LATEST LOCAL NEWS

City of Solon

Due to weather conditions, the Solon Service Department has been unable to complete its fall collection of leaves.

The Dec. 5 deadline for leaf collection has been extended. Should weather conditions improve, the service department will finish leaf collection as soon as possible.

Call the service department at (440) 248-5834.

Repairs to the dam on Briar Hill Lake won't get done by the end of 2008, as required earlier this year by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

In fact, construction hasn't even started. The city and the Briar Lake Association -- the homeowners association for the Briar Hill subdivision -- are still ironing out agreements as legal costs mount.

However, the ODNR has extended its deadline indefinitely because progress is being made, according to Beth Ruth, ODNR spokesperson.

"(The ODNR) realizes we are close to an agreement," said Councilman Ed Kraus. Briar Hill is in Kraus's Ward 6.

For more on this story, see the Dec. 4 Solon Sun.

Laurel School had four players score in double figures as the Gators won their season opener, 62-46.

The Gators were led by Autum Williams with 17 points, 12 each from Alexis Guy and Katie Kafjez and 10 from Jenna Bailey.

Laurel is at home Thursday at 5:30 against Lake Christian Center.

Laurel School had four players score in double figures as the Gators won their season opener, 62-46.

The Gators were led by Autum Williams with 17 points, 12 each from Alexis Guy and Katie Kafjez and 10 from Jenna Bailey.

Laurel is at home Thursday at 5:30 against Lake Christian Center.

At least three Solon residents felt the impact of last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, where about 200 people were slain.

All three had plenty to say about the attacks.

One was Rabbi Zushe Greenberg of the Chabad Jewish Center of Solon. Rivkah Holtzberg, one of the victims, was the niece of his sister-in-law.

Rivkah, 28, was the wife of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, of the Chabad center in Mumbai. He too was killed in the terrorist attacks.

Saturday (Nov. 29), the Solon Chabad center had a service in memory of the Holtzbergs. More than 200 attended.

"This young couple did the mission of making Judaism available to everyone," Greenberg said. "They went to Mumbai to do the same work that I'm doing here."

For more on this story, see the Dec. 4 Solon Sun.

The city of Solon spent about $12,000 on holiday decorations this year in the hope of saving money in the future.

Most notably, the city bought pre-lit artificial wreaths that Service Department workers hung on utility poles in the downtown area.

They replace live trees that the city nailed to the poles in past years. Service workers strung lights on the trees after hanging them.

The trees were then destroyed. The new wreaths can be used year after year, thus saving the city money in the long run.

For more on this story, see the Dec. 4 Solon Sun. �

Solon will expand its drug- and alcohol-testing program in 2009 to include occasional random testing of most municipal workers, even Mayor Kevin C. Patton.

It's part of Patton's effort to create a drug- and alcohol-free workplace, according to Tom Cornhoff, Solon's human resources manager.

The expanded testing program isn't due to an increase, or suspected increase, in drug and alcohol abuse among city workers, Cornhoff said.

For more on this story, see the Dec. 4 Solon Sun. �