Volume 51, No. 8
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Spectators, Competitors Watch Fair Take Flight West G Takes Back Trophy from Kenston By Rose Nemunaitis editor@geaugamapleleaf.com Three-year-old Ava Walker’s winning hen, named after a hero from her favorite animated children’s television series, PJ Masks, seems to also have superpowers. “I don’t have paperwork to prove it’s the record, but many people have said it’s the longest they’ve seen,” said Nancy Parker, event organizer for the annual Chicken Flying Contest at The Great Geauga County Fair. Ava’s first-place hen, Gekko, from Newbury Township, flew 89 feet Thursday to take what could be the longest distance ever in the ROSE NEMUNAITIS/KMG contest’s history. Dozens of children quickly run out to catch the feathered participants of the West Geauga annual Chicken Flying Contest at The Great Geauga County Fair Thursday. Schools Superintendent Richard Markwardt reclaimed his district’s bragging rights as he took back the trophy from Kenston Schools, who won the traditional competition between both districts last year. “It’s sort of a source of silly pride,” Markwardt IDED PHOTO PROV said, adding he loves Geaurd t Richa Superintenden ga County and its Norman ck from KenWest Geauga ba hy op tr e th s ke ta dt n named Markwar Rockwell quality. his winning he ith w s ol ho ston Sc West Geauga’s Avenger Avenger. See Fair • Page 3
Russell Founders Day Set at Roman Patch Farm By Ann Wishart ann@geaugamapleleaf.com
ANN WISHART/KMG
Cheryl and Ron Chernicky will host the Russell Township Founders Day celebration the afternoon of Sept. 30 at their Rainbow’s End Farm at 8711 Pekin Road.
Russell Township Historical Society has planned its Founders Day celebration for Sept. 30 with a very appropriate venue — the farm of Cheryl and Ronald Chernicky on Pekin Road. Their 7.5-acre parcel was the homestead of the 425-acre Roman and William Patch farm that had frontage on both Pekin and Kinsman roads. “The historical society really likes this site,” Cheryl said. In fact, when the Chernickys bought the property 25 years ago,
it was society members who asked them not to burn many of the dilapidated buildings, as others advised them to do after they bought it, she said. So they set about bringing the sad structures back to their original condition. Besides the spacious farmhouse — built by William Savage at Chillicothe and Kinsman roads in the 1830s and moved twice — they renovated the dairy barn, the chicken coop, the milk house, the draft horse barn and the granary. “We tried to save everything we could save,” Cheryl said. “It was a See Founders • Page 9
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