Letters to Editor – Guest Column
'You Get More With Honey'
There is an old farmer’s adage that you get more with honey than you do with vinegar. Apparently, the vocal minority complaining about our great Geauga County Parks are not familiar with that adage.
Their ongoing disrespect for me (a judge) and the County Park Board, as well as their ongoing dissemination of lies, misrepresentations and half-truths, is counterproductive to their cause and only serves to preclude their involvement in any meaningful discourse.
Why would anyone want to pursue communication with close minded, disrespectful and disingenuous individuals, who either ignore the truth or grossly twist it to serve their purpose?
I will be the Probate Court Judge for six (6) more years. I am a fan of the old farmer’s adage and do not respond well to threats.
While I do not have the control over the Park Board that some think I have, I do have and will continue to have statutory appointment and other authority as provided in O.R.C. Chapter 1545.
Contrary to the most recent set of lies, there is no secret agenda, no one is going to “starve,” disband, eliminate or close our wonderful County Parks. Preserve and Conserve will continue to be major Park priorities.
I do support the idea of making our County Parks more inclusive and children and family oriented. The County Parks are not and should not be the exclusive domain for a select few. We have 9,500 acres. There is plenty of room to accommodate all of our county residents’ interests.
I support the acquisition of additional Park lands when appropriate, either based on land cost or preservation value. I do not support the payment of public tax dollars to a private nonprofit entity as compensation for that entity’s performance of its nonprofit purpose.
I do not support the wasting of public Park tax dollars. Quite frankly, past Park Boards were not always good stewards of those tax dollars. Spending tax dollars just to get them off the books to be able to seek another tax levy is wrong and a disservice to Geauga County’s hardworking taxpayers.
I have asked the Park Director to review the Shutterbug Club situation and work with the club to continue this good activity.
I support the controlled hunting program, based on a random selection process, for game management purposes. This program began during Judge Chip Henry’s time on the bench.
Jim Mueller’s suggestion that the County Commissioners should interfere with the Juvenile or Probate Court’s budget to try to intimidate the Probate Judge’s decisions with respect to the Park is illegal. In fact, it is a 3rd degree felony. O.R.C. 2921.03. How could a former County Commissioner suggest that the County Commissioners commit a felony?
For the horse advocates, I agree with you. If it was up to me, I would dedicate multiple trails for horses and riders only. The decision, however, is not mine, but the Park Board’s.
I will continue to discuss this issue with individual Park Board members when my time permits. However, if the horse advocates want all Park trails to be restricted, that is neither likely nor appropriate. With 9,500 acres, hikers and bicyclists, as well as cross country skiers, should also have areas where they too can enjoy our Parks. After all, they are taxpayers too.
We can respectfully disagree on some or all of these issues. But, many of the vocal minorities have been disrespectful and disingenuous. As a result, they have been ineffective and uninvolved in the process.
Instead of advocating their position effectively, their threats and public misrepresentations have kept them out of the deliberative process. Some are former Park Board members and employees sowing “sour grapes” or seeking vengeance. Some of them are politically motivated, and some simply misinformed as to the process.
If they really want to participate in the process in a meaningful way over the next six years, they should consider the old farmer’s adage.
The discontented few can spend the next six years howling in the night like coyotes, or actually working with me and the Park Board to keep our Parks great and available for all of our residents. That is, if they really are interested in “Preserving, Conserving and Protecting,” our wonderful county parks.
Judge Timothy J. Grendell
Geauga County Probate/Juvenile Court
