Offended
The “offended” letter writer from the June 16 edition is seemingly unaware that the “right to not be offended” does not exist in our constitution and that the very reason freedom of speech and expression exist is to protect our right to potentially offend another while expressing ourselves.
Furthermore, signs of a political nature have an extra layer of protection barring the specific regulation of political signs by municipalities.
Many who agree with the sentiment of the sign probably wouldn’t place the sign on their own property; however, the prerogative of what one does on their own private property belongs solely to the owner of the property (provided it does not result in real, not perceived, harm to neighbors).
Maybe the offended party could rebut the sign with a “Hooray for $5+ gas” banner as would be her right.
Chris Alusheff
Aquilla Village
Money is No Object?
It appears now that the Newbury Trustees (with assistance from the “task force,” i.e., former Newbury school members and friends) want to put a 2.5-mil levy on the ballot allowing the “residents of Newbury to decide” what should become of the intermediate building and surrounding properties. Wow, what a concept!
These are the exact same people that said, “Newbury can’t afford a 1.2-mil renewal levy (less than half the amount of this proposal) to keep the school open.” Does anyone remember that?
Does anyone remember how excited the Newbury school board president and her team were to quickly give away our school, kids and property through a territory transfer?
Does anyone remember the propaganda that was sent out to prevent a team of residents from putting a referendum on the ballot to allow the “residents of Newbury to decide?”
Two years ago, we had “no money” to keep the school open. Now, with rising inflation and a pile of rubble at 87 and Auburn Road, it seems money is no object. Their hypocrisy has no limit. The taxpayers couldn’t afford it two years ago (but they could afford a 5 mil fire levy), but with the economy in the tank, they have additional funds now?
It is so sad what has become of our small community. Kids are scattered between different school districts. Some have no busing options to attend Berkshire and others can suffer a bus ride (in my daughter’s case) of 1.5 hours to get home after school from Lindsey Elementary. The Newbury bus drivers lost their seniority for route selection, so you may see someone else taking your kids to school next year anyway.
Repeated broken promises from the former school board (and current task force) members has left our township divided. We can’t allow (or trust) these people to make any decisions for our community. We have seen nothing but decline here and voting the same people in over and over again will result in further decline. When does it end?
It took two years and threats from the indifferent and frightened West Geauga school board (because they need votes for their upcoming levy) to get us to this point. They have absolutely no interest in what happens to the property because it is not in their back yard. None of the board members live here.
So, what do we have to show for it? We have a divided township, kids going to different schools in different neighborhoods, former school board members feebly trying to save their reputations and run for office, and a pile of dirt with a fence around it to remind us daily of what used to be our “community center.”
We deserve better than this . . . remember that.
Phil Paradise Jr.
Newbury Township
Habit of Believing Others
A week ago or so, I wrote a letter to the Maple Leaf questioning why we even have zoning laws, regulations or whatever you want to call them, if they do not serve the purpose they were meant to serve.
If living in a township with a rural atmosphere, we cannot solve or protect our own rights, property and integrity of our own township’s rural atmosphere from being violated by offenders and profiteers, we then rely on written laws to protect us and ours from being violated, but when the laws themselves are being violated by the ones that are supposed to enforce them, they no longer serve the purpose they were meant to serve.
Our schools teach us to believe what the teacher is teaching us is the truth, as in trust. A child after 12 years of gaining their knowledge by believing their teachers, also, develops the habit of believing people of, or in authority. There is nothing wrong with believing the truth if you know that it is the truth. But how are you supposed to know what the truth is when people lie to get what they want? Until honor and respect is restored, I think we all know where we are headed.
History continues to repeat itself for a reason and I think, if we cannot figure it out, we are all going to be doomed by repeating it. We must change the habit of believing others with the habit of knowing for ourselves. You can only tell a lie for so long until the people stop believing lies by knowing the truth for themselves. We all have a conscience and we all know what is right, but until we all start doing what is right will we ever live in peace and harmony with nature.
Edward Shannon
Chester Township
Happy Trails
Barb Partington, president of the Protect Geauga Parks organization, restore public comments to park district meetings nailed it! (June 16): “They want our money but not our input.”
Some comments and perspectives because of freedom of the press in reference to this debacle. Power is the great aphrodisiac: Henry Kissinger (1971). If you want to test a person’s character, give them power: Abraham Lincoln. A dictatorship would be a lot easier: George W. Bush. Nature left this tincture in the blood. That all men would be tyrants if they could: Daniel Defoe (1712). Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will: Frederick Douglas (1849).
It appears that former Gov. John Kasich wanted Tim Grendell out of the Ohio Statehouse. Tim accepted the offer. So, happy trails to us while Thoreau sauntering and Robert Frost nature walking through the woods at all of our beautiful Geauga County parks. Just avoid any horse . . . on the trails.
Suggested event to attend: Searching for Snakes at The Rookery on July 3.
David Hancock
Chester Township
Illegal Vote
What is an illegal vote and why is the Geauga County Republican Party Central Committee facing yet another lawsuit?
Here’s a brief overview of Ohio voting laws and their history with public trust.
Geauga County’s Republican Central Committee has struggled for many years with alleged violations of laws, policies and procedures. Many people are upset, some are furious, a few have filed lawsuits out of frustration, and many have walked away out of exasperation.
There are growing calls to ignore the Central Committee altogether — because it has lost its connection to We The People — and form a new organization to represent the interests of Geauga residents.
The lawsuits have cost the Central Committee a lot of money. More important than the money, the Central Committee has lost the public’s trust.
A group of us that I will loosely call “RINO-hunters” decided to capture the June 8 organizational meeting on video. (We refer to ourselves as “Constitutional Conservatives,” but RINO-hunter fits better here.)
Much of what we caught can simply be chalked up to well-rehearsed political theater. Overall, the meeting looked more friendly and uneventful than most expected; however, the manipulation was painfully present. (I’ll save general commentary for another day.)
This is about the illegal vote and how committee member Jim MacNeal’s motion from the floor was brilliant and timely. Mr. MacNeal was well coached and knew the legal requirements. Kudos!
By state law, all such voting is required to be conducted via roll-call vote; a secret ballot is expressly forbidden! Back to Jim MacNeal…
At the outset of the meeting (more on the selection of the meeting’s temporary chair later), the chair announced a secret-ballot vote. Mr. MacNeal requested roll-call vote, knowing that it is a legal requirement. The chair denied it. Mr. MacNeal asked why and the chair responded that it’d been done that way in the past.
The reason for a roll-call vote is twofold: in order to stop bad actors from doing bad things and to allow constituents to clearly know the consequences of their vote. Put another way, if you’re in Geauga County, you have a Central Committee representative — by law, you’re entitled to know how your representative voted. A secret ballot hides that from you.
From that moment forward, everything that took place at the meeting becomes null and void. The votes and any actions stemming from them.
The law is very clear on this. Illegal vote voids the results.
The mysterious missing vote (yes, that happened), all of the people who were denied the right to vote without explanation… it all becomes null and void.
So, the only remaining question is: how soon can we schedule the real (legal) vote for Central Committee? I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d really like to get started.
Don’t Cuyahoga our Geauga!
Jonathan Broadbent
Newbury Township
Part 2: Fire Prevention & Safety
Last time I discussed the fact that some fire departments are not serious about enforcing open burning laws, as specified by the Ohio EPA and referenced in the Ohio Fire Code. You might be thinking, “Why doesn’t the EPA enforce its own regulations?” ? Good question. The answer seems to be lack of funds. Seems the Ohio legislature would rather give big tax breaks to the wealthy than to adequately fund many of Ohio agencies so they can properly do their jobs.
In Geauga County, complaints about open burning are typically referred to the Lake County Health Department. Often it takes a week or more before they send an inspector to check out the situation. They have no authority to check on the actual burn site if no one is around and, if no one answers the door, they just leave a tag on the door and never go back. Not a good way to keep us safe is it?
The Geauga Sheriff’s Office had an officer that would respond to open burning complaints, but when he retired he was not replaced. Apparently funding available for his position was not available after he retired.
At a Parkman trustees monthly meeting not all that long ago, I was accused by at least one firefighter of putting a possible heart attack victim at risk by calling in open burning complaints to the fire department. Presumably a heart attack call may come in while they are out on an open burning call and thus delay a response. Is that likely? How many heart attack calls do they get in a year? If they arrive on a scene with any persons having no respiration and no pulse have they brought any of those folks back? They might if someone in the vicinity had been doing CPR. Otherwise unlikely.
We don’t know since the Parkman FD refuses to do a good annual report that would give citizens info on the benefit of all the precious funds they are spending. Last time I heard they have nine or 10 computers in the fire station. Maybe one of those could be trained to do an annual report.
In the 40-plus years I’ve lived in Parkman I don’t recall the FD ever sponsoring a class in CPR or how to use a fire extinguisher and what kind to purchase, or where to mount them, or where to put smoke detectors in the house and how many, how and how often to test them. These are the types of important educational services citizens could use to save property and lives.
Some Parkman residents surely remember a newsletter I started several years ago called the “Parkman Daily Planet.” I did have at least a couple of articles about fire prevention and similar topics. No fire department member cared to call me thanking me or otherwise criticizing any of my advice. Maybe they just thought if I was ignored I would just disappear.
The newsletter did disappear because I was funding most of it myself (hundreds of dollars an issue) and could not get enough donations to keep it going long term.
The fire department has an opportunity in every Parkman Township newsletter to provide worthwhile fire prevention and safety information, but such is mostly lacking. I’ve suggested more than once that citizens like myself be allowed to put articles in the newsletter, but that suggestion has been negated by the trustees.
Without an annual report how do we know how our fire department is doing? ISO, the insurance services office rates communities as to their competence. The ratings go from a #1 being the best departments to #10 being at the bottom of the scale. Parkman and many township fire departments have a class #10 rating.
In all fairness, lack of water supplies is a significant factor in this low rating, but all the fancy expensive equipment won’t do much to raise the rating and it is the only guild we have to go by.
So where do we go from here? Firefighting/rescue work is difficult and requires citizens of high competence. It’s increasingly difficult to get folks to sign up even though all are paid to my knowledge . . . none are strictly volunteer in Parkman and many other communities.
In Parkman more than half the community is now Amish and fire/rescue response would be difficult for many as hitching up a horse takes time and they only go so fast. Such a situation eliminates many potential members from the department.
Next time I’ll discuss possible directions for the future of fire department/rescue in our county as many townships are in a similar situation as Parkman with limited funds and personnel. Space permitted, I’ll also delve into equipment purchases.
My best to you.
John G. Augustine
Parkman Township
