There is a lot of debate going on about the possibility of a group home opening in West Mansfield. Many people are concerned for the safety of the small community. They are afraid that the group home will have a negative impact on the community. There are two arguments to this issue: group homes can cause unwanted problems in a community and group homes can help hopeless teenagers. Let me tell you how a group home changed my life.

I will never forget my sixteenth birthday and I will never be able to forget six days after my birthday. The twenty-fourth of December was a normal Christmas Eve day. My oldest brother was home from the Marines and my family was planning to go see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. We were all excited. We even bought our tickets ahead of time just in case they sold out. As we were walking out the door, our house phone began to ring. My dad picked up the phone. Instantly the mood changed. His face was suddenly stricken with horror and pain. I had never seen anyone in my life look so hurt. My dad began to ask, “What? My mom? Are you sure?” Promising we would be on our way, my dad hung up the phone. My mom, brothers and I were all concerned. We asked what was going on and he told us it was our Uncle Steve and he had said someone had murdered our grandma and that we needed to get to her house. All of us got in the car, praying it was a mistake. Once we arrived at her big yellow house on north Main Street, we knew it was not a mistake. Her house, a house that my dad, aunt and uncles all grew up in, a house that represented laughter, love and joy, was taped off with caution tape. It was now a crime scene.

We did not have many answers that day but slowly the evidence came together and we found out the details of what happened. There was a group home two houses down from my grandma’s house. There was a boy that lived there named Christopher Tindall. He escaped from the group home early in the morning (around 1 a.m.). He robbed the Pizza Planet behind my grandma’s house. When he was finished with that, he proceeded on to where my grandma lived. He broke through the garage and through the back of her house. He then did something that would forever change my family and me forever. He raped and brutally beat my 72-year-old grandma to death.

Not only did my family start receiving facts about my grandma’s murder but we also began to learn how easily it could have been prevented. The group home was not well supervised. Those that ran the group home were incompetent and did not follow regulation. My family and grandma were not aware that someone who had previous serious offenses like Tindall was living two houses down.

The new group home that is opening in West Mansfield is set up for disaster. This can be seen by the lack of communication with the county, the lack of information, and the lack of staff. Logan County would be responsible for the group home and as my family has learned, Logan County seems unable to successfully run a group home.

To Mark Williams and your comment about my grandma being a “one-in-a-million situation,” how dare you. How dare you make such an ignorant comment? My grandma was not a “one-in-a-million situation” she was a precious life unjustly taken.

Those living in West Mansfield should be concerned. Parents who have children attending Benjamin Logan Schools should be concerned as well. Christopher Tindall went to Bellefontaine City Schools and look what he was capable of.

My grandma was a loving caring woman. She is deeply missed by her family and friends every day.

We do not want to have anyone else experience what we have experienced. Let’s not allow a “one-in-a-million situation” happen to someone else in our community.

Madeline Green

Bellefontaine

What is happening to Bellefontaine?

What is happening to Bellefontaine? Is Bellefontaine going to become just a place to get fast food and auto parts? Why are all the small stores closing? Are the malls going to become empty store fronts like Main Street?

We’ve already had several factories closing which is lowering the money available to be spent in the city and with Sears and JoAnn Fabrics closing, that will be even less money available as people will have no choice but to go out of town to do their shopping. What about the people who can’t go out of town to shop?

With JoAnn’s closing, that leaves just Wal-Mart or the Sewing & Yarn Shop where you can buy material, craft supplies and decorating items. That is giving Wal-Mart a monopoly as the Sewing & Yarn Shop does not carry the craft supplies or decorating items.

Wal-Mart has cut way back on their fabric selection and does not have much of a selection of sewing supplies.

What is the answer? The people of Logan County need to stand together and try to stop this closing. They could write to the JoAnn’s corporate offices to express their feelings about the store closing and maybe we could convince them to stay open.

What will the city do? Probably nothing as they’ve done little if anything to stop these closings.

Dorothy Lowry

Rushsylvania