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Volume 52, No. 4
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
Ben Stehura Threats, Investigations Continue Named as In Grendell/Walder Row New Athletic B A@ P . Director y
amy
Submitted
Ben Stehura has been approved by the West Geauga Board of Education as the new athletic director for the West Geauga Local School District. Stehura was the head coach for varsity wrestling during the past year and has a wealth of expe- Stehura rience in athletics and athletic administration at the college and high school level. Superintendent Richard Markwardt said, “We are excited to have Ben as our new AD. He has an incredibly strong and successful background in athletics that includes administrative expertise, program building, fundraising and community engagement.”
Chesterland Baptist Church Celebrates 200th Birthday Submitted Chesterland Baptist Church is the oldest continuous church in Chester Township. The first settlers in Chester Township arrived in 1801, and Lebbeus Norton walked from Massachusetts to Aurora in 1812 and moved to Chester in February 1816. Lebbeus and his wife were two of See Church • Page 11
my
atterson
geaugamapleleaf com
Charges are yet to be filed against two employees of the Geauga County Probate and Juvenile Court relating to documents allegedly removed without permission from the fiscal office of Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder.
Court Administrator Kim Laurie and Fiscal Compliance Officer Seth Miller walked out of the auditor’s office June 27 with documents Laurie says they had permission to take. Walder disagrees. In a statement, Walder said Laurie and Miller removed a stack of purchase orders, vouchers and warrants from the auditor’s of-
fice, and only returned the papers when compelled by a Chardon police officer. Later that afternoon, Judge Timothy Grendell appeared on Chardon Square, where witnesses say he angrily threatened Chardon Police Lt. Troy Duncan with arrest. See Investigations • Page 5
SUBMITTED
West Geauga Academic Decathlon members are Noah Carty, Elizabeth Piekarski, Zachary Bobango, Mariana Valdez-Punales, Steven Kootsouradis, Aiden Schaffer, Alexander Novitski, Hannah Barker, Luke Hanna, Delia Misterka, Madeline Barker, Sofya Goncharenko, Amanda Loewenthal and Jacob Solomon.
WG Decathlon Team Wins High Honors The West Geauga Academic Decathlon team attended the state competition and won high honors. Team advisor Ben Speros said, “Unlike Regionals, this time we were directly up against the second-best in the nation team Oak-
wood. We still took 19 medals (in 67 possible areas), and finished second in our division, and third in the state overall, behind Oakwood and Willoughby South.” Notably, senior Mariana Valdez-Punales had the highest scor-
ing speech in the state, earning a 955 out of a perfect 1000, and delivered her speech at the prestigious speech showcase portion of the awards ceremony. Junior Hannah Barker had the highest overall score for the team.
Townships Eligible for Funds from Foundation for Geauga Parks By Ann Wishart ann@geaugamapleleaf.com
Geauga is a county full of parks. Nearly 10,000 acres of Geauga County is dedicated by townships, municipalities, the county and the state to preserving nature and providing recreation for residents and visitors.
Creating, maintaining and improving that many acres is labor and money intensive. Townships often have to stretch their budgets to take care of their parks, much less expand or improve them. So when Jeff Hyde, director of the Foundation for Geauga Parks, talked to the Geauga County Township Association July 10 about the
non-profit’s programs to help fund improvements to all parks in the county, officials listened. He presented the aforementioned statistics and talked about the foundation’s history and purpose. Historically, the foundation has raised money for Geauga Park See Townships • Page 6
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