ADA — Personnel activities involving the Ada Police Department highlighted discussion at Tuesday’s village council meeting. Chief Michael Harnishfeger reported that the hiring of part-time officer Cory Kellum will be put on hold as he is on a short-list for a full time position elsewhere.

There will be no parking on either side of South Main Street in Kenton, between Franklin and Ohio streets, beginning Monday, Jan. 22 through Friday, Jan. 26 due to construction and installation of a water line.

The weather canceled a march honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Kenton, but those who attended the program at St. John’s Evangelical Church dedicated themselves to reducing racism and hatred to keep King’s dream alive.

Calendar options for the 2018-2019 school year were discussed at the Kenton Board of Education meeting Monday night. As per usual, the main decision before the board is whether to take off the entire first week of September for the Hardin County Fair.

ALGER — The water tower in Alger will be given a full-inspection before the village moves forward with replacing it. The board of public affairs voted Monday night to contract with Pittsburgh Tank to inspect the tower inside and out.

A fire at a vacant house on Letson Street in Kenton on Saturday night remains under investigation. According to a report from the Kenton Fire Department, firefighters were dispatched at 9:57 p.m. to a structure fire at 247 W. Letson St.

Though originally from Oxford in southwestern Ohio, Rev. Vanessa Cummings spent time in Kenton as a child, traveling with her father Virgil, a pastor who supervised the district. Now a pastor herself, Vanessa returned to Kenton just over four years ago to serve at Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and was reunited with those with whom she grew up.

ADA — When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the campus of Ohio Northern University on Jan. 11, 1968, few people would have predicted that within 50 years there would be a federal holiday in his honor and his statue would be a part of the National Mall in Washington D.C.

The year 2017 was good for Hardin County’s sales tax revenue, said Auditor Mike Bacon. Sales tax revenue was $4,955,801, up $550,005 over the previous year, he said.

McGUFFEY — Upper Scioto Valley Education Director Craig Hurley reported to the board on steps the district has taken to meet the 13 points noted in the school’s recent instructional audit. One of the areas of concentration, said Hurley, will be the problem of chronic absenteeism. Last year, he told the board, the chronic absentee rate was 14 percent as a district-wide average. The high school rate was higher, he noted.