CONNEAUT – Conneaut has a lot to offer the outside world as a destination. Potential visitors just need to be told where to find it, and maybe how to pronounce it.
The Conneaut Visitors’ Bureau gathered to honor those who not only tell the world how great their city is, but also those who give their best to welcome those visitors once they find their way to town with its Annual General Membership Meeting on Monday, July 20, at Conneaut Township Park.
“I love coming out here,” Ashtabula County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Stephanie Siegel said. “It’s one of my favorite corners of the county. My job is to market the whole county and to tell your stories. We have a welcome center at Geneva-on-the-Lake and I was there working Saturday and I’m not exaggerating when I say we had 300 or 400 people come through, constant crowds of people. About 75 percent of those people have never been to the area before. They had seen us through social media, through advertising, and they said, ‘Where do we go? What do we do?’ We have the tremendous opportunity to point them in all the different directions.”
“I am so proud to be able to say, ‘Have you ever been out to our most northeast corner of the state to Conneaut?’” Siegel said. “They say, ‘How do you say that?’ You can fit all of the beaches in Ashtabula County inside of Conneaut’s beach. It’s got a beautiful boardwalk. It’s got wild and scenic rivers and wonderful places to eat. Here’s the information. People are so grateful. I think those of us who live here, our neighbors, can sometimes be the naysayers. I say, if you’re looking for the good stuff, you’re going to find it. That’s our job, to point of the good stuff. Everywhere, USA, has its little corners of their county or the area they want to hide. Conneaut gives us so much to talk about.”
As the meeting, postponed in May, got started, a moment of silence was held for CVB members Bill Holden, owner of Buccia Vineyard, and Terry Lowe, owner of Ramblin’ Rose Alpaca, who died in the past year.
“If there was ever a friend of the Conneaut Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, it was Terry Lowe,” Conneaut Visitors’ Bureau Executive Director Connie Naylor said. “Terry did everything from set up for Santa to take down for Santa to having signs stored in his barn. The list is too long. We miss Terry very much.”
Holden’s passing happened on the day the Annual General Membership Meeting was initially to be held in May.
“The other person we miss and the reason why we’re here tonight is we miss Bill Holden,” Naylor said. “We were supposed to have this event at Buccia’s on May 12, and I personally will never forget what happened on May 11 and 12. It’s one of those days where you know exactly where you were and you heard the sad news that Bill was no longer with us.”
“There’s not a lot I can say about Bill that you all don’t know already,” Naylor continued. “He was a wonderful friend not only to the Visitors’ Bureau, but also our family in particular.”
The Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop and Conneaut Arts Center were recognized for serving the community for more than 50 years.
“We really want to thank the people of Conneaut because you’ve been so generous with your donations and without you, we wouldn’t have a store,” Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop President Jan Fertig said. “This year, we were able to give out 20 scholarships and we were also able to give the hospital $38,000.”
The Arts Center is known for making the arts accessible to the community.
“We have recently started some outreach programs, and we have clubs that are meeting there,” Conneaut Arts Center Board member Stephanie Gildone said. “Not only do we have dance classes and dance performances that you pay for, but we are offering programs free to our community. We are just finishing up Art in the Park and it’s been very successful. Also, I would be remiss if I did not tell you that the Seventh Annual Lake Erie Monster Festival is coming up on Aug. 1.”
The Conneaut Visitors’ Bureau did not host its general membership meeting in 2025, so it took the time to honor Shane and Heather Gelfer, owners of Sparky’s Place and Table 985, with a Spotlight Community Award.
“I think most people have heard our story about how we arrived in Conneaut via Pittsburgh and why we wanted to do what we did and we still say it was the best decision we ever made,” Heather Gelfer said. “There are so many times we go for a walk in the morning through the neighborhood and down on the boardwalk and on the beach and we still can’t believe we live here. It’s a great, great place. We try to regularly express that to all of our guests at the restaurant and people around town. We give them directions and ask them to come back at different times of the year. We’re very fortunate to be here and appreciate all the support we have.”
Spencer’s Farm owners Tom and Courtney Spencer were honored with the 2026 Spotlight Community Award.
“I pitched an idea to Tom about selling pork and beef by the piece on our farm and he didn’t think anyone would travel down our rough dirt road to buy from us,” Courtney Spencer said. “Then COVID hit and suddenly we started getting multiple calls a day from people looking for meat because the grocery store shelves were empty. Very reluctantly, Tom started turning our woodshed into a store front and that is how Spencer’s Farm Market was born.”
“Today, we are honored to provide our community with safe, accessible and affordable locally raised beef and pork,” Spencer continued. “Our market is unique in the fact that all the meat is raised on our farm by our family. We are our own supplier. To our customers, we thank you for supporting our family and traveling our rough dirt road to get to us and we truly would not be here without you.”
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