Just when you thought basketball was over here comes the Bluffton High School boys' alumni basketball tournament. The tourney features six teams with all games on Saturday, June 4, according to Todd Boblitt, BHS varsity coach.

Teams include:

o Team Hilty

o Team Wietholter

a Team Burris

oTeam Gratz

o Team Oberly

o Team Bogart

Games are played in the middle school and high school gym. Admission is $2 for the day and children are admitted free.

Bluffton, Ohio, goes to the movies.

Memorial Day 2011 marked the first anniversary of The Bluffton Icon YouTube video channel. Our first-ever video was of the 2010 Memorial Day Parade. Since then The Icon has posted nearly 100 videos.

To view the latest video - middle school out for the summer - click here.

To view elementary out for the summer click here.

This summer swimming lesson schedule at the Bluffton Community Swimming Pool has been released by the village.

All sessions are eight day sessions, running Monday through Thursday, with Friday reserved for a make-up day.

Session 1:
June 20- July 1
11:00-11:30 Levels 1-3
11:30-12:00 Levels 4-6
5:00-5:30pm Levels 1-6

Session 2:
July 11- July 22
11:00-11:30 Levels 1-3
11:30-12:00 Levels 4-6
5:00-5:30pm Levels 1-6

BFR will again offer a 12-week training program for persons interested in preparing for a 5-K run, according to Carole Enneking, director.

Groups will meet at 9 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays or at 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursdays beginning the week of June 6. Cost is $50 ($25 BFR members).

Each session will include a combination of walking and running, first for short periods of time andbuilding through the weeks. The program is designed for those who do not currently run but are in good physical shape.

Jan Basinger, Bluffton EMS chief, provided The Icon with the May EMS runs.

May was a wet one, but you already knew that. According to Guy Verhoff, Pandora weather observer, the normal average precipitation for May is 3.67 inches. May of 2011 recorded 7.42 inches of precipitation.

Otherwise, averages were near normal. The average May temperature was 61.9 degrees. The normal average is 60.2 degrees.

May's high temperature was 91 on May 31. The low was 37 on May 5. Of the 31 days in day rain was recorded on every day except for five.

Russell Edward "Russ" Gratz, 86, died at 2:30 a.m., May 28, 2011, at Baton Rouge Senior Health Facility, Lima, Ohio.

He was born Oct. 3, 1924, in Allen County to Homer S. and Edna Badertscher Gratz. On Dec. 16, 1961, he married Violet Hardesty Gratz, who survives in Lima.

Mr. Gratz was a member of First Mennonite Church, Bluffton and was an employee of Ford Motor Co., Lima Engine Plant, from where he retired in 1988. He was also a teacher and varsity baseball coach and basketball coacher at Edgerton, Vaughnsville and Grand Rapids high schools.