Proposed Dollar General Purchase Officially Over

August 15, 2024 by Amy Patterson

Last month, Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz appeared before Geauga County Commissioners to explain why he had not signed off on a deal for the county to purchase an abandoned Dollar General for a new senior center.

At their meeting July 16, Flaiz told commissioners he was “not a rubber stamp” and said employees of the commissioners’ office had agreed to a bad deal.

The contract with the seller would not allow enough time to investigate possible problems with the property and there were also questions about decoupling the parcel from other properties the seller had bound together in a single mortgage.

Commissioners asked Flaiz to give the sellers 15 days to respond to a request they comply with the county’s needs in a new contract, but Flaiz said in an email Aug. 8 the sellers had not responded.

“If I do not receive a response tomorrow, I will communicate with the BOCC on Monday and let them know time has expired,” he said in the email.

In comments after the Aug. 13 county commissioners meeting, Flaiz said sellers had, indeed, chosen not to answer the county’s request to amend the sale contract, meaning the deal would not go through.

The Geauga County Department on Aging would likely have to find a new property in the Chardon area for a senior center, starting again on a process that began last August, when the county first identified the Dollar General site as a potential location.

“We are disappointed that we could not move forward with the Dollar General purchase, however, this is not the first time our department has encountered challenges and have had to come up with solutions to overcome the challenges we have been faced with,” department on aging Director Jessica Boalt said in an email Aug. 13.

The department is continuing to explore other options and will be in discussions with both County Administrator Gerry Morgan and Assistant County Administrator Linda Burhenne, as well as the commissioners, on the best way to achieve the goal of providing a permanent senior center location in the Chardon area.

During their Aug. 6 meeting, commissioners heard from Christine Lakomiak, executive director of the Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services, who asked for their support in recognizing Aug. 31 as International Overdose Awareness Day.

“It’s the world’s largest campaign to end overdose,” Lakomiak said. “The campaign also acknowledges the profound grief felt by families and friends whose loved ones have died or suffered permanent injury from a drug overdose.”

This year’s theme is “Together, We Can,” Lakomiak said.

“We’re highlighting the strength of standing together in support of those connected (by the) tragedy of an overdose,” she said. “Every individual action really matters, but coming together as a community creates a powerful collective action. No one should stand alone in our fight to end overdose.”

Lakomiak also thanked commissioners for their support, including providing a space to share information on available resources at the Great Geauga County Fair, which sees over 200,000 visitors per year. Statistics kept by the fair board show attendance topped 270,000 in 2023.

Commissioner Tim Lennon thanked Lakomiak for bringing up an important topic.

“You just said a number that kind of struck in my head that, you know, the Geauga County fair, there’s … roughly 200,000 visitors,” he said. “And … I think I saw on the news, there was over, you know, a hundred thousand overdoses this year.”

Lennon also said in addition to treating addiction, it’s important to prevent addiction from occurring in the first place.

Some overdoses should be called accidental poisonings because a person may think they’re taking one thing, not aware that there is a stronger drug mixed in, he said.

“Where are these drugs coming from?” Lennon said. “The drugs are a little different now, you know? It seems as though some of these overdoses are just by plain accident.”

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