Leaf Thursday, November 21, 2024 Vol. 30 No. 47 • Chardon, Ohio www.geaugamapleleaf.com $1.25
Rosati to Return to West Geauga, Investigation Concludes By Jamie Ward jamie@karlovecmedia.com Matt Rosati, the West Geauga teacher and football coach who was placed on paid administrative leave for 36 days after allegations of football program misconduct, will return to West Geauga High School on Thursday after Rosati an investigation by the school has ended. In a letter to Rosati, West Geauga Superintendent Richard Markwardt wrote: “In reviewing the results, which include interviews of over 30 individuals and video footage, I find insufficient evidence to warrant a pre-disciplinary hearing.” See Rosati • Page 7
Grendell Wants County To Pay His Legal Fees Judge Asks for Supplemental Appropriation of $300,000 By Allison Wilson and John Karlovec Geauga County Probate and Juvenile Court Judge Tim Grendell is looking for taxpayers’ help to pay mounting legal bills related to a state disciplinary case related to his handling of juvenile cases, specifically involving a situation where he ordered two teenage
brothers into juvenile detention for refusing to visit their father. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct found Grendell engaged in blatant, deliberate and egregious misconduct and has recommended he immediately be removed from the bench. The matter is now in the hands of the Ohio Supreme Court. As a result of his disciplinary
troubles, Grendell has requested Geauga County Commissioners appropriate an additional $300,000 to pay current legal fees owing to Montgomery Jonson — the law firm that represented him in the disciplinary case — which total more than $318,000 since the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Ohio Supreme Court filed See Grendell • Page 5
Chardon Schools
Security, Transportation Top 5-Year Plan By Allison Wilson wilson@karlovecmedia.com
The Chardon Schools Board of Education approved their capital improvement plan Nov. 18, outlining ongoing and future projects over the next five years. “With this five-year plan … to look out beyond a year or two is
tough, but we know in the first year or two, it’s a whole lot more solid with the numbers and the projects at play. The further you go out, obviously, the less certain it is,” said Assistant Superintendent Steve Kofol of project costs and expenses. The district’s permanent improvement fund currently yields
$2.2 million per year between a 2-mill levy voters approved in 2006, miscellaneous revenue from property sales and the like, and 1 mill of inside millage the school board approved transferring to the fund for fiscal year 2025 to help accelerate projects and improvements, Kofol said. See Chardon • Page 4
Historian Highlights Geauga’s Invisible Women
See History • Page 6
page 6
Chardon Man Charged with Child Pornography page 9
Obituaries page 8
Delinquent Property Tax Notices pages 18-23
Sheriff’s Sales & Legal Notices
By Allison Wilson wilson@karlovecmedia.com Women’s place in Geauga County’s history is something historian Bari Oyler Stith has been interested in for as long as she can remember. So many tales are about great fires, great snow, the great Yankee migration, she told the small group assembled at the Thompson branch of Geauga Public Library during her presentation Nov. 11. “There’s a lot of great things out here in Geauga County, clearly, but so much of it is based on what the menfolk were doing,” she said,
Kenston Student Group for Change Continues ‘Difficult’ Conversations
pages 24-25
Classifieds page 27
SUBMITTED
A suffrage march from South Newbury Union Chapel to the centennial oak during the first annual meeting of the Newbury Memorial Association. At the front of the march, from left, James R. Garfield, suffragists Dr. Julia Porter Green, Frances Jennings Casement and Harriet Taylor Upton.
Single Edition $1.25