Local.com

"By Monnie RyanOur daughter, Chris, recently asked if I knew you can find just about any property in Trumbull County at the auditor's Web site. At first, she was upset over finding a color photograph of her home -- garage door wide open and truck she and her husband no longer own sitting in the driveway. But then, curiosity took over when she discovered she could get the scoop on other people's property as well.Of course, I wasted no time checking the whole thing out, and I discovered that similar access to properties in Mahoning and Columbiana counties is available at the Web site of auditors in those counties. Once at the site of your choice (www.co.auditor.trumbull.oh.us for Trumbull County; www.mahoningcountyauditor.org for Mahoning and www.columbianactyauditor.org for Columbiana), simply click on the "property search" icon and fill in the appropriate blanks. You can search by various criteria including the owner's name, street address and parcel number.All sites show property valuation, tax assessment and tax payment history, a photograph or diagram of the home and, in some cases, a sales history that lets you know when the property was sold, by whom, and how much they paid -- actually helpful information if you're looking to sell or buy in the neighborhood.Not long ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Goerig, agent and chairman, horticulture/natural resources/agriculture for Mahoning County, at the OSU Extension office in Canfield. In the process, he told me that every week during the growing season,as many as 20 horticulture agents get together for a conference call to share information. "It lets us anticipate what's coming -- to get the drop on bugs," he laughs. This group publishes the results of their discussion on the Web in a newsletter every Thursday from April through October (go to www.webgarden.osu.edu, click on the WebGarden link and then the Buckeye Yard & Garden OnLine at the bottom of the page). Special sections include Weather Watch, Disease Digest, Bug Bytes and, my favorite, Hort Shorts. Many topics, like an update on the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, have links to additional information on the OSU site.On one of our weekend "getaway" drives, my husband noticed billboards touting The Better Seafood Co. (www.betterseafood.com). Since it's a Youngstown company -- and I love seafood so much I should have been born with gills -- I checked it out as soon as we got back home.For a fish-lover like me, it was the motherlode. By the time I picked my way through salmon, scallops, swordfish, tuna, live lobsters and my all-time favorite walleye, I was hungry enough to eat an octopus. Had I wanted to, I could have -- octopus is another of the choices here.Better still, whatever I want is delivered to my door on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays, and orders can be placed from two to 14 days in advance.Registration is required for new customers; that done, the order process went smoothly as I added walleye ($9.99 a pound), scallops ($11.99) and red snapper ($7.99) to my shopping cart. At checkout, I had a choice of using PayPay, a credit card or paying on delivery, which was free since I spent more than $25. Immediately, an order confirmation popped up onscreen, and within minutes I received an e-mail confirmation stating the expected delivery time within a two-hour window.The real proof, though, is in the pudding -- or in this case, the seafood. I'm happy to report that my purchases, delivered well wrapped and bagged, looked and smelled wonderful. The deliverman and I had a nice chat that included tips for cooking the scallops (never for more than three minutes, he advised). The company, he says gets deliveries of seafood fresh every day, and they've been getting lots of repeat customers -- always a good sign.Count me among them. The scallops we inhaled for dinner that evening were succulent, tender and flavorful (sauteed in butter, garlic and a sprinkling of the special flavoring I'd brought home from our favorite Outer Banks eatery, Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar. The walleye and red snapper are stashed in the freezer, but I don't expect they'll be there long. For the record, the portions of each of these three delicacies are large enough to feed three people (though I admit there weren't any leftovers from just the two of us). "