ORCHID: To Community Legal Aid for coming to the assistance of rightfully frustrated tenants of Warren’s Stonegate Apartments. The complex has been plagued by a litany of problems, including shoddy maintenance, code violations and a recent fire that displaced several residents. At a community meeting recently, Ryan Maxwell, managing attorney with Community Legal Aid, and Warren-based Amber McCollum, an attorney with CLA, updated affected residents of a plan for receivership, which would allow tenants to petition the court to appoint a receiver to manage the property and oversee necessary repairs. We hope CLA’s actions produce results. As Warren City Councilman John Brown put it, “It’s heartbreaking to see families living in these conditions. They’re trapped in a cycle where they’re being taken advantage of, and it’s hard for them to get out.”

ORCHID: To the Niles-based Fairhaven Foundation for expanding its Trumbull County service territory to include Mahoning and Columbiana counties. The foundation helps provide goods and services that are difficult for a county board of developmental disabilities to provide clients such as adaptive equipment or adaptive clothing not covered by insurance or a waiver. Plans call for expansion of the foundation board to include members from each county and also parents of impacted children to serve on the board from each county. An Abilities Rock Carnival and Dance Party attended by hundreds from throughout the Valley last weekend appropriately celebrated the promising new union as well as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

ONION: To Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder for having the audacity to threaten county commissioners with a lawsuit and layoffs of 40% of her staff if she does not get her way in their 2025 budget allocations. Yoder’s budget request was $4.2 million, which the commissioners want to trim to about $3 million.Their proposed reductions to her department will cut her budget by less than 10% of the actual amount it spent in 2024. We side with Commissioner Denny Malloy who said, “I don’t do well with threats,” noting “We have to be responsible to the taxpayers and their dollars.” We also recall that just late last year, her office transferred $160,857 in Bazetta Township real-estate tax funds to a fraudulent bank account and blamed Bazetta’s security protocols for the breach. We’re beginning to wonder whether Yoder is competent enough to responsibly run her office.

ORCHID: To Lou Zona, executive director of the acclaimed Butler Institute of American Art,and other leaders there for their commitment to regain prestigious accreditation for the museum from the American Alliance of Museums. It lost that internationally recognized accreditation for the first time in 35 years recently largely because of a lack of storage space for its mammoth collection of artworks. To their credit, Zona and Liz Hicks, the Butler’s permanent collections manager, have begun work to create a vault room to accommodate 13,000-square feet of hanging storage space for paintings. They plan to have that work, which also will include renovations to other museum space, by this fall. Because AAM accreditation increases a museum’s credibility and value to funders, policy makers, insurers, community members and peers, we urge the Butler to proceed with all due speed to complete the renovations and regain its seal of approval from the AAM.

ONION: To the dastardly hooligans who have instigated a texting scam in which drivers are falsely told they have unpaid turnpike tolls and are asked to click a link to make payments. The Ohio Turnpike Commission said if anyone receives such a text message to be aware that this is likely part of an ongoing, nationwide texting scam. The Ohio Turnpike does not send text messages requesting payment for unpaid tolls. Those responsible for this seedy scam should themselves be forced to pay a steep price in fines and prison time.