oliveaurora.org

It looks as though Geauga Lake will be auctioned of in its entirety June 17th and 18th. Here’s your chance to get a ride for your backyard. My kids want the Space Needle (think zoning would allow it?)!  The end for the once grand park.

http://nortonauctioneers.com/upcoming.htm

Olive readers might have noticed that there weren’t any new postings or comments the past 4-5 days. The site has had problems with a variety of issues from content to spam to glitches or hacks. But the primary reason for no new posts was nobody was changing anyones minds with their rhetoric. So, in fairness, there were no pro-comments or anti-comments. I am still hoping that this site will be a place for thoughtful discussion rather than name calling, nasty rumors, and personal attacks and untruths. I did not have the time to verify anything. Oliveaurora had the potential to rapidly deteriorated into a crass and vulgar site. So i put everything on hold.

Olive wanted the levy to pass, that should be no secret to readers. I had a horse in this race as they say. In most cases anti-levy comments were published as well as pro-levy comments. A two-sided conversation is always more interesting.
To the voters who said this will be a real hardship to seniors and that some will not have the money: I don’t think anyone who voted for this levy is happy about that. It would be great if the community could help those who are going to need the help.

Many hope this entire experience was significant to the school board and the administration. And that there will be more involvement from the community and openness from the board in the coming months and years.Our community, however divided right now ought to realize that that people in Aurora passed their levy and is looking toward the future. Most other school levies failed!

Congratulations to all the volunteers in Aurora who made this pass, it was a group effort. What do you think?

Here is a breakdown of the results. It failed only in Geauga Lake and 2-B. Support was way up everywhere since the last election. Click on it for a larger view.

You might not know his name but, Dan Melcher had an enormous effect on the City of Aurora.  He was a long-time member and past president of Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland and a member and Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission. He was an environmental advocate. A great deal of the present Aurora zoning code was affected by his presence on the commission during the rewrite. He was instrumental in the land conservation efforts in Aurora and obtained the 40-acre Molnar Sanctuary on Page Rd for Audubon.

The two other Audubon sanctuaries, the E. Pioneer Sanctuary and the Novak Sanctuary on Townline Rd. both were maintained, in a great part to his efforts, and the completed Education Center at the Novak Sanctuary was his project too.

Dan fought for greenspace preservation in Aurora and saved many 100s of acres from development. Without his efforts, Aurora would be a different place today. Dan died Sunday February 23.

We had our differences over the years, but he would still say hello to me. Today, by coincidence my kids wanted to go for a walk at the Pioneer Trail sanctuary, they were loud and boisterous, rolling down the snow covered hills and generally having a great time. Not exactly birdwatching, the way Dan would have preferred. But they laid on their backs in the snow for a long while, silently looking up at the beautiful snow-covered trees, and they heard the birds slowly begin to twitter and chirp and they heard a woodpecker.

My daughter’s friend got up, after a bit of snow hit her face, and said “that interrupted my beautiful moment!”

Hopefully those beautiful moments of our kids lives will encourage them to preserve and enjoy the outdoors. Dan is gone, and somebody else will have to carry on the fight. Maybe these kids will.

Get out and enjoy the greenspace, the parks and the trails of Aurora.

The students of Harmon Middle School are hosting a special American Red Cross school blood drive and they need your participation!  Friday, February 29th, 2008 from 3-8 p.m. in the middle school commons Continue reading ‘Harmon School Blood Drive’