A Lorain man and the kitten he rescued last week will be VIP guests at this weekend’s Woolly Bear Festival in Vermilion.

Tim Pitroski said he saw a woman throw the small, female tiger-striped kitten down and embankment and into Lake Erie behind his apartment building Monday. A friend retrieved the kitten because he doesn’t get around well, he said.

Pitroski and Lilly — the name he gave the kitten — will be special guests of festival patriarch and Fox 8 weatherman Dick Goddard. And Pitroski’s bittersweet hope is that he’ll be going home without Lilly, as Goddard is helping him find her a new family.

He said Goddard provided him with VIP festival passes, parking passes, VIP passes for the boat club afterward and — most importantly — a promise to take Lilly up on stage with him and help her find a new home.

“He said he knows some people, and he’ll make sure she gets a good home,” Pitroski said.

The huge one-day festival honors the woollybear caterpillar but also — thanks to Goddard — puts pets in the spotlight each year.

Giving the 6- to 8-week-old kitten up will be hard for Pitroski, who calls himself an animal lover, but concedes that with two cats and a beagle in his one-bedroom apartment, he can’t take any more.

Pitroski said he calls Lilly a cuddle-kitty because she can’t get enough of him — except when she’s snuggling up with the beagle, who she sleeps with.

“If I could keep her, I would,” he said, adding that he’s had animals his entire life — alligators, raccoons, a squirrel monkey and horses. He even had a pet squirrel for three years when he lived in one of Lorain’s high rises, he said.

Pitroski said he recognized the woman who threw Lilly into the lake from the neighborhood and is hopeful police will arrest her. Police aren’t optimistic they’ll have resources to devote to the investigation due to being short-staffed, Sgt. Mark Carpentiere said today.

Anyone interested in adopting Lilly can contact Pitroski at 242-0969.

Or look for him Sunday enjoying his and Lilly’s notoriety at the Woolly Bear Festival.

For Pitroski, who is a disabled veteran, it will be a big day.

“I don’t get out much, so I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.

ELYRIA — There is a cloud of dust getting kicked up around the new Elyria High School and it’s not from residents overjoyed with the proj­ect.

Those living closest to the $74 million project have put up with heavy machinery, loud con­struction and debris for more than two years, but it’s the dust coming off the old school as it is being torn down that has many saying enough is enough.

“We get huge clouds of dust from across the street,” said Shannon Swabb of West Avenue. “We finished our porch last weekend. It dried Sunday. Monday it was caked with dust.”

At times the dust in the air and the debris on the road are so bad residents say they cannot enjoy their homes and yards.

Alicia Rosenthal, who has lived on Fifth Street since 1974, said she has watched her rose bushes die this summer and had to put up with double the pool maintenance just to keep the pH in her in-ground pool balanced.

“I have a lovely, clean home, but this is starting to take a toll on our cars and everything,” she said.

Earlier this month, residents took their concerns to the Ohio Environ­mental Protection Agency.

As a result, agency representa­tives visited the construction site to investigate concerns about air qual­ity and look into debris possibly going into storm drains near the construction site.

Mike Settles, spokesman for the Ohio EPA, said it will be a number of days before he knows if the con­cerns warrant intervention.

“We want to make sure the roads remain clean and the company is using a watering truck to keep the dust down,” Settles said.

Amy Higgins, district spokes­woman, said school officials are aware of residents’ concerns.

According to Higgins, Regency Construction, the project manager, addresses every concern as it comes up, often going beyond their duty.

Recently, tree limbs were knocked down around the project during a storm and construction crews did the cleanup, Higgins said. In addition, the Ohio EPA inspec­tor wanted additional safeguards around storm drains to keep debris out and Higgins said Regency immediately put additional fencing in place.

“We are not negating the residents’ concerns,” she said. “We are addressing them as they come up and will continue to do that until the project comes to completion. We hope residents keep in mind that the site is an active construction site and there is a lot of debris being removed daily. A portion of a building is being demolished. Once debris is removed and the site is cleared, those issues will become less of an issue.”

Matt Swabb, Shannon’s husband, said he can’t believe Regency and the district believe they are doing everything that can be done.

“It is an enormous amount of dirt they are leaving behind in the streets, and the dust is just incredible,” he said. “I just need to know if they truly approve of how everything is running because I can’t believe they do. They need to start doing the neighborly thing, the right thing. Essentially, they should answer the question of is the mess they leave around daily for the neighborhood to deal with is acceptable.”

Former Elyria City Councilman Kevin Krischer said he is disappointed in the way the school board is responding to residents. It’s frustrating, he said.

“The school board says they can’t do anything because they don’t have ownership, but that project is being done with taxpayer dollars and Regency is a for-profit company that doesn’t care about how our money is being spent,” he said.

Krischer said his frustrations turned to anger recently when we watched the city send a street sweeper down Fifth Street, where his home is located, only to see the street dirty again.

“The city just swept the street two weeks ago, and there is dirt and stone all over the streets,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

MINNEAPOLIS — A divi­sion title secured, the Min­nesota Twins are not letting up.

The Twins rested most of their regulars and beat the Cleveland Indians 5-1 Wednesday behind the pitch­ing of Nick Blackburn to com­plete a three-game sweep.

Minnesota, which clinched its sixth AL Central title in nine years late Tues­day, started the day one game behind the New York Yankees for best home record in the league.

“With home-field advan­tage still at stake, these guys are going to play,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “It doesn’t matter who I put out there, you’re going to get a great effort. That’s the way is around here. … I expect that of all of them and I think they expect that of themselves.”

More photos below.

Blackburn (10-10) became the sixth Minnesota pitcher to reach double digits in vic­tories, allowing one run and five hits in seven innings.

Jose Morales drove in three runs and Alexei Casilla had three hits for Minnesota, which has won nine of 11 and improved its record at new Target Field to 52-25. The Twins have sold out 74 straight home games and set a season home attendance record with 3,063,327, top­ping their 1988 mark.

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Carlos Carrasco (1-1) allowed three runs and six hits in six innings for Cleve­land, which lost its 90th game. Gardenhire said Francisco Liriano will get the start when Minnesota opens the AL playoffs next month.

“He’s been winging it pretty good,” Gardenhire said.

Liriano is 14-8 with a 3.44 ERA in 29 starts, including 6-1 in his past 10. The left­hander will have six days’ rest between his final regular sea­son and first playoff starts.

Carl Pavano is scheduled to pitch Game 2, followed by Brian Duensing. Blackburn will be the fourth starter if the Twins use a four-man rotation.

“I’m not going to be mad if I don’t make the rotation, I’ll just be disappointed in what led up to me not being there,” said Blackburn, who retired his last 13 batters, getting his final one when he stopped Chris Gimenez’s grounder with a foot and threw to first.

“To be able to come back and throw the ball the way I am right now is definitely big for me, a good confidence builder. It kind of reminds me that I can be successful at this level and get guys out,” he said.

Blackburn was 1-6 with a 10.05 ERA in 10 games before his July 30 demotion. He has pitched at least seven innings in six straight starts since being recalled from Triple-A, allowing 10 earned runs in 45 2 / 3 innings. Opponents are hitting .213 against him in that stretch.

“In the first place, you have to pitch with confidence and he’s doing that,” Gardenhire said. “His changeup came back to him and he used it a lot when he was down there. That gave him a good feel.”

Blackburn gave up all five of his hits in the first two innings, including Shelley Duncan’s RBI single in the first. Blackburn struck out Jayson Nix with two on in the first, and Drew Sutton hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the second.

“The whole story in the series was basically that we struggled offensively to push runners across the plate and give our guys some breathing room,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “We didn’t do that and they showed why they won the division.”

Minnesota went ahead in a three-run sixth on RBI doubles by Morales and Matt Tolbert followed by Ben Revere’s run-scoring single off Carrasco. Morales added a two-run single in the seventh off Aaron Laffey.

“I tried to be a little bit more perfect. When I do that, everything is up,” Carrasco said.

Morales played first base for the first time in his major or minor league career, and looked as though he’d been there for a long time when he made two diving stops.

“They were hard-hit,” he said, grinning wide. “There was just no time to think, I just had to react.”

Notes

• Revere got his first start in left field for Minnesota.
• Cleveland shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera pinch-ran in the eighth inning for Cleveland. He missed Tuesday’s game because of a strained left wrist.
• Four of Tolbert’s last five hits have been for extra bases.

MINNEAPOLIS — No need for a 163rd game in the AL Cen­tral division this year.

The Minnesota Twins have this baby wrapped up with plenty of time to spare.

Denard Span’s RBI-single highlighted a four-run eighth inning to rally the Twins to a 6-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.

The come-from-behind win coupled with the Chicago White Sox’s 7-2 loss in Oakland made the Twins the first team in the majors to clinch a divi­sion title this season.

“I’m thinking this may be a good thing for us going forward into the postseason,” Span said of clinching with 11 games to go. The Twins lost to the White Sox in Game 163 in 2008 to miss out on the postseason, then capped a rally from seven games down in September last year by beating the Detroit Tigers in a one-game playoff to get in. But they didn’t have much energy left after the exhausting run and were swept by the Yankees in the first round.

“I think hopefully this will give us an opportunity to think about the postseason and get ourselves mentally and physi­cally ready,” Span said.

More photos below.

Jim Thome hit a solo homer and Danny Valencia had two hits and an RBI for the Twins, who got manager Ron Garden­hire his 800th career win despite being stymied by Indi­ans starter Fausto Carmona for the first five innings.

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The big right-hander gave up the solo homer to Thome in the second inning, but was breez­ing through the Twins lineup for the second time in his last three starts before running into trouble in the sixth.

He walked Thome and gave up a single to Delmon Young before Valencia chased him with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2. Carmona gave up two runs and six hits in 5 2 / 3 innings. “They’re a good team,” Indi­ans manager Manny Acta said. “It’s not that they win when they have to win. They just win more than any other team in our divi­sion because they’re good. They’re deep and they’re good.”

The Twins trailed the Indians 4-2 in the eighth, but Young had an RBI double and pinch-hitter Jose Morales added the game-tying sacrifice fly before Span’s single scored Valencia for the lead. Orlando Hudson added an RBI double to finish off the burst.

With a day game today and the White Sox and A’s playing late, the Twins originally planned to go home after the game and save the celebrating for another day. But once they saw the White Sox down 5-2 in the seventh inning, they decided to stick around Target Field and go a little wild.

“Those guys aren’t going to let me go home,” Gardenhire said.

It was the perfect clinching victory for a team that has fought through injuries and come back from deficits all season long.

Nick Punto was inserted into the lineup 40 minutes before first pitch after starting short­stop J.J. Hardy had a migraine headache and Drew Butera filled in at catcher for Joe Mauer, who missed his second straight game with a sore left knee.

An MRI revealed no structural damage and the team was considering giving Mauer a corti­sone shot, which would keep him out for four or five days.

It’s been that way all season long for the Twins, who have overcome injury after injury during an impressive second-half surge to the top. All-Star closer Joe Nathan was lost for the year in spring training, All-Star first baseman Justin Morneau has been out for more than two months with a concussion and Hardy, second baseman Hud­son, right fielder Jason Kubel and starters Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey have all missed big chunks of time with various injuries.

“It’s crazy to think how well we’ve done in the second half missing all the guys we have,” Valen­cia said.

Michael Cuddyer moved from right field to first base to fill in for Morneau, Valencia emerged as the everyday third baseman, Matt Capps was acquired as the closer and Brian Duensing moved from the bullpen to the rota­tion to stabilize that group.

“We’ve had some guys step up and help us this year and it happens like that pretty much every year,” Gardenhire said. “This organization does a good job of developing guys and getting them ready.”

Justin Masterson (6-13) allowed three runs and three hits in two-thirds of an inning for the Indians.

Glen Perkins (1-1) pitched one scoreless inning for the win and Capps picked up his 15th save for the Twins and 41st of the year.