Kudos to group in Painesville for recognition

BOUQUETS: To the Downtown Painesville Organization, on receiving national accreditation as a Main Street America Community.

The honor came from Heritage Ohio, the state’s official historic preservation and Main Street Organization.

Downtown Painesville Organization Executive Director David Polakowski said that receiving national accreditation as a Main Street America Community is a huge accomplishment.

“It gives us more credibility,” Polakowski said.

“As a Main Street program, we’re a historical-based organization, but there is so much more to what we do.”

Polakowski said one of the organization’s primary goals is to build a strong community. It believes that a strong core, which is downtown Painesville, helps build a community.

“We promote our businesses in Painesville as a whole, and we want to keep encouraging people to shop local,” he said.

“For every $100 a year spent locally helps build the community by $3 million.”

A year-end program evaluation was used by Heritage Ohio to assess Downtown Painesville Organization’s performance.

The accreditation criteria included broad-base community support; vision and mission statements; comprehensive work plan; historic preservation ethic; active board and committees; adequate operating budget; paid professional staff; program of ongoing training; reporting of key statistics and Main Street Network membership.

To meet eligibility requirements as an accredited Heritage Ohio Main Street program, the organization was required to receive a minimum of seven points on each area of the criteria.

“They created this evaluation to help us set high standards for our program,” he said.

“We’re working as an organization to follow our strategic plan and we’re doing what we’re supposed to do.”

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Downtown Painesville Organization who helped to secure this prestigious honor.

BOUQUETS >> To Justin Dlugokecki, on the work he’s doing to update the Cinema 20 movie theater, which he recently purchased.

The single-screen theater at 1469 Mentor Ave. in Painesville Township will undergo an extensive renovation, which Dlugokecki says will be done in phases and should be completed in about a year and a half.

Improvements will include renovating the lobby, refac- ing the concession counter, replacing the carpet, updating the bathrooms, remodeling the showroom and upgrading the theater’s sound system to a seven-channel surround sound instead of a five- channel.

In addition to the physical changes, the theater will be offering new concessions, including nachos and cheese, pretzels and a wider selection of candy.

“This is just a start,” he said. “We have to meet with the health department to see what additional licenses are required to add more hot food.”

A new Pepsi self-serve station was added to give guests the option of free beverage refills.

In addition, guests were previously required to have cash to pay for admission and concessions, but now they can use credit cards.

The theater will be open during renovations and there will be no change to the admission price, which is $3 on Mondays and $5 Tuesdays through Saturdays.

“Me and my wife put everything our theaters make back into them and we both work full time so we don’t depend on them to make a living,” Dlugokecki said.

“My goal is to keep it going and keep movies affordable for families so that they can go out to see a new movie once a week instead of once every three months.”

We wish Dlugokecki the best of luck with his new business venture.

BRICKBATS >> To Jeffrey Stewart, who was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life prison for participating in the kidnapping and slaying of an elderly couple in Northeast Ohio.

Stewart, 22, was sentenced in Coshocton County on Feb. 8 after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and other charges.

Police say Stewart and Robert Clark took 88-year- old Doyle Chumney and his wife, 79-year- old Lillian, from their home in Strasburg, about 75 miles south of Cleveland, in January 2015 and drove them to a rural road, where Clark shot the couple and set their car on fire.

Stewart told authorities the Chumneys were alive when their car was torched.

Clark, 30, received life without parole after pleading guilty to aggravated murder charges in September.

Now Stewart can join him in a place where both men belong for the crime that they committed.