Mosquito dog park is doggone fun

March 15, 2013

The Cooperation Station at Mosquito Lake State Park in Cortland might simply be called a dog park but it is much more than that. This 5-acre, completely fenced area represents the hopes and dreams of several groups that actually came to together to see it through to a reality.The grand opening was held in July of 2009 and, according to Jackie King, assistant manager of the state park, it has become the most popular area of Mosquito.Collaboration between the Trumbull County MetroParks and the state park was the brainchild of Dr. Richard Cook, a much respected local veterinarian who made ...

CSB needs more improvement

March 12, 2013

In a perfect world, we would not need children's services. We live, however, in a fallen world where evil exists.Sometimes, parents do unthinkable and unspeakable things to their own children. CSB is supposed to protect those children. When CSB fails to do that, it isn't just a failure, it is a tragedy.Almost two years ago, CSB workers failed to protect an innocent baby from the evil that her parents perpetrated on her. While her birth parents have been brought to justice, one wonders if justice has been done to those who failed to protect her.In 2010, Felicia Beemer gave birth to a baby ...

Mission trip was real eye-opener

March 8, 2013

''What was I thinking when I decided to do this?''That is what ran through my mind as I followed the little Guatemalan boy down the dusty road to his house where there was a ''better'' outhouse.I wondered what had possessed me to go on this short mission trip. What made me think that I could handle this?God, I guess. He knew that I needed to go not just to help others there, but to gain a fresh perspective on our problems here in our community.Early in the morning on Feb. 16, a group of 21 people, most from Trumbull County, left for a week in Guatemala. We were led on our adventure by ...

Creating pigeon entitlement

March 5, 2013

I'm a pigeon fancier . . . There, I said it.I didn't start out that way. I more or less used to think of them as flying rats.The guy who owns the business next to ours used to feed them, so there were always a few hanging around. One day my brother called to ask if I had any use for a bag of cracked corn. I said ''No,'' but then remembered the pigeons, so I took it.Not long afterward, when I saw the birds sitting on the wires near our place, I took a big scoop of the corn and started to scatter it around our parking lot. I was amazed as I was almost immediately surrounded by a hundred ...

Camelot Center deserves support

March 1, 2013

''My mother always told me I would outgrow my love of horses. It is the only thing she was ever wrong about,'' so says Debbie Meeker of The Camelot Center, a non-profit equine assisted therapeutic riding program.Debbie has managed to develop her love of horses and her love of helping others into a full time occupation. The center helps children with emotional, physical or mental challenges, as well as the learning disabled, under privileged, or able-bodied adults to gain calm and self-confidence by riding horses.The center has been in existence since 1994, originally being housed in ...

Charter school opposition flawed

February 22, 2013

I found the recent article about the League of Women Voters forum on the costs of charter schools interesting but was disappointed that while the forum included those against charter schools, it did not include charter school proponents or parents who have chosen charter schools. The public really needs to hear all the facts before coming to a conclusion that charter schools are negative for our community.Many people don't realize that there are different types of charter schools. The majority of charter schools in Ohio are site based. A site-based school can only be located in one of ...