The 2016 Tree Town Festival kicked off with a parade on Friday evening. A large crowd watched on as the parade lasted for nearly an hour. Times photos/Dan Robinson

Several area families found relief from the summer heat Thursday at the splash park at Murray Park in Kenton.

A crew from the Shelly Company grinds up the surface of Hillcrest Lane Tuesday afternoon between Lima and Franklin streets in Kenton. The workers also removed the asphalt from Harding Avenue in front of Kenton High School between Summit and Eliza streets.

ADA — The Ada Village Council was paid a visit by Georgian government officials at its meeting on Tuesday, but not those in the U.S. state. Council was visited by the chair and deputy chair of the city council of Rustavi, Georgia, a city located in the Eurasian country bordered by Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Black Sea.

The man in charge of the annual Independence Day fireworks show at the Hardin County Fairgrounds enjoys thrilling the crowd with the display. Mike Comstock, a licensed pyrotechnician, is marking his 20th year as head of the show and his 34th year of involvement in the display.

After a mostly dry month of June, parts of Hardin County received nearly five inches of precipitation in two separate rainfall events last week. And while they would have preferred the rainfall to be spread out over a longer amount of time, the needed precipitation was good for the corn and soybean crops, several area farmers noted at the Hardin County Ag Council on Friday morning.

UPPER SANDUSKY — Rural Upper Sandusky resident Marie Frey had an extra reason to celebrate on her 86th birthday Sunday – or rather, 86 reasons. As Frey turned 86 years old, she also welcomed her 86th great-grandchild into the world. Frey and her husband, the late Gerald R. Frey, had 15 children of their own.

ADA — Jim Meyer never thought he’d be a village administrator, let alone retain the job in Ada for four-plus decades. But 43 years and countless projects later, he’s ready to hang it up.