Liverpool Township

Valley City is an unincorporated community in Liverpool Township, Medina County, at the crossing of State Routes 252 and 303. Its Frog Jump has run since 1962 and Ohio proclaimed the village the Frog Jump Capital of Ohio in 1964. The Valley City Community Group runs it at Mill Stream Park.

Source: Valley City Community Group and Wikipedia · checked 2026-10-01

Liverpool Township covers 25.9 square miles in northern Medina County and held 5,750 people at the 2020 census. No municipality lies inside it. Valley City is the unincorporated community and post office at its centre, where State Route 303, Center Road, crosses State Route 252, Columbia Road. Liverpool is the township and Valley City is the mailing address, covering nearly the same ground with exceptions at the edges. The post office was called Liverpool from 1817 until 1910, when confusion with East Liverpool in Columbiana County forced the change.

Source: Liverpool Township, the Liverpool Township Historical Society, the 2020 US Census via Wikipedia, and the Medina County Economic Development Corporation · checked 2026-10-01

The Frog Jump began as children's entertainment for Liverpool Township's 1962 sesquicentennial. Duane Naftzger and township historian Andrew Neff came up with it, drawing on Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Jay Reynolds caught the first frogs. The first jump was July 21 and 22, 1962, at a farm on Myrtle Hill Road, with 132 entries and about 7,500 attendees reported. Governor James A. Rhodes made the contests Ohio's official state championship by proclamation on April 2, 1964. The Valley City Progress Association, then the Chamber of Commerce from 1967, then the Valley City Community Group from 2016 have run it, and it moved to Mill Stream Park in 2001.

Source: Valley City Community Group, Frog Jump history written by Duane Naftzger, and Liverpool Township · checked 2026-10-01

Each frog jumps alone from a marked circle on a parachute and the distance is measured after three jumps. Jockeys are grouped twenty to a flight, usually 37 flights, and every flight winner gets a trophy and advances to a championship jump-off for Grand and Reserve Champion, with extra awards for the longest and shortest jump of the day. Registration opens at 9:30 a.m., a jump is $8.00 and a rental frog is $7.00 more, and admission and parking are free. It is held at Mill Stream Park, 1200 Maple Street, Valley City. The 2026 jump was July 19 and the Valley City Community Group has posted the 66th annual for Sunday, July 18, 2027.

Source: Valley City Community Group · checked 2026-10-01

The Valley City Community Group's own Frog Jump history says several Valley City frogs were shipped to Calaveras County, California, in 1969, including Governor Rhodes' frog, Leaping Ohio, and that parachutists delivered frogs in 1968 and 1969, with one jumper landing on the fire station roof in 1968. The same history presents the story of a man whose trained frog jumped out of a car window on Euclid Avenue as a tale it cannot fully verify, saying only that it has been around long enough to carry some elements of truth.

Source: Valley City Community Group, Frog Jump history written by Duane Naftzger · checked 2026-10-01

The Valley City Firefighters Association has run the Street Fair as its fundraiser for about ninety years. The 91st annual ran August 14 to 16, 2026, at the fire department, 6700 Center Road, with food, beverages, games and entertainment over the three-day weekend. The first fair, in 1934, raised about $675 for equipment, and the 1935 fair paid for the old fire station. The association also holds a pancake breakfast in March and a Halloween parade and costume contest at the fire station on Halloween night.

Source: Valley City Fire Department and the Valley City Community Group events calendar · checked 2026-10-01

The Valley City Community Group and the Valley City Firefighters Association run the township calendar. In 2026 that meant pancake breakfasts March 1 and 8, a Memorial Day parade May 25 with a remembrance ceremony by VFW Post 5563, a Fourth of July celebration, the Frog Jump July 19, the Street Fair August 14 to 16, a Halloween parade October 31, and Christmas in the Valley December 13 with holiday markets in five downtown businesses, a race, a chili cookoff and a tree lighting. The Historical Society opens the Depot Museum on the last Sunday of the month from 1 to 4 p.m. in the warm season.

Source: Valley City Community Group events calendar and about page · checked 2026-10-01

Mill Stream Park is the township-owned park at 1200 Maple Street in Valley City, on the Rocky River at the northeast edge of the business district. It has a walking trail, picnic areas, pickleball courts with bleachers, basketball courts, a concession stand and pavilions, and it opened when the Frog Jump moved there in 2001. Hours are dawn to dusk, alcohol is prohibited and pets must be leashed. The pavilion and concession stand are reservable through Liverpool Township at 330-483-3102. A six-foot frog sculpture was installed on July 19, 2026.

Source: Liverpool Township Parks and Facilities Rentals pages and the Valley City Community Group · checked 2026-10-01

Zachary A. Weber Riverside Park is a 6.6 acre Medina County Park District park at 6610 Center Road in Liverpool Township, opened July 4, 2025 as the district's 23rd park. It has a small parking lot, a non-reservable open-air shelter, picnic tables, swinging benches and views of the Rocky River, and it is used for bird watching, canoeing, fishing, kayaking and picnicking. Hours are 6 a.m. to one hour past sunset and a fishing license is required at 16 and older. The land was donated by Bryan and Annette Weber in memory of their son Zachary, a Buckeye High School graduate who died in May 2024.

Source: Medina County Park District · checked 2026-10-01

Liverpool Meadows Nature Preserve is a 104 acre Medina County Park District preserve at 6601 West Law Road in Liverpool Township, opened November 22, 2025. It has a 0.9 mile accessible gravel loop, a 19-car lot, restrooms, an overlook and Rocky River access at the north end. Most of it is restored prairie around a headwater stream that was reconstructed in 2009 to follow its natural meandering path, with mature forest and steep ravines on the uplands. Dogs are allowed on leash, hours are 6 a.m. to one hour past sunset, and fishing requires a license at 16 and older.

Source: Medina County Park District · checked 2026-10-01

The Liverpool Depot Museum is the township-owned 1895 Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling railroad depot at 6615 Center Road, Valley City, run by the Liverpool Township Historical Society. It holds a Porter Dinky steam locomotive and a 1926 caboose along with artifacts, maps and cemetery records. The depot closed about 1966, was bought and moved by 1976, and was dedicated on July 4, 1976. Open houses are the last Sunday of the month from 1 to 4 p.m. in the warm season, and the society can be reached at 330-418-3243. A Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic museum opened on the second floor of the Town Hall in 2024.

Source: Liverpool Township Historical Society and the Valley City Community Group · checked 2026-10-01

Liverpool Township says it was the first permanent settlement in Medina County. The draw was salt: in 1807 Seba Bronson, Jr. and Captain Jared Pritchard bought the location of a salt spring from the Pottawattamie for five silver dollars, and Justus Warner, who arrived in February 1811, boiled brine in iron kettles and made as much as a barrel of salt a day until the Erie Canal made it unprofitable. The scramble over the springs gave the village the name Hardscrabble, which residents still use for the corner of Columbia and Grafton Roads. The township was organised and named in 1816, after Liverpool in England and its salt works.

Source: Liverpool Township history page and the Liverpool Township Historical Society, with parcel data from the Medina County Auditor · checked 2026-10-01

Liverpool Township is run by three trustees and a fiscal officer on staggered four-year terms, meeting the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the Liverpool Community Center, 6801 School Street, 330-483-3102. Zoning runs from the same building Tuesday and Wednesday 9 to 2, cash or check only, with an after-hours drop box. Most projects including decks, pools and barns need a township zoning certificate plus a Medina County building permit from 791 West Smith Road, Medina, 330-722-9220. Lot splits need township and county planning approval and cost $25.00 per new lot at the township. The Zoning Commission meets the first Thursday and handles flood plain reviews for dwellings; the Board of Zoning Appeals meets the second Tuesday as needed. Garage sale and real estate signs are not permitted at intersections because that is road right-of-way; they go in the front yard.

Source: Liverpool Township zoning, facilities rentals and meetings pages · checked 2026-10-01

The Valley City Fire Department covers Liverpool Township from 6700 Center Road, 330-483-3811, with Chief Andy Baillis. It has served since 1934, provides up to paramedic-level service, and transports to Medina Hospital, the Southwest Brunswick ER, Southwest General Hospital and Elyria Memorial Hospital, with Metro Life Flight for extreme trauma. Two paid staff cover the station 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and three members are on call from home overnight. The Medina County Sheriff's Office dispatches. The department runs on a 2 mill levy passed in 1981 plus the Street Fair and a March pancake breakfast, and it still sounds the siren every day at noon.

Source: Valley City Fire Department and Liverpool Township Fire and Safety page · checked 2026-10-01