Letters to the Editor
Pay Back Every Penny
I have never written to a paper before, but felt the need to address the article about Mr. Mahvi and the short sentence he got plus the small amount he has to pay back.
He sounds like a smart businessman, but didn’t know about the 40 quarters of employment to qualify for benefits.
Must be great living in an 8,000-square-foot house, buying property while taking from the taxpayers.
He should have to pay back every penny he stole from the taxpayers.
Margaret Matzek
Troy Township
Clean, Fresh Air Can Improve Outcomes
Questions about air quality at Kenston Middle School have been punctuated by recent evacuations.
Kenston can address such concerns by developing indoor air quality standards and testing its systems for compliance.
Kenston could adopt an EPA recommendation for schoolrooms: fresh air at 15 cubic feet per minute, per student.
By setting concrete benchmarks and evaluating results, we can effect Superintendent Santilli’s stated priority: safety.
Without relevant and specific goals, our progress will be ethereal.
Improving air quality also supports learning. Our Ohio Department of Health cites research indicating that students “in classrooms with higher outdoor air ventilation rates scored 14 to 15 percent higher” on tests.
This research squares with our experience: KMS has a high incidence of air quality complaints and rates unacceptably in state testing, lower than all other Kenston schools.
Kenston offers a great overall educational experience to many. Evidence suggests we can improve outcomes by providing our middle schoolers with clean, fresh air.
Mark Fagerholm
Bainbridge Township
Continuing to Lead Bainbridge
Dear Bainbridge Residents:
This week you returned three elected officials to positions in our township. Trustees Jeff Markley and Lorrie Sass Benza, and Fiscal Officer Janice Sugarman were elected to continue serving you.
Collectively, we, including Trustee Kristina O’Brien, are taking this opportunity to thank you for your support and trust as we continue to lead the township. We truly appreciate the confidence you place in us, and we intend to honor that trust.
Issues and challenges present themselves constantly. Addressing them in a logical and pragmatic way, consistent with our focused principles of professional respect and accountability, accessibility and transparency, enables the Bainbridge Township Board of Trustees and Fiscal Officer to best serve our residents and local businesses.
Successful government starts with good people. Significant time and resources have been used to identify great people to lead our departments, who in turn find great people to assist them in serving our residents.
Our role, as your elected representatives, is to provide an appropriate environment so these folks, as well as those who volunteer on our various boards and committees, can efficiently manage the day-to-day issues that are ever-present in our community.
Bainbridge Township’s issues are not that different from any other community. The way we address them, however, is the key to our success.
Once again, we thank you for your support. We look forward to serving you, our residents, in 2018 and beyond!
Bainbridge Trustees
Jeff Markley, Lorrie Sass Benza and Kristina O’Brien
Bainbridge Fiscal Officer
Janice Sugarman
November is National Adoption Month
It is appropriate that National Adoption Month is in the same month as Thanksgiving, as there is much to be thankful for when a child has the opportunity to transition from temporary foster care to the permanency of becoming a new member of a loving adoptive family.
Over 100,000 children in our country are in foster care. Reunification with birth parent(s) is always the priority of the Geauga County Juvenile Court; however, when reunification is not possible or in the best interest of the child, establishing a permanent, stable home with a loving family as soon as possible creates the best scenario for success for the child, and ultimately is best for the community as a whole.
The need for both foster and adoptive families is on the rise in Geauga County due to the increasing heroin epidemic; and so far in 2017, as judge of the Geauga County Probate Court, I have had the privilege of approving the adoption of 24 children into loving, stable homes.
I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank every special family who has opened their homes to a child in need in Geauga County. My hope is that, in 2018, even more families will accept the unique calling to raise and love a foster child as their own.
As so eloquently stated by the Adoption Network Law Center, “the rewards of raising and loving a child are apparent in every parenting victory, every smile, every laugh, and every precious moment.”
For more informaion on adoptions, please contact the Geauga County Probate Court at 440-279-1869.
Judge Timothy J. Grendell
Geauga County Probate Court
