Second Friday of the Month Meal

Join your neighbors on the second Friday of the month for good food and conversation at the Mantua Center School between 4 and 7pm.

This monthly fundraiser (by donation only) features home-made soups and/or entrees, fresh salads, and mouth-watering desserts. Dine in or carry-out is available.

The Mantua Center School Annex is located at 11741 Mantua Center Road, Mantua Township.

The Mantua Restoration Society is back in gear.

With COVID lockdowns lifted, life is resuming, although everyone is tryng to figure out what that means.

For Mantua Township and The Mantuia Restoration Society, Inc., it means in-person meetings and the hope of going ahead with work on getting the 1914 Mantua Township School building into use. (As a note, when the trustees refer to "the building," being used, they are referring almost exclusively to the annex.)

Thanks to the gesnerosity of MaRSI members and those who have attended our fund raisers, the restoration society has enough money to be able to restore one classroom on the main floor of the 1914 building.

Accordingly, at the July 1, 2021, trustees meeting, we submitted a proposal to do the following work in the north classroom:

  1. Remove the carpet
  2. Refinish the floor
  3. Paint the walls and probably the ceiling

The total estimated cost of those refreshments to the room is $9900.

We also offered to replace the windows in the north classroom, although we did not expect that suggestion to be acceptable.* The cost of energy efficient, historically correct windows for that room would be $15,745.14.
Although some major restoration projects are done in stages and replace windows on one floor at a time, the trustees are on record as not wanting a "piecemeal" approach. Replacing windows in only one room would create that appearance.

At the August 5, 2021, Mantua Township Trustees meeting, the proposal was rejected, even though Chairman John Festa said it was good and professionally done.

We are getting news coverage again. THE PORTAGER, the fairly new on-line news source in Portage County, published extensive reports on the July 1 and August 5 trustees meetings. Reporter Lyndsey Brennan wrote an in-depth report on the history of the school since it was purchased by the Mantua Township trustees in 2004. At the August 5 meeting, she also asked several very pointed questions which the trustees either deflected or refused to answer.

Those reports are available at theportager.com. As this post is being keyboarded on August 16, they are shown as thumbnails at the top of The Portager home page. If you scroll through the items along the left side, the dates of the reports are August 4 and August 9.

Ben Wolford, publisher of The Portager, has given permission to use the reports and has also given a link to each of them. Take the time to click on each of the highlighted topics. Lyndsey Brennan has done a thorough, straighforward job in researching and writing them., She also included the text of the proposal, so you can see the details for yourself.

Here are The Portager links about these topics:

April events indefinitely postponed

The coronavirus pandemic has changed everyone's lives. Organization after organization has cancelled events for the foreseeable future, and The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., is among them.  The Easter Egg hunt and the Tenth Anniversary Celebration are on indefinite hold. 

The officers cancelled the March 16 meeting, and will confer via phone and e-mail about April meetings.  Once a decision has been made about that, the information will be posted here.

Websites are generally supposed to look as if they just created themselves impersonally.  When this great global trial is behind us, the MaRSI site will resume that tone.  For now, however, or at least for this announcement, impersonality will also be suspended.

In spite of pretty limited computer skills, I, Carole Pollard, volunteered to do the website.  Our webmaster, Paul Dagnall, has been the soul of helpfulness--but after a skirmish with the computer, it takes me a couple of days to be willing to have another go.  Since I have the MaRSI members in my contacts, and since I have kept my blog contacts from the Virtual Torch days, I will notify you when something new goes up on the website.

Since things heated up with the coronavirus in the U.S., I have been as glued to the TV as I was for the three days or so immediately following 9/11.  

Here are the things that I think are most important:

Keeping a distance of at least six feet from another person is extremely important.  Bars and restaurants in Ohio have been ordered to close except for carryout as a result.

Staying home is crucial, and no visits with friends in the house, no playdays with neighbor children are also necessary. 

The schools are closed because although kids may be much less vulnerable, they can through a network of contacts spread the virus to the adults they come in contact with.

The spread of the disease in this country has not peaked yet, not by a long shot. New York City has supplanted Seattle as the most affected city.  In commenting on the idea that July or August might be the peak, NYC mayor Bill DiBlasio said that his health director said it could be September. 

A drop in the number of new cases does not mean we are free and clear.  No one is immune, and cases could surge if the guidelines are not carefully (almost compulsively) followed by every one of us.  The experts predict a series of lulls and surges.

 

Some school officials at state levels have said that schools may be shut down not just for the rest of the school year, but for the calendar year.

Governor Dewine has been holding daily press conferences at 2:00p.m.  They air on WKSU and Channel 2, the Ohio Channel.  Spectrum 1 may also carry them.  Spectrum carries any press conferences from the White House. 

If anyone wants to contact me, it will be easiest for me if it is through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .    I know how to deal with that.  I will answer and may put something on the website if it looks to be something we all should know.   I don't do facebook, even though MaRSI has a page.  There's a limit to how much computer time I can tolerate.

Celebrate Ten Years AND the Elevator AND Chocolate AND a Very Special Speaker ! (And More)

April 18, 2020   

The time for the Mantua Restoration Society, Inc, (.MaRSI) annual meeting has come around again, but this is not just your ordinary meeting. We are planning a long-awaited celebration.

In 2010, after much work on the building since the school's 2010 purchase, we could finally go in and begin using it.  About ten of us had made up our minds that we were going to support the school in every way we could.  Our first event was an ice cream social and open house, which was a huge success. 

To get ready for it, we worked like indentured servants or galley slaves for about ten days.  Some of us have gone on to other pursuits and places, and some have left us.  But we got the building cleaned up and ready to be seen, and we laid in enough ice cream for about five times as many people as came--and many came. 

It has been a long haul, but here we are today.  All of you in MaRSI. plus various readers of Carole Pollard's blog and many other members of the community have pitched in, contributed, worked, and been patient. 

Getting to this day is your accomplishment, and here is what we are going to celebrate.

The elevator is done.

The bell tower has been repaired, rehabilitated, and is now gleaming white again.

The roof on the gym will be replaced once the weather breaks.

We have had a speaker at each annual meeting. 

For this celebration, Ohio State Senator John Eklund has agreed to be our speaker.  If you came to the 100th anniversary celebration of the school building, you met Senator Eklund and heard him speak.  He has been a wonderful friend for the building, helping and advising us on how to get state capital fund grants that filled in the gap between the initial grant from the Portage County Commissioners and the final cost of the elevator.

Here is the day's agenda:

Noon: Gather at the Mantua Center School building, 11741 Center Road.  As usual, enjoy light snacks and meet and greet each other.  Enjoy music by Skip Schweitzer and Friends.

1:00 p.m.:Review minutes from last year's meeting and approve./elect officers for 2020.

Then hear from Senator Eklund.  

"Intermission" while we set up the next part of the celebration.

Then we will celebrate.

There will be a dessert auction of 20 items, not all of them chocolate, but focused on chocolate.  After all, what is an elevator without chocolate?

But wait, there's more:  A silent auction of some carefully selected craft items, plus six mini art quilts,at least one of them a quilted photograph of the school,and the drawing for the raffle quilt.

We anticipate being able to try out the elevator and perhaps get a peek into the room that many have envisioned as a community room.

After that, as usual, potluckand fellowship.   

And renew your membership in The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc.--a bargain at $10.00 for an individual or $15.00 for a couple.  And look at what it has accomplished.  

Remember:  !2 noon on Saturday April 18 at the Mantua Center School building 

   

Easter Egg Hunt Again!

If you came to the 2019 Easter Egg Hunt, you know that it was wildly successful.  Jam packed, in fact.  One of the restoration society members said at the end of the event, "We're fools if we don't do this again." 

Well, we're doing it again.

The 2020 Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., Easter Egg Hunt will be on Saturday, April 11, from 10 a.m. til noon at the Mantua Center School building.

As last year, there will be a bounce house,a visit from the Easter Bunny (photo ops included, of course), games, little stuffed animals, and other things still in the planning stages.  

This year there will be four egg hunt groups: 0-3 years, 4-5 years, 6-7-8 years, and 9-10 years old.  Children need to bring their own baskets.

Last year, the Civic Center was full and then some.  This year, with the hunt being at the school building, space should be less of an issue. 

C'mon out! 

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    Personal stories about MRSi history, properties, and friends.