Features

Gaining office at the start of 2020, Huntington Mayor Richard Strick hoped to quickly “learn the ropes” of the office and then spend his first year in office strengthening relationships between business owners, city officials and the residents of Huntington.

“Obviously, a global pandemic was not on the Bingo card for any of us,” Strick said. “Nor the economic questions and all of the grief and pain that has come with that.”

Strick recalls that the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic became “real for all of us” with the cancellation of the 2020 Big 10 Tournament games.

The Mt. Etna Masonic Lodge held its annual installation of new officers on Thursday, Dec. 3, following a monthly meeting.

New officers for 2021 include the following:

• Worshipful Master, Ryan Kline.
• Senior Warden, Steve Williams.
• Junior Warden, David Fenker.
• Secretary, Guilford Wehr, Jr.
• Treasurer, Brent Campbell.
• Senior Deacon, Rick Sereno.
• Junior Deacon, Jathan Jones.
• Senior Steward, Joe Gooding.
• Junior Steward, Ed Purvis.
• Tyler, Jerry Piqune.
• Chaplain, Jay Allen.

Huntington North High School’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) had several students donating their time at Life Church and Café of Hope on State Street in Huntington during the holiday break.

JROTC instructor and Sergent First Class (SFC, Retired) Dana Lescoe says the church and café are updating their flooring, but they needed a hand to prepare the space for repairs.

His JROTC students answered the call, and in addition to prepping the floors and installing wall sheeting, they also assisted the organization in the take-down of their Christmas decorations.

On Christmas Eve a local organization, Feeders for Friends, completed their goal of installing a bird feeder outside the window of every resident possible in every nursing home in Huntington County.

“We installed 207 bird feeders in the last three weeks,” reported Jake and Cora Wyatt on the organization’s Facebook page on Dec. 24. “We also filled over 300 bird feeders”.

Jake Wyatt started the organization about a month ago, by creating the “Feeders for Friends” Facebook group on the popular social media site.

His original post stated:

Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, will be the final application deadline for the City of Huntington’s small business COVID-19 Grant Program.

Businesses operating within Huntington city limits have until that date to submit their applications. The maximum award under this program is a one-time grant of up to $10,000.

The primary purpose of the fund is to protect low-to-moderate income jobs at businesses whose operations have been harmed by COVID-19. Permitted uses of grant funds to achieve this goal include:

• Working capital including rent and other day-to-day expenses.

Covered with Love, Love INC’s on-site consignment shop, had a Family Shopping Day on Saturday, Dec. 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mandy Riggers, manager of Covered with Love, said the turn out for the sale was overwhelming.

Halfway through, she and her staff had to restock shelves.

Many people were helped, she said.

This year in particular, many Huntington residents needed a little help this holiday season.

One shopper stopped on her way out of the store and asked Riggers, “Can I give you a hug?”

During the holiday season, many towns, cities and residents put up elaborate light displays so that the general public may view them for a Christmas-themed activity. More now than ever, drive-through and drive-up activities are necessary as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the weather grows too cold for prolonged activities outdoors.

Listed here are locations and descriptions of light displays that may be viewed in the area:

Weekly, volunteers gather at the Café of Hope in Huntington to participate in the Blessings in a Backpack program, packing bags of food for children in Huntington County who are facing food insecurity.

On Wednesday, Dec. 9, several nurses from the Parkview Huntington Hospital, along with other volunteers from the community, donated their time to pack 380 bags.

Since 2000, former Huntington County Sherriff Terry Stoffel has spearheaded Huntington’s Shop With A Cop program during the holiday season. And although COVID-19 has caused a few changes to be made to the program, Stoffel and other Shop With A Cop participants are doing all they can to keep things as normal as possible.

On Tuesday, Nov. 24, Huntington Mayor Richard Strick met with members of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, signing a proclamation recognizing the Myaamia people and honoring their contributions.

In addition to Strass, attendees included Doug Peconge, community programming manager for the Cultural Resources Extension Office, and Diane Hunter, an officer with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office.

Although COVID-19 has tampered with many holiday plans this year, the plan for a holiday lights display at Sunken Gardens this year still stands. The plan thus far is to have the light display start on Sunday, Nov. 29, according to the Huntington County Parks and Recreation Department. Featured is a 2019 photo of the famous recreation of the Wolf & Dessauer Merry Christmas Wreath, located at Sunken Gardens.

Testimony in the court case between the town of Andrews and Raytheon Technologies continued over the course of two days.

The court proceedings began on Monday, Nov. 9, and continued on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Both sides met from 1 p.m. to about 6:30 p.m, on Tuesday and picked right back up on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 18, going from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Tuesday’s court proceedings were spent wrapping up expert testimony for the side of Andrews, with the court hearing via remote the testimony of Dr. Kathleen Gilbert, a current adjunct professor at Colorado State University.

Huntington native Stewart Elmore debuted his short film “West Park” at GQT Huntington 7 theater on Saturday, Nov. 14.

The first official screening was held with two showings, and Elmore addressed the audience after each showing in a question and answer session.

The film was contrived as Elmore’s thesis project and was part of his Master of Fine Arts in Cinema and Television Directing from Columbia College Chicago.

In winter 2019 he began script writing, and overall it took a year and a half for Elmore to complete the film.

At the Markle Branch of the Huntington City-Township Public Library, there is a local history room that holds items such as Huntington North High School yearbooks, local funeral records, histories of surrounding towns, a microfilm reader and more. And soon, it will hold a history of two American Legion Posts that were once located in Markle.

Karing for Kids, based out of Bluffton, has been assisting families in need within Wells and Huntington counties during Christmas time for 17 years through their Blessing Trees program.

Every year, school counselors and social service agencies refer families to Karing for Kids for assistance. Usually, in the beginning of November, churches, nursing homes, businesses and other organizations are able to set up a Blessing Tree. Participants may then choose items from the trees to shop for and drop off, or donate money so that volunteers may purchase the items.