Audit Ensures Election Results Accuracy
The Geauga County Board of Elections recently conducted a post-election audit on June 16, 2022, to ensure overall accuracy of the May 3 primary election results.
Precincts for the audit were randomly selected and a total of 5% of the votes in three contested races were audited, showing 100% accuracy in the results.
The Geauga County Board of Elections is pleased with the results of the post-election audit. It confirms our dedication to the voters of Geauga County to facilitate fair and accurate elections.
The post-election audit involved bipartisan teams of election officials who examined and hand-tallied both paper ballots and the DS200 result tapes produced by voting machines at both the Board of Elections office and at polling locations throughout the county.
Michelle Lane, Director
Geauga County Board of Elections
Competent, Unbiased Mental Health Board Needed
I am confused. How can people who are clueless about mental health issues be on the Geauga County Board of Mental Health?
Mike Petruziello and Skip Claypool are two such people (I mention these two board members because their comments were in the June 23rd article).
Mental health programs that can teach children how to control their emotions and to express their feelings appropriately are invaluable to a child’s development and well-being. If these board members knew anything about mental health, they would know that much of mental health is influenced by brain chemistry.
A person’s brain can have its chemistry altered by both genetics and by environmental factors. I personally know someone whose child was showing mental health issues as early as age 4 due to his family’s genetics.
Unsanitary or polluted homes, abuse and neglect are just a few of the environmental factors that can change brain chemistry. Many families’ circumstances are such that there are few resources for taking care of a child with mental health challenges. Parents can’t “discipline” mental health problems out of a child.
A resource such as the prevention program offered by the Board of Mental Health can give children (and their parents, I’m sure) tools to help them control their reactions to certain situations and may help them develop as they should. And, in the absence of a program like this one, children with mental health challenges will most likely have difficulty in school, probably will not get along with peers (or will be treated differently by them…think bullying) and will have problems at home, thus causing possibly more issues.
I am happy that the program’s funding has been passed. Hopefully this letter has educated some people about mental health. I am not an expert, just a concerned citizen who wants the community to be served by a competent, unbiased Mental Health Board.
Peg Osborne
Hambden Township
‘Vulgar Drool’
I totally support the woman who wrote the letter about the lewd and hateful sign in the dirt pile in front of a Russell home on Route 306.
Beautiful Geauga County has a small segment of society that thrives on “vulgar drool” and is still angry that the past president was unable to overthrow the presidential election to become our first dictator.
Christina Knauer
Chester Township
Disunity, Antagonism, Ignorance
This letter is a concerned response by the undersigned to what seems to be an evolving trend within the ranks of the Geauga Mental Health Board: the internal and personal disunity and personal antagonisms within the board, and the apparent ignorance on the part of some of the board members regarding the mental health of children.
Geauga County adults and children deserve an emotionally stable board that solves problems and makes decisions by honoring behavioral science. From the outside, some board members seem to be acting as children with mental health issues themselves, pushing personal agendas. More concerning were the votes in opposition to a child intervention program, ages 5 to 8, to assist the emotional recovery of children. In opposition were board members Johnson, Malainy, Petruziello and Claypool.
While the funding for the program passed, the June 23, 2022, Maple Leaf reported that Petruziello “asked how a child in the target age group — ages 5 to 8 — could have mental health issues when they can’t yet read and write.” Petruziello stated, “Would you let your child be indoctrinated by someone they don’t know?”
Claypool agreed with Petruziello according to the Maple Leaf. Both were quoted as stating that the mental health of children was a “parenting problem.”
Of course, parents are more than able providers of love and support, but in an atypical health situation, would a parent do surgery on their child? Parents need experts in mental health also.
(Parenthetically speaking, 6-, 7- and 8-year-old children are able to read and write, and true mental health professionals do not indoctrinate their clients for ethical and legal reasons.)
If true, these statements by those board members indicate a ponderous lack of understanding of children and their mental health issues. The beliefs of these board members may even exacerbate the mental health status of some children in Geauga County.
Depression, anxiety, separation anxiety, autism, hyperactivity, attention deficits, cognitive delays, aggression, phobias, eating disorders and many more mental health issues are beyond the control of parents alone. Parents in Geauga County with children with these diagnoses will attest to their challenges.
Trauma, abuse and neglect are also factors as to why children need the professional help of experts and the support of their parents.
An abused, neglected or traumatized child may not be able to read or write about abuse, neglect or trauma, but they assuredly have experienced them within their soul, body and emotional core.
Mary Ruth Shumway, board member, was correct in saying that a parent is “lucky” if their child does not have any major mental health issue. She stated parents need that professional help if there are issues.
The mental health of Geauga County’s adults and children should not be reliant upon a Mental Health Board that is internally chaotic, wherein decisions for children are based on the personal anecdotes, political agendas and vacuous psychological theories of some of its board members.
The rationale and source behind the appointment of these four cited board members must also come into question.
Sheldon Firem, Retired School Psychologist, Hambden
Patricia Maskow Firem, Ph.D, Retired Psychologist, Hambden
Frank Gwirtz, Middlefield
Carol Gwirtz, Middlefield
Barb Partington, Licensed Independent Social Worker, Munson Township
Dave Partington, Retired Special Needs Teacher, Munson Township
John Augustine, Parkman Township
Janice Evans, Russell Township
Clyde Evans, Russell Township
Laura Sterlekar, Chardon Township
Tom Sterlekar, Chardon Township
Dave Hancock, Retired Teacher/Adjunct Professor Educational Psychology, Chesterland
Pat Cataldo, President Geauga County Retired Teachers Association (GCRTA), Burton
Dan MacDonald, Retired Teacher, Newbury Township
Cheryl Sekura, Retired Teacher, GCRTA Member, Hambden Township
Madelon Horvarth, Retired Teacher, Former Chardon Schools Board President, Chardon
Deborah Reiter, Chardon City
Eric Reider, Retired Teacher, Chardon City
Cynthia Spikell, Retired Teacher, Middlefield Village
Frances Tretera, Retired School Librarian, Parkman Township
Debbie Gallagher, GCRTA Secretary
Judy Miller, Retired School Administrator, Middlefield
Terry Miller, Retired Education Administrator, Middlefield
Jean Paine, Retired Kindergarten Teacher, Munson Township
No Longer Feel Safe
Last week the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I am a pharmacist. If Gov. Mike DeWine signs a ban on abortions into law, I will be forced to leave Ohio and take my tax revenue with me, as I will no longer feel safe practicing medicine here.
I cannot let my license, my income and my freedom ride on whether or not some doctor I’ve never met successfully proves a positive defense in a court case.
Jason Crawford, PharmD
Auburn Township
Part 3: Ask Questions, Seek Opinions
Fire equipment that the fire department desires to purchase is often a mystery to local township trustees. One can’t expect them to be expert on all specialized equipment, but they should ask questions and seek outside opinion, not necessarily taking the word of the fire department folks that want the township to pay for the equipment.
Last year one of the Parkman trustees noticed an item on the fire department inventory list he was unfamiliar with — a battery-powered smoke ejector. Such an item is basically a fan used to hang by a window or door and used to remove smoke from a building.
The insurance listing for the Parkman battery-powered unit was about $5,000. One wonders who authorized such an extravagant expense.
Most fire departments have smoke ejectors that are heavy duty fans and cost a small fraction of $5,000. They can either be plugged in to a standard electrical receptacle or powered from a generator on the fire apparatus via an extension cord.
Just one example of excess. Replacement batteries for the $5,000 unit probably cost more than a new conventional smoke ejector.
Prior to the last fire pumper purchase in Parkman it seems the fire department made a practice of deciding which brand of fire plumper they wanted and then asking that manufacturer to write the bid specifications that the township would then send out for quotes to various companies. You can imagine if you were that company asked to write the specs that those specs would likely highly favor the pumper that you manufactured. Your imagining is correct!
Often most other companies would not bother to bid on supplying the apparatus when the bids went out as it was obvious to them that the bid specs highly favored only one manufacturer.
I exposed this likely illegal practice prior to the last pumper purchase, so one would assume and hope the fire department stopped such practices.
In the last Parkman Township newsletter, the fire chief wrote about sponsoring or doing a CPR class in Parkman and programs at schools and day-care businesses. All of these would be applauded if they actually come to fruition and are done well, as would some real substantive fire prevention/health affirmative information in the newsletter.
Increasing the newsletter to four times a year as it once was would be an improvement from the current twice a year arrangement, as would inclusion in the newsletter information (fire prevention and other information?) from Parkman citizens.
Parkman has been unable to pass recent new fire levies and staffing has been a real problem as few firefighters are willing to work for the compensation offered. Although we are supposed to have 24-hour staffing, often many shifts go by with no one at the station I am told.
In Part 4, I will deal strictly with some solutions to these problems for improved fire/EMS service in our rural communities. High time for a new future direction.
John G. Augustine
Parkman Township
