Individual State Champ Signs to Return to Chardon Streets

April 18, 2024 by Allison Wilson

Chardon residents can expect to see individual state championship signs popping up around town, as Chardon City Council discussed their placement April 11.

“Many years ago, there used to be signage around the Chardon area that gave credit to the individuals from Chardon High School who had achieved individual state championships. Those signs have been taken down over the years,” said Mayor Chris Grau.

Several individuals around the area requested for the signs to be put back up, he said, adding as a result, council reached out to Chardon Schools and obtained a current list of individual state champions.

Council made recommendations on how the signs should appear and presented a map of proposed locations.

Original proposals for placement showed signs at U.S. Route 6 from the west, north on state Route 44, Mel Harder Park and a fourth located near school property, either on the corner of Chardon and Maple avenues or North Street. The Mel Harder location was suggested to be used for an unveiling ceremony.

“The four at the main streets coming into Chardon, two on (Route 6) and two on (Route 44) coming and going would be ideal. I’m not so in favor of the ones by the school and by the (Chardon Schools) Board of Education,” council member Deb Chuha said of the placements.

Vice Mayor Heather Means pointed out the new signs would be a bit smaller and could be hard to read at fast speeds.

“Maybe we have a couple that are where people can walk to them and look at them, versus a couple that people will be driving by,” she suggested.

Grau said he thought the Mel Harder location would work perfectly for that purpose.

Council member David Lelko asked if the signs would be tall enough to add more rows underneath, to which he was told yes.

“My thought was to cover the major routes coming in, which would be 44 coming in from the north, Route 6 coming in from the west, Route 6 coming in from the east and 44 coming in from the south,” council member Dan Meleski said.

Grau agreed, adding they could forgo signs at the school and instead place one at Route 6 coming into Chardon from Hambden Township.

Meleski proposed placing five signs rather than four, keeping the one at Mel Harder while also setting ones at routes 6 and 44, though he was uncertain of what the price may be with the increase.

“I figure another $12,000, $13,000,” City Manager Randy Sharpe said in response. “For perspective, we spent $25,000 on the eight that we did for the (team) state champs.”

“There are more pieces to this,” Meleski added.

Sharpe agreed, noting that after four years, prices will be different.

Printing of the signs will be delayed temporarily as one of the student’s honored is still a senior and has a chance at another state championship.

Council passed a motion to accept the individual signs, locations and additional cost.

In other news, council also adopted a new chapter of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Chardon regarding recreational marijuana.

“The purpose of this ordinance will be to prohibit the cultivation, processing and dispensing of adult-use cannabis in the city,” Law Director Benjamin Chojnacki explained.

Grau explained council’s decision.

“We voted on the moratorium back in December, reached out to different individuals, had tremendous input from community members near and far, and the reason that we have this tonight is that this is what we feel is the right direction to move forward on,” he said.

Chapter 749 of the city’s code already prohibits the retail dispensing of medical marijuana. The new chapter would act complimentary to it, Chojnacki said.

Council also passed an ordinance extending the moratorium on accepting applications or issuing zoning certificates for buildings related to adult-use marijuana.

“This ordinance, the purpose is to extend the moratorium over the period of time where anyone who would want to challenge the legislation you enacted earlier tonight, the moratorium would remain in effect during that hypothetical challenge period,” Chojnacki explained.