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Volume 52, No. 9
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
Newbury Never Too Old for a Fast Ball Referendum Chester Resident Tony Roman, 99, Pitches at Indians Game Drive Fails By Ann Wishart
ann@geaugamapleleaf.com
By Ann Wishart ann@geaugamapleleaf.com The Newbury Schools referendum petition turned in to the Geauga County Board of Elections Sept. 20 did not contain enough signatures to put the issue of a territory transfer to West Geauga Schools in front of district voters in March 2020, said board Director Pete Zeigler Sept. 23. The elections board will meet Sept. 26 and declare an insufficient number of signatures were received, he said. The Ohio Revised Code required 1,335 valid signatures and only 1,074 were counted, he said. For the referendum to be placed on the ballot, the Ohio Revised Code requires the petition have a number of valid signatures adding up to 50 percent-plus-one of voters who voted in the last general election, Zeigler said. “It’s a very high threshold,” he said. Since the referendum failed, the process of territory transfer of Newbury Schools to West Geauga School District will proceed as scheduled and students from Newbury Township will attend the West G schools beginning in August 2020. A grass-roots group of Newbury Township voters started a campaign mid-summer claiming three school board members had lied when they See Newbury • Page 6
Practically on the eve of his 100th birthday, Tony Roman was practicing his fast pitch. Well, maybe not fast, but he spent a few hours in his backyard in Chester Township throwing a baseball at an old rug hanging in his arbor, anticipating a once-in-alifetime experience. On Sept. 22, Roman threw out the first pitch at the Cleveland Indian’s game at Progressive Field, ending weeks of excitement that built up after he learned he would be honored as a veteran at the game. “I can throw the ball 35 to 40 feet,” said Roman, sitting in his home the week before the event. He learned the game growing up in Medina, played ball on a U.S. Navy team in Hawaii during World War II and watched his son play Little League and his daughter play softball half a century ago. “I’ve been an Indians fan all my life,” Roman said. At 99, his memory is un-impaired. “I saw Babe Ruth play baseball at League Park (in Cleveland),” Roman recalled. He reeled off other famous Indians he has seen play — Earl Avril, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Bob Feller — and fondly recalls League Park’s right field fence. “I saw many a ball go over that fence,” he said, adding he remembers when it was possible to collect the homerun balls on Lexington Avenue.
ANN WISHART/KMG
Chester resident and Cleveland Indians fan Tony Roman, who will be 100 Nov. 14, was honored by the Cleveland Indians as a veteran when he threw out the first ball at the Sept. 22 Indians game at Progressive Field.
The administration at the school he attended in Medina understood the importance of the great American game and bused students to Cleveland every year
to see a game in the 1930s, he said. When his children were growing, he took them to a few douSee Indians • Page 5