Concord Township has opened its Community Center, 7671 Auburn Road, to those who might be experiencing loss of power during the recent cold snap which continues to cover most of Northeast Ohio. The  township’s effort started on Jan. 20 after the National Weather Service issued an Extreme Cold Warning for the area lasting until 10 a.m. Jan. 22 with temperatures expected to drop to as low as 5 degrees and overnight wind-chill temperatures reaching as low as -20 degrees. The cold snap is expected to continue through the week, with the high reaching to 12 degrees with a low as -2 degrees. After accounting for wind chills, temperatures were expected to reach as low as -20 degrees on Jan. 21 and 22, with highs rising to 18 degrees, according to AccuWeather reports. Birds can be seen in bushes outside of the Concord Township Community Center. (Frank Mecham- The News-Herald) Township Administer Andy Rose said that the township opened the center mostly as a precaution in case people lost power and didn’t have any other options for heating their living quarters. “We decided with this extreme cold weather, not knowing if there was going to be power outages or not, we didn’t want to scramble…,” Rose said.  “…. In the event that somebody had either a power outage or their furnace went out, whatever the case may be, we wanted folks to have a place close to go and get warm that was close to home.” Chairs can be seen in one of the halls of Concord Townships Community Center. (Frank Mecham- The News-Herald) He said the center was used in the summer when they had several days of power outages, with many using the internet to finish work or other tasks. “We had the Community Center open then for folks that needed to come in, charge their phones, plug into our wifi and take care of something,” he said. “It was open then, but we haven’t had extreme cold like this for a number of years and this is something that in Concord Township, the trustees and administration feel like it’s important to offer it to residents in the event they would need it in this extreme cold.” One of the rooms people who have no power or way to warm themselves during the extreme cold, is shown inside Concord Townships Community Center. (Frank Mecham- The News-Herald.)