Home Care In Grafton, OH

GRAFTON, Ohio – Franklin Brewing Co. signed a lease for a permanent location in Grafton, the village’s first brewery.

The brewery-brewpub will be located at 516 Main St., just north of downtown Grafton in a small retail-oriented strip plaza. Owner-brewer is Aaron Shickel.

The Lorain County space will include a production facility and is set to add three fermenters to its three-barrel system. It also will have a tap room.

Franklin (its name is derived from Benjamin Franklin) was established in 2013, but Shickel has been brewing on a limited basis in a pole-barn garage. The new space is in a former CrewsThru beverage store. The brewery will be located in the drive-through part of the location.

Target opening date is late May / early June.

Eight taps will pour beer, and Franklin also will offer wines and local guest beers. Darts, board games, sports on television and live acoustic music also will be available.

Investment opportunities are available via Honeycomb Credit. The brewery is aiming to use funds raised for renovations and new equipment.

I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. Twitter: @mbona30.

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You could call it a very different battle of the bands

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GRAFTON, Ohio — A battle over live outdoor music has reached a breaking point in Grafton Township.

A couple of weeks ago, an injunction was filed by the township to ban such shows at the Jailhouse Taverne.

"They're trying to shut us down,” said Brian Wolbers, Jailhouse Tavern’s managing partner.

It comes after trustees’ created a noise ordinance in 2017 because some residents complained about the loud music at the bar. The ordinance banned noise that can be heard at 100 feet and beyond.

Wolbers says the bar and the township came to an agreement after the ordinance went into effect. The bar went from having live concerts five days a week to two days a week. He also says the bands stopped playing by 10:00 p.m. compared to 11:30 p.m. before the ordinance.

He added the bar even got the trustees’ approval to build a stage and to hold live outdoor music events back in 2016.

Wolbers says the township has not tried to work with him on this even after the bar tried their best to make everyone happy, including monitoring noise levels. He says it still wasn't enough.

"We adjusted according to the ordinance…acoustic music, unplugged bands. They didn't want to hear it. All they wanted to do was make sure live music did not happen here,” he said.

The township also rezoned the area where the bar is located, which banned all outdoor live music events, said Wolbers.

We reached out to each Grafton Township trustee, but we were unable to reach them.

"It gets really bad,” said John Cauffield, who lives across the street from the bar.

He says the music gets so loud it drowns the sound from television.

"A lot of times you have to put ear plugs in to go to bed,” he said.

John’s neighbor, Lauralee Hutson lives across the street from him and essentially the same distance from the bar. She is singing a different tune.

“We don’t find it offensive,” Hutson said. “We sometimes sit down and listen to it even when we're in the house…we can enjoy it."

She says some complaints are coming from people who live farther from the bar than she does. Hutson believes the bar is a good thing for the township.

"I'm wondering do they not like music,” Hutson said.

Wolbers says the injunction can hurt his business and the bands who play at Jailhouse Taverne.

He says the ordeal is frustrating and hopes for a fair resolution.

The hearing about the injunction is scheduled for May 22nd.

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Rochester Swim Club’s Grafton Parlette has verbally committed to Ohio State for fall 2021. Parlette is a senior at Rochester Century High School in Minnesota.

I am extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to The Ohio State University. I chose Ohio State because of the amazing athletic and academic program, and spectacular team and coaching staff. I look forward to joining a great team with a great culture. Go Bucks!!

At the 2020 Minnesota HS AA Championships, Parlette was the 100 free runner-up (45.95), and he finished third in the 200 free (1:40.96). He also led off Rochester Century’s 200 free relay and split a 45.74 on their 400 free relay, both of which finished fourth overall.

In August, Rochester Swim Club held an intrasquad meet, where Parlette posted lifetime bests in the 100 fly (51.69) and 200 back (1:51.14), while he matched his 100 back best (51.81).

Parlette joins William Bansberg, Josh Bogniard, Alex Quach, Karl Helmuth, Tim Kalin, and Luke Paxton in OSU’s class of 2025.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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GRAFTON, Ohio — Firefighters from across Lorain County battled a large fire that raced through historic downtown Grafton Monday morning damaging or destroying four buildings along Main Street.

Crews were called to 216 Bistro, 931 Main Street, at around 8:45 a.m. after fire was found inside the building. Witnesses say the fire quickly raced through the century-old building causing it to collapse.

"It was the craziest fire I've ever seen," said Bill Skaggs who raced to the fire after noticing smoke downtown. "It was big!"

Investigators say the fire then spread to a neighboring insurance office and apartments, then to Lu's Pizza next door and finally to a former barbershop.

The building 216 Bistro occupies has collapsed, with smoke billowing from the roof of Lu's Pizza, according to a News 5 reporter on scene.

Lu's Pizza in downtown #Grafton. @WEWS pic.twitter.com/dPtmGYdfr0

— Scott Noll (@ScottNoll_News) April 1, 2019

Watch the massive fire from AirTracker 5 below:

Seven apartments were damaged or destroyed in the fire.

"I'm really nervous because we have all our personal belongings in there," said Taylor Twardzik. She had just taken to her to school when the fire broke out. She returned minutes later to flashing lights, smoke and uncertainty.

"Me and my grandma have lived here for 11 years," said Twardzik, "so all our memories are in this house."

Grafton's Village Administrator said it's too soon to know what caused the fire. The State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating.

"You're dealing with buildings that are 120-150 years old and basically just from the structure...an active fire is something you have to really knock down extremely fast to try to save any building like that," said Price.

Price said only one person was injured. He said the owner of 216 Bistro was in the building's basement when the fire started and suffered minor smoke inhalation.

The Red Cross is working with families whose apartments were damaged by the fire.

GRAFTON, OH (WOIO) - A volunteer parent chaperone has been accused of purposely exposing himself to sixth grade students during a Midview East Intermediate School field trip.

The Summit County Sheriff's Office said the incident happened in September 2016 at Camp Y-Noah in Clinton.

Deputies said Scott Wuensch purposely exposed himself, videoed a simulated sex act, and made offensive gestures to nine sixth grade students. He was charged with public indecency, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, and disorderly conduct.

One of the students told his mom about the incident this past week. The parent reported it to the school the week of Jan. 23.

Dr. Deborah Koricke said she isn't surprised students waited months to speak.

"Kids are so embarrassed and they're trying to figure it out in their own minds what's going on," she said. "Often people keep it within themselves, especially if it's a one time, isolated incident ... because they either feel like they're at fault, or it's embarrassing, or it's just nothing you feel good about."

Parents like Leigh Ann Arroyo said they were in disbelief when they found out what happened. Her 13-year-old daughter went on the school field trip with Wuensch and other school chaperones.

"(I was in) complete shock. My heart sank," said Arroyo. "I just have to be more overprotective than I already was."

Koricke said parents shouldn't blame themselves for not finding out about the situation earlier, but she said there are subtle signs parents can watch out for.

"If they seem very preoccupied, very upset, that sort of thing, just not themselves, overly quiet," she said.

Midview Local Schools Superintendent Dr. Bruce Willingham released a statement Tuesday: "The safety of our students is our number one priority. Last week, it was brought to my attention that a volunteer parent chaperone allegedly acted inappropriately toward students during the Camp Y-Noah field trip, and our district immediately responded by calling the sheriff's department ... We will continue to review our parent volunteer procedures and will make recommendations to ensure the highest level of safety for our students, as their safety is our top priority."

Willingham said every parent volunteer must pass a BCI/FBI background check to participate in any field trip or event. Wuensch was properly vetted and passed the background check.

Wuensch has also been a Technology Director at Avon Lake City Schools for 13 years.

The district released this statement: "(The district is) aware of the charges against Scott Wuensch, district technology director. Mr. Wuensch is an employee of the educational Service Center of Lorain County and has worked for the Avon Lake City Schools in our Technology Department for 13 years. Mr. Wuensch has been suspended by the ESC. We are unable to further comment on the investigation or charges at this time."

Wuensch turned himself in to authorities and was released on bond. His pre-trial is scheduled for March 15.

Cleveland 19 News stopped by Wuensch's home Tuesday night, but he was not home at the time.

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