Letters to Editor
Two Sided
I read in the Maple Leaf newspaper a letter to the editor from Ms. Laurie. She is employed by Judge Grendell, who will tell you he has no say in what goes on in the Geauga Parks. Yet, he meets with people in his courtroom and talks about the parks.
Now why does he take time to do this if he isn’t influencing what goes on in the parks?
Ms. Laurie is a resident in Lake County. What good are her comments on Geauga Parks in Geauga County? When all the signatures were gathered and presented to Judge Grendell to change the bylaws back to original, he made a comment that lots of the signatures were from people who didn’t even live in Geauga county and they didn’t count. They were not paying the taxes in Geauga. Funny how the coin is two sided.
In her letter, Ms. Laurie states that Mr. Leech, as commissioner on the park board in years past, made motions for hunting in the parks. Yes, we all know that the deer culling is a necessary process and has been going on for years. Shooting being done by knowledgeable hunters during deer hunting season. This hunting was not recreational, as the park now wants to make it.
Mr. and Mrs. Leech and I do not want unnecessary trapping done for recreation. Trapping a water animal such as a beaver or river otter means it is caught under water and cannot get up for air. This means it drowns.
I personally get a sick stomach when I hear this. Here is an animal that has lived his or her whole life in the water, not hurt one person and someone drowns it. Sick.
It’s this a recreational sport to you for our Geauga Parks?
Culling in some cases is necessary. Trapping, on the other hand, has got to be only out of necessity because of damage being done by this animal.
Killing in Geauga parks should not be a recreational sport. To me it is rather like fishing in a bucket.
Joy Keco
Bainbridge Township
Not Flip-Flopping
Kimberly Laurie, Judge Grendell’s liaison to the Geauga Park Board, calls John Leech’s recent letter to the editor as a hypocritical hunt flip-flop all because during Leech’s tenure hunting was allowed in the Geauga Park District.
But, as it was explained to the Geauga Park Board at their March meeting by Mr. Gingerich, who headed the park disttrict’s Natural Areas Management Department for many years, hunting was allowed only to manage nuisance animals.
Before hunting/trapping was allowed the park tried to mitigate the problem with the nuisance animal. And so specific hunting/trapping was issued for specific animals in specific places at specific times.
Let us fast forward to Grendell’s new Geauga Park Board and park staff. Hunting and trapping permits are issued for locations only. In the case of deer hunts, there was no mention of numbers to be hunted and, in the case of trapping, there was no mention of the type of animal to be trapped (except on one permit) or numbers to be trapped.
When questioned at the Geauga Park District March meeting, interim Director John Oros twice said there is a need for recreational hunting/trapping in the Geauga Park District.
The Park Commissioners did not contradict these statements at any time.
During Leech’s and Gingerich’s time, hunting/trapping was only for animals that were doing serious damage which could not be mitigated; that is not carte blanche hunting/trapping or even recreational hunting/trapping.
And, that is not hypocritical hunting flip-flop.
It is believed by many in Geauga that the natural areas of our wonderful county park district must be preserved for future generations. If residents want outdoor recreation like ball fields and $99,750 playgrounds, then go to local municipal parks and schools.
As for recreational hunting/trapping, that can be done on private lands that abound Geauga County.
The group Protect Geauga Parks respects “preserve, conserve and protect” more so than Grendell, his staff like Laurie and the current Geauga County Park board that believes recreation comes before our natural resources.
Katherine Malmquist
South Russell Village
Real RINOs
I was very shocked and saddened to learn that our county commissioners, Skip Claypool and Ralph Spidalieri, voted to discontinue the relationship the county has with Geauga Growth Partnership.
The Geauga Growth Partnership (GGP), which is run by former Commissioner Tracy Jemison, has an excellent track record of providing opportunities not just for the current workforce and businesses within the county and surrounding area, but in developing and mentoring our youth on the path to education and career fulfillment.
With an organization whose sole purpose is the betterment of Geauga County, one should ask why Mr. Claypool and Mr. Spidalieri would opt to end such a relationship? Maybe they are already searching for a way to pay for the frivolous lawsuit they have engaged the county in with the Mental Health Board?
Could it be because Mr. Claypool isn’t really the Republican he claims to be or that he has an axe to grind with Tracy Jemison on a personal level? We may never know, but I will ask you to consider this.
The Geauga County tea party, which Skip Claypool is the former president of, has its own separate leadership and its own money they use only for their candidates while demanding that the county Republicans support them as well.
During the typical year, they opt not to participate in Republican events and fundraising, instead having their own gatherings.
The only time they claim to be Republicans is on Election Day because they know and understand intrinsically that without that “R” after their name on the ballot, they could not get elected.
So far, the Geauga County tea party has provided the county with a judge who has violated the First Amendment and embarrassed himself and his courtroom at a national level (see the Washington Post article on Judge Gren-dell’s behavior) and a new president of the Board of County Commissioners who has shown himself to be retributive and fiscally irresponsible.
Their members when they lose elections in the primary stoop to petty and vengeful behavior and attack “fellow” Republican candidates, as Linda O’Brien did with Sarah LaTourette or as Matt Lynch did by backing a Libertarian after losing in the May primary to Congressman Dave Joyce.
If Ronald Reagan were alive today, I am sure he would be appalled by the behavior of these “Republicans.”
No, the real RINOs in any room are not the long-standing members of the Republican Central Committee of Geauga County who have always considered what is best for all members of the community, not just the people they like, as Mr. Claypool does.
The real RINOs are the Matt Lynchs, the Linda O’Briens and the Skip Claypools of the tea party who seek only to serve their own agendas at the expense of the rest of the county.
If the tea party is so keen on being constitutional and honest, then perhaps they should identify themselves on Election Day with a “t” after their name.
We all know that will not happen because truth and honesty with the public is not the tea party’s strong suit.
Rob Allen
Claridon Township
Slipshod Management
I am responding to Kim Laurie’s letter of April 2. Her comparison of current hunting programs to past hunts is laughably misinformed. To present the two as equal is ridiculous equivocation.
If she will re-read Mr. Leech’s letter and resolve to comprehending it, she may realize that his objection is not to hunting per se, but rather so-called “recreational” hunting with sloppy oversight.
Past hunts were approved to cull the deer population to protect the forest understory, managed by Natural Resources Management (NRM) personnel reporting to a qualified director. Instituted only after careful analysis by park biologists and naturalists, they were followed up with further study to ascertain their efficacy.
Current hunts have been undertaken with very little study beforehand and virtually no follow-up evaluation as far as can be observed. NRM personnel have been kept at arms length and no longer manage the hunt.
The management of trapping is even more slipshod. This administration is aggressively pursuing a “recreation” agenda in a park district whose founding purpose was as an environmental hedge against excessive development.
Since the firing of past director Tom Curtin, the district has been incompetently managed by an interim director manifestly unqualified to hold the position. His sole qualification seems to be his willingness to blindly do Grendell’s bidding.
Precious habitat has been destroyed to install ball fields destined for use by virtually no one. A $45,000 installation was put at Bass Lake in violation of contractual covenants. Trapping was approved for Burton Wetlands without establishing a “nuisance” need for it, in violation of its state nature preserve status.
Through ignorance either willful or merely uninformed, this management has wasted tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on such gaffes.
Ms. Laurie opines that “Geauga County residents must be growing tired…” If that’s so, then why is the vexpression of this “weariness” largely restricted to a few people in the court’s employ?
Grendell is fond of telling opponents that he’ll be around for the next six years. Well, ditto judge. We aren’t going anywhere either. Get used to it.
Tony Festa
Russell Township
