County officials gather to commemorate Child Abuse Prevention Month
Apr. 10—JEFFERSON — A number of organizations gathered in front of the county's Old Courthouse building on Tuesday morning to declare April Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners presented a proclamation to Tania Burnett, director of Ashtabula County Children Services, who hosted the event.
County commissioner J.P. Ducro read the proclamation declaring April Child Abuse Prevention Month to the crowd of more than 50 people.
He said in 2023, Ashtabula County Children Services received 2,619 calls for suspected abuse or neglect, and 597 children were involved with the agency last year.
"Thanks for the roles all of you play in helping to minimize this problem as much as we possibly can, and for the roles you take to help the children and families when they're unfortunately faced with these tragedies," he said.
Kerri Mongenel, from the Ashtabula County Child Advocacy Center, said her agency was able to bring on a full-time nurse and a full-time advocate in the past year.
"We partner with Children Services and law enforcement to make sure that these cases go to court and we get justice for those children," she said.
Ashtabula County Juvenile Court Magistrate Elizabeth Tekavec spoke at the event on behalf of Juvenile Court Judge Albert Camplese, who could not be at the event.
Tekavec cited a number of statistics for the crowd, including that a child being abused can impact their brain development.
"That can cause developmental delays, it can cause speech delays," she said.
Burnett encouraged people to be active in the community, in order to help prevent child abuse.
"You don't think of those things, those everyday acts, as being child abuse prevention, but every time a child gets to participate in some event or activity where they are around positive people who they don't maybe get a chance to see every day, that does make a difference," she said.
Bikers Against Child Abuse were also recognized at the event.
Burnett said the pinwheels that were placed in the front lawn of the courthouse represent the happy childhoods every child deserves.
In other business:
—At a work session on Tuesday morning Ashtabula County Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Fitchet spoke to the commissioners regarding a platform to help coordinate drones during situations where numerous drones are being used.
He said the program will record flight data, set designated altitudes for drones if there are a number of them in use at once, and allows for one central location where video feeds from multiple drones can be viewed.
The agreement will be up for approval next week, to give the prosecutor's office time to review the agreement.
Whittington thanked Fitchet for all the work he and the EMA staff did to prepare for Monday's total solar eclipse.
The total cost of the five year agreement would be $2,811.48.
—Commissioner Casey Kozlowski said he believes the commissioners should weigh in on the issue of county-wide zoning for wind and solar power.
"I just want to put that to bed so they are not waiting for us on that," he said.
The commissioners agreed that they were not interested in taking the issue up.
Ducro said he believes adding county-wide zoning to the mix would create much more confusion for people.
—James Pearson and Linda Profant were appointed to two-year terms to the Ashtabula County Convention Facilities Authority board at the commissioners' regular meeting.
Kozlowski said there are board members whose terms are up at the end of May, but a staggered schedule for the end of terms will be put into place moving forward.
