On Oct. 17, a full house of Euclid-area residents and businesspeople gathered in the meeting room of the Euclid Public Library for the Euclid Chamber of Commerce’s Community Leaders Breakfast. First, Kacie Armstrong, library director, said a few words about the purpose of the library in the community. Next, Sheila Gibbons, Euclid Chamber of Commerce executive director, announced upcoming chamber events and introduced a representative from the breakfast’s sponsor, Allstate Insurance Agent Bill Mason.
The first guest speaker was Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail. She addressed three areas of focus for the city: economic development, safety and building a vibrant community. Some recent and future projects in the city that bring in new investment and tax dollars for the city include 1,000 new jobs being created with the demolition of Euclid Square Mall and new construction of an Amazon distribution center, the creation of a technology center at Lincoln Electric and surrounding streetscape at E. 222nd St. and St. Clair Ave., a 25,000-square-foot expansion at Keene Building Products, a 40,000-square-foot expansion at American Punch Co., an expansion of Rick Case Honda, a groundbreaking for an O’Reilly auto parts store, and planned expansions to Irie Jamaican Kitchen and Mama Catena.
The second initiative, safety, includes promotions, new hires, training and community-education opportunities for the fire and police departments. Finally, building a vibrant community encompasses community cleanup, recycling, beautification and improvement grants. On Nov. 2, the city will unveil its master plan draft to the Planning & Zoning Department.
The second community leader to speak was Euclid City Schools’ Superintendent Charlie Smialek. He introduced a number of school employees in attendance as well as three Euclid High School 
students. Then, he went through a presentation on the district’s vision that included a new Fab Lab to be built as part of the Early Learning Center to introduce science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instruction in grade school. It will be one of only two early learning Fab Labs in the nation. He also discussed technology programming at the high school and an update on the campus construction project that is underway for scheduled completion in 2020.
Both speakers fielded questions from the audience and gave a plug to support Cuyahoga Community College’s November 2017 bond, Issue 61 to update aging buildings.
On Oct. 3, approximately 25 members of The Euclid Chamber of Commerce and the business community visited HGR Industrial Surplus for an hour to mingle, network, take a tour of the facility and learn more about HGR while enjoying coffee and pastry catered by Manhattan Deli. Attendees included the City of Euclid police chief, City of Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer-Gail, radio celebrity Mark “Munch” Bishop, the executive director of Shore Cultural Center, and many others.
On Sept. 29, it held its luncheon, sponsored by HGR Industrial Surplus, at the opulent English Oak Room located in the former Cleveland Union Terminal, now known as Tower City Center. The room is so named because the developers of the rapid transit line and the Public Square station, the Van Sweringen Brothers, imported oak paneling made from the trees in England’s Sherwood Forest. Forest City, the Tower’s current owner, preserved the room by repairing the overhead roads that were leaking down into Cleveland Union Terminal. 
Chuck Klein, 2017 NKPHTS National Convention chairman, gave an interesting presentation, “Chicago World’s Fair to Cleveland Public Square,” about the history of downtown Cleveland seen through the lens of the railroads. He showed photos of downtown before, during and after development as the construction took place from 1927-1930. One amazing statistic is that 2.4 million cubic yards of material were removed for the excavation. 
The theme for this year’s IngenuityFest was “Metamorphosis.” There were visible representations of this in the form of giant butterflies constructed by artists out of various media, as well as actual butterflies brought in for the enjoyment of attendees by an organization called the Butterfly Dome Experience. But the idea of metamorphosis went beyond just the biological meaning of the word. The venue itself was a symbol of this transformation.
The guitars came from a style I was trying out on a motorcycle, but I wanted to explore it further and motorcycles take up too much room. My brother brought me a spare electric guitar he had up in Buffalo, and I ran with it. Electric-guitar styles have a heavy hot-rod ethic to them.
On Oct. 5, 2017, Alliance for Working Together (AWT) is partnering with Lake County Chambers of Commerce to host their annual Think Manufacturing Career Expo. The goal of the expo is to serve manufacturers and middle- and high-school students by creating an interest in various high-tech careers that manufacturing offers. Approximately 30 manufacturers will have booths at the expo, including Dyson Corporation, Lubrizol, STERIS Corporation, Swagelok and others. HGR Industrial Surplus plans to be there, as well, to share our career opportunities. Booth setup begins at 8 a.m. with a breakfast meeting at 9 a.m. and students arriving 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.