Letters to the Editor
Makes Me Sick
As long as the judge is using the Geauga Park’s newsletter as his personal propaganda ad campaign and bully pulpit, PGP (Protect Geauga Parks group) should be entitled to have equal space to educate the public about protecting the parks from the judge’s decisions.
It is a public publication paid for by all of us who pay taxes in Geauga County. His inaccurate comments make me sick.
I raised four kids in Geauga who all played sports on our community ballfields and school fields over the past 30 years. We also enjoyed hiking and/or riding horses on the designated bridle trails. It had to be some dumbell who would take his kids outside of our area to play (if the judge is even telling the truth). I have a friend in Mentor who brings her kids to Chesterland to play at Parkside.
How did this guy become so tyrannical and narrow minded? I liked him in the statehouse and he represented us well at that time (much to Gov. Kasich’s displeasure).
Christina Knauer
Chester Township
Lack of Consideration
In a guest column dated Feb. 25, we appreciate that Mr. Grendell takes us through a short tutorial on the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government and their functions.
He also points out the probate court should be the least controversial and adversarial of these elected county court positions. This may have been the case under the guidance of the late Judge Chip Henry, but under Mr Grendell’s reign, the lack of consideration of the law, fairness and due process has made this a very adversarial and controversial position.
I ‘m continually intrigued as to why the judge and the park commissioners (12 so far and counting in 30 months — no institutional memory whatsoever) decided to ignore and decided not to publish the public survey of Geauga citizens conducted in March 2015 which cost the taxpayers $9,700. Where is this fairness and due process referred to by Mr Grendell?
The arbitrary decision to appoint John Oros Geauga Park District executive director without interviewing any of the 26 applications appears to fly in the face of his Feb. 25 tutorial on the law, fairness and due process.
Moving the Geauga Park commissioners meetings to invite the least amount of citizen input, arbitrarily canceling and arbitrarily rescheduling these public meetings
continues. The last board of commissioners meeting was scheduled on Election Day at 10 a.m.!
There is no five-year strategic plan. There has been no report to the public since 2013!
The list of arbitrary decisions could go on, but I think that the citizens of Geauga County would prefer to see the law, fairness and due process actually practiced by our probate judge.
In February, over 2,000 signatures of the petition to remove Tim Grendell from office were presented to the Ohio legislature. These Geauga County citizens and many, many others would like to actually see the law, fairness and due process returned to the Geauga probate judge’s chambers.
When it comes to the Geauga Park District, Mr. Grendell appears “to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Please continue to help Protect Geauga Parks to continue the scrutiny of this probate judge’s approach to “the law, fairness and due process.”
Bill Franz
Bainbridge Township
What Next From Claypool?
Voters, did you know that Commissioner Claypool would think it makes more sense to protect the ‘constitutional rights’ of citizens 100 years from now than to uphold your property rights today?
What next from Commissioner Claypool? It’s he planning to reveal the ‘dark side of development’?
To follow the Commissioner’s logic, will he prohibit any building, paving, well drilling or other exploitation of property? Such actions would obviously compromise the rights of future property holders.
Now I understand why he feels no need for monitoring our local aquifers or maintenance of local roads, or preservation of farm land. Does Claypool believe future generations of Americans will want to import their food and drinking water from China?
By not preserving farmland and not conserving natural areas, Claypool places our supplies of wholesome food and fresh water at risk. Maybe he has foreign land investors in mind; maybe that’s why he doesn’t like voter-approved programs that keep American family farmers on their land.
If Claypool is too busy looking to the future while he ignores the interests of the people who voted for him, maybe he deserves to be out of a job in the near future.
Kathleen O. Webb
Munson Township
