Faces of North Ridgeville: Meet Neighbors Making a Lasting Impact

Cliff and Kathy Winkel

Cliff and Kathy Winkel have lived in North Ridgeville for 25 years. 

“We are all in on North Ridgeville,” says Cliff, who founded Wink Electric in 2000 and moved his business to the community six years ago. Today, their Wink Property Group venture is composed of several enterprises, including Wink Royalton, a complex that houses Pulp Juice and Smoothie Bar and Modern Massage and Spa. 

“We look at old buildings that have been doing nothing and put them back to work,” says Cliff, a North Ridgeville Ward 4 Council member.

Cliff has coached (primarily football) in the community, and Kathy was a school nurse, making them widely recognizable in the community. 

“North Ridgeville is a community that comes together when needed,” Kathy says. 

Keriann Roach

Look for the corn earrings. A pair might be dangling off the ears of Keriann Roach, especially when she is volunteering for the Corn Festival. She joined the festival in 1999 and now serves on the executive and booth committees.

“The festival is a way for the community to reconnect,” says Roach. “A lot of high school reunions always meet on Friday night of festival week.”

Roach also served on the Parks and Recreation Commission for six years. 

“North Ridgeville has a small town feeling, even though it is still growing,” Roach says. “I like knowing my neighbors.”

Tim and Sue McGuire

North Ridgeville businessman Tim McGuire looks back with fondness to 1985, when Poppee’s Popcorn moved to the city and was the first company to call Taylor Woods Industrial Park home. “It’s a good memory. In those days I had to wait for deer to cross the street before I could get to work,” recalls McGuire, whose father, Walter, started the business in the 1940s.

Poppee’s Popcorn is a legendary family business in North Ridgeville, with the four McGuire children involved in the company over the years.   

This year Poppee’s Popcorn was sold to an Arizona-based company, Lehi Valley Trading Company, which has been a customer of Poppee’s Popcorn. The Jenny’s Old Fashioned popcorn brand name will be retained.

“Tim says the business has been his whole life,” says McGuire’s wife, Sue McGuire. “And he’ll still go to the office until everything is settled.”      

Bill Noll

Bill Noll was born in his family’s home in North Ridgeville in 1954. “My mother never made it to the hospital in time,” he says. Widely recognized as one of the city’s most important local historians, Noll’s research and knowledge of the past are priceless.   

A longtime member of the North Ridgeville Historical Society, Noll has watched his city grow ever since he worked on the Sweet family’s local farm in his teens. He served on city council in the early 1980s. 

Noll’s 200-page book, Through the Years History of North Ridgeville 1810 to 1960, published in 2018, is available for sale at the Historical Society. It’s there that Noll often fields questions from people wanting information about people, events and locations with North Ridgeville roots.

Recently, Noll helped a woman from Arizona learn about ancestors buried in a local cemetery, including one who fought in the Revolutionary War. 

Noll was this year’s recipient of the Golden Kernel Award presented at the Corn Festival’s opening ceremonies. 

“We are looking for more younger people to take over some work with the Historical Society,” says Noll. “We need to make sure the history of North Ridgeville is not forgotten.”