Configure Brands considers rail spur to ease materials transport
By Alec Keller
The July 7 meeting of the Village of Ada Council was held with all members present and Mayor Dave Retterer presiding. There were no resolutions or ordinances on the table for the evening. The council packet is here.
Kris Shoemaker of Bluffton has been sentenced to 27 years in prison on child pornography charges, according to a July 7 report by The Lima News.
Shoemaker was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He was convicted on one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography.
Shoemaker was arrested in Bluffton in May 2025 by the FBI and pled guilty in January 2026.
Co-defendant Kayla Miller of Lima pled guilty to charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and distribution of child pornography. She will be sentenced at a later date.
The Ohio Northern men's and women's swimming and diving teams have been selected as Scholar All-America teams for the spring 2026 semester by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America.
The CSCAA selected 714 programs from 418 collegiate schools as Scholar All-America teams for the spring 2026 semester. Teams were selected on the basis of their spring 2026 team grade point averages.
For the spring 2026 semester, the ONU men had a 3.41 team GPA, and the ONU women had a 3.56 GPA.
In NCAA Division III, Colorado College held the highest team GPA of 3.87 among men's teams and 3.92 among the women's teams.
MEDIA RELEASE__Jesse Prater, a rising senior from Upper Scioto Valley High School, earned division VII First Team All-State honors at third base as voted on by the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association.
Prater was also on the First Team Northwest Central Conference and Prep Baseball Ohio First Team All-State.
On July 1, Prater represented Upper Scioto Valley by playing in the OHSBCA All-Ohio series at the VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe.
MEDIA RELEASE__The Ohio State Highway Patrol is reporting 18 people lost their lives in 18 traffic crashes during the 2026 July Fourth reporting period, which began Thursday, July 2 at midnight and ended Sunday, July 5 at 11:59 p.m.
According to preliminary Patrol statistics, in the eight fatal crashes in which safety belts were available, three were unbelted (38%). Of the five fatal crashes involving a motorcycle, three riders were not wearing a helmet (60%).
MEDIA RELEASE__After nearly seven years of serving the Village of Ada, Fiscal Officer Patty Navin is retiring, leaving behind a legacy of financial improvements, modernization and dedicated public service.
Navin joined the Village of Ada in 2019 after she and her husband relocated to the area in 2016. Looking to return to local government, she brought with her decades of municipal finance experience. Before coming to Ada, Navin served as a treasurer, comptroller, and finance director for two municipalities in Illinois. Earlier in her career, she worked as a public accountant, auditing numerous municipalities throughout the St. Louis area.
