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Hundreds turned out for the annual Blues, Brews & Brats in downtown Waterville, Ohio on Saturday July 25, 2026. Featured...
27/07/2026

Hundreds turned out for the annual Blues, Brews & Brats in downtown Waterville, Ohio on Saturday July 25, 2026.

Featured performances included Mud Morganfield, Bywater Call, Ramona Collins, Bobby G., Stormy Munday and Aayan Naim and The Good, the Bad, and the Blues band. TFP Photo/STEPHEN ZENNER Stephen Zenner

Letter to the Editor: Bringing Jagged Little Pill to life in ToledoI will never forget the day that my best friend and I...
27/07/2026

Letter to the Editor: Bringing Jagged Little Pill to life in Toledo

I will never forget the day that my best friend and I discovered Alanis Morissette’s hidden track on the genre-defining, internationally acclaimed album, Jagged Little Pill.

Caity and I would pop in our Jagged CD and drive around for hours listening to the album’s poignant lyricism and striking instrumentals, singing at the top of our lungs until we’d finish the final track, “You Oughta Know (Jimmy the Saint Blend),” and start it over again.

One day we were having a particularly hard day dealing with our adolescent angst, so we pulled into a parking lot and talked out our problems underscored by the album. When it finished, instead of starting the album over, we found the final track on the list kept playing only to reveal the most gut-wrenching, intensely vulnerable song we’d ever heard: “Your House.”

The album was already a core part of our lives, but in that moment, we felt like everything was going to be okay, and we discovered that Jagged Little Pill is the gift that keeps on giving.

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/letter-to-the-editor-bringing-jagged-little-pill-to-life-in-toledo/

(Photo courtesy of Kamron Girardot)
By: Riley Runnells

Wild Side: Ruby-throated hummingbirdA male ruby-throated hummingbird performs some pre-flight stretches at dawn in the O...
27/07/2026

Wild Side: Ruby-throated hummingbird

A male ruby-throated hummingbird performs some pre-flight stretches at dawn in the Oak Openings area. Like a baseball pitcher warming up in the bullpen before throwing 90 mph fastballs, this tiny bird loosens up a bit before pushing those wingbeats up to an incredible 50 flaps per second or more, maybe well over 100 per second if he kicks it into high speed. That pre-flight routine also includes fanning tail feathers and stretching its neck.

(Photo by Art Weber, nature photographer for Metroparks Toledo)

Midstory’s interns arrive to learn and write about ToledoTOLEDO – Who says Toledo is not an attractive summer destinatio...
27/07/2026

Midstory’s interns arrive to learn and write about Toledo

TOLEDO – Who says Toledo is not an attractive summer destination? Not the 250-300 undergraduates who applied to spend nine weeks in the Glass City this summer, and especially not the 17 of them who made the final cut.

Those 17 – representing 14 universities, eight states, and three countries – are the latest intern cohort of the nonprofit multimedia thinkhub called Midstory – so named because its founders tell the stories of the Midwest, notably its base of Toledo.

What attracted those 17 is the opportunity to research, write, film, and produce stories of not only a local but national nature.

“One of our missions is to attract and retain young people and get them invested in a place like Toledo,” said Logan Sander, Midstory’s editorial director and one of its four founders – all with Toledo-area roots who left for schooling and careers elsewhere, then returned. “Most have never set foot in Toledo. Toledo is not usually a destination for humanities majors, people interested in storytelling or media work. We wanted to make Toledo a place where people can apply their critical thinking skills.”

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/midstorys-interns-arrive-to-learn-and-write-about-toledo/

(TFP photo by Stephen Zenner)
By: Dennis Bova

County OKs signage change, Township to hold public hearingsWATEVILLE TOWNSHIP – A proposed change to Waterville Township...
27/07/2026

County OKs signage change, Township to hold public hearings

WATEVILLE TOWNSHIP – A proposed change to Waterville Township’s zoning code regulating signage elicited differing opinions during a July 22 Lucas County Planning Commission (LCPC) meeting.

Senior planner Molly Maguire did research on billboards in the county’s 10 townships and recommended that the LCPC disapprove a text amendment that would allow up to two electronic messaging center (EMC) signs along Waterville Township’s U.S. 24 frontage – about two miles between Johns-Manville and the S.R. 64 exit.

“Multiple studies and reports have been published on the visual blight of billboards,” Maguire said in her report to the commission, citing a Planning Commissioners Journal article describing billboards as a form of visual pollution that would have a negative impact on the community. EMCs can’t be turned off and can create a visual hazard, she said.

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/county-oks-signage-change-township-to-hold-public-hearings/

(AWFP photo and story by Karen Gerhardinger)

Waterville welcomes Blues, Brews and Brats on SaturdayWATERVILLE – When Mud Morganfield was a young child living in a So...
23/07/2026

Waterville welcomes Blues, Brews and Brats on Saturday

WATERVILLE – When Mud Morganfield was a young child living in a South Side Chicago apartment building, the eldest son of Muddy Waters often ran into blues musicians, including Little Walter and Chuck Berry, in the hallway.

“I was a little tot,” said Morganfield, who at 74 is in his prime as a blues musician. “I would see those guys in the building, but I didn’t know who they were until I got a little older. I didn’t know the significance of the blues at the time.”

While he calls Chicago home, Morganfield has traveled all over the country, and internationally, since launching his professional career in 2008. On Saturday, July 25, he’ll headline the 11th annual Blues, Brews and Brats in downtown Waterville.

Last week, Morganfield chatted with John Henry, whose decades-long love of the blues has brought musicians to town for concerts and recordings with his Third Street Cigar Records. The Third Street Cigar lounge features dozens of photos of blues musicians throughout the decades, including one of Muddy Waters performing with Junior Wells and Buddy Guy at the Toledo Sports Arena in 1972 – a photo Morganfield plans to check out during his visit.

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/waterville-welcomes-blues-brews-and-brats-on-saturday/

(Courtesy photo by Roman Sobus)
By: Karen Gerhardinger

Past and present directors reflect on the museum’s evolutionTOLEDO — Two important milestones converged at Ohio’s Homeco...
23/07/2026

Past and present directors reflect on the museum’s evolution

TOLEDO — Two important milestones converged at Ohio’s Homecoming & Picnic on July 11, as the Toledo Museum of Art hosted free community festivities in coordination with the America 250-Ohio Commission to mark the nation’s anniversary and 125 years since the institution’s own founding in 1901.

The day brought three museum directors past and present together for a candid conversation moderated by Libbey Inc. CEO and TMA Board President Mike Bauer. While the directors recounted memories from their tenures and discussed the museum’s evolution before a rapt crowd in the GlasSalon, families frolicked outside on the Glass Pavilion lawn playing games, making art, watching historical demonstrations and listening to live music.

Panelists included Adam Levine, the museum’s 11th director since he assumed the role in 2020, and his two predecessors, Brian Kennedy and Don Bacigalupi. Kennedy directed the museum from 2010 to 2019 and Bacigalupi served from 2004 to 2009.

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/past-and-present-directors-reflect-on-museums-evolution/o

(TFP photo and story by Laurie Bertke)

Artwork reinstalled at International Cove RiverwalkBlack letters with a bright yellow border reading “You Are Doing Grea...
22/07/2026

Artwork reinstalled at International Cove Riverwalk

Black letters with a bright yellow border reading “You Are Doing Great” on one side, and on the other side “You Are Beautiful” were reinstalled at International Cove Monday early afternoon. Matthew Hoffman, the artist who created the work, was on hand to ensure the integrity of his vision, along with members of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, while workers from Kokosing did the heavy lifting.

Initially the work was a temporary public art installation for The Arts Commission’s Momentum Festival in 2019, but then was moved to the east side in-between restaurants and International Cove. During Metroparks Toledo’s renovation of their multi-step Riverwalk project, the artwork was removed, and now is permanently reinstalled on July 20, 2026.

Hoffman said it was exciting to see the artwork re-installed, and that he is always trying to put positive messages out into the world.

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/artwork-re-installed-at-international-cove-riverwalk/

TFP Photos and story/STEPHEN ZENNER

Cartoons by Don Lee: You’ve been Flocked
22/07/2026

Cartoons by Don Lee: You’ve been Flocked

Zoning Commission reviews data center text amendmentWATERVILLE TOWNSHIP – The 34-person capacity Waterville Township hal...
22/07/2026

Zoning Commission reviews data center text amendment

WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP – The 34-person capacity Waterville Township hall was packed on July 20, with residents eager to listen and weigh in on a proposed zoning text amendment that would set the rules for data centers and other campus style developments.

While the Zoning Commission – including Chair Keith Moosman and members Bill Burkett, Bob Long, Jon Poponak and Cathy Vorst – didn’t make any decisions or even set a public hearing on the proposed changes, the meeting did provide an opportunity to discuss the process and questions about annexation and conflict of interest.

After five months of intense work, the Data Center Advisory Committee and Trustee Toby Miller announced the proposed changes in May. These include the addition of an M-3 zoning classification and changes to the current M-1 and M-2 language. Over the past two months, the document has been posted online, discussed in public forms and reviewed by the Lucas County Planning Commission (LCPC), which made “no recommendation” and punted the matter back to the township. The goal is to get the changes put into place before the one-year data center moratorium expires at the end of the year, Miller said.

Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/zoning-commission-reviews-data-center-text-amendment/

(AWFP photo and story by Karen Gerhardinger)

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