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Local News

Friday, November 13, 2009

Village ready for business
Swan House Tea Room
By ERIC SCHAADT

Staff Writer

NORTH BALTIMORE -- Four new businesses in downtown North Baltimore will hold a joint grand opening Saturday with the goal of attracting customers and boosting the downtown's health.

A cinema, hardware store, craft shop and photography studio occupy once-empty storefronts in the 100 block of North Main Street.

Saturday's grand openings of the four ventures will feature a live radio broadcast and prizes provided by the stores.

"I live here," the new hardware store owner, Harold Haynes, said. "I've always liked downtown North Baltimore. We need more businesses."

Haynes is opening the store that bears his name at 124 N. Main St.

Haynes operates another hardware store in the country outside North Baltimore, and he said he wanted to expand his business to one inside the village limits.

His downtown business, which recently moved into a storefront that had been empty for two years, sells kitchen and bathroom equipment, among other household items. He also builds cabinets for the kitchen and bathroom.

Haynes' sister, Mary Ward, runs the Kountry Cupboard, 122 N. Main St., which opened in October.

Crafts and consignment items can be found in the Kountry Cupboard.

A Bowling Green couple has started a photography studio at 114 N. Main St.

Nicole Reza, one of the owners of Eric Reza Photography, said they brought their studio to North Baltimore because there was none "in the immediate vicinity."

She said families in North Baltimore have had to travel to nearby cities for portraits.

And film buffs should be happy with the Virginia Motion Pictures theater, which will offer family movies, classics and independent offerings in a downtown movie theater that had been shuttered since September 2008.

Owner Jayson Wickard has said he wants to bring family entertainment with reasonable prices to the theater where he had worked as a youngster.

Reza praised the opening of the new businesses in North Baltimore.

"I hope it means they revitalize (the downtown)," she said.

Haynes said, "People are happy seeing new businesses coming in and making North Baltimore look like it should again."

North Baltimore officials hope more stores arrive in the downtown.

Village Administrator Kathy Healy said she has fielded inquiries from other potential businesses, including a sandwich shop.

Healy estimated six empty storefronts remain in the downtown, including the former Faith Alliance Church and former Huntington Bank.

Meanwhile, some North Baltimore business representatives have banded together and may submit a bid to buy five vacant downtown parcels from the village to create more parking spaces along North Main Street.

Buildings on those parcels have been torn down by the village.

Schaadt: 419-427-8414,

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1 Comment

bill wrote:
businesses
“ None of the 4 will make it-North Baltimore hasnt had any influx of people moving in-once the railroad people finish building,they will leave and the town will be just as bad off as it always has been ”
Friday, November 13, 2009 6:15:17 AM
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Little Rock Nine

LITTLE ROCK NINE: Jefferson Thomas, who was among nine black students initially barred by the Arkansas governor from attending Little Rock Central High School in 1957, spoke to Findlay students as part of Black History Month. The crisis was a pivotal moment in the struggle for civil rights.


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A Findlay man who was injured in an ATV accident Friday afternoon has been treated and released from the hospital.

Jason Walters, 33, of Findlay, was taken by Hanco EMS to Blanchard Valley Hospital following the accident. According to the Hancock County Sheriff's Office, Walters was riding an all-terrain vehicle west of Findlay along Ohio 12, east of Hancock County 88. He hit a stone driveway embankment and was thrown from the vehicle.

Civl rights leader to speak at ONU
ADA -- The Ohio Northern University Office of Multicultural Development presents guest lecturer and American civil rights leader Jefferson Thomas at 7 p.m. Thursday in the McIntosh Ballroom.

This event is free.

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High School students will sit in on classes, take a short complimentary private lesson, visit with music faculty and participate in a music ensemble rehearsal. All events are held on the Bluffton University campus. Registration is required by Feb. 12.

Students will have the chance to audition for a music scholarship. In order to register or obtain more information, visit www.bluffton.edu/mus/performday, email Lucia Unrau at unraul@bluffton.edu or call the music department office at 419-358-3347.

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The Freed Center box office is open Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Phone orders are accepted with American Express, MasterCard, VISA and Discover by calling 419-772-1900. Tickets are also available online at www.freedcenter.com.