Recordpub.com - Ghost hunters evicted? Use of Aurora site questioned

By Don Jovich

Record-Courier staff writer

AURORA -- The popular "Ghosthunting 101" course may be looking for spirits elsewhere, if the city-owned Margaret Harmon house is no longer available for use.

The Aurora Landmark Commission recently recommended that ghosthunting investigations not be conducted at the historic Harmon house on Page Road.

Commission chairman Tom Dreher mentioned to the members that several people have spoken to him about the use of the Margaret Harmon house.

He referred to a recent newspaper article which explained that the facility is being used for paranormal activity.

Since 2005, the ghosthunting class has been offered by the city's community education program.

Dreher asked the commission to review the article and give their thoughts on it to Jim Kraus, the parks and recreation director. He asked them to decide if they think that the landmark commission should take up the issue formally.

The commission passed a measure that advises the Aurora Parks and Recreation Committee to not allow ghost hunting activities at the city's landmarked properties.

Mayor Lynn McGill said the use of the cemetery for a similar program, "Gravestones, Lanterns and Legends," also was "improper."

The ghost hunting class is led by instructor Sherri Brake-Recco, owner and tour guide/researcher for Haunted Heartland Tours and Haunted History Walks of Canal Fulton.

She instructs classes on paranormal subjects such as ghost hunting, dowsing and spirit photography and electronic voice phenomena or EVP.

As a paranormal investigator, Brake-Recco also is the instructor of ghost hunting classes at the West Virginia Penitentiary and has led ghost tours since 2003.

In Aurora, nearly 200 participants have taken the ghost hunting courses.

The class includes two hours of classroom work, a slide show presentation, hands-on use of ghost hunting equipment and a two-hour investigation of the century-old Harmon home.

9.	Posted by spelling May 30, 2007
	It is unfortunate that the city officials cancelled a community education class that they obviously didn't investigate first. This class was done in good taste and not under the guise of a so called "witch hunt". Not everyone wants to learn a foreign language or learn to cook, it is up to the community education system to provide alternative classes. Is it because the city wants to sell the property? I don't believe that was the original agreement with the Harmon family who gave this property to Aurora with the understanding it not be built upon. The Harmon family believed there was an Indian burial mound in the back of the property. Possible historic properties such as these should be protected. Or should the city be able to sell it and have some more land developers do away with the history that the rest of us have appreciated. I think that cancelling these classes is really only the tip of the ice berg.

6.	Posted by mrm4814 May 22, 2007
	Okay, let me see if I can explain it to all of you... The course is horse sh-t. The subject matter is a bunch of hooey, false, ficticous, and made up only to further the gains (either monetary or egotistical) of the people perpetrating these hoaxes. Allow me some examples: Big Foot (admitted to be fake footprints by Ray Wallace), Crop Circles (admitted to be fake by countless pranksters)... Oh, you may as well ask the Loch Ness Monster if he's availble to teach the class remotely by means of paranormal ESP telecommunication. I'm sure that will draw a bigger crowd. The whole thing is nutty. THAT is why they don't want it. Hopefully that clears it up.