Kenton City Schools is considering implementing a two-tiered busing system for the 2019-2020 school year. Superintendent Jennifer Penczarski said, at Monday’s board of education meeting, that under this proposal students in grades 5-12 would start school at approximately 7:45-7:55 a.m., with dismissal at 2:40-2:50 p.m.

A lack of construction funds at the state level means it could be up to 10 years before Kenton City Schools considers building a new grades 7-12 school. Superintendent Jennifer Penczarski said the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is out of money and unable to fund all the school construction requests.

Classes for the next two years at Kenton City Schools will be starting before mid-August. The KCS Board of Education on Monday night approved school calendars for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, following the wishes of the staff which selected the earlier starts.

DUNKIRK — According to its 2018 financial report, the Kenton-Hardin Health Department is operating in the red. At the regular Dunkirk council meeting on Monday, Councilman Dan Marshman discussed the health department’s annual report for 2018 which was presented at a countywide meeting last week.

Chris Kurt – known by some locally as “the strawberry guy” – is back in his home community, but it’s not to sell strawberries. For just over two weeks now, Chris has been serving as the President and CEO of Home Savings & Loan Co.

The objections of a group of concerned citizens have blocked an appeal from the proposed Scioto Ridge Wind Farm to the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB). The 102-unit farm is proposed to be constructed later– this year and in 2020 in southern Hardin and northern Logan counties and is under the direction of Innogy, a company based in Germany.

State Rep. Jon Cross presented amendments to the Ohio transportation bill this spring which would have adopted statewide regulations for animal-pulled vehicles, such as Amish buggies. The new regulation proposed by Cross stated, " No person shall operate an animal-drawn vehicle in this state on any public road or highway unless the animal-drawn vehicle is registered in accordance with rules adopted under this section."

It didn't take much persuading for Invenergy to expand its planned Hardin Solar Enegy Center from 1,100 acres to 4,393 acres, said Gabe Klooster. The project practically sold itself. Phase I of the project has been approved by the Ohio State Power Siting Board and the expansion of 3,293 acres is in the approval process with a public hearing taking place Thursday at Kenton High School. The hearing was set to allow residents to voice their concerns about the plans, but only two people expressed opinions on the giant solar fields, which will produce a total of 270 megawatts from the two-phase facility.

ADA — The students in Melody Veltri's English Composition Class at Ada High School learned that childhood experiences in a small town in northwest Ohio are not all that different from living in a village on the other side of the globe. Their teacher on Thursday was Irfana Majumdar, who lives in Varanasi, India, but is currently a student at Ohio Northern University. She and her husband, Gaurav Saini, are attending ONU on a Fulbright Scholarship and are artistic residents in the theater department of the school.

The United Way of Hardin County came up short of its goal in the 2019 campaign. Board of Trustees President Merleen Barnes announced at today's annual meeting that the drive brought in $188,519 in pledges for the current year.