Portage County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,791. Located in Northeast Ohio, Portage County is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area. Its county seat is Ravenna and its largest city is Kent.
Brady Lake is an unincorporated census-designated place and former village in Portage County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,222 at the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1927, it originally developed as an amusement park and summer resort that opened in 1891. It was formed from a small portion of Franklin Township and became fully independent of the township in 1993. The village was named after the lake it borders, Brady Lake, which in turn was named for Captain Samuel Brady, who hid in the lake around 1780 while being pursued by a band of local Native Americans.
Ravenna is a city in and the county seat of Portage County, Ohio, United States. The population was 11,323 in the 2020 census. It is located 15 miles (24 km) east of Akron. Formed from portions of Ravenna Township in the Connecticut Western Reserve, Ravenna was founded in 1799 and is named after the city of Ravenna, Italy. It is part of the Akron metropolitan area.
Ann Womer Benjamin is the mayor of Aurora, Ohio, a position she has held since 2014. She is former executive director of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education. Womer Benjamin served in the cabinet of the former Governor of Ohio Bob Taft as director of the Ohio Department of Insurance. Prior to that appointment, she was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1995–2002. She represented a district which encompassed Portage County, Ohio.
Dix Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Kent, Ohio, United States. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Kent State Golden Flashes football team. In addition, since 2016 the stadium is also home to the Kent State women's soccer team and since 2019 to the women's lacrosse team. Previously, it was home to the Kent State field hockey team from 1997 to 2004 and served as a secondary home for the KSU men's soccer team in the 1970s. It opened on September 13, 1969 and was named in 1973 after Robert C. Dix, former publisher of the Record-Courier and a member of Kent State's Board of Trustees for more than three decades. It was built as an expansion and relocation of Memorial Stadium, with all of Memorial Stadium's main seating areas used at the current stadium in a new configuration.
Franklin Township is a civil township in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It is on the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The 2010 Census found 5,527 people in the township and the 2020 census recorded 6,283 people. The township is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area.
The Portage Trail Conference or PTC is an association of six high schools and their associated middle/junior high schools located in the northeast region of the U.S. State of Ohio. Three member schools are in Portage County, two are in Stark County, and one each is located in Summit and Trumbull counties. The conference officially began play in August 2005 with 16 member schools divided into two eight-school divisions based on enrollment, with the smaller schools in the County Division and the larger schools in the Metro Division. Games against teams in the opposite division did not count as conference games. Between 2013 and 2017, the conference experienced a number of membership changes, with four schools leaving and three schools joining. In 2020 the PTC underwent its largest changes since its inception as 10 schools left the conference. Two schools left the County Division to join different leagues while all eight Metro Division member schools left to form their own conference, the Metro Athletic Conference. Two smaller independent schools joined the five remaining PTC schools for the 2020–21 school year and the County Division name was dropped. As of the 2021–22 school year, the conference competes with a total of six schools.
LeRoy Martin Satrom was an American politician and engineer in Portage County, Ohio. He served as county engineer, city engineer, city councilman, and mayor. Satrom is most remembered for his 1970–1972 tenure as mayor of Kent, Ohio, specifically for his request for National Guard assistance in the events leading up to the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings, where four students were killed and nine wounded. He later served four terms as Portage County engineer, and retired in 1988.
Ravenna High School is a public high school located in Ravenna, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Ravenna School District and serves students primarily in Ravenna and Ravenna Township. The school's colors are blue, white, and red and its athletic teams are known as the Ravens.
Windham Junior/Senior High School is a public high school in Windham, Ohio, Portage County, Ohio It is the only high school in the Windham Exempted Village School District. Their mascot is the Bombers and compete as a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association and is a member of the Northeastern Athletic Conference. Windham High School was founded in 1883.
Alphonso Hart was a Republican politician from the U.S. State of Ohio who was a U.S. Representative, in the Ohio State Senate, and the 11th lieutenant governor of Ohio.
The Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority, commonly referred to as PARTA, is a transit agency serving Portage County, Ohio. It is headquartered in Franklin Township just outside the Kent city limits. PARTA was formed in 1975 from an agreement between the city of Kent and Franklin Township and has since expanded to include routes over much of Portage County. It operates several local routes including circulator and suburban routes in Kent, and an interurban route connecting Ravenna, Kent, and Stow. PARTA also offers express routes including services into downtown Cleveland, Akron as well as weekday service to the rural Portage County communities of Windham, Garrettsville and Hiram. In addition, PARTA includes Kent State University's Campus Bus Service, which it acquired in 2004, and a dial-a-ride service. A proposed plan to acquire Lorain County Transit to serve better bus service in Lorain County. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 633,800.
Marvin Kent was a railroad president, politician, and businessman from Portage County, Ohio, United States, best known as the namesake of the city of Kent, Ohio, which was previously known as Franklin Mills.
Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 28,215 at the 2020 Census. The city is counted as part of the Akron metropolitan area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton combined statistical area.
The area now occupied by the city of Kent, Ohio, was previously inhabited by various Native American tribes until the 19th century. Though little record of any settlement exists, the area was located along several known trails. One example of Native American inhabitants in the area can be found at Towner’s Woods Park where a mound is located. In 1798 it was sold to Aaron Olmsted as part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. He initially named the area "Franklin" after his son, Aaron Franklin Olmsted. The first settlers, the Haymaker family, arrived in late 1805, having been attracted to the area by the Cuyahoga River and its potential for powering gristmills.
Luther Day was a Republican politician in the U.S. State of Ohio who was in the Ohio Senate and a judge on the Ohio Supreme Court 1865–1875.
Black Horse, also spelled Blackhorse, is an unincorporated community in Portage County, Ohio, United States, located in western Ravenna Township. It is centered along Ohio State Route 59 at its intersection with Brady Lake Road, just west of the city limits of Ravenna. The community takes its name from the Black Horse Tavern, which was located on the north side of modern-day State Route 59 for much of the 19th century.
Aftab Karma Singh Pureval is an American attorney and politician serving as the 70th mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, since January 4, 2022. On January 14, 2021, he declared his candidacy for the 2021 Cincinnati mayoral election. On November 2, 2021, with 65.8% of the vote, he was elected as mayor making him the first Asian American to be elected as the mayor of Cincinnati. He was previously a candidate for Ohio's 1st congressional district in 2018.
Randi L. Clites is an American politician. In 2018, Clites was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives from the 75th district. Prior to her election to the Ohio House, Clites was a healthcare nonprofit executive, serving in leadership roles with the Northern Ohio Hemophilia Foundation and the Ohio Bleeding Disorders Council, among others.
