Incremental change: Small steps lead to big progress in Orrville

Depot Park, Rails-to-Trails and a massive celebration of America are the highlights among things to look forward to in 2026 in Orrville, according to Mayor Matt Plybon. Showing progress can take time, two of them also were things to look forward to last year, but they didn’t quite get finished as quickly as initially believed.

“We had a couple of projects I thought were going to be heading toward completion but will definitely be finished in 2026,” Plybon said. “One of them is Depot Park. Right now no asphalt is being put down because of the weather. That’ll probably be done by summer. I’ve noticed in the past year there’s been a lot of energy and traffic in that area.”

Part of that can be traced to the 2024 opening of the Brick Street Kitchen and Taproom. Already established as among the city’s favorite eateries and watering holes, it’s just a stone’s throw from Depot Park, which will feature, among other things, live music.

Last year saw the beginning of construction, which will include parking, space for events, additional green space and a performance stage.

Another thing Plybon said residents can look forward to in 2026 is the continuation of the Rails-to-Trails project, which will stretch from Orrville to Clinton and will connect with the Ohio-Erie Trail, which is part of a trail system that connects Cleveland and Cincinnati.

“It’s on the verge of being completed and connecting from the middle of town to the outside of town,” Plybon said. “Things continually move at different paces. Sometimes they all start to finish up at the same time. I kind of looked at Wooster’s swimming pool with Christmas Run. They anticipated it would be closed for one year, and now it’s an additional year. You’ve got to keep working at things to keep them moving.”

This week saw a major change as the Smucker retail store just south of town began conversion to a home for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank. Plybon praised the move overall but acknowledged the change could have an impact on the entire region, not just Orrville.

“We see it as sad that the retail outlet will no longer be like it has been,” he said. “They had availability of all the different (products). The biggest loss is going to be the tourism for the entire county. We saw the busloads that came in.

“Then it’s the silver lining that it’s going to the food bank. That will have a presence in Wayne County. I think the way they’re collaborating with Smucker’s, you just want to change for the better and then move on to the next part of history for that area. I think they have a really good plan.”

This summer the city will celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, and with that will come a lot of patriotic themes and schemes. Plybon remembers being a second-grader when the country turned 200. The bicentennial celebrations went on throughout the year, and the mayor believes this year could be similar.

Orrville will still host the Fire in the Sky softball tournament and again conclude it with a fireworks display, which the mayor believes will be cranked up a notch this year for the signal occasion of the semi-quincentennial celebration.

“It seemed like (in 1976) every day we wore red, white and blue and wore colonial hats and were always celebrating that,” Plybon said. “We have a lot of great events like the Fourth of July and Home for the Holidays coming again. I’m kind of encouraging them to kind of work in celebrating America’s 250th birthday. Flowers around town will be red, white and blue.”

Like many years these days and like in many cities, Orrville is looking for ways to increase housing and support industry. Plybon said the city is always looking for opportunities to work with developers, both residential and commercial.

He said the city is looking at a couple of industrial parks but had no specific details.

“We are always looking to add land for industry,” he said.

Last year saw 1,337 calls to the fire department, which made the 2025 addition of a fire truck, which was financed and delivered on time, a timely addition. Plybon also said several smaller street projects were completed last year.

Also potentially on the 2026 calendar is the addition of a farmers market in the area of Depot Park. Plybon said the city has been working with the health department to get a health-related grant to bring that to the area.

“That whole area has been built up with activity,” he said.

Finally, he said increasing city directors’ spending limits a bit in the near future would help get things done. Overall, the mayor said things are going smoothly and satisfactorily, if maybe not at the pace originally anticipated.

“With 2025 I had someone explain it to me. It’s kind of like a glacier,” Plybon said. “It kind of moves slow. We’re just kind of inching our way to improvement. You look at a glacier. There’s all this working underneath it, and you just see the tip of the iceberg.”