Burton Chamber of Commerce Newsletter for June, July August and September 2003 I usually like to take it easy over the summer and take off from the newsletter, programs and dinner meetings, and just do the absolute necessities like mail and bills etc. and maybe a fun picnic or party dinner, but sooo much is going on this summer, I needed to communicate with you all.

First order of business is the Geauga County Business After Hours scheduled for August 19, 2003, to be held at Harrington Square, sponsored by Middlefield Chamber of Commerce. 8 foot Vendor table spaces are available for $135.00 and include a business card ad in the Good News, 2 free admissions, two chairs, free food and spirits, and14Chinese auction raffle tickets. A 4 foot Vendor table space is available for $100 and include one admission, one chair, a business card ad in the Good News, 7 Chinese raffle tickets, free food and spirits. A Good News business card size ad only can be purchased for $40. Presale admission tickets can be purchased for $6.00. What is critical here is you have just a few days to tell me you want a table and to give me your business card ad. July 30th is the deadline on the form. I have a couple day reprieve since you are getting this information so late. You do need to decide quickly if you want to participate. It is a good deal and an opportunity to showcase your wares and goods to many business people from our county. The Good News ad would cost $50.00 under ordinary circumstances. Please call me at 834-4891 ASAP and say "yes, I want to make arrangements to get my participant application form, business card, and money turned in". (See flyer) The second order of business is the Music on the Green, with The New Vintage Chicago style Dixieland band, Saturday, August 9, 2003, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. This idea was born with a casual comment of how I always wanted our Chamber to provide/sponsor Music in the Park. Our vice-president, Sue Wayman took that comment and ran with it. First we took it to our great Board of Directors for funds approval. Then Sue went to our two super talented business ladies on Main street and the idea has come to fruition. Nancy Bonema, of A. H. Christiansons, Cynthia Gale of All Matters, and Sue Wayman of Coffee Corners put their creative juices in gear and our first summer monthly concert series will debut on August 9, 2003. Cynthia Gale and Rainier Hildebrand of All Matters designed the beautiful VIP invitations and lovely flyers. They mailed 210 VIP invitations to Chamber members that frequently participate in dinner meetings and other Chamber sponsored activities. They made 1000 copies of the flyers. This was done as part of their contribution to the Music on the Green in celebration of their first year in Burton. "The New Vintage has provided exceptional musical entertainment for over 35 years, having played for the Bush families as well as the Kennedy families." Although chamber members that regularly attend dinner meetings have received elegant and special VIP invitations to this event for preferred seating, all our welcome to attend. Of course there are other events happening that day so we all won’t be able to attend this first Music on the Green. Hopefully it will be the first of many to be continued through out next summer. Another event happening that same day, August 9, 2003 are the wedding of our Brad Wadsworth. Let ‘s all join in congratulating this great young man. Also on this date Jill Bonner’s Eagle Creek Growers is having its annual Corn Roast. Tony Roma’s will be there to help celebrate. As I write this newsletter the Burton Chamber of Commerce sponsored Street Affair event is about to happen on July 26, 2003. Sue Wayman is the chair of the event and has over 30 vendor tables for the front of the Main Street shops, a car show, and the band Switch is scheduled to play in the park. Other Main street vendors helped her with this event. This is over now, so should it still be included? Included in this newsletter is a two and a half page print out with names, addresses, and phone numbers of all of the paid members through 2003. It is much like our own primitive directory. Please make an effort to patronize our chamber members. If your name is not on the list and you think it should be, please contact our membership chairperson, Sally Warm at 834-1666. The Burton Chamber of Commerce fair booth at the Great Geauga County Fair needs to be manned by volunteers. Four hour shift schedules are available starting at 10:00 am on Thursday, August 28, 2003 through Monday, September 1, 2003. Please call Lee Stone to arrange your time. Remember, you also get a free ticket to a fun day at the Fair for the day you volunteer. Bonnie Richards of Re/Max Choices just completed chairing and coordinating the Burton Chamber portion of the Lake County Captains Geauga County night on 7/21/03. Bonnie even underwrote the cost of 100 tickets and made them available through her office and Coffee Corners. She ended up getting 14 more tickets and sold every last one of them. They all had a great WET time. xxxxx Bonnie Richards has donated her copy equipment, paper, and her staff to help copy and mail the Burton Chamber newsletter several times over the past year. Thank you Bonnie! Hopefully she will help with this one also. As I write this newsletter, Bill George is finishing his stunning new building on route 87, soon to become the new Cogan’s. Bill's buildings are always so tastefully built and maintained. Doc Hrdlicka’s Burton Veterinary Clinic is one of Bill George's creations. The Burton Village Laundromat and newly built Car Wash are also owned by Bill and JoAnn George. Jerry Wayman and Tom Cogan are embarking on a new business venture. It will be called Tom and Jerry’s (sort of reminds me of a cartoon or ice cream or something from my childhood)a cartoon. Cogan’s is currently located, although it will be a totally different theme catering to the teens of the town. Hopefully a Happy Days kind of place. Opening date is scheduled for November sometime, after football season is over. More details to follow in future editions. Burton is the place to be over the next month. The next Chamber dinner meeting will be on Thursday, September 4, 2003, at the glorious and picturesque Red Maple Inn and will be enjoying one of their famous Amish prepared dinners. This will be your chance to try their famous dinner at chamber deeply discounted pricing. The October 2 meeting will be at Grandview Inn and will be candidate's night. Hopefully Dr.Hrdlicka will be in charge of that again this year. He always does such a good job organizing and running that meeting. The November meeting will be at either Alessi’s Ristorante At the Welshfield Inn. We are sorry to see Lost Lake Lodge. close their doors. The Christmas dinner meeting will be at Grandview Inn. (Grandview has the only facility large enough for some of our meetings, especially the Christmas party.) Remember our Drive-It-Yourself tour on October 4, 2003? The first stop is at the Burton Log Cabin where you can get your map & flyer. The Geauga County Historical Society’s Apple Butter Festival will be October 11 & 12, 2003. The Burton Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring the Ox Roast chaired by Joel Hering and Steve Pulling. Volunteers are needed for this event. Please call Joel at Joel’s Italian American Restaurant 834-9050 or Steve Pulling at Belle’s I thought Joel's was an "Italian American Grille"... American Grille 834-8812. At the May dinner meeting we had a terrific celebration for our newly formed Hall of Famers. Stephanie Ronyak chaired and organized the event. She got the Jr. High National Honor Society advisor, Ellen It's called the "National Junior Honor Society", i believe. Edeburn and students to help her organize all the old Burton Chamber of Commerce records. Katie Honkala, Brian Johnson, Jason Ronyak, Andy Edeburn, and some of the other students went out and interviewed affluent Chamber members to learn more about our honorees, Bill Clark, John Gander and Ture Johnson. Bob McCullough said it best when he told the students, "It is hard to say just what these men did for only the Chamber because they were the kind of community member that everything they did spilled over into all aspects of the community, like their church, their school, their business endeavors, etc., These men exemplify what we should all aspire to be." (I hope I got that quote right Bob) Student Andy Edeburn presented about Bill Clark, Student Student Brian Hiscox presented about his grandfather, Ture Johnson. Jason Ronyak presented about John Gander. Todd Hornak, John's grandson, had some interesting comments about John Gander. These men were also presented with a Commendation from Tim Grendell, our State Representative.Each one was also presented a rocking chair with his name on it,to be used at the Burton Log Cabin. Lake Erie Video Productions did a great job video taping the event. It was later aired on G-TV. Video tapes of the event are available for $25.00 each. Mail your check and request to G-TV, P. O. Box 336, Burton, At our June picnic meeting at the Red Maple Inn. Linda Swaney made name tags for us. They were not your ordinary name tags with just your name and coded for a meal choice. Each one had a creative picture depicting something unique and particular to the wearer in addition to their name i.e.; Mine had a sandy beach andan umbrella. Every one had a lot of fun not just reading the names but making an effort to look at the pictures and figuring out what each meant. It was like a little game. Linda is great at receiving guests as they come through the doors with her pleasant friendly smiling disposition, much like her mother was, loved by all. Of course Joel catered the event and the steaks and swordfish were exceptional, as was the corn, salad and potatoes. Joel really has the hang of this catering business. Debbie Butler of White House Chocolates donated her delicious chocolate covered strawberries. We showed a clip from the May meeting’s video tape of John Gander telling the story of how he and Ture Johnson dynamited the land at the high school late one night so they could build the Berkshire Football field. That story on tape is great. As Carol Varga has so appropriately put it, It was the legend himself telling this legendary story. Bill Clark, one of our honored absent guests at the May meeting was at the June meeting sporting a 1953 Burton Merchant jacket. It was from 50 years ago. 2003 Chamber Officials President-Marie Lovas 834-4891 Vice President-Sue Wayman-834-0076 Secretary-Sally Warm-834-1666 Treasurer-Libby Dittrick-834-9686 Directors-

Leo Hrdlicka-834-4444 Tom Blair-834-0843 Joel Hering-834-4342 Bruce Brigham-834-8126 Lon Dittrick-834-1937 Our Chamber is proud to announce that Anna Markwardt is the recipient of our 2003 annual $500 scholarship for a Berkshire student to attend Kent State University Geauga Campus. Anna is an exceptional, young lady having maintained a 4.0 throughout high school. Anna has served as secretary of Geauga County Junior 4 H, Volunteer 4 H Summer camp counselor, President of Student Council, member of National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society, and a member of many other worthwhile community service organizations. Added to all of that Anna is also one of the three beautiful daughters of Rich (Berkshire superintendent) and Nancy Markwardt. Marie

You may call Dave Kleve at 834-4432 or Jim Prout at 834-4344 or Judy Purcell at 834-1407 if you are interested in Health Insurance through the Chamber through our affiliation with NOACC.

If you or your company have health insurance or workers’ compensation insurance through the Chamber it is critical that you renew membership each year. Coverage is dependent on membership, and membership does not automatically renew from year to year. Avoid embarrassment! RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY!! If you are interested in serving on any committees please contact any of the board members or the committee chair. Each chair has been asked to verify their membership list. Sheriff George (Red Simmons) will be remembered for many reasons. He was a man of high integrity who supported his community in every aspect: church, charitable, social, law enforcement. He was there to help write the bylaws for the Burton Congregational Churches' Endowment Fund, as well as served on many church committees over the years. He was at as many Chamber dinner meetings as he could and we were fortunate to all have been able to see and talk with him at the May Hall of Fame dinner meeting even though he had to forego his National Rotary meeting. Prior to becoming Sheriff in 1993 he was an Assistant Public Defender in Geauga County and also had his own law practice in Burton. He was alsopreviously involved in law enforcement as a Special Agent for the U. S. Department of Labor, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section; a Special Agent for the U. S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration; and a Special Agent for the Division of Criminal Activities for the Ohio Attorney General in Columbus. We were all shocked and saddened by the loss of our friend and our sheriff.