area this month later was diagnosed with Ebola.

Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was one of the nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who had treated a Liberia man who died from Ebola on Oct. 8.

Vinson, who graduated from Firestone High School in Akron in 2003 and completed nursing school at Kent State University in 2008, flew to Cleveland Friday to visit with family and prepare for a wedding. She flew back to Dallas on Monday and exhibited symptoms of Ebola the next day.

Cleveland Clinic officials said they’re monitoring the situation and have an Ebola emergency response team “trained and in place.”

“We have extensive experience with emergency preparedness and our teams frequently practice scenarios with our city and county partners, including several recent training exercises specific to Ebola,” a spokesperson for the Cleveland Clinic stated in a prepared news release Wednesday.

The Cleveland Clinic facilities are following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and preparing their hospitals with training and education on Ebola, according to the news release.

“For the past couple months, we have trained clinicians and front line staff working in emergency departments across our health system, and ensuring our emergency departments and other points of patient entry are stocked with the appropriate protective equipment.”

The spokesperson said several local health officials participated in an Ebola “tabletop exercise” to review Ebola detection and protection processes.

The Clinic also hosted a training class “for more than 40 Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel from 21 cities to educate first responders on Ebola and the recommended CDC guidelines,” according to the news release.

Clinic staff will be at a meeting of the Cuyahoga County Medical Advisory Board to discuss Ebola concerns.

“Cleveland Clinic has established a designated intranet site for all employees on Ebola, which is updated regularly with the most up-to-date information and resources for guidance on detecting infected patients, protecting our caregivers and responding to circumstances that could arise,” according to the news release.

The spokesperson stressed that Ebola isn’t an airborne virus, but spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of an Ebola patient.

The Medina County Health Department, in collaboration with Summit County Public Health and other regional public health partners, released a statement assuring residents that there have been no reported cases in Medina County.

“We also want to assure the public that we are prepared to help identify and interview potential contacts that may be residing in Medina County,” the statement said.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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Highland Stadium will host its final varsity football game tonight. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE)

Hundreds of former Highland football players hold it dear to their heart, partly because their opponents hated it with a passion.

The end of a 55-year era will take place tonight. Nestled on top of a scenic hill in the heart of Granger Township, Highland Stadium will host its final varsity football game before handing the honor to a new $8 million facility in 2015. Though an official decision has not been discussed, the school likely will rent North Royalton’s Serpentini Stadium if it is awarded a Division II home playoff game in three weeks.

Sentimental value is the main endearing quality outdated Highland Stadium has left to give. The massive growth of the district over the last 20-plus years has rendered the 1,700-seat-capacity, bite-sized press box and nightmarish parking obsolete.

But the memories will never fade to the Highland players and their fans, who often brought their own chairs and cheered from the overlooking hill that spans 30 yards from the east end zone.

“There’s a nostalgic thing to it that you always cherish,” said Mike Kudla, the 2001 Ohio D-III Defensive Player of the Year who later earned All-Big Ten honors at the Ohio State University. “As a player, you looked forward to playing because you knew you had the fan base. It was a special place to play the game.

“It’s different. When you look at facilities — and I’ve had the luxury of playing in the best facilities in the world — you see Highland’s facility and you look at what makes that place special. It wasn’t the best field, it was all lumpy and it wasn’t the best lit. It didn’t have the best of everything, but it gave us as a team and community a place that you could bond together. It wasn’t a Taj Mahal that made it a wonderful thing. It was an entity in itself.”

Built next to what is now the middle school, construction of Highland Stadium was not completed in time for the 1959 season opener. The first game was played without bleachers and lights that Oct. 24, a 30-0 homecoming win over now-defunct Shreve of Wayne County on a chilly Saturday afternoon. The first night game was a 22-8 win over Brunswick on Oct. 14, 1960.

The facility wasn’t finished until 1961 — construction costs were covered at least partially by the booster club selling bonds to residents — but even as a work in progress it still was a sight for sore eyes. The Hornets had rented Medina Memorial Stadium and sometimes Wadsworth’s Grandview Stadium (now Art Wright Memorial) since 1952, and the games obviously didn’t feel like home.

Complete with beautiful views to the north, east and west — the tree line didn’t fully block the latter until the 1970s — the new stadium changed everything.

The next 50-plus years featured the brilliance of the late-1960s and early-’70s in the Inland Conference, consecutive non-winning seasons from 1981-99 and the deep playoff runs of 2008 and ’13. The 1979 Outland Trophy winner and four-time Super Bowl starter, Jim Ritcher (1973-75), played there. So, too, did fellow NFL player Chris Riehm (1976-78) and fellow Medina County Sports Hall of Famer Kudla (1998-2001).

Track and field also was in the fold and soccer came along in the mid-to-late-1980s. For a time, cross country meets began and ended near the scoreboard, allowing fans to watch races with a bird’s-eye view.

Nothing, however, matched the pride for the football team and ultra-popular marching band on Friday nights.

“The closeness of the fans, the whole Friday night atmosphere, it was a lot of fun,” said 1971 All-Gazette team co-captain Richard Brown, who started at right guard for the University of Akron’s 1976 NCAA D-II national runner-up team. “The electricity flowed every Friday night there.

“For our 40th-year reunion, I went down to the stadium and I said, ‘Wow, the memories are flowing through me.’ It was really neat.”

Other than wood bleachers replaced with aluminum and a field house built in 2005, the stadium has changed little since opening. Football practices were held originally behind the west end zone — the shot put/discus and long jump pits now call that area home — before moving to the bottom of the hill behind the visiting bleachers.

Many footballs and even players were victims of the thorn-filled vegetation on either side of “The Pit,” whose makeshift field always was hard as concrete by October. And don’t even mention bear-crawls up the hill.

Another notable visual came in the wee-morning hours of Aug. 22, 2003, when a never-found arsonist ignited the press box. The season was played without one, and coaches and school personnel protected electronics with garbage bags when it rained.

Longtime announcer Fred Pollock remembers the visiting aluminum bleachers being installed deep into the night by 30 volunteers less than 24 hours before a game.

The first de-facto Gazette MVP in 1963, Ken Schiele, recalls constantly discarding small rocks from the then-relatively new field.

Adding to the many quirks, a surveyor in the 1980s discovered one side of the field was slightly shorter than the other. The issue was fixed promptly, but many wondered how many goal-line stands were illegitimate over the years.

What nearly every former player cherishes, though, was the adrenaline of walking down the hill that led from the locker room to the field. Children looked starry-eyed when they lined the walkway that was only recently paved.

Many tears were shed making the trek back up it on senior night.

“The walk out of the locker room down the gravel was the best,” said Bryan Krause, a starting receiver from 2003-04. “People we didn’t know were cheering for us, little kids wanting to high-five you, treating us like rock stars. It was a great way to get ready for the game. The fact that you walked down the hill and could see the field before you got there was exhilarating.”

Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.

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Anthony Vandal

A 25-year-old Brunswick man was convicted of robbery Thursday after arguing at trial that he was playing a prank on a friend when he tried to rob a store while armed and masked.

Anthony Vandal initially was charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 11 years in prison.

He also was charged with using a gun in the robbery and repeat violent offender specifications that would mandate prison time if convicted.

Medina County Common Pleas Judge James L. Kimbler found Vandal guilty of a reduced charge of robbery, a second-degree felony, and not guilty on the specifications.

Vandal faces up to eight years in prison at his Dec. 11 sentencing hearing.

Kimbler decided the case because Vandal declined a jury trial.

At Vandal’s trial in August, a 20-year-old store clerk said he was working at Michael’s Mini Mart on Pearl Road in Brunswick the night of April 6. The following incident was captured on store security cameras.

At about 10:40 p.m., two men — one armed with what appeared to be a gun wrapped in a pink plastic bag — entered the store wearing masks. The unarmed man demanded cash from the register and ordered the armed man to “just shoot him” when the store clerk did not respond.

The store clerk reached for a nearby crowbar and chased the armed man away while the unarmed man escaped. Part way down an aisle, the armed man removed his mask and revealed himself to be Vandal, a friend of the store clerk.

Police had been called and Vandal fled the scene. He was arrested 17 days later when he turned himself in to police.

Prosecutors said at trial that Vandal’s accomplice has not been identified, and Vandal never revealed during the investigation whether the weapon he used was a real firearm.

Contact reporter Nick Glunt at (330) 721-4048 or nglunt@medina-gazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @ngfalcon.

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Click the image to listen to live radio broadcasts of Elyria Catholic at Midview; Lutheran West at Columbia; and Wellington at Buckeye.

High school football season is winding down, but there’s still plenty of Friday night lights excitement. We’ve got you covered for Medina County’s Week 8 scores.

If you’re interested in Lorain County scores, head over to our sister paper, The Chronicle-Telegram.

We’ll keep this page updated with scores as we get them. Do you have a score update that we haven’t posted yet? Post it in the comments.

• Firelands 20 at Black River 28 – Final
• Twinsburg 21 at Brunswick 59 – Final
• Wellington 22 at Buckeye 35 – Final
• Cloverleaf 6 at Copley 38 – Final
• Revere 10 at Highland 24 – Final
• Stow 38 at Medina 18 – Final
• Green 10 at Wadsworth 21 – Final

Updated as of 10:00 p.m.

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MEDINA – Heritage Elementary School will be thoroughly cleaned because one of its teachers was in the same bridal shop in Tallmadge visited by Amber Joy Vinson, the 29-year-old Dallas nurse who was in the Akron last weekend before she was diagnosed with Ebola.

The first-grade teacher, Betty Carlisle, a Medina County resident, is on a 21-day paid leave — the incubation period of the virus.

Carlisle, who doesn’t have symptoms, is “voluntarily avoiding student contact,” according to a prepared statement from Medina City Schools Superintendent David Knight.

“She was at the school at the beginning of this week,” Knight said. “We are cleaning the building. According to the health department, that isn’t really necessary, but we’re doing it anyway as a precaution.”

A Friday news release from the Medina County Health Department said Carlisle is not on a travel restriction and that her “threshold of time in the shop warrants only awareness and self-monitoring.”

Four other county residents are “self-monitoring” and in “ongoing communication with the health department,” said Lynee Bixler, spokeswoman for the Medina County Health Department.

Three of the residents were on the same plane, from Cleveland to Dallas, as Vinson. The fourth resident was on the Oct.10 inbound plane.

Medina City Schools isn’t the only Medina County institution taking precautions. An employee of the Western Reserve Masonic Community was sent home this week because her son was on a plane with Vinson.

Jason Zielinski, corporate director of marketing and communications for the Ohio Masonic Home, said the employee was put on paid leave for 21 days.

“Her son isn’t showing any signs or symptoms,” he said. “We’re just going above and beyond to take extra precaution.”

Others in Northeast Ohio being monitored for contact with Ebola include 18 nurses who attended a nursing conference in Dallas and flew back to Cleveland on the same flight.

Five nurses from the Cleveland Clinic and eight from the MetroHealth System in Cleveland were on the Oct. 10 flight from Dallas to Cleveland, according to a Wednesday news release.

The other five nurses, who also were on the flight and are being monitored, are from Aultman Hospital in Canton.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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Sandy Hinkle has taken the place of Sandy Calvert as executive director of Feeding Medina County.

Sandy Hinkle

Hinkle, a 30-year resident of Medina County, said she applied for the job “to come back to Medina and do something good for my home community.” Her first day was Oct. 8.

She had moved to State College, Pennsylvania, five years ago to take a job in Penn State University’s College of Health and Human Development, where she worked with counties across the state to build coalitions.

“I took a look at risk factors, then prioritized and figured out how to resolve the issues facing communities,” she said.

Hinkle said she will bring her knowledge of community evaluation to the job at Feeding Medina County.

“If we are not doing what needs to be done to provide basic needs to the county, we are not going to succeed,” she said.

Hinkle said she wants to focus the nonprofit’s attention on the county’s senior citizens.

“One of the things we are working on is being able to expand some of the food items that we are able to offer to our senior population,” she said. “We need to do it a little differently to get them more items like produce and things like that, because often they are a population that doesn’t eat right.”

She also hopes to expand the Weekenders Program, which provides children on food assistance with food for the weekend.

“Right now we don’t have all of the school districts on board and we need to find a way to service all of them,” she said. “There are children in need in each district.”

Hinkle said providing educational material to children on healthy lifestyles also is an idea she is kicking around.

Calvert retired earlier this month to spend time with her family.

“I certainly hope that I can sustain all the efforts that Sandy (Calvert) worked so hard to develop,” Hinkle said, “But I have to walk in my own shoes.”

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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Jurg Herter, machining manager for SFS intec Inc., gathers a group for a plant tour during the company’s community open house on Friday. SFS intec, on state Route 18 in Sharon Township since 2000, plans to increase its employees and output in the next year. ANDREW DAVIS / GAZETTE

SFS intec Inc., a global manufacturing company, welcomed more than 50 business and government leaders to its Sharon Township plant Friday for tours.

The open house recognized support from the local community during the company’s recent building expansion.

Over the past year, the manufacturing floor at the plant in Sharon doubled in size.

SFS intec President Michael Mullen said the jobs his company is creating will dramatically increase in the next year as a result.

“We went from 70 employees to 135 since the addition,” Mullen said. “We are aiming at 200 employees by next year, with every square foot of space in the plant occupied.”

The facility in Sharon serves as headquarters for North American automotive manufacturing and specializes in custommade metal components used in a variety of automotive applications like ABS braking systems, seat belts, engine controls, air bags and electronic parking brakes.

The Medina plant opened in early 2000, with about 60 employees. The impetus for opening the Medina facility was to supply North American-made components to automotive customers.

SFS intec is a Swiss-based global manufacturer of precision metal and plastic components used in automotive, industrial, construction and aerospace industries around the world.

The SFS Group, parent of SFS intec, has operations in more than 25 countries with global 2013 sales of $1.5 billion.

The SFS Group recently made a successful initial public offering on the Swiss Stock Exchange.

The majority of the shares remain in the hands of the two founding families, who have led the company since its inception in 1960.

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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Medina County residents can start signing up Monday for heating assistance through the Winter Crisis Program.

Community Action Wayne/ Medina will assist residents below 175 percent of the federal poverty guidelines and have been threatened with disconnection from utility companies.

The program allows for a one-time payment that varies depending on the home’s heating system.

Michele Cottrill, a social services specialist with Community Action, said the program allows for up to $750 per customer who uses propane or fuel oil to heat their home and have only 10 percent left in the tank. She said the program allows for up to $150 for electric bills that include heating.

Cottrill said Community Action will help people get set up on a payment plan and also help people sign up for the federal Home Energy Assistance Program.

More than 116,000 Ohioans applied for the Winter Crisis Program last year and 613 Medina County homes enrolled in HEAP.

Assistance in applying for the program is available at Community Action Wayne/Medina’s office at 820B W. Lafayette Road, Medina.

Appointments are available 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Mondays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays or 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (330) 723-2229.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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