From the Huron City Schools- Welcome Back To School Celebration

Huron City Schools and the City of Huron are hosting a Back to School Celebration and Ice Cream Social on Thursday, August 13^th from 6-7 pm at the Huron Boat Basin. Parents, students, community members and district staff are invited to an official kick-off to the 2015-16 school year.

Class lists and room assignments will be available. Several local organizations including the Huron Boosters and Health Department will be on hand to answer questions and distribute information. Along with performances by the Huron High School Cheerleaders and members of the Tiger Marching Band, complimentary Tofts ice cream will be served. 

Christ’s Community Meal Continues to Grow

Over the past five and a half years, Christ’s Community Meal has been helping feed those in need in the Huron area.  The mission of the community meal is to serve those in need a warm, cooked meal that is made with love and served with love.  The volunteers associated with the community meal have worked tirelessly raising funds, preparing meals, and nurturing those less fortunate.  Despite the fact that the media reports positive changes in our economy, the number of meals served at Christ’s Community Meal has been rising steadily.  In 2014, 5,413 meals were served.  As of June 22, 2015, there have already been 3,547 meals served.  

Christ’s Community Meal is held at First Presbyterian Church on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.  Those in attendance are treated to a delicious dinner.  If someone in need cannot physically get to the meal, food is delivered to their home.  In addition, Hot Dog Mondays are held weekly at First Presbyterian.  These less formal gatherings are held at lunchtime and provide mostly seniors an opportunity to eat and socialize.  Hot Dog Mondays have been held for the past year.  

The community meal is partially supported by Huron’s churches including Christ Episcopal, First Presbyterian, St. Peter’s, Zion Lutheran, Lighthouse Assembly of God, and Huron United Methodist.  Each church supports the meal both financially and by encouraging their members to volunteer.  Despite support from the churches, the financial needs of the community meal are not fully met.  The costs of purchasing food and other items necessary to prepare the meal have risen substantially.  A local retailer who formally donated many items to the community meal now offers these items half off retail price.  Many items are purchased from Second Harvest Food Bank in Lorain, but the demand for items from Second Harvest is great.  

Christ’s Community Meal is a 501(c)(3) organization that is run by a volunteer board.  The board is seeking creative means to raise funds so no one in need will be refused a hot meal.  If you or your business are interested in helping this great cause, please contact Christine Eirons at 419-433-6131.  Gifts of money can be mailed directly to Christ’s Community Meal c/o First Presbyterian Church, 225 Williams St., Huron.  

Volunteers are always welcome and greatly needed.  Serving 100+ meals takes an enormous amount of planning, as well as 25 to 30 volunteers who work as prep cooks, set up the dinning room, serve the meal, tend the dessert table, assist in the dinning room during the meal, clean the dinning room and kitchen, and deliver meals.  Contact Chris Hakeman at 419-433-4903 if you would like to volunteer.

If you are in need of a warm meal, plan to attend the next Christ’s Community Meal on Wednesday, July 8 at 5 PM.  In addition, a special Kids Café will be held on July 13-15.  Call the church office at First Presbyterian (419-433-5018) for more information.  Due to the Kids Café, the Hot Dog Monday schedule for July 13 will be held on Thursday, July 16.

“West Side Story” Review

By Hannah Blackwell

The sixty-seventh season of the Huron Playhouse will open on Tuesday, July 7 with their first show, “West Side Story”,  at McCormick Junior High School.  In a modernized rendition of the musical by Arthur Laurents, the Playhouse cast, along with director Lisa Wiley, encapture the essence of the characters in such a way that they truly seem to become the Sharks and the Jets.  Innocence contrasted by loss of innocence is brought to its’ poignant best by lead actors Benjamin Frankart and Jennifer Barnaba who play Tony and Maria, respectively.  The show revolves around a theme with which we as humans are forever enamored; love.

The play is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City and is a spin on the classic, “Romeo and Juliet”.  The two main characters, Tony and Maria, fall in love, but their love is not welcomed by members of the opposing street gangs to which they belong.  The two gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, rival over control of the streets of the neighborhood.  All together, it is a mix of love, blood, and tragedy.  The story line of the play is intensified by the well-written script.  It keeps the audience intrigued as well as entertained, and the lines are believable for a teen gang of the time period in which it is set.

In this well-known play centered around a timeless topic, all the Playhouse actors can do is shine.  And shine they do.  Hours upon hours of hard work have gone into making this play something special, something better than other renditions you may have seen, something unexpected.  Throughout the performance, the actors continually impress with fun, energized dances and top-notch voices.  The choreography is intricate and is focused mostly on group dances with differing individual parts throughout.  The actors do a good job of maneuvering their way through the dances as well as the multi-part songs.  In addition, they have developed their characters well enough that the disdain between the opposing gang members is apparent.  Furthermore, the chemistry between Tony and Maria is completely believable.  The difficulties Tony and Maria must overcome to be with one another are portrayed in such a way that you will ache for the young couple.   

Looking past the script and acting, the background aspects of this production play a large part in it’s greatness.  The set used throughout the play does a wonderful job of depicting the environment in which the play is set.  A skyline, graffiti-covered brick walls, and chain-link fencing all give the feeling of the Upper West Side.  Along with the set, the music sets the mood of each scene quite well.  In rehearsals, only a piano was used, but audiences will be treated to a full orchestra.  It is modest music, nothing over the top, but it has just enough zip to make audiences wonder what will happen next.

Overall, this production is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.  The storyline, the acting, and the music all work well together, and every detail seems to fit into place just right.  The members of this sixty-seventh season have clicked, and “West Side Story” will be the first time audiences can witness this. Another great Playhouse season is well underway.

Millions of Visitors Invade Huron Overnight

Huron residents awoke to the invasion of millions of mayflies (Hexagenia limbata) this morning.  Apparently, the prevailing winds were just right to lead the insects into Huron.  Though the insects might seem bothersome, their presence is an indicator of a healthy Lake Erie.  In the early 1990s, no Hexagenia could be found in Lake Erie due to toxins in the sediments.  As the Lake has recovered from the abuse it suffered in the early part of the 20th century, so has the mayfly population.

Mayflies spend the majority of their life living deep in the sediments of lakes.  The mayflies

that you see covering the buildings of Huron are currently non-mating adults known as subimagos.  Over the next 24 to 48 hours, the mayflies will undergo their final molt and become adults.  You might notice their shed skins clinging to screens and other hard surfaces.  During this period, they do not eat-they do not even have mouth parts.  The only purpose of the adult stage of the mayfly’s life is to mate.  Once mating is complete, the adults die.

The females will lay their eggs in the water just after mating.  The eggs remain in the sediments until the spring when they hatch.  Once hatched, the mayfly is considered a nymph.  The nymphs will go through several life stages called instars.  They may experience as many as 30 instars that can take anywhere from 14 to 22 months.  During each instar, the mayfly sheds its skin or molts.  The nymphs breathe by moving their feathery gills, located along their abdomen, thus increasing the amount of water that passes over them and aiding in oxygen absorption.  The final nymphal instar swims to the surface and molts into a subimago.  Nymphal development time is temperature dependent, so development times vary.  In general, the emergence of the subimagos occurs during June and July. 

Mayfly nymph

Living near the shores of Lake Erie has many benefits.  It is up to you whether you deem the emergence of the mayflies as one of these benefits!  Frankly, I think they are a beautiful insect, though the numbers in which we are seeing the mayflies today is a bit overwhelming.  Remember, the mayflies will only remain here for a short time, so we will be free of them soon or at least until the next hatch.

New Monitoring Tools to Help Keep Track of Water Quality

Algal blooms in Lake Erie are a reality.  Though not as bad as those seen in the 1960s and 1970s, algal blooms (both harmful and non-harmful) occur on an annual basis in Lake Erie.  The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), in junction with Heidelberg University’s National Center for Water Quality Research, has developed a new monitoring program to predict the severity of algal blooms based on the combination of current measurements of phosphorus loading from the Maumee River for the season to date with historical records from past years.  According to NOAA, “The severity of the western Lake Erie cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom (HAB) is dependent on phosphorus inputs from March 1st through July 31st, henceforth the loading season.  Based on 12 weeks of data (March 1- May 23, 2015), the extensive severe blooms observed in 2011 and 2013 are not projected to occur this year.”  The positive outlook for Lake Erie this year is due to a relatively dry spring which resulted in less discharge and lower phosphorus loads into the western basin.  Yet, NOAA stresses that there is some uncertainty in their projection because the loading season still has 2 months to go.  Updated forecasts for the algal blooms will be released by NOAA periodically.

In addition to the potentially harmful algal blooms, those wishing to enjoy Lake Erie’s beaches should be mindful of bacteria levels.  The Erie County Health Department monitors water quality near 25 beaches in the county four times per week from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  According to their Erie County Health Department’s website, “Our employees strive to ensure that unsafe swimming conditions are communicated to Erie County residents as quickly as possible and in doing so reduce the risk of unwanted illness in the swimming public.  Our Sanitarians collect and analyze samples for the presence of E. Coli bacteria, which is a good indicator of bathing water contamination and if present increase the risk of disease transmission to swimmers.”  The health department findings have a one-day delay from time of sampling to reporting.  These results are reported in local newspapers, announced on local radio stations, and are available on their website (www.eriecohealthohio.org/environmentalhealth.html).

The results provided by the Erie County Health Department are a valuable means of alerting beachgoers of potentially harmful bacteria.  The methods employed by the Health Department involve collecting water samples from their 25 selected areas, transporting the sample to a laboratory, and determining the numbers of E. coli in the sample.  Unfortunately, there is a delay in the reporting because it takes at least 18 hours to grow E. coli in the laboratory.  Hence, by the time these results are available, water-quality conditions may have already changed.  In an effort to provide real-time forecasting of E. coli levels, a system called Nowcast has been created as a result of multi-year partnerships on several projects between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Ohio Water Science Center (OWSC), and other federal, state, and local agencies and universities.  Nowcast uses predictive models based on easily obtained measurements such as rainfall and wave height to estimate levels of E. coli and to calculate the probability that the bathing-water standard will be exceeded.  The calculation and reporting of these results takes less than an hour.  Nowcast has been in use since 2006 for Hunting Beach in Bay Village.  Other beaches have been added to the monitoring program since then.  Ohio is currently monitoring nine sites including Nickel Plate Beach in Huron and Main Street Beach in Vermilion.  Nowcast results are updated by the Erie County Health Department by noon on Monday through Thursday during the swimming season and can be found on the Nowcast web site (www.ohionowcast.info/index.asp).