Letters to Editor
Eliminate It
Wow! At the March 19 Chardon City Council meeting, they announced that due to the immense amount of negative reaction from citizens (social media, emails, phone calls) they immediately ordered a redesign of the “Heritage House” plan.
Good-bye to rest stop on I-90 and hello to a cross between Cracker Barrel and Disneyland’s Blue Bayou restaurant (near Pirates of the Caribbean).
The famous quote “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig” applies here.
Council has not read far enough; the objection is not solely with the design, it’s also with the size of this white elephant — a footprint 3X that of the existing log cabin.
“Heritage House” floor plan includes a huge “maple syrup evaporator room,” designed to replace the temporary sugarhouse we’ve seen on Chardon Square each spring since 1926. Unlike the temporary sugarhouse, it’ll be there permanently and dormant during over 10 months of the year.
Eliminate it!
Then there’s the “Concession Room,” good for a football stadium, but not good for our public park.
Eliminate it!
If you eliminate these items, what’s left is a meeting room the size of the historic log cabin. Common sense demands council save our historic log cabin and renovate it.
Return the $100,000 to the Maple Festival Board and tell them to continue with the temporary sugarhouse that appears and disappears in the spring.
Return the $200,000 to Sen. Eklund and the State of Ohio for a more needed use.
Take the $200,000 of city funds already allocated by council and renovate the log cabin. It could be “greened” up with solar panels on the roof, a second restroom could be added on the E. Park Street side with minimal green impact, the faux logs could be painted to appear more real, etc.
So, fellow citizens, if you really care about preserving green space on our park, saving our historic log cabin and don’t want to see the square become a construction zone for the rest of the year, please respond to Chardon City Council’s invitation for public comment.
They say they really want to hear from you. Social media, emails, phone calls and letters are all welcome. Email AmyDay@chardon.cc or call your councilpersons directly.
There is not much time left to convince Chardon City Council to end this “Heritage House” nightmare and fix-up the historic log cabin.
Demolition of the log cabin is scheduled following the Maple Festival. The next Chardon City Council meeting is Thursday, April 9, 6:30 p.m., at City Hall.
Hope to see you there.
Dennis Killeen
Chardon
Get Back to It’s Roots
A soccer field at Frohring Meadows? Why? There are already community parks with soccer fields nearby in Bainbridge, Auburn, Chagrin Falls and South Russell.
After expending considerable funds and labor to develop an open prairie at Frohring Meadows, why did the Geauga Park District decide to mow down a considerable portion of it and install a soccer field? What does soccer have to do with Frohring Meadows? Or with the Geauga Park District, for that matter?
“Recreation” in terms of outdoor sports, playgrounds, etc. is admirably provided by our local community parks. These parks are designed to handle rough and tumble activities, and the land is maintained and repaired by the communities.
Geauga Park District is meant to provide an entirely different type of “recreation.” Their mission, from the very beginning, has been to conserve, preserve and protect the land in the park system.
Their guiding focus is to encourage people of all ages to get involved in nature. They do this, not by providing horseshoe pits or playground equipment, but rather by providing butterfly nets, binoculars, snowshoes, interactive educational exhibits, such as “Frozen” at The West Woods, hiking, biking and horseback riding trails, quiet areas to watch for and listen to the woodland creatures — maybe observe a granddaddy longlegs making his way up a branch, then onto your finger, before gently sending him back on his way — or kayaks and canoes to get you out on the water.
Our Geauga Parks provide thousands of fun, educational opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to connect and interact with nature.
“Preserve, Protect, Conserve” does not mean opening the parks to recreational hunting or trapping for fun or profit. It means maintaining the delicate network of the parks’ amazing ecosystems, through selective removal of nuisance animals and/or plants in very specific areas.
I hope the Geauga Park Board will get back to its roots, remember the parks were never intended to be all things for all people.
They have a very specific purpose and for 50 years they’ve been doing an outstanding job at it. Please let them continue.
And, please restore the funds voters granted them, so they can work to acquire more land to be preserved, protected and appreciated by future generations.
Peggy Hannan
Auburn Township
