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Mild winter attracts thousands to 61st home show in Boardman
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN
Seventy-five vendors – landscapers, roofers, window installers and others — fill Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center for the 61st annual Home Builders and Remodelers Association of the Valley Home & Garden Show.
Jennie Brewer, HBA executive officer, estimated that by mid-afternoon Saturday, about 6,000 people had come through the door of the event, which started Friday. The Vindicator is one of the co-sponsors of the show, which continues from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. Admission is free.
“It’s been stronger this year than in the past few,” Brewer said.
She attributed that in part to improvement in the economy. But Brewer believes this year’s mild winter also played a role.
“People are already in the mode of doing things to their homes,” she said. “It’s felt like spring all winter.”
The show didn’t start until noon on Friday, but people were lined up outside before then.
Jennifer Morris of Columbiana and her three children, Joseph, 12, Kayla, 6, and Katrina, 8, stopped in as they were running errands in Boardman.
The family plans to move soon and the show was giving her some ideas as they look for a new home.
Joseph and Kayla donned plastic yellow hard hats given out by Alexander Construction Inc. of Austintown.
Bruce Stroney, a salesman with AIM Construction Corp., Canfield, saw a lot of traffic through the show Friday and Saturday.
“It’s been busy,” he said.
Attendees came to AIM’s booth interested in all of the services provided by the company, windows, siding and roofing, Stroney said.
Jim Colopy, a building analyst from The Green Building Pros Ltd. in North Lima, said the company is working with First Energy to offer energy assessments of customer’s homes. Through the program, an energy efficiency expert comes to a home to assess its energy performance.
During that inspection, the company will install free compact-fluorescent light bulbs in qualifying locations and fixtures.
The assessment determines areas where homeowners can make improvements to improve energy efficiency.