The Repository | CantonRep.

com | Sunday, March 27, 2016J7

PLAIN TOWNSHIP

What Do These
5 Photos Have
in Common?
REPOSITORY FILE
n Kayakers enjoy the outdoors last summer.

NOT SO PLAIN
By Tim Botos
Repository staff writer

T
his township is
towering oak trees
that form a canopy
above Darlington
Avenue NW in the Avondale
allotment; roadside signs to
announce lenten fish fries,
sign-ups for youth baseball
and softball and an Eddie
Money concert at GlenOak
High; driveway basket-
ball hoops and backyard
trampolines; single-story
brick ranches where a man

in a lawn chair waves at

a passing car; Checkered
Records, where you can buy
Sounds from music on old-fashioned REPOSITORY FILE
Worlds Favorite vinyl; a cross at Bentler n Little Flower Catholic Church in Plain Township.
Avenue and Easton Street
NE, to memorialize a 1993 cohesive identity. Canton have expanded
auto accident that took the That was a real prob- over the years, the differ-
young lives of Eric Addessi lem, an issue up until ence between town and
and post your unique favorite sounds! and Chris Woodburn; about 10 or 15 years ago, country has eroded. There
driveways with tarped boats explained Lou Giavasis, is no apparent sense of
Please visit us on facebook to see ours and idle campers waiting for a township trustee from leaving the areas in the city
summer; fields with rem- 1992 until his resignation and entering the township
Can you hear them? nants of last years corn and last year. Weve really as it historically used to
soybeans; aging Oakwood made an effort to change be.
What are your favorite sounds? Square shopping center that ... working in con-
and driveway concrete junction with the school Today and tomorrow
visit our website at www.HEARINC.biz. being poured at new homes system ... to get that sense The township was formed
in Saratoga Hills; Country of community. in 1809, so its transition
each country identifies as their favorites, Cones ice cream stand and Pocock agreed. from rural to suburban in
Gervasi Vineyard; Bob- People now know that a span of a couple decades
To see the other 5 and explore what O-Link apartments and an GlenOak is Plain Town- occurred at a relatively
1830s house for sale along ship, she said. rapid pace.
said were their favorites. Market Avenue N; sled- The high school campus, I look at Plain Township
riding hills near Diebold which includes the Plain as a microcosm of the coun-
30 countries around the world and a deer crossing sign Local Community Center try, Giavasis said. Its
on Elmhurst Avenue NW; for the Performing Arts, diverse, socially, economi-
These are 5 of 10 sounds people from Diamond Park and church the adjoining Stark County cally, ethnically ... And the
row on 38th Street NW. District Library branch, community comes together
Those who live here Mercy Medical Center when it needs to.
either love or have adapted

To hear your
of Plain and Stark Parks May agreed.
to suburban sprawl that Middle Branch Trail, all Its a great representa-
has become the Plain located along Schneider tion of what the real world is
Township of today. Street NE, have helped like, he said.

favorite sounds
With its own fire depart- cement the community. About 80 percent of
ment and dedicated I think the schools ... the developed land in the
sheriffs patrol, com- were the hub, Plain Local township is for residen-

again...
mercial and retail hubs, Schools Superintendent tial use, with the other 20
assorted neighborhoods, a Brent May said. percent for commercial
school district, zoning and Giavasis likened the and industrial the ideal
home-rule government, evolution to what has mix, according to planning
its virtually a city dis- occurred in neighboring experts is a 70 /30 ratio.

Call 330.478.3350
guised as a township. Jackson and Lake town- Thats because gener-
Plains transformation ships and in Green. ally taxes on residential
from rural to suburban When I took office, properties dont fully pay
began in the 1940s. City Jackson Township had for government services
dwellers began moving those signs that said, We provided.
for a no risk, no cost, no into new houses in outly-
ing areas, such as Plain.
make things happen, he
recalled. Well, the big
Four of Plains main com-
mercial areas are ripe for
obligation, take your sweet By 1960, the townships
population had skyrock-
joke then was Welcome
to Plain Township, where
additional development,
or even redevelopment,
time Hearing Aid test drive. eted from 8,096 to 32,391
people and has remained
relatively consistent. The
nothing happens.
Part of the problem was,
according to the min-mas-
ter plan.
and remains, the layout of n The Everhard Road/
most recent U.S. Census the township. Originally Whipple Avenue NW area
We believe the only way you will figures put the population
at just less than 35,000.
36 square miles, it has been
whittled down by more
is in the midst of a renais-
sance with the addition of
know which hearing aid is right for It has changed dra-
matically since I was
than a third. North Canton
became a city; pieces
a hotel and renovation of a
shopping plaza. Major road
you is to experience the benefits in growing up here, said
Judy Pocock, president of
were annexed by Canton.
Today, several sections of
improvements there are
planned for 2018.
your daily listening environments the Plain Township His-
torical Society.
Plain Township are islands
of land cut off from other
n Whipple Avenue NW,
north of Avondale, already
Yet, it has retained a areas of the township, is a commercial district,
6264350327
certain charm. including a neighbor- though the west side of the
It has managed to hood known as the Dells road, in Jackson Township,
maintain a sense of within North Canton. contains more businesses
small-town appeal that That one makes abso- than the east side.
is somewhat atypical for lutely no sense, said n The U.S. 62 corridor,
larger townships, notes Giavasis, who used to from Market to Harmont
the townships mini- live there. Those people avenues NE, is largely com-
master plan, prepared by consider themselves North mercial development.
the Stark County Regional Canton, but its our plow n The Easton Street and
Planning Commission in trucks, our fire department Middlebranch Avenue NE
2012. ... and sheriff that goes area is home to the town-
there. ships government center,
Identity The mini-master plan as well as Oakwood Square
While certain areas of sums it up like this: Plaza. The mini-master plan
the township such as Character and identity suggests this section as a
Avondale are well- of a rural area are difficult possible home for a redevel-
known throughout Stark to preserve in the face oped community focal point
County, much of Plain of increasing real estate that could include every-
has struggled mightily to development, it explains. thing from retail to senior
form a certain intangible, As Canton and North housing complexes.