Kudos to library on its new program

BOUQUETS >> To the Lorain Public Library System for executing its first community early literacy and health program to assist families that was made possible by a $50,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Education.

“Read and Play!” was the first of three events to be offered through the Bold Beginning pilot program in which the Library System is participating.

During the first event Jan. 21, books, games and camaraderie were easy to find at Greater Victory Christian Ministries in Lorain.

The goal of the pilot program is to keep children healthy and get them ready for kindergarten.

The target audience of the Bold Beginning pilot program is families with children younger than 6 years of age who aren’t already involved with community support programs.

The Lorain Public Library System is one of 10 public libraries in Ohio awarded a grant through the Family and Community Engagement pilot program as part of Ohio’s Early Learning Challenge Grant.

Early literacy and promoting health will help to improve and make the community prosper.

We applaud the Library System’s involvement.

BOUQUETS >> To Jason Williams, the Lorain native and co-founder and CEO of Get with the Program, which is an initiative to teach children the thought process behind computer coding.

Williams, who now lives in Oberlin, said his own children inspired his new educational venture.

Get with the Program seeks to build interest in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, among schoolaged children through the two-pronged approach of specifically designed content and hands-on project-based programs.

Williams said, “In this sample book, the kids have to follow a specific set of directions to complete a task: that’s an algorithm. We have conditional statements, and also the concept of decomposition; taking a big problem and breaking it down into smaller chunks.”

Williams said the children who took part were assessed before and after the program using the California Measure of Mental Motivation.

He said that the participants showed increases.

Parents should consider incorporating this concept into their children’s studies.

BRICKBATS >> To Anthony Wayne Davis, the 58-year-old Lorain man who will spend the next 25 years to life in prison for the Jan. 16, 2016, murder of his on-again, offagain girlfriend, Corrina Charlton, 59.

On Jan. 20, a Lorain County Common Pleas Court jury convicted Davis, who lived at 916 Seventh Court, of two counts of murder with firearm specifications, two counts of felonious assault with firearms specifications, two counts of having weapons under disability and one count of tampering with evidence at his home. Davis was arrested the next morning on Hamilton Avenue.

During the trial, Davis testified that he loved Charlton. But he also admitted he shot and killed Charlton during a fight.

However, Davis tried to minimize his guilt claiming he acted in self-defense because Charlton possessed a gun that police say they never found. Davis also gave two different versions of what happened the day of the murder.

Apparently, Davis would say anything to try to get away with the murder.

Fortunately, the jury didn’t buy either story and convicted him.

And now, Davis will have a long time behind bars to think about his crimes.

BRICKBATS >> To Bart R. Hobart, the 67-year-old former chief probation officer for Lorain County Common Pleas Court who admitted to misdemeanor theft of funds related to the sale of county-owned guns.

Hobart, who lives in Amherst, pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to four counts of theft.

He was charged in relation to two guns for which the profits of the sale went directly to him, the prosecutor said.

A judge ordered Hobart to serve a year of probation and to pay $2,600 to the county.

Hobart was an authority figure in the community and in the court system. But he thought he could get away with a crime.

Luckily, there was a paper trail that led back to Hobart.

After Hobart left the Lorain County Adult Probation Office, his replacement noticed inconsistencies in the bookkeeping, sparking an investigation by the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office.

Hobart should have known better.

Now he’s known as a convicted thief.