FREE Tours Available Of North Canton's Champion Big Tree

Did you know that the tallest cucumber magnolia tree in the United States is located in North Canton? If so, have you seen it?

Here it is, it's located at Auburn Knolls....


Great news, which you may not have heard, FREE tours are now available.

Yes, you can now go to Auburn Knolls, which if you don't know is a gated community, and see the 429-year-old cucumbertree magnolia which stands 79 feet tall, spreads 88 feet at the crown and has a circumference of 288 inches.

The tour is now featured on the Canton/Stark County Convention and Visitors Bureau website...


Spread the word; email this post to a friend!

The Sanctuary Golf Club Named Small Business Of The Year

I was going through some back issues of The Repository and found a story on the North Canton Chamber of Commerce's recent awards dinner.

It was a pleasure for me to see that the North Canton Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year Award went to The Sanctuary Golf Club.

Developers Bob DeHoff and Bill Lemmon are the owners of The Sanctuary Golf Club.


I had the good fortune to play at The Sanctuary Golf Club a few times last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of the things I like about The Sanctuary is that it's fairly open, there aren't a lot of trees lining narrow fairways. That's not to say the course lacks obstacles or that it's not a challenge.


Whether you're a long hitter or a precise shot maker The Sanctuary Golf Club has plenty to offer.

A stream runs through the course and comes into play on a number of holes, there are a few other notable water hazards, you have plenty of opportunities to get into sand traps and the greens are very challenging, both in terms of topography and speed.

Hit the ball in the wrong place and it's easy to find trees that come into play.


A unique feature of The Sanctuary Golf Club is that it is indeed a bird sanctuary. You can see that maintaining an appropriate habitat played a key role in the design of the course.


What's most special about The Sanctuary Golf Club, though, doesn't have anything to do with the golf course.

When I was working at The Observer-Reporter I covered a golf outing to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The Sanctuary regularly hosts these sort of events.

I was very impressed to find that people who are in cancer treatment are able to play free at The Sanctuary Golf Club. I'd never heard of a program like that anywhere before.

I'll be putting an article together on this program in the near future.


I wouldn't hesitate to rate The Sanctuary Golf Club as one of my favorite golf courses in Stark County. It's one of the jewels of the City of North Canton.

The North Canton Beat... Is Listed On BlogShares

The North Canton Beat... is trading at B$11.14 a share. The price has steadily increased since an initial offering was made at B$.20 a share.


Yes, you can buy stock in The North Canton Beat...; it's listed on the BlogShares fantasy stock market.

Anyone can play BlogShares, a game where you buy and sell shares of stock in blogs.

The basic, free, game membership allows a finite number of transactions per 24-hour period while a Premium Membership, at a cost of $15 (U.S. Dollars) per year, allows you to execute an unlimited number of transactions.


I'm updating The North Canton Beat... this week and expect to connect with some bloggers to do some link swapping. The value of a blog is impacted by blogs with which it is linked that are also listed in the game.

Look for the price of The North Canton Beat... to be up next week.

The Beauty Of Autumn At The Fairways Of North Canton

There has been talk now and then of converting The Fairways of North Canton to a park.

It's understandable, given the the less than optimum performance of Kevin Larizza when he was leasing the course and managing it for the city. Larizza was more dependable to be late with lease payments and lax in making the capital improvements which were his responsibility.


The Fairways is a good golf course and with a better leasing company/management team put in place I expect it will only get better.

One thing that's certain is that the course is beautiful during the autumn season. That, I believe, is reflected by these shots I got in early November...

The Vanity Of It All

How often do vanity license plates make you smile, shake your head or wonder what the person was thinking?

Don't keep that thought to yourself. Snap a picture and share the plate in the vanity license plate collection, The Vanity Of It All.

It's easy to play along. You don't need to say where you shot the picture or what you think the meaning behind the plate is. Simply shoot the picture and send it in.

If you're involved in any social media websites I'd appreciate you helping spread the word.

I Ask You To Join Me In Supporting Barack Obama

I voted for Barack Obama because I believe he is most capable and best prepared to revitalize and energize the economy, that he will improve the quality of life for the middle class and with the help of Joe Biden he will restore America's standing in the world community.

Yes, I am supporting Senator Barack Obama to become the next President of the United States and encourage you to join me.

I feel that the choice of Senator Joe Biden to serve as Vice President reflects the good judgment that will be necessary to solve a myriad of problems left when George W. Bush leaves office.

More importantly, Barack Obama has a vision for America that, I feel, reflects the ideals of a statesman, like John F. Kennedy.

Special interests will not be the guiding force in a Barak Obama administration. Unflinching dedication to ethical behavior is the standard by which this administration will be judged.

This ticket is a strong supporter of issues vitally important to women, including maintaining the right to choose, is dedicated to wiping out discrimination against minorities and believes in upholding the rights of same sex couples.

America's image has been tarnished around the world and I believe it is the team of Barack Obama and Joe Biden that is best prepared to restore a vision of America as what Ronald Reagan described as, "a shining city upon a hill."

The Obama/Biden team will maintain a high level of security at home while bringing an end to an unwise war in Iraq and bringing needed focus to the war on terror in Afghanistan.

Foreign policy and economic issues are intertwined in the age of a world economy.

Barack Obama has an economic agenda that will allow America to not only compete, but to once again be a leader in the world market.

At home, barriers to economic prosperity for the middle class will be stripped away.

The healthcare reform strategy espoused by Barack Obama will make healthcare both accessible and affordable. That while increasing employment, cutting taxes for the middle class and ensuring compliance with fair trade practices.

Energy independence, meaningful environmental stewardship, an improved education system and returning America to the cutting edge of technology development are priorities for the Obama/Biden team.

Barack Obama has an agenda to restore what has been lost in America. He has the ability and intestinal fortitude to carry out a plan which will bring meaningful, much needed change.

Early voting began in Ohio on Tuesday. Yesterday I cast my vote for Barack Obama/Joe Biden. I ask you to support the candidacy of Barack Obama in what will be the most important election in our lifetime.

Barack Obama is the right man at the right time to make America strong again. He is the leader who will once again make The American Dream attainable.

When The Observer-Reporter Closed...

There is no job I have ever had that I love as much as being a newspaper reporter.

I went to work as a stringer with The Observer-Reporter weekly newspaper, in Jackson Township, Ohio, at the end of March, 2007.

The Observer-Reporter's Publisher Stan Bunting agreed to pay me $25 for each article and $15 for every photograph I had published.

In June I gave the editor notice that if I was not hired as a full-time reporter by July 1 I would begin looking for a new job full-time while continuing to write for the paper.

I met with Stan Bunting on July 1. He agreed to hire me as a full-time employee for a salary of $275 per week. There were next to no benefits to speak of other than that I could earn vacation time.

One of my conditions to accept the job, at the minimal salary offered, was to receive my first paycheck as a full-time employee when the next pay cycle came around instead having to wait.

Marc Albert, the President of the company, adjusted my hire date to enable the expedited payment.

I was a loyal employee.

Loyal while paychecks came late...almost always without any notice being given that my paycheck would not be ready, only to find when I drove to the office that I would have to wait. Loyal while one employee of the company after another left. I never compromised in the quality of my performance; I always worked to the best of my ability.

On July 30, 2008, on a day when I was out covering an event for the paper, Stan Bunting shut down The Observer-Reporter. He closed the company without calling or emailing me or any of the other writers.

I was the only full-time, salaried employee on the Observer-Reporter's writing staff.

As of late August Stan Bunting paid $715 of what he owed me when he closed the paper on July 30.

Stan Bunting still owes me $913. For almost two weeks he has not called me, without being prompted, as he promised he would and he has not returned my calls.

Having your employer refuse to meet his obligation to pay your salary is not the reward you should get for being a loyal employee.

I feel that I have no choice other than to seek relief through Small Claims Court. I will do that tomorrow.