Many things in life often get better with time, that saying holds true for Bluffton’s second community mural that Oscar Velasquez has been working on this summer. Each day the mural, which is a period piece of Bluffton from the 1950’s, gets more full of detail. In the final stages, Velasquez is painting on the last few people and pets that are lucky enough to be included in the scene.

Velasquez started the project on April 1 this spring and he has steadily been completing the picture since then. He usually comes out to his work site around 9 a.m. and often wraps up for the day by 4 p.m. He said there have not been any problems thus far, just that the detail in the painting is very time consuming and that is why four and a half months have passed and there is still a little time left to go until the mural is finished.

 As the Allen County Fair is quickly approaching, the kids of the Bluffton Cattle Club and the Bluffton 4-H are starting to get excited about showing off their animals. But, long before the show times begin, there is a lot to be done with the animal that is being displayed. The members of the Bluffton 4-H shared all the details of what it takes to prepare an animal for a county fair.

Tyler Begg, Josh Begg, Jason Althaus, Schuyler Caprella, Matthew Spallinger and Andrew Spallinger are five members of the Bluffton Cattle Club. According to the club, a number of duties need to be taken care of when you are prepping a cow for the Allen County Fair.

Many people in NW Ohio and beyond cheered Kent Boyd on as he ascended to the top echelons of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD), but one young Bluffton girl had more reason than most to root for his success. Leah Schattschneider took lessons from Boyd before his rise to fame on Fox’s hit show. Schattschneider, now thirteen, was a student of Boyd at The Dance Centre in Wapakoneta when she was in sixth grade. “He was a great teacher, full of energy and always positive and funny, just like we saw him on the show this summer. He would often crack jokes, and one time he used a squirt gun to get our attention!” said Schattschneider. Leah Schattschneider has nothing but praise for Boyd, saying that one of the best things he taught them about was facial expressions.