Chatham Township

The Chatham Township Community Center at 6306 Avon Lake Road is the former Chatham Elementary School, which closed when Cloverleaf Local consolidated its town elementaries into one elementary center in the 2004-2005 school year. It now hosts the trustees, the zoning commission and the board of zoning appeals, and rents meeting rooms, a gymnasium, a kitchen and the Joyce Siman Pavilion. Meeting rooms start at $30 for the first hour and $15 each additional hour, the gymnasium is $250 all day or $125 for four hours or less, and the kitchen adds $25. Community youth groups use it at no fee. Bookings go through Janet Newcomer at 330-667-2620, and a date is not reserved until the manager confirms it.

Source: Chatham Township's own community center and news pages, with the township address confirmed in the Auditor of State of Ohio agreed-upon procedures report for 2024-2023 · checked 2026-10-01

Chatham Township has a three-member board of trustees and an elected fiscal officer. The township's own directory as of October 2026 lists Rick Dumperth as chair trustee, Joe Aungst as vice-chair and roads superintendent, Bruce Bohner as trustee, Sarah Poling as fiscal officer at 330-667-6020, Sherri Meinke as zoning inspector at 330-421-3260 and Gail Miller as zoning secretary at 330-591-1562. Trustees meet the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at the community center, 6306 Avon Lake Road; the zoning commission meets the third Monday at 7 p.m. and the board of zoning appeals as needed the third Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The general number is 330-667-6020 and the email is chathamtownshipohio@gmail.com. There is no township police department; the Medina County Sheriff covers the township.

Source: Chatham Township's own directory, zoning, meetings and contact pages, with fund names from the Auditor of State of Ohio agreed-upon procedures report for the years ended December 31 2024 and 2023 · checked 2026-10-01

Chatham Township runs its own fire and EMS department from a station at 6429 Kohli Drive, just off the Avon Lake Road and Chatham Road crossing. The township lists Fire Chief William Disbrow at 330-461-0459 and EMS Captain Isaac Siman at 330-667-2372, with all emergencies going to 911. The station is nearly 15,000 square feet, built from about 2020, with pull-through apparatus bays, firefighter living space, township offices, a community room and a reinforced tornado shelter at its centre. The township carries a dedicated Fire and Rescue, Ambulance and EMS Services Fund confirmed in the Auditor of State of Ohio's report for 2024 and 2023.

Source: Chatham Township's own fire and safety page, the McCall Sharp project page for the Chatham Township Fire Station, and the Auditor of State of Ohio agreed-upon procedures report for 2024-2023 · checked 2026-10-01

Chatham Township's own community page names Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative as covering most of the township and FirstEnergy as covering a small portion of residents on the east side. For water it lists county water, noting it is not available to all residents, through the Medina County Sanitary Engineers, so some parcels are on public water and some are on a private well. Trash is not a township service and there is no township-wide hauler; the township lists Rumpke, Kimble and AM Dumpster Rental as options residents arrange themselves. The township names no natural gas utility and no propane dealer.

Source: Chatham Township's own community resources page, with the oil and gas language from the Chatham Township Zoning Resolution · checked 2026-10-01

Chatham Township was named in a rural fiber project built as a partnership of Lit Communities, Medina Fiber, Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative and the publicly owned Medina County Fiber Network, alongside Litchfield, Harrisville, Homer and Spencer Townships and the village of Spencer. Lit Fiber has since merged into Omni Fiber. As of October 2026 Omni Fiber's own service area page lists Spencer, Lodi, Litchfield and Medina as Now Available and does not list Chatham in any category. Availability is set per address, so check the specific address rather than relying on the township name, and note that Chatham has two electric utilities, so a cooperative-led build does not necessarily reach the east side.

Source: The Pritzker Organization announcement of fiber internet for western Medina County, the Omni Fiber and Lit Fiber merger press release, and Omni Fiber's own service areas page · checked 2026-10-01

Letha House Park is a 203.41 acre Medina County Park District property in Chatham Township, split between 5745 Richman Road east and 5800 Richman Road west, with a 7 acre lake, a 3 acre wetland and about 4.85 miles of trail. The trails are a half mile paved and wheelchair accessible route, two nature trails of 0.85 and 0.5 miles, and a 3 mile bridle trail through restored wetlands. Fishing is catch and release only. There are accessible fishing platforms, shelters, restrooms, playgrounds and drinking fountains, a reservable enclosed lodge and a non-reservable open-air shelter. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to one hour past sunset.

Source: Medina County Park District's own Letha House Park page, with jurisdiction confirmed against the Medina County 911 jurisdiction boundary file and both addresses geocoded with the US Census geocoder · checked 2026-10-01

The Cuyahoga Astronomical Association runs a permanent observatory at Letha House Park West, 5800 Richman Road in Chatham Township, in partnership with the Medina County Park District. It was dedicated on July 21, 2001 and holds three club-owned telescopes including a 10-inch Meade LX-200 Classic. The association runs seasonal public viewing programmes there and cites the dark night skies of the park as the reason for the site; on clear nights members also set up personal telescopes for visitors. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to one hour past sunset.

Source: Cuyahoga Astronomical Association's own observatory page and the Medina County Park District's Letha House Park page · checked 2026-10-01

The Chatham General Store at 6403 Avon Lake Road, at the Chatham Road crossing in Chatham Township, says on its own site that it was built in 1854 by the Packard Brothers and still has its original sixteen-foot wood counters and period flooring. Beverly and Bill Scandlon bought and restored it in October 2020. Its own posted hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with Wednesday and Thursday closing at 7 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, and the phone is 330-667-3207. It has a deli with sandwiches and a daily soup special, hand-dipped Hershey's ice cream, a Local Goods Room of area honey, maple syrup, jams and handcrafted items, and a back section stocked with camping, fishing and hunting supplies.

Source: Chatham General Store's own website · checked 2026-10-01

The Chatham Apple Butter Festival is hosted by Chatham Community Church at the Avon Lake Road and Chatham Road crossing in Chatham Township. In 2026 it ran October 10 and 11, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days, admission free, with homemade apple butter, donuts, crafts and vendors, food and family activities. The apple butter is made in a kettle outside the Chatham Memorial Hall and stirred by volunteers over an open fire, and the Chatham Historical Society keeps a table at the festival. Medina County Life reported the festival's fiftieth anniversary in 2018 and noted that it falls on the same weekend as the Medina County Fall Foliage Tour.

Source: Chatham Township's own event notice, Chatham Community Church's own about page, and reporting in the Medina Gazette and Medina County Life · checked 2026-10-01

Chatham Memorial Hall at 6299 Avon Lake Road is the township's veterans hall, known locally as the Chatham VFW Memorial Hall, and is where Chatham's Memorial Day observance happens. The township's notice describes a 10 a.m. ceremony with a guest speaker and the reading of the Veterans Roll Call inside the hall, then a parade on foot with no vehicles to the township cemetery to place flags on veterans' graves, with ice cream afterward. Chatham Township Cemetery is at 6570 Avon Lake Road, open dawn till dusk, with Tate Arters as sexton at 330-410-7838, and the township publishes decoration rules, general rules and a fee schedule for it.

Source: Chatham Township's own Memorial Day ceremony notice and cemetery page, with the hall's address and phone from Visit Medina County listings and the Cemetery Fund from the Auditor of State of Ohio report for 2024-2023 · checked 2026-10-01

The Chatham Historical Society runs two buildings on Avon Lake Road in Chatham Township, the Chatham Historical Museum at 6332 and the Chatham School Museum at 6300, and describes itself as dedicated to studying, preserving and displaying the history and artifacts of Chatham Township. Its number is 330-667-2276 and its published hours are to call for special events and times of service, so there are no walk-in hours. It keeps a table at the October Apple Butter Festival. The township was settled in 1818 by Moses Parsons on the east branch of the Black River, was first called Holden, and was politically organized as Chatham on December 5, 1833. Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher, born in Chatham Center on October 5, 1872, became the last president of Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Source: Chatham Township's own historical society and history pages, Visit Medina County's Chatham Historical Society listing, and the Wikipedia article on Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher · checked 2026-10-01

State Route 83, locally Avon Lake Road, and State Route 162, locally Chatham Road, cross in Chatham Township and are its only highways. On December 3, 2025 the Ohio Department of Transportation converted that crossing from a two-way stop to an all-way stop, citing 21 crashes between 2019 and 2023, 17 of them angle crashes, and saying a roundabout would help more but has no funding source. Roads are split three ways: ODOT has the state routes, the Medina County Engineer has the county roads including County Road 31, Vandemark Road, and township roads belong to the trustees, worked from the road department at 6539 Avon Lake Road under roads superintendent Joe Aungst at 330-667-2924. The nearest interstate access is Interstate 71 about five and a half miles southeast at the Lodi interchange.

Source: Ohio Department of Transportation District 3 release on intersection changes at State Route 83 and State Route 162, with reporting in the Medina Gazette, and Chatham Township's own roads page · checked 2026-10-01

There is no hospital, emergency department or urgent care inside Chatham Township. The nearest emergency room is Cleveland Clinic Akron General Lodi Hospital at 225 Elyria Street in Lodi, about four and a half miles southeast of the Chatham crossroads, a 20-bed critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency department operating since 1920 and serving southwest Medina County and parts of Lorain, Ashland and Wayne counties. For higher-level inpatient care the nearest larger hospital is Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital in the City of Medina, about ten miles northeast, with 148 beds. Chatham Township runs its own fire and EMS department from the station on Kohli Drive.

Source: Cleveland Clinic Akron General Lodi Hospital and Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital's own pages, with distances computed from geocoded coordinates · checked 2026-10-01

Chatham Township is a five-mile-square township in the western tier of Medina County, Ohio, about 26.3 square miles, with no incorporated village or city inside it and a 2020 census population of 2,213. Its civic cluster sits on Avon Lake Road, State Route 83, at and just north of the crossing with Chatham Road, State Route 162. Its four neighbours are all Medina County townships, Litchfield, Lafayette, Harrisville and Spencer, and it touches no county line. Moses Parsons settled it in 1818 and it was politically organized on December 5, 1833.

Source: Medina County 911 jurisdiction boundary file, Chatham Township's own history page, and the Chatham Township and Chatham, Medina County articles on Wikipedia · checked 2026-10-01