Maybe county too unhealthy to progress

Star Beacon

June 17, 2009 05:49 pm

— I spent a few days recently in the Finger Lakes section of New York, where by total coincidence, my handsome and sophisticated grandson happens to live. He is more than three months old now and is exceptionally personable.
But this column isn't about the grandson or the 300 photos I took of him. It really isn't. That will come later.
It's an attempt to contrast that area, three hours away from us, and the continuing malaise that we call Ashtabula County.
Now I didn't do extensive research into the Finger Lakes. I didn't pick up a newspaper there. I didn't watch a newscast. I don’t know the politics, except they aren’t afraid to tax there.
But I did take my daily run while there, three of them to be exact.
And it reminded me of something: I see a lot more people out exercising there than I do here. It seems much more a part of people's lives.
The same was true when son and daughter-in-law lived right in Rochester, before moving to the suburbs.
If you go out for a jog in city or suburb, you always pass four or five fellow joggers. You also see double that number riding bicycles.
I can run each day for a month here and see nobody else out exercising.
Now why is that? Generally, our climates are the same. Weather here is probably slightly better than New York.
You see less girth on people there.
Ashtabula County does have the Greenway Trail, 27 miles of it, for biking and hiking and that is a real plus. A biking trail, an expensive one, is being built around Geneva State Lodge.
But it seems wherever you go in the Finger Lakes region, there is yet another biking trail. You can get where you need to go using biking trails rather than sharing space with cars. It shows, with the number of bikers out.
There also seems to be a large number of parks all over the place, with diverse activities, such as youth lacrosse.
In Ashtabula County, we see evidence of the lack of healthy living and exercise. Just visit a certain large department store which includes a full supermarket. I won't mention names but it is in Ashtabula Township and there is no direct link to it from Ashtabula Towne Square.
There you will find a large number of people in such bad shape they can't walk around a store to buy their processed, prepared foods, so they must ride carts.
Now in a normal world, places like Ashtabula, Conneaut and Geneva-on-the-Lake should be doing better than other areas when it comes to the economy. We have beautiful lakefronts, wonderful beaches and so much potential to use them. It should take the edge off any recession.
But we squander those advantages. Ashtabula is getting an entirely new school system. In other places this would be met with great joy and optimism. Here if you bring up the subject, it results in great disdain. Who is getting away with what? Why are the schools where they are?
Conneaut has loads of problems but concentrates on things like who can speak at the beginning of a council meeting and what can they talk about or who can publish what about who on a Web site.
I left Ashtabula County with stories about bands of the beach in Ashtabula, a part of City Manager Anthony Cantagallo's rebirth of the city, canceled for lack of money. Fireworks were saved only after two major pleas in this newspaper for money.
I returned to reports a major industry that wants to locate in Conneaut will look elsewhere because council and administration have sat on a proposal since last fall. City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr. clashes with the developer., Michael Ratcliffe.
Come in to the county from Pennsylvania and look at attractions listed on I-90 for Conneaut, the first exit. You would never know we have a clean, well-maintained public beach on Lake Erie. To the casual visitor, the only attraction the city has is Tarsitano Winery, and that's in Monroe Township!
I admit before I get my exercise in each day, I become fixated on the non-important stuff, the trivia. After my run, I am more upbeat. I wonder, why was that so important? I’m more adept at tackling the challenges of the day.
The Mayo Clinic says exercise can improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
"It's not a magic bullet, but increasing physical activity is a positive and active strategy to help manage depression and anxiety," says Kristin Vickers-Douglas, a psychologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
OK. Maybe I think too much while I'm out there running. But if everybody exercised and changed their attitude, maybe it would be one more positive force for change. Maybe our public officials would start looking at challenges and overcome then, rather than allowing them to go on and on.
Yeah, maybe I should think less while pounding the pavement.
Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com.

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