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📢 Local Events from Mentor & the Area: MentorLocalBuzz.com/Events!

📰 Local News: 🎉 Mentor-on-the-Lake Fall Festival Returns Sept. 12 With Free Family Fun

📰 Mentor Gateway: A Useful City Website to Know Before You Need It

🛣️ Hopkins Road Reopens After Water Line Work

🤽🏻 In Case You Missed It: Walsh Spray Park Has Reopened

🛣️ Sunday Drives by Next Step - Chautauqua Lake: A Weekend Built Around the Water

⚾ Sports: ⚾ Guardians Squander Lead, Fall 3 Games Back in AL Central

⚾ Captains Let Late Lead Slip, Lose Fifth Straight in Lansing

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🤣 Something Funny

Contact Mentor Local Buzz - [email protected] - 440-256-6115

Mentor-on-the-Lake will welcome fall — and celebrate America’s 250th anniversary year — with its 9th annual Fall Festival on Saturday, Sept. 12, at City Hall, 5860 Andrews Road.

The festival runs from 1 to 7 p.m., with free admission and free parking. Organizers say the event will be held rain or shine.

Families can expect a full afternoon of activities, including Outback Ray’s Amazing Animal Show, a magic show, pony rides, bounce houses and local vendors. Live entertainment includes Follow the Sun, scheduled to perform at 4 p.m.

Food options will include Cousins Maine Lobster, Cheft’s BBQ, Shafer’s Little Blue Trailer and Vivander Cookie Mobile, covering everything from lobster rolls and smoked meats to hand-cut fries, cookies and ice cream sandwiches. A beverage tent will also be available.

This year’s festival also carries an America 250 theme as communities across the country mark the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026.

For families looking for an easy local Saturday outing, the combination of free admission, entertainment, food and children’s activities makes this one of Mentor-on-the-Lake’s bigger community gatherings of the early fall season.

Planning a deck, pool, shed or another home project? Need to schedule a building inspection, register as a contractor, file a property-maintenance complaint or submit a zoning-related application? The City of Mentor has an online portal that can help you get started without first making a trip to City Hall.

The Mentor Gateway provides 24/7 online access to a range of city services for residents, property owners, contractors and businesses.

The portal includes construction permits and related documents, building-inspection scheduling, residential and commercial applications, contractor registration, planning and zoning resources, Board of Building and Zoning Appeals applications, engineering and right-of-way services, and property-maintenance complaints.

Users can also find first-time-user information and how-to guides designed to help explain available online services. The city says the system supports digital document management, secure online payments and email notifications as applications move through review.

For home projects, it is especially smart to check requirements before work begins. The City of Mentor says building permits are required for construction including decks, pools, siding, sheds, porches and enclosures.

Applicants who need assistance can contact the appropriate city department for help.

👉🏻 Want to know where to start? We break down what you can find in Mentor Gateway, when to use it, how the online process works and where to turn if you need help.

Hopkins Road in Mentor has reopened following a five-day closure for water line replacement and repairs.

As Mentor Local Buzz reported last week, the road closed in both directions between Tyler Boulevard and Twinbrook Road on Aug. 2 while crews replaced a 16-inch water line and repaired damage connected to a water main break from this past winter.

The City of Mentor announced at 10:40 a.m. Friday, Aug. 7, that the road had reopened to traffic as scheduled.

Drivers had been advised to use alternate routes and allow additional travel time during the work. With the project complete, normal access along Hopkins Road between Tyler Boulevard and Twinbrook Road has resumed.

The reopening wraps up a week of traffic disruption in the area and restores the direct connection for residents and businesses that regularly use the route.

Walsh Spray Park in Mentor has reopened after being temporarily closed for repairs and maintenance.

Located at 7221 Bellflower Road, the free 3,000-square-foot spray park gives families another option for cooling off during the final stretch of summer.

The park includes three large ground sprays, two interactive elephant water cannons, a donut spray, flower and sunflower sprays, activation bollards and family-friendly bathrooms.

City information lists regular seasonal hours as 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Labor Day.

For families who had been waiting for the park to reopen, Walsh Spray Park is once again available for a quick summer outing.

Link to Facebook notice

Bemus Point offers an easygoing lake-town escape where waterfront views, casual dining and an unhurried schedule matter more than checking attractions off a list.

A lake getaway does not have to revolve around sand, a boardwalk or a long list of stops.

Chautauqua Lake offers a different kind of waterfront escape. The 17-mile inland lake is built for boating, paddling and fishing, but you do not need to organize the whole trip around an activity. The water can simply be the backdrop while you walk, eat, sit outside and let the day move at a slower pace.

Bemus Point makes an easy home base because much of what visitors come for is concentrated in a small, walkable village. Restaurants, shops, the village park and lake views are close together, so once you arrive, you can spend less time getting back in the car.

If you want an active day, choose one main outing: rent a kayak, get on the lake, fish, bike or head to nearby Long Point State Park for trails and shoreline scenery. If you would rather slow things down, build the day around a waterfront meal, a village walk, browsing local shops and an hour with no agenda at all.

For a day trip, keep it simple: arrive by late morning, have lunch, explore Bemus Point, choose one lake or park activity and stay through dinner. For a full weekend, give Bemus Point most of the first day, then use the second for another part of Chautauqua Lake or a visit to Chautauqua Institution if its programming interests you.

From Northeast Ohio, this is an achievable road trip rather than a major travel undertaking. Bemus Point’s visitor guide places it about three hours from Cleveland; Mentor travelers should verify the day’s route and traffic before leaving.

The appeal is not how much you can fit in. It is having enough nearby that you do not have to.

👉🏻 Want to turn the idea into an actual getaway? We built a one-day and full-weekend plan for Bemus Point, including what to plan ahead, what to leave open and what lake conditions to check before you go.

The Guardians had an opportunity to pull closer to first-place Chicago on Saturday night. Instead, one difficult inning turned a Cleveland lead into a 6-3 loss and widened the gap in the AL Central.

Gavin Williams and Chicago starter Anthony Kay traded scoreless innings through five before Rhys Hoskins broke through with a two-run homer in the sixth, putting Cleveland ahead 2-0.

That lead disappeared quickly.

Munetaka Murakami homered off Williams to make it 2-1 before Cleveland turned to Colin Holderman. Holderman hit the first two batters he faced, loading the bases, and Chicago capitalized. Tristan Peters doubled home two runs and Chase Meidroth followed with a two-run single as the White Sox scored five times in the inning.

Williams deserved a better result. He allowed just three hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings while striking out seven.

Angel Genao added a solo homer in the seventh, and Cleveland finished with 11 hits, but the Guardians couldn't overcome the five-run sixth.

The loss dropped Cleveland to 58-60 and three games behind the first-place White Sox. The Guardians have lost four of their last five, making Sunday's series finale another important game in a crowded AL Central race.

Joey Cantillo is scheduled to start for Cleveland against Chicago right-hander Davis Martin.

Source: See the highlights at espn.com

The Lake County Captains’ slide reached five games Friday night, and this one may have been the most frustrating yet.

Lake County carried a 2-0 lead into the eighth inning before Lansing rallied for two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to beat the Captains 3-2. The loss dropped Lake County to 17-22 in the second half and extended a stretch in which the Captains have lost nine of 10.

Jacob Zibin deserved a better result. The right-hander worked five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out three.

Tommy Hawke gave Lake County an immediate lead with a solo homer in the first, and Kevin Rivas singled home Garrett Howe in the second.

Then the game unraveled.

Two unearned runs scored in the eighth as an error, two hits and a walk helped Lansing tie it. In the ninth, Melkis Hernández walked four without allowing a hit, with the winning run eventually scoring on a wild pitch.

The skid also comes after major roster turnover. Cleveland promoted five Captains to Double-A Akron on July 13 alone, including Nolan Schubart, Aaron Walton and Dean Curley — three of Lake County’s most productive hitters.

That turnover has left the current Captains with far less margin for error, but Friday’s loss still came down to walks and mistakes at the worst possible time.

👉🏻 Lake County was rolling just a month ago. Our full website story looks at how dramatically the roster has changed since then — and why the Captains have gone from five straight wins in early July to losing nine of their last 10.

🐝 Buzz Fact: Petra was a major trading hub in the ancient world, proving that even 2,000 years ago, people were willing to travel a long way if the shopping was good enough.
Answer: Google

This little guy saw a running faucet and decided he was the one for the job.