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

📰 Local News: 🎸 E5C4P3 Closes Out Mentor Rocks Tonight

🚗 Judge Orders Mentor to Approve Car-Wash; City Authorizes Possible Appeal

🐕 Kirtland Adds Rare Electronics-Detection K-9

🏠 The Home Front: Why the Right Lighting Can Change How You Use a Room

⚾ Sports: ⚾ Guardians Stay Hot, Pull Within 2½ Games of AL Central Lead

⚾ Captains Let 5-1 Lead Slip in 7-5 Loss to Wisconsin

🤔 Trivia Question

🤣 Something Funny

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

Mentor Rocks wraps up its 2026 season Tuesday, Aug. 25, with a special extended performance from ESCAPE, the Journey tribute band also known as E5C4P3.

The free concert begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Mentor Civic Amphitheater, 8600 Munson Road, and is scheduled to continue until 9 p.m. Food and beverage service begins at 5 p.m.

ESCAPE focuses on Journey’s Steve Perry era, with a set built around favorites including “Lights,” “Wheel in the Sky,” “Separate Ways” and “Be Good to Yourself.” The group has been performing Journey’s music for decades and aims to recreate the sound and energy of the band’s early-1980s concerts.

Admission and parking are free. Because the amphitheater features lawn seating, concertgoers should bring a chair or blanket.

Tuesday’s show is the final Mentor Rocks performance of the summer, giving residents one last chance to enjoy an outdoor concert at the amphitheater before the season ends.

👉🏻 Planning to go? We’ve put together the parking options, arrival tips, what you can bring and other helpful details so you can spend less time figuring things out and more time enjoying the final Mentor Rocks night of the summer.

A year-long dispute over a proposed car wash at the former Boston Market property on Mentor Avenue could be headed to an appeals court.

Lake County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey W. Ruple ruled July 31 that Mentor City Council lacked sufficient evidence to deny a conditional-use permit sought by Express Wash Concepts LLC for 9361 Mentor Ave.

City and court records show the company applied in March 2025. Mentor’s Planning Commission approved the conditional use with conditions on May 1 and later approved the preliminary site plan with additional conditions, including traffic signage.

Traffic remained the central concern. According to the court record, the applicant submitted a revised traffic study after city officials requested additional analysis of the Mentor Avenue-Heisley Road area, vehicle queues and future traffic conditions. The study projected 78 peak-hour trips — 39 entering and 39 exiting — and concluded vehicle queues would remain on the property.

City Council remained unconvinced and unanimously rejected the permit on Aug. 19, 2025, citing concerns that included traffic, noise, neighboring properties and public safety.

Ruple overturned that decision, finding it “arbitrary, capricious [and] unreasonable” and unsupported by substantial, reliable and probative evidence. The judge also found the record did not adequately support Council’s noise concerns.

The court ordered Council to approve the permit subject to Planning Commission conditions.

On Aug. 18, 2026, Councilman Sean Blake moved to direct the city’s law director to determine whether sufficient legal grounds exist for an appeal. If so, the law director was authorized to file with the 11th District Court of Appeals. The motion passed with six yes votes; Councilman John Cook abstained at the recommendation of legal counsel.

👉🏻 The court’s eight-page ruling explains why Council’s traffic and noise concerns ultimately failed the legal test. On the Local Buzz website, we break down what Council heard, what the developer submitted, and why the judge reached a different conclusion.

A small Lake County police department now has an investigative tool found in only a few places across Ohio.

The Kirtland Police Department has added Beacon, a 2-year-old Labrador retriever trained to locate electronic devices that may contain evidence. Kirtland police told Cleveland 19 that Beacon is one of only five K-9s in Ohio serving in this specialized capacity.

Beacon is trained to detect an odor associated with electronic devices, allowing her to help officers find phones, computers and other electronics that may have been hidden, discarded or overlooked during an investigation, according to News 5 Cleveland.

Her handler, Detective Jake Scott, is Kirtland's lone detective and a member of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Scott told News 5 that electronic evidence is involved in nearly every investigation that reaches his desk.

Beacon also has a second role. Kirtland police say she is trained as a crisis and comfort K-9, allowing her to provide support to victims and families dealing with traumatic situations.

Scott and Beacon completed specialized training together at the National Computer Forensics Institute in Alabama. Beacon is scheduled to be formally sworn in during Kirtland City Council's Sept. 9 meeting.

👉🏻 For a department Kirtland's size, Beacon brings an unusually specialized capability — and our full story explains how her training works, why digital evidence has become so important and what makes her role especially noteworthy in Northeast Ohio.

A room may have everything it needs and still feel a little off. Sometimes the missing piece is not furniture or color—it is lighting that supports what actually happens there.

A room can have the right furniture, the right colors and plenty of space—and still feel uncomfortable if the lighting is working against the way you use it.

One reason is that a single overhead fixture often has to do too much. It may provide enough general light to move through the room, but reading corners, work surfaces and conversation areas can still feel flat, shadowed or disconnected.

A better approach is to think about the activity first.

In a living room, ambient light can make the room feel welcoming while a lamp beside a chair creates better light for reading. In a kitchen, ceiling light helps with overall visibility, but task lighting over the counter can make chopping, measuring and cleanup easier. In a bedroom, softer bedside lighting may work better for winding down than a bright fixture overhead.

Natural light changes the equation too. A room that feels bright and useful in June may feel noticeably darker in late fall or winter as daylight shortens and the sun reaches the house at a different angle.

The goal is not to add more fixtures everywhere. It is to place light where the activity actually happens.

Walk through a room at the times you use it most. Notice where you read, cook, work, talk, relax or get ready for the day. Then ask whether the light reaches that activity comfortably—or merely makes the room visible.

Good lighting does more than improve visibility. It can make a room easier to use, more comfortable to stay in and better suited to the life that happens there.

👉🏻 A room can be bright and still be poorly lit. Use our four-question lighting test to find shadows, glare, weak task areas and the places that stop working once daylight fades. Read more on our website.

The Guardians are making the AL Central race considerably more interesting.

Cleveland won its fifth straight game Monday night, beating the Los Angeles Angels 4-2 and moving within 2½ games of the first-place Chicago White Sox.

Rookie left-hander Parker Messick delivered another strong start, allowing one run on three hits over six innings while striking out four and walking one. He improved to 10-8 and has now allowed two runs or fewer in nine consecutive starts. Through 26 starts, Messick owns a 2.50 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 155 innings.

Former Angel Jo Adell provided the go-ahead hit, breaking a 1-1 tie with a two-out RBI single in the fifth. Adell, acquired by Cleveland on Aug. 3, has driven in 13 runs over his last six games.

Austin Hedges gave the Guardians some breathing room in the sixth with a two-run homer that pushed the lead to 4-1.

Cleveland’s bullpen handled the rest. Colin Holderman and Hunter Gaddis combined for two scoreless innings before Cade Smith worked through a ninth-inning run to earn his 34th save.

The Guardians will try to keep the streak going Tuesday night, with Gavin Williams scheduled to start against the Angels in Anaheim.

See Highlights at espn.com

The Lake County Captains built a four-run lead Sunday but couldn’t make it hold, falling 7-5 to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and missing a chance to gain more ground in the Midwest League East race.

Lake County struck first on Jeffrey Mercedes’ RBI single in the opening inning, then broke loose for four runs in the second. Tommy Hawke drove in Juan Benjamin, Dauri Fernandez followed with a two-run double, and Hawke scored on a wild pitch to give the Captains a 5-1 advantage.

Wisconsin responded with four runs in the fourth to tie the game. Eric Bitonti homered during the rally, then went deep again in the fifth to put the Timber Rattlers ahead 6-5. Daniel Dickinson added an RBI single in the sixth.

Captains starter Nelson Keljo allowed five runs on three hits and three walks over 3⅔ innings while striking out four. Will McCausland took the loss after allowing two runs over 3⅓ innings.

Lake County is now 26-26 in the second half and four games behind West Michigan.

That deficit matters because Dayton already claimed the East Division’s first-half playoff berth. Lake County’s remaining route to the postseason is through the second-half race.

After Monday’s off day, the Captains begin a six-game series Tuesday at Cedar Rapids before returning home for their final regular-season series against Great Lakes.

👉🏻 With the season down to its final two series, we break down why the Cedar Rapids matchup gives the Captains a real opportunity to close the four-game gap — and why the final showdown with Great Lakes could loom even larger.

🐝 Buzz Fact: House numbers started becoming common in European cities during the 1700s. Before that, finding someone’s home could involve directions based on signs, landmarks and nearby shops—basically GPS with a lot more “you’ll know it when you see it.”
Answer: Google

Baseball is not an easy sport… but “Keep Your Eye on the Ball”