EXPERIENCE. DILIGENCE. INTEGRITY.
440.522.5677
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Submit items to news@LCnewspapers.com
Volume 10, Issue YY
Happy 200th, Lorain County Dave O’Brien The Comunity Guide
“Happy birthday to a place we all call home.” That was the greeting offered by Lorain County Bicentennial Committee Vice Chairman Garry Gibbs on Friday in his welcome remarks to open a special historical program and meeting of the county Board of Commissioners celebrating the 200th anniversary of the formation of Lorain County and its original Board of Commissioners in 1824. The day’s initial festivities took place on the steps of the old Lorain County Courthouse on Second Street in downtown Elyria, before the county’s jurists gathered in the Justice Center on Court Street for a presentation on the history of the county’s Common Pleas Court, which also turned 200 on Friday. A crowd gathered on lawn chairs under the shade of trees in Ely Square and on folding chairs on the sidewalk in front of the Old Courthouse — opened in 1881 at a cost of $200,000, according to local historian Don Hilton — to watch commissioners conduct “old” business and announce new
business alike. When Lorain County was founded in 1824, there were only 24 states in the Union, the daily wage was 44 cents, and members of the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Elyria held their first services in a log cabin, Gibbs said. Commissioners Jeff Riddell, David Moore and Michelle Hung read biographies and brief histories of their 1824 counterparts — Benjamin Bacon, Asahel Osborne and John S. Reid, respectively — while county Treasurer Dan Talarek gave an account of Edmund West, his long-ago predecessor. The board also did a brief reenactment of West’s 1824 appointment to the position of county treasurer, which took place at the first-ever county commissioners meeting on May 24, 1824. Joining the three sitting commissioners on Friday were five of the eight living former commissioners: Ted Kalo, Lori Kokoski, Matt Lundy, Sharon Sweda and Mary Jo Vasi. The other three who did not attend Friday are George Koury, Michael Ross and Tom Williams. Vasi, the first woman ever elect-
Dave O’Brien The Community Guide
BRUCE BISHOP / CHRONICLE
A crowd gathers Friday to celebrate Lorain County’s bicentennial near Ely Square in downtown Elyria.
ed to the Board of Commissioners, thanked “everyone” in Lorain County for allowing her to serve in the “humble” position from 1989 to 2004. Calling attention to a number of historical displays by her organization as well as the Elyria Black Legacy Connection surrounding the Old Courthouse steps, Lorain County Historical Society Executive Director Kerri Broome called the county’s bicentennial “a very
important time to learn about our history.” Also announced Friday was that Sept. 29 is the scheduled date for the dedication of a countywide memorial to Gold Star families, to be built next to the existing Lorain County Police Memorial on Courthouse Square between Court Street and Middle Avenue in Elyria. A Gold Star family is one that has lost a family member in the military in the line of duty.
Blacks collaborate to tell their history The Community Guide
The Elyria Black Legacy Connection is working with other Black history and genealogy groups in Lorain County to make sure Black stories are not left out of Lorain County’s bicentennial. The Black Legacy Connection teamed up with the Oberlin African-American Genealogy and History Group and the Lorain Black History Project to spotlight 200 years of Black history in Lorain County. “I wanted to make sure the Black presence out in Lorain County was not missed during this celebra-
tion of the bicentennial,” EBLC founder Ethan West said. “I wanted to get Lorain, Elyria and Oberlin, as the cities with the highest populations of Black citizens, to do some kind of joint collaboration.” Phyllis Yarber-Hogan of the Oberlin African-American Genealogy and History Group said that in her experience, being forgotten in an event such as this was a very real concern. “It’s absolutely important that we have a presence at these (bicentennial) events,” she said. “Because we were here, and it’s important
OC finally gets to pay Gibson’s settlement
for everybody to understand that. So often we’re left out of events like this.” Seeking collaboration on that goal, the Black Legacy Connection teamed up with the Oberlin African-American Genealogy and History Group and the Lorain Black History Project. Yarber-Hogan said that in her more than two decades working on preserving and sharing Black history, relationships between Black organizations in different cities had been competitive, even adversarial. “In my experience — and I’ve
been around a long time — this is the first time that Lorain, Elyria and Oberlin have worked together in this way,” Yarber-Hogan said. “It’s been a wonderful collaboration, it really, really has, and this is the first time that it has happened in my memory.” West said that looking back at the history of Lorain County, there was a tradition of the Black communities in Elyria, Lorain and Oberlin working together. “I don’t know where that died off. Sometimes you just kind of get into your own city and stay there, and take pride in that.”
One year after it filed a lawsuit against four of its insurance providers over their refusal to help pay a nearly $36.6 million judgment won by Gibson’s Bakery and its owners, Oberlin College has settled with the last two remaining defendants in the civil case. “We are pleased that Oberlin has reached a confidential resolution with our insurers. Our settlement with our two primary insurers — Lexington and UE — is significant,” Oberlin College spokeswoman Andrea Simakis said Thursday. The college voluntarily dismissed its case May 17 against Lexington Insurance Company of New York, the last of the four insurance companies that it sued in 2023, according to Lorain County Common Pleas Court records. The Mount Hawley Insurance Company of Peoria, Illinois, was dismissed from the lawsuit on May 1, and United Educators Insurance of Bethesda, Maryland, and StarStone Specialty Insurance Company of Cincinnati were dismissed on April 17, according to court records. According to its lawsuit, filed in Judge Chris Cook’s courtroom in April 2023, Oberlin College had at least $75 million in insurance that would have easily covered the Gibson’s judgment and its own unpaid attorney fees. The college eventually paid the Gibsons after
See GIBSON’S A2
Allen Art Museum closes for summer for upgrades Christina Jolliffe The Community Guide
OBERLIN — The Allen Memorial Art Museum will be closed starting today as part of the latest step in Oberlin College and Conservatory’s Sustainable Infrastructure Program. The project aims to transition the campus to a geothermal heating and cooling system and help attain carbon neutrality by 2025. During the closure, the museum will get a facelift as well. “We’re taking the opportunity to update the gallery, install new lighting and refinish flooring,” said Stacie Ross, communications manager for the Allen. “The museum will feel very fresh in the fall. Some of the galleries have not been updated in 15-plus years.” The museum is expected to reopen
in early September. The project, which has been going on for the past five years around campus, also involves some careful and meticulous storage of the museum’s 15,000 works of art. Construction crew members need background checks to work within the proximity of the priceless collection, which includes Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Renaissance art, to name a few. “One of the galleries was closed last week and next week another gallery will be closed,” Ross said. “Some of the storage areas have had work done. When they start working on some of the offices, people in the first-floor offices will be out of the building for summer. The Education Department has to clear out their entire offices — and they have a lot
of stuff.” Just because the museum is closed, that does not mean patrons will be without art. Enthusiasts can still explore the museum digitally with Allen Augmented Reality amam. oberlin.edu/aar for virtual tours and the Allen App amam.oberlin.edu/app. Education partnerships will continue and the museum will still cosponsor the annual chalk walk. “Other events and programs at the museum really follow the semester at Oberlin College,” Ross said. “Speakers and events will begin again then.” That includes the well-loved Oberlin College art rental program. For COURTESY KEVIN G. REEVES updates, visit amam.oberlin.edu/eAllen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin will close news. for renovations this summer with a targeted reopening date sometime in September. Contact Christina Jolliffe at ctnews@chroniclet.com.
INSIDE THIS WEEK Amherst
Steele wins Scholastic Games. A3
Oberlin
Oberlin College graduation. A4
Wellington
Fifth-graders win kindness honor. A2
SPORTS A6 • CROSSWORD A7 • SUDOKU A7 • KID SCOOP A8