Five things you might have missed: 12-02

Top stories from this weekend's editions of The Blade

Lori Jacobs, right, co-owner of Cake in a Cup, operates a kiosk store at Franklin Park Mall. Ms. Jacobs says the kiosk allows her to gauge demand without committing to a permanent second location.

THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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Lori Jacobs, right, co-owner of Cake in a Cup, operates a kiosk store at Franklin Park Mall. Ms. Jacobs says the kiosk allows her to gauge demand without committing to a permanent second location.

1. Stores bank on temporary sites to boost holiday-season sales

Pop-ups — temporary stores that carry a limited amount of merchandise — have been around for more than a decade, but their numbers are growing quickly as retailers, including small ones like Cake in a Cup and big ones like Target and Toys R Us, see them as good ways to bolster seasonal sales or test the potential for an additional store without making a huge investment or signing a long-term lease. Toledo-based glassware maker Libbey Inc. is also experimenting with the concept this year.

“The idea of pop-up stores has grown in the last few years,” said Kathy Grannis, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation. Sometimes called “flash retail,” pop-up stores let a store owner “put their brand in front of customers that may not know about that brand for less of a risk than signing a full-term lease,” she said. READ MORE

2. I-75 project aims to end chaos at I-475/U.S. 23 junction in Perrysburg 

The Ohio Department of Transportation plans to widen I-75 between Perrysburg and Findlay include changing the I-475/​U.S. 23 junction in Perrysburg to end weaving traffic on northbound I-475/​U.S. 23 between I-75 and State Rt. 25.

State officials also have drafted plans to revamp the State Rt. 25 interchange on I-475/​U.S. 23 — plans that would create an unusual “diverging diamond” layout — but the project is not yet fully funded or scheduled.

Work on the junction between the two freeways, however, is set to start next summer, as part of widening I-75 from four lanes to six between State Rt. 199 and U.S. 68. READ MORE

Brandon Young, 15, of Toledo paints in an Arts Commission-sponsored project at Roosevelt Pool in July. Such projects will look for donations Tuesday, dubbed ‘Giving Tuesday,’ part of a campaign for supporters to contribute to favorite causes.

3. Giving Tuesday aims to tap into holiday spirit

Nonprofit agencies in Toledo and across the country are looking to capture some of the holiday spirit by creating a national day of giving on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Giving Tuesday lands on Dec. 3 this year, and the hope is people will log on to computers en masse, make donations to their favorite charities, and create a tidal wave of giving from coast to coast.

Giving Tuesday had what some would call a soft launch last year, with agencies from just a handful of cities participating. The Toledo-based Arts Commission was one of those groups.

Ryan Bunch, performing and literary arts coordinator, said officials didn’t know what to expect and didn’t do much to promote the event but still managed to take in $800 in donations on Giving Tuesday 2012. READ MORE

Margaret and Wilbur McCoy were killed in a crash on the Ohio Turnpike near Fremont on Thursday.

4. Man held over crash deaths of Toledo couple Thanksgiving night

The 24-year-old man whose speeding car crashed into a minivan Thursday night on the Ohio Turnpike near Fremont, killing a Toledo couple, faces two counts of vehicular homicide with a reckless-driving specification.

Andrew Gans of Kent, Ohio, was arrested Friday on the charges, the highway patrol said. He was taken late Friday to the Lucas County jail, where he was held without bond pending a court appearance, after receiving medical attention at a Toledo hospital.

Killed in the fiery crash in Sandusky County’s Rice Township, about three miles west of the turnpike’s State Rt. 53 interchange for Fremont, were Wilbur and Margaret McCoy, both 77.

“They’re such good people,” said Kathy Dixon, a neighbor of the couple for six years. “They’re very sweet.” READ MORE

The Rev. Tom Schaeffer, left, CEO of Black Cloister Brewing Company, Bob Hall, center, and Scott Biddle stand in front of Fifth Third Field.

5. Amen to ale: Local Lutherans found Black Cloister Brewing Co.

Martin Luther might best be known as the namesake of the Lutheran Church, but Lutherans who know his biography also talk about his fondness for beer. Luther, who lived from 1483 to 1546, said, “I'd rather my people were in the alehouse thinking of church, than in church thinking of the alehouse.”

Four area Lutherans are keeping the church and the alehouse in close contact as they bring to life Black Cloister Brewing Co.; Luther's wife, a former nun (he had been a monk), brewed beer for him at their home, the Black Cloister, in Wittenberg, Germany.

The Rev. Tom Schaeffer, 50, the CEO of Black Cloister, is a Lutheran church planter. “As a pastor in a new church with a median age of 28, I need to be creative about the financial sustainability of our ministry, as well as providing an alternative source of income for myself so that I might reduce my burden on the church.” READ MORE