Latest News

'Match Madness' tips off for Coventry PEACE Park

A basketball half-court is planned as part of the Coventry PEACE Park redesign.

The Fund for the Future of Heights Libraries (FFHL) has launched a “Match Madness” campaign to help pay for the basketball half-court in the new Coventry PEACE Park.

An anonymous donor will match up to $25,000 in donations received by FFHL between March 17 and April 8, coinciding with the men’s NCAA basketball tournament (aka "March Madness"). 

The half-court will feature a graphic representation of Dugway Brook, which flows beneath the playground, a basketball hoop, and a concrete retaining wall that can be used for developing other ball skills.

On March 27, Cilantro Taqueria in Coventry Village (at 2783 Euclid Heights Blvd.) will support FFHL’s Match Madness campaign by donating 20% of receipts from customers who mention “Fund for the Future of Heights Libraries” when ordering. These funds also will be matched by the donor.

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Volume 17, Issue 4, Posted 6:15 PM, 03.17.2024

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Reaching Heights hosts annual Spelling Bee April 10

On April 10, at 7 p.m., Reaching Heights will host its 33rd Annual Adult Community Spelling Bee at the Heights High Auditorium.

In this popular event, up to 25 three-person teams compete for the coveted Bee Trophy—and earn bragging rights for a whole year.

Proceeds from this friendly competition enable Reaching Heights to support teachers, enrich students and connect the community to Heights public schools. This year, the funds raised will support the Many Villages Tutoring program and the Role Model Speakers program. 

To help support reaching Heights, form a team of three and vie for the thrill of victory!

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Volume 17, Issue 4, Posted 11:17 PM, 03.11.2024

Add your Earth Month event to CHGT's calendar

Are you planning a “green” event in April in the Heights? If you are, or if you know of one, tell the Cleveland Heights Green Team (CHGT).

CHGT is compiling an Earth Month in the Heights Events Calendar. The purpose of this crowdsourced initiative is to inspire action and to remind everyone that every effort on behalf of the environment counts.

Submit information about an event here. CHGT will add it to the calendar and share it with the community, inviting everyone to participate.

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Volume 17, Issue 4, Posted 10:04 AM, 03.09.2024

Coventry library to host monthly Memory Cafes

A past Memory Cafe reminisced about shopping on Cleveland's Euclid Avenue.

The Farrell Foundation for Brain Health will host three Memory Cafes at Coventry Village Library, starting March 14.

Each program, guided by professionals, is for people with cognitive memory loss due to dementia or Alzheimer’s and their primary care partners. The sessions combine music, art and storytelling with refreshments—all in a café atmosphere.

From March through May, the cafes will take place on the second Thursday of the month, 1–2:30 p.m. Registration is recommended for the free programs. To register, call 216-321-3400.

March 14 - St. Patrick’s Artful Legends and Limericks: Participants are invited to wear something green and create artwork in shades of green and enjoy St. Patrick’s Day refreshments.

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Volume 17, Issue 4, Posted 10:16 AM, 03.08.2024

March 13 class invites families of young children to hands-on music program

A child experiments with making music as part of a Connecting for Kids Music Therapy & More class in 2023. [photo courtesy Connecting for Kids] 

On Wednesday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m., Connecting for Kids will present a hands-on music program, Music Therapy & More, for families with children ages 6 and younger.

The session will be held at the Lee Road Library, and is designed to teach families how to use music to improve their child's academic, motor, communication and social skills, and behavior.

Connecting for Kids offers free programs throughout Northeast Ohio. This is the first Music Therapy & More class to be offered at a branch of Heights Libraries.

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Volume 17, Issue 4, Posted 10:09 AM, 03.07.2024

Crowdsourced Conversations launches car-less-living survey

Building Community With Renters and Landlords was a 2023 Crowdsourced Conversations topic. [photo: Sarah Wolf]

The survey for 2024’s first Crowdsourced Conversations topic, Living Less Car-Centric in the Heights, launches March 1 and will remain live through March 31. The survey, and additional information, can be found at www.futureheights.org/cc24-less-car-centric.

Crowdsourced Conversations is a forum series hosted by FutureHeights with the support of partner organizations Home Repair Resource Center, Cleveland Heights Green Team, Heights Libraries, and Heights Biking Coalition, as well as many volunteers from across the community.

A community-building initiative, the series invites all Heights residents to the table to share their experiences, with the aim of finding ways to take meaningful action and supporting the ongoing work in our neighborhoods and across Cleveland Heights and University Heights.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:05 PM, 02.28.2024

Event connects potential employers with students

Reaching Heights Board Member Adaora Schmiedl with Ida Ford, manager of talent acquisitions for the Greater Cleveland RTA, at the  Business Connection event on Feb. 1 at the Heights High AutoTech facility.

Do you need to hire employees for summer 2024? Would it help if those new employees arrived with some preparation and compensation? The Heights CTE Consortium and Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.) are ready to help connect businesses with talented young people who need work experience.

On Feb. 1, 40 people gathered at the Deborah Delisle Options Center to attend Heights High’s Business Connection event. A collaboration of Reaching Heights, FutureHeights, the Heights CTE Consortium, and Y.O.U., the event brought business owners, managers and community leaders together to learn about high school career and technical education (CTE) programs and youth career-development programs.

Carmen Daniel, Heights CTE Consortium’s business and community engagement specialist, highlighted the wide variety of programs offered to high school juniors and seniors in the five-district consortium comprising Cleveland Heights-University Heights, Shaker Heights, Warrensville Heights, Maple Heights, and Bedford. 

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:55 PM, 02.28.2024

Remember when Hendrix didn't play La Cave?

La Cave's Stan Kain (left) with Steve Katz, who played at La Cave several times with two popular bands, the Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears. This picture is from a few years ago, taken at a concert venue in Cleveland Heights, where Katz performed his solo show. [photo: Steve Traina]

I won’t see you at the B-Side on March 16, when Mac’s Backs presents a book discussion and signing with Steve Traina, celebrating the release of his book La Cave: Cleveland’s Legendary Music Club and the ‘60s Folk-to-Rock Revolution. I’ll be out of town that day. But I’m in the book. So, it will almost be as if I’m there. Kind of.

Anyway, I’m mentioned and quoted a few times in Traina’s book. I spent a lot of time at La Cave, Cleveland’s major venue for presenting national and local folk musicians, and then also folk-rock musicians, and then also rock musicians, from 1962 to 1969. I performed there a few times and attended hundreds of shows there. For about the last eight months before I left Cleveland, in February 1968, I hung out at La Cave almost every night.

I usually walked from Coventry to La Cave, which was at E. 107th Street and Euclid Avenue, just west of University Circle. It was kind of a long walk, especially in the winter, but it was always worth the effort.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:48 PM, 02.28.2024

Noble Action Group forms to mobilize residents and businesses

Cleveland Heights’ city leaders introduced the Noble Road Comprehensive Planning Study to Noble Road residents during a meeting at Caledonia Elementary School on Jan. 24. This plan includes the entire Noble Corridor, from the Noble-Nela Business District (East Cleveland) to the Warrensville Center and Mayfield roads intersection. (The study can be viewed at www.clevelandheights.gov/1680/Noble-Road-Corridor-Comprehensive-Planni.)

The study is described in greater detail in the Jan. 26 City News Update, on the city's website. Listed were a range of services, amenities, and essential needs we lack here, along with potential economic development related to commercial and residential structures.

The meeting was well attended by Noble residents. However, several residents expressed anger and frustration at having been in this situation before.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:07 PM, 02.28.2024

Swim Cadets 'live the teenage dream' March 7–9

The 2024 Swim Cadets team (left to right, top to bottom): Gwendolyn Kinsella, Josephine Norton, Emily Barr, Sophie Petersal, Samira Sisson, Maeve Hackman (advisor), Ella Bain, Celia Pentecost, Amelia McCann, Addison Hart, Celia Lyford, Harper Walker, Polly Routh, Clara Walker, Lucia Mitchell, and Tasha Bell. [photo: Nancy Rich]

The Cleveland Heights High School Swim Cadets will present their 85th annual show—Swim Cadets Live the Teenage Dream!—March 7–9.

The 15-member synchronized swim team will perform three shows, Thursday through Saturday, March 7–9, at 7 p.m., at the Heights High Natatorium, 13263 Cedar Road. (The entrance is on the west side of the building, door #8.)  Tickets are $12 and available in advance from Swim Cadet members. A limited number of tickets will be sold at the door. The Friday-night show will also be live-streamed on the district’s YouTube channel.

The show is a product of four months of 12- to 15-hour practice weeks, and the cadets are responsible for all aspects of the show, including choreography, costumes, and fundraising.

Synchronized swimming in high school is rare, and Heights Swim Cadets is the oldest student-run club at the high school. The club's traditions span decades, bonding the girls to the generations before them. It is not uncommon for the members to be second- or even third-generation Swim Cadets (daughters, sisters, and nieces of former cadets). Many current and past members have participated in or coached the synchronized swimming program at Cumberland Pool over the summer, emphasizing the continuity between the community pool and the public school.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:00 PM, 02.28.2024

Register now for free spring-break arts classes

Use this QR code to register for free youth arts activities at the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church. 

During this year’s school spring break, on Tuesday, March 26, and Thursday, March 28, the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church (DCC) will offer free art classes for kids in grades one through four and grades five through eight.

The classes—in which everyone who registers will take part—will comprise circus arts, taught by WIZBANG Circus School; dance, from Blakk Jakk Dance Collective; and art activities from the Center for Arts Inspired Learning.

The classes will be held 1–4 p.m., on Tuesday, March 26, and Thursday, March 28, and will take place at DCC’s Cultural Arts Center, 3663 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights. 

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:57 PM, 02.28.2024

Voters should choose candidates not parties

In his opinion in the February issue of the Heights Observer, Edward Olszewski offered observations about partisan politics in Cleveland Heights.

He correctly stated that Republicans in the 1970s were first to make local elections more partisan. They used partisanship to obtain political control of CH City Hall.  Democrats then became dominant with their campaigns in the 1980s. They took over political control and raised partisanship to an even higher level. (I admit I was as guilty of causing that to happen as Mr. Olszewski.) Ballot language might have made elections non-partisan. But members of the Cleveland Heights Democratic Club during and after the 1980s did not even pretend that they were. And their campaigning shows how effective partisan tactics can be.

The November 2021 election for the CH-UH school board is a good example.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:04 PM, 02.28.2024

Thank you to Stone Oven

To the Editor:

This is a love letter and thank you note to John Emerman and Tatyana Rehn.

Thank you for creating a comfy gathering space where the food is healthy and sweet and multigrain. The soup is hot, and the delicious sandwiches have creative names. Children are always welcome. 

When community members came to you asking for donations, you always helped. Your employees are kind and patient, and your bathrooms are clean. 

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:55 PM, 02.28.2024

The story of our beautifully untidy yard

An untreated lawn and butterfly flowerbed.

How did I come to have an untidy yard with beds full of leaves and a lawn sporting dandelions? It all started with violets . . .

We moved to Cleveland Heights in 2006, buying a house in the neighborhood between Cedar/Fairmount and Coventry. The house came with a lawn. Not knowing the options, we simply did what our neighbors did: hire a company to take care of it. They used riding lawn mowers and gas-powered leaf blowers. They sprayed herbicides and mulched. The aesthetic was what I’d describe as “tidy.” Tidy beds with only a few neatly mulched plants, tidy lawn with nothing but grass, tidy pavements with no evidence of their work.

I began to feel a conflict between the way I understand ecosystems, and what I saw in my yard.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:58 PM, 02.28.2024

Recognizing a CH employee's kindness

To the Editor:

I want to recognize a kindness shown to me on Jan. 16. On this very snowy day, while returning my recycling container to my backyard, I slipped and fell.

I wasn't wearing gloves and scooted myself to my picnic table. I was not successful getting up, because my boots kept slipping. My neighbors were not home, and I did not have my phone with me. I scooted to the car and tried to get in, but my boots kept sliding in the snow. At that point I was very worried as I did not know how I would get any help. My fingers had no sensation and were red.

When the Cleveland Heights refuse truck pulled up at the end of my drive, I called out.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:54 PM, 02.28.2024

JCU joins North Coast conference

Goal! JCU is the newest member of the North Coast Athletic Conference.

John Carroll University (JCU) has announced that it will join the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) beginning Fall 2025. The athletic conference change is the latest step in JCU’s three-year, $100 million strategy to bolster the student experience, grow the academic portfolio, enhance the campus, and expand the institution’s reach. 

The Blue Streaks will become the 10th member of the conference, which includes institutions from Ohio and Indiana that serve students well beyond the Midwest.

“Athletics has been an integral part of the student experience at John Carroll for more than a century and we are pleased to accept the invitation to join the NCAC during a pivotal time in our history,” said JCU President Al Miciak.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:51 PM, 02.28.2024

Meet you at The Walt for the solar eclipse

[Comic book art by Lee Johnson]

Join Cooper the Brand Ambassador and Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan at The Walt for a Solar Eclipse Party.

The city of University Heights is teaming up with Heights Libraries and Destination Cleveland to host an eclipse-viewing event at Walter Stinson Community Park on April 8.

Details will be announced in early March.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:52 PM, 02.28.2024

Upcycling leads to new business for CH duo

Dori Nelson-Hollis and Jessica Schantz at their workshop in Cleveland Heights.

Many of us, at some point, have dreamed of finding the courage to leave our jobs and careers and reinvent our lives.

Cleveland Heights residents Jessica Schantz and Dori Nelson-Hollis are next-door neighbors who, unbeknownst to each other, decided to leave their jobs—as CSU lecturer and HR executive, respectively—around the same time. Both sought more personal balance and alternative ways to channel their creativity.

By pure chance, they bumped into each other while shopping for tools needed for their own home-restoration projects.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:02 PM, 02.28.2024

Help plan now for UH's Memorial Day parade

Artist Robin VanLear.

University Heights is home to the oldest and largest Memorial Day Parade in Greater Cleveland. With planning for this year’s event kicking off in early March, it’s not too early to get involved.

The 2024 UH Memorial Day theme is “A Better Tomorrow.”

Artist Robin VanLear will once again offer workshops for parade participants who want to work on creative costumes or vehicle decorations. To get things started, VanLear will offer a free Information & Brainstorming Session Wednesday, March 6, 6:30 p.m., in her studio at Coventry PEACE Campus, 2843 Washington Blvd.

At the introductory session, VanLear will meet with group leaders to discuss themes, brainstorm ideas, and identify needed materials.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:50 PM, 02.28.2024

What’s happening with CH's Climate Action Plan?

Last year, Cleveland Heights hired a Sustainability Coordinator and contracted with consultant Nutter Inc. to develop a Climate Action and Resilience Plan. Other than a few meet-and-greet events last October, the public hasn’t heard much regarding the plan, and there hasn’t been any public messaging on climate actions for individuals and households.

Climate change is a massive, global train wreck, happening in slow motion, that we can’t stop. But we can stop fueling it and lessen its power, allowing time to prepare and adapt; to minimize damage and suffering. Amid urgent reports, we hear nothing regarding our city’s climate action plan, and no calls to action.

In Cleveland Heights, many of us have resources to stay comfortable in the event of power blackouts or water and gas supply disruptions—for a few days.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:01 PM, 02.28.2024

The face of a child

To the Editor:

On The New York Times website is the face of a young girl in a wheelchair. She has curly brown hair pulled back neatly, and wide, dark brown eyes. She is describing how she awoke from a coma to learn that her parents were dead. Her name is Dareen al Bavaa. She is 11. She is speaking to an off-camera interviewer from a hospital in Qatar. In bed nearby is her 5-year-old brother, Kinan. They are the only survivors of a bombardment that killed 47 family members. The video cuts to an image of rubble, with a caption that reads, "They were sheltering together in an area of Gaza the Israeli military had identified as a safe zone."

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:54 PM, 02.28.2024

Missed opportunities and untapped potential

Cleveland Heights is a city rich in resources—residential and commercial, human, natural and historical. But to be home to a vibrant, flourishing community, a city needs leaders who will nurture these resources. This can mean anything from maintaining roads and sewer pipes, to restoring park habitats, to providing conditions that encourage residents to contribute and staff to do their best work. Tending to the needs of a city requires a balance between day-to-day attention and forward-looking imagination. In all realms, it requires constant effort to stay ahead of the forces of entropy, stagnation and decay.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:49 PM, 02.28.2024

'Something Clean' gets regional premiere at Dobama

March 8–30, Dobama Theatre will present the regional premiere of "Something Clean" by Selina Fillinger, directed by Shannon Sindelar. 

Described by The New York Times as “a beautifully observed, richly compassionate new drama,” the play is both suspenseful and stirring. It follows Charlotte, a devoted mother, wife, and respectable member of the community, who struggles to make sense of her own grief, love and culpability when an act of violence is committed by a family member.

The inspiration for "Something Clean" was an article about Brock Turner, the Stanford University swimmer from Ohio who sexually assaulted a woman behind a dumpster. Fillinger, the playwright, said, “I was following that story, and I saw a photo of him walking to court holding his mother’s hand. It was an incredibly domestic and maternal image.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:03 PM, 02.28.2024

CH-UH kindergartens host info nights

Beginning March 6, each Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District elementary school will host a Kindergarten Information Night for incoming and prospective families. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet school principals and teachers, ask questions, and take tours of the buildings.

To find the school that corresponds to your address, use the district’s online interactive boundary map, at www.chuh.org/InteractiveBoundariesMap.aspx.

Each information night will run from 6 to 7 p.m., on the following dates:

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:10 PM, 02.28.2024

March 10 talk explores efficacy of deer sterilization

Is deer sterilization an effective way to reduce deer populations humanely?

On March 10, Sunny Simon, chair of Cuyahoga County’s Education, Environment, and Sustainability Committee, will speak on the topic at 3 p.m., at the University Heights Library, during a meeting of Green Noble, a Cleveland Heights environmental activist group. 

Simon has led an experimental effort in South Euclid to capture and sterilize deer with the help of a private contractor, White Buffalo Inc.  The five-year program, now in its third year, tranquilizes some does and removes their ovaries. The deer then are released back to the neighborhood.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:53 PM, 02.28.2024

Great process! Will solutions follow?

On June 24, 1995, more than 100 alumni of the Heights High instrumental-music program and 75 former vocal-music students met at Cain Park to perform in Reaching Notable Heights. The concert was a fundraiser for the relatively new nonprofit organization that I directed at that time, Reaching Heights.

The concert exemplified the power of music to celebrate public education and unite the community in support of its schools, and it also uncovered the loyalty that our district’s music program inspires in its graduates—even 50 years later in some cases.

These alums were glad to travel from as far away as California, at their own expense, to perform for their hometown in support of music in the public schools. Many had never attended a class reunion, but a music reunion was another story. They were paying back the community—big time!

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:59 PM, 02.28.2024

Orchestra performs French favorites

The Cleveland Repertory Orchestra.

The Cleveland Repertory Orchestra will present a concert featuring music by favorite French composers. The performance will be held on Saturday, March 9, 7 p.m., at Disciples Christian Church in Cleveland Heights.

The concert will feature pianist Corey Knick, performing Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Maurice Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess, and Camille Saint-Saëns's First Symphony.

Cleveland Repertory Orchestra performances are free and open to the public, but tickets should be requested online, in advance.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:09 PM, 02.28.2024

Collaboration is the theme at Heights Arts

A sculpture from the Irrational Objects exhibition, opening March 15.

When Heights Arts was founded in 2000, the new organization’s name included the word “Collaborative.” Despite later shortening that to “Heights Arts,” the nonprofit has continued to value collaboration as an ongoing inspiration—as evidenced by partnerships with No Exit New Music Ensemble and The Music Settlement that, in March, will bring several unique experiences to the community.

First up is the exhibition Irrational Objects: Looking Back into the Future, opening Friday, March 15, at 5 p.m., and running through May 12.

Heights Arts and No Exit have collaborated for more than a decade, with Heights Arts hosting several of the ensemble’s concerts each year. Last year’s Collaborage exhibition at Heights Arts was the kickoff event to No Exit’s 2024 celebration of surrealism, and now No Exit’s foray into the visual arts expands to fill the entire Heights Arts exhibition space, which will be transformed into a surrealist environment with Irrational Objects.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:47 PM, 02.28.2024

WRC presents a 'human requiem' by Brahms

Western Reserve Chorale's (WRC) performance of Brahms’s Ein deutches Requiem (A German Requiem) this month represents the return of the ensemble's mission to offer music to various audiences, and presents—perhaps for the first time—the “chamber version” of this masterpiece, created in 2010 by German flutist Joachim Linckelmann.

WRC will perform the Requiem on Friday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., at Lakewood United Methodist Church, and Sunday, March 10, 3:30 p.m., at Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights. Both concerts are free and open to the public; donations are encouraged and will support WRC's ability to present quality choral music to the community.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 2:49 PM, 02.28.2024

PEACE Pops kicked off quarterly series with January event

Dancing and singing at the January PEACE Pops. [photo: Jack Valancy]

Coventry PEACE kicked off its 2024 PEACE Pops series on Friday, Jan. 26, with its annual Art of Community event. The event drew well over 400 attendees who were able to view the Art of Community exhibit, participate in hands-on art making, enjoy the sounds of live music, dance with a giant puppet, and visit working artists in their studios. 

A quarterly experience of art and community, PEACE Pops is a free, family-friendly event held on the last Friday of January, April, July and October. The 2024 PEACE Pops series will continue on April 26, July 26, and Oct. 25.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 3:01 PM, 02.28.2024

Cuda and Russell to meet with Forest Hill residents

Tony Cuda

Cleveland Heights City Council President Tony Cuda and council Vice President Davida Russell will hold a listening session on Tuesday, March 5, 7–8 p.m., at Forest Hill Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd., at the corner of Monticello and Lee Road. 

Heights residents—and Forest Hill residents in particular—are invited to take this opportunity to meet Cuda and Russell, and let them know what is on their minds. The focus of the March 5 session will be on issues and concerns of particular interest to Forest Hill.

Cuda and Russell have previously hosted listening sessions for Taylor/Canterbury/Boulevard, and Coventry/Roxboro/Fairfax. Plans are in the works for a similar event for Noble/Oxford/Caledonia.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:05 AM, 02.24.2024

Library's eclipse-themed programs begin in March

On April 8, North America will experience a total solar eclipse, and Northeast Ohio will be one of the best viewing areas in the country. Heights Libraries is getting ready for the once-in-a-lifetime communitywide event with programs, information, and viewing opportunities.

Heights Libraries will distribute a limited number of eclipse kits at each branch beginning in mid-March. Each kit includes eclipse activities, reading suggestions, and two pairs of eclipse glasses. Customers must register to receive a kit, which will be available at each library branch on the following schedule:

• Coventry registration begins March 1; pick up March 15–22.
• Lee Road registration begins March 8, pick up March 22–29.
• Noble registration begins March 15; pick up March 29 through April 5.
• University Heights registration begins March 22; pick up April 5–12.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:05 AM, 02.24.2024

Library revises PEACE Park budget and timeline

An updated plan for the new PEACE Park.

At its Feb. 19, meeting, the Heights Libraries board of trustees approved an updated budget and timeline for the PEACE Park playground renovation.

The new budget is $3.2 million, up from an estimated $2.5 million. The new construction timeline has moved the park’s completion date to early December 2024, from the original estimate of summer 2024.

“Our board wants to ensure that the new PEACE Park fulfills our mission to provide safe, welcoming spaces with equal access to services for all of our residents,” said Heights Libraries Director Nancy Levin.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:03 AM, 02.24.2024

Stone Oven's new owners promise more of the same

Nick Kalafatis (left) and Chris Compton took ownership of Stone Oven on Lee Road on Feb. 1. [photo: Bob Rosenbaum]

On Feb. 1, the day Nick Kalafatis and Chris Compton closed on their purchase of Stone Oven Bakery and Café, a longtime patron introduced himself with a warning: Don’t screw it up.

Stone Oven’s steadfast presence on Lee Road these past 29 years has cultivated a lot of loyalty, and the new owners want you to know they don’t plan to change the formula.

“We wouldn’t have done this if we hadn’t seen what this place means to the community,” said Kalafatis. “We don’t want to mess with this too much; it’s a great business as-is.”

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:08 AM, 02.18.2024

A goodbye to Lee Road legend Chuck Preisch

Charles "Chuck" Preisch passed away on Jan. 29, 2024.

For those who haven't heard, I'm sad to report that Charles "Chuck's Diner" Preisch passed away recently. This is an excerpt from his obituary, reprinted with his family's permission:

Charles “Chuck” Preisch, age 74, passed away Jan. 29, 2024, after a short hospitalization following a car accident.

Chuck was really looking forward to 2024. He would have been 75 years old in May, 45 years sober in June, and 50 years married in November. He hoped to celebrate with a visit back to Cleveland to eat at his favorite restaurants and play poker with some of his favorite people.

Chuck grew up in Lockport, N.Y., and dropped out of high school in May of his senior year.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 12:14 PM, 02.18.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education meeting highlights

FEBRUARY 6, 2024 - regular meeting

  • Public comment
  • Recognitions and awards
  • Board actions
  • New math curriculum
  • Superintendent comments 
  • Treasurer’s report
  • Music program root cause analysis

Board members present were President Jodi Sourini, Gabe Crenshaw, Malia Lewis, and Phil Trimble. Dan Heintz was not present. Also present were Superintendent Elizabeth Kirby and Treasurer Scott Gainer. The meeting lasted about 1.75 hours.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 12:16 PM, 02.29.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education meeting highlights

JANUARY 23, 2024 - work session

  • SEL model and curriculum
  • Direct support partners and services
  • Indirect support partners and services

Board members present were President Jodi Sourini, Gabe Crenshaw, Dan Heintz, Malia Lewis, and Phil Trimble. Also present were Superintendent Elizabeth Kirby and Treasurer Scott Gainer. The meeting lasted about 1.75 hours.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 12:01 PM, 02.29.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS/Cleveland Heights University Heights Library Board of Trustees meeting highlights

JANUARY 19, 2024

  • Oath of office 
  • Sustainable Libraries Initiative
  • Financial report
  • Board actions
  • Director’s report
  • Public services report

Board members present were President Vikas Turakhia, Vice President Annette Iwamoto, Secretary Patti Carlyle, Dana Fluellen, Tyler McTigue, Melissa Soto-Schwartz, and Hallie Turnberrez. The meeting lasted one hour.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:57 AM, 02.29.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / Cleveland Heights City Council meeting highlights

FEBRUARY 5, 2024 - regular meeting

  • Public comment
  • Mayor’s report
  • City administrator’s report
  • Clerk of council’s report
  • Council actions
  • Council member comments
  • Public session not authorized
  • Israel-Palestine resolution
  • Committee of the whole

Present were Mayor Kahlil Seren, Council President Tony Cuda, Vice President Davida Russell, and council members Craig Cobb, Gail Larson, Anthony Mattox Jr. and Jim Petras. Janine Boyd was not present. Also present were Addie Balester, clerk of council; William Hanna, law director; and Danny Williams, city administrator. The meeting ran 1.75 hours.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:46 AM, 02.29.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / Cleveland Heights City Council meeting highlights

JANUARY 16, 2024 - regular meeting

  • Public comment
  • Mayor’s report
  • City Administrator’s Report
  • Council actions
  • Council member comments
  • Committee of the whole
  • Other agenda items

Council President Tony Cuda, Council Vice President Davida Russell, and Council Members Craig Cobb, Gail Larson, Anthony Mattox, Jr., and Jim Petras were present. Mayor Kahlil Seren was absent (attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors) and Council Member Janine Boyd was observing virtually. Also present were Addie Balester, clerk of council, William Hanna, law director, and Danny Williams, city administrator. The regular meeting ran 44 minutes and the Committee of the Whole, one hour and 38 minutes. A public hearing for zoning text and map changes ran 27 minutes.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:39 AM, 02.29.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / University Heights City Council meeting highlights

February 5, 2024- regular meeting

  • Public comment
  • Mayor’s report
  • City council committee reports
  • Council actions
  • Staff reports

Present were Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan, Vice Mayor Michele Weiss, and Council Members Christopher Cooney, Brian J. King, Threse Marshall, John P. Rach, Sheri Sax, and Win Weizer. Also present were Kelly Thomas, clerk of council; Luke McConville, law director; and Dennis Kennedy, finance director. The meeting ran for about 2.75 hours.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:33 AM, 02.29.2024

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / University Heights City Council meeting highlights

JANUARY 16, 2024 - regular meeting

  • Mayor’s report
  • Council and staff reports
  • Council actions

Present were Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan, Vice Mayor Michele Weiss, and Council Members Christopher Cooney, Brian J. King, John P. Rach, Sheri Sax, and Win Weizer. Threse Marshall was excused. Also present were Kelly Thomas, clerk of council; Luke McConville, law director; and Dennis Kennedy, finance director. The meeting ran for one hour and 53 minutes.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:11 AM, 02.29.2024

LWV presents Feb. 19 program on 'Preserving Democracy'

On Presidents Day, Feb. 19, 6:30–8:30 p.m., the CH-UH Chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland, in partnership with Heights Libraries, will present “A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy.”

Comprising a documentary video and subsequent discussion, the event will be held at the Lee Road Library, in meeting rooms A and B. 

The video presents an interview/discussion between politician and author Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and PBS correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 10:16 AM, 02.12.2024

Kirby to address 'State of our Schools' on Feb. 7

Superintendent Elizabeth Kirby.

Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District Superintendent Elizabeth Kirby will deliver the 2024 State of our Schools address on Feb. 7, 7 p.m., at Cleveland Heights High School.

The in-person event is open to the public. The event will also be live streamed via the district's YouTube channel.

Kirby will discuss strategic-planning updates, achievements and notable events from the past year, and major new initiatives that are taking shape.

The event will also feature performances by students, and building highlights.

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Volume 17, Issue 3, Posted 11:07 AM, 02.02.2024