Message from Mayor Garlich, August 2024
Hello Residents,
This has been a very active year for our Village, and it is hard for me to comprehend that it is almost fall. Labor Day is approaching; the Great Geauga County Fair is just days away and the school year is beginning.
When I was young, this was and still is an exciting and active time of year. I’m extremely excited about the start of school this year as the Cardinal School District has taken steps to provide a higher quality and diverse path than in past years. I hope you all received the flyer the school mailed a few weeks ago detailing all the improvements and expanded educational opportunities being made available to our local students. These improvement changes will benefit you financially as many of the fees have been eliminated and the course selections will provide a career path where students will, immediately upon graduation, be equipped with the skills making them productive self-supporting adults. I know when the Cardinal program is refined and has gone through the incubation period, our students as well as our area will greatly benefit from these prepared young adults. I urge you as parents to become involved with your children to ensure they utilize every option available to help them to ensure future success.
We have many major projects currently in process in the Village. Our third well is nearing completion, and while this is not an end all, it will provide some needed additional water resources to properly support our Village. We completed our capital improvement projects of street repaving for the year. The addition of the walkway parallel to Almeda Drive has proven to be very beneficial by being a safer user-friendly option to all those attending events at the school and ballfields. This past weekend the ballfields were packed, and we realized how this improvement was money well spent.
A couple of major private projects are underway that won’t be completed until next year. Both the Ohman Senior Living expansion on North State/Tare Creek Parkway and the new Hartville Hardware complex on West High St. will be completed during 2025. In addition to these major projects, HC Companies on Route 528 is planning a 750,000 sq. ft. expansion and they expect to begin construction this fall. We’ve had several new businesses move into available retail spaces. We appreciate and don’t take for granted these investments in our community which provide services and employment.
We just had our annual budget hearing with the County Auditor’s team. Our team was complimented on how well we are budgeting and protecting our residents’ tax dollars. Middlefield is an affordable, great place to live, and our residents realize it takes the entire community to sustain our village.
We are still pursuing the businesses that we feel will fill a gap in our Village needs. A hotel and an Urgent Care. We will not stop pursuing until we are successful.
On Saturday Sept. 14, we will be dedicating and renaming South Springdale to Harrington Way. We will do a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. In conjunction with this ribbon cutting, we are making this day Harrington Appreciation Day. Many of the retailers in Harrington Square and the businesses on South Springdale will be offering giveaways and special offers to celebrate that day. We will be posting details of the promotions and hope you can join us for this day of recognition. If you don’t have a long history in Middlefield, this will be a good day to meet some neighbors, village officials and learn the history on why this street is being renamed. I look forward to seeing you.
Be informed, be involved, exercise your right to vote, shop Middlefield and visit us at middlefieldohio.com
Ben Garlich
Mayor, Village of Middlefield