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Seneca County commissioners deny vigil near jail, approve Heritage Festival and RTA event requests
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Summary
The board denied a May 30 vigil request near the county jail citing safety and limited parking, but approved use of county lots for the Tiffin Seneca Heritage Festival (Sept. 18–20) and a third‑Thursday downtown event (Sept. 17); the denials and approvals were taken by roll call.
The Seneca County Board of Commissioners on April 21 voted to deny a permit request to hold a peaceful interfaith vigil on county property adjacent to the jail, and separately approved multiple community event requests for county parking lot use later this year.
What happened: County staff read an application from Runa Guzman of "4 Winds 419" seeking the grass area by the county jail for a May 30 vigil from 1–3 p.m. County law-enforcement and the prosecutor raised safety and limited-parking concerns; the board voted to deny the request and encouraged the organizers to reapply to use courthouse grounds instead.
"There are significant safety concerns" noted county staff while relaying the sheriff's and prosecutor's comments; after discussion Commissioner Paradiso moved to deny the request and the motion passed on a unanimous roll-call vote.
Heritage Festival and third‑Thursday event
The board then considered requests to use the Commissioners' lot and the Justice Center parking lot for the Tiffin Seneca Heritage Festival (Sept. 18–20, estimated ~50 booths). Commissioners discussed logistics (an earlier 03:00 move-in had caused problems last year); the board approved the request with instructions to coordinate parking notices and staging to minimize weekday disruption.
Separately, the Seneca County Collaborative requested use of the RTA lot for a third‑Thursday downtown pizza party (Sept. 17, 4:30–8:30 p.m.); the board approved that request as well, with staff to coordinate employee parking alternatives for the event day.
Votes and next steps
The vigil denial motion was made and seconded during the meeting and carried by roll-call. Approvals for the Heritage Festival and the RTA lot event were likewise moved, seconded and passed by roll call. County staff will follow up on permit paperwork and instructed the applicants to coordinate signage and communications prior to events.
Provenance: Account based on the use-of-grounds application discussion and subsequent roll-call votes in the board meeting transcript.
