EATON TWP. — The night Holly Dembie died, she sent an email to friends and family saying “I love you and you are my sunshine,” her mother told a crowd that gathered Thursday for the dedication of Holly’s Memory Garden.

A sign at Holly’s Memory Garden, which was dedicated Thursday at Midview West Elementary School. (CT photo by Steve Manheim.)

It was typical of how Dembie, a special-needs instructor for Midview Schools, lived her life, said her mother Cheryl Foldes.

“My daughter was sunshine to me,” Foldes said. “She was the light of my life.”

One by one, co-workers, friends and relatives explained how Dembie had made their lives brighter.

“I am so very fortunate in this life our paths crossed,” said Patricia Hamilton, her principal at West Elementary.

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The crowd smiled as Hamilton reminisced about how Dembie would make her laugh by singing songs from the ’60s or demonstrating “silly karate moves.”

Planning for a garden at West Elementary was already in the works when Dembie was killed last month. Her husband, former Lorain County Jail guard William Dembie Jr., is facing charges including aggravated murder in her Aug. 11 death.

The school community decided to name the garden, which was funded through a grant from Ross Industries, in Dembie’s honor after her death, Midview Superintendent John Kuhn said.

Kuhn’s voice cracked as he recalled Dembie’s “contagious smile” and sense of humor that just made him feel better when she was around.

Kuhn said that he can close his eyes and “play little movies” of his exchanges with Dembie — just like he can with his grandparents, father and aunts and uncles who also have died.

Annette Marsaw, a staff member at North Elementary, where Dembie also had worked, presented her family with a handmade shawl “made with love and prayers” by members oft North Eaton Christian Church.

“The one word I can use to best describe her is sunshine … The glass was always half-full,” Marsaw said.

Sunshine was definitely the major theme of Thursday’s garden dedication, which also was attended by her stepfather, Michael Foldes, her 4-year-old son, William, and her brothers, Michael Foldes and Nick Foldes.

Cheryl and Michael Foldes are caring for William, and Cheryl Foldes said, “I’ve been teaching the little guy ‘You Are my Sunshine.’”

In Dembie’s honor, everyone sang the song, some wiping away tears.

After the ceremony wrapped up, Michael Foldes smiled and recalled the many happy times his stepdaughter hosted impromptu cookouts for her family, who lived a few doors away in Grafton Township.

Foldes said his stepdaughter never failed to save food for her husband, who was often at work at the county jail.

Foldes said it was a difficult marriage, but she still cared and thought about him.

“She was very caring for Bill, and when we had cookouts, she always said, ‘Make sure and leave something for Bill,’ ” Michael Foldes said.

Dembie’s aunt, Diedre Ashman, said William is doing the best he can, although “He always asks for her.”

“My sister tells him ‘Mommy’s in heaven looking down at you.’ ” Ashman said.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — Lorain County Commissioner Lori Kokoski’s boyfriend, Ron Massimiani, has been indicted on misdemeanor charges for a March fight in which he allegedly bit the thumb of a man Kokoski used to date.

Kokoski

Kokoski was not charged in connection with the March 24 fight at the Henrietta Township home of Sam Birach.

Massimiani, a former employee of county Engineer Ken Carney, is charged with assault and criminal trespass, according to Oberlin Municipal Court records.

Kokoski, who declined to comment Thursday, previously has said that Massimiani, with whom she has had an on-again, off-again relationship, was at her Lorain home when she received a text message from Birach, whom she dated last year. She also has said she received a string of harassing text messages and emails from Birach since they broke up late last year.

When she showed Massimiani the text message he became angry, Kokoski has said, and went out to his truck. Kokoski, who was wearing slippers and pajamas, went outside to try to calm him down, she has said.

Over her objections, Kokoski has said, Massimiani decided to drive to Birach’s Vermilion Road home to confront him about the messages.

They arrived a little after 11 p.m. and Kokoski has said she stayed in the truck while Massimiani got out and knocked on the door of a screened-in-porch. She has said she saw Massimiani go into the house and then heard arguing, followed by the sounds of a scuffle.

Kokoski has said she went inside to see what was going on and saw Birach on top of Massimiani, punching him.

Kokoski has said she told the pair to stop fighting, but when Massimiani stood up, Birach was still hanging onto him and the two fell over and hit a pedestal table.

She has said she and Massimiani left a few moments later.

Birach called 911 around 1:20 a.m. to report that he had been assaulted and that his thumb was bitten during the struggle. Deputies have said the thumb wasn’t severed, but that the damage was “severe.”

Dan Wightman, Massimiani’s attorney, said his client never planned to attack Birach when he went to the house that night.

“I believe that it was well established that this was not intended to be an assault,” Wightman said. “He went over there in response to a text that Lori received and he felt was inappropriate.”

Wightman also said while Massimiani is relieved not to be facing felony charges in the case, he would have preferred not to have been charged at all.

“He respects the fact that he made mistakes and things got out of hand,” Wightman said.

Mike Duff, Kokoski’s lawyer, said he was pleased the grand jurors who reviewed the case decided she hadn’t broken the law.

“I think the grand jury did the right thing. She did nothing wrong,” Duff said. “She was trying to prevent the whole thing.”

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — It doesn’t look like much now — it’s simply a cleared field surrounded by trees that is a stone’s throw from downtown.

But the area is perfect for composting, which is great news because starting Monday, the location near Chestnut and Elm streets will open to the public as the Elyria Regional Compost Facility.

The facility, a partnership between Kurtz Bros. of Independence and the city, was five months in the making and will change how the city collects yard waste. Kurtz will operate the facility; the city provided the land.

No longer will residents take grass clippings, leaves and brush to the city’s Central Maintenance Garage. The city site offered no oversight or security and often left city employees to pick up the mess left behind by residents, who dumped their waste at all hours.

Kevin Brubaker, the city’s deputy safety service director, said the new setup is a “win-win-win situation.”

The city benefits because a private company now will be responsible for collecting the raw materials and turning it into compost. Residents will continue to be able to drop off their yard waste for free and, in exchange, the agriculture materials will be available at an “Elyria-only” price.

And Kurtz Bros. will benefit because it’ll get a second retail location, adding to the one it operates in Avon.

The idea to start a partnership with Kurtz Bros. came about because the city is on target to spend more than $170,000 this year to have yard waste hauled away.

The city is paying $13.70 a yard to have grass clippings and yard waste hauled away and $3 a yard to have the same done for leaf waste.

It is estimated that 7,000 cubic yards of grass clippings and yard waste and 25,000 cubic yards of leaf waste will be collected this year.

Kurtz uses the waste to produce mulch, compost and topsoil that it then sells on the retail market.

The new rates for the city under the proposal would be $4 per cubic yard for yard waste and $1 a cubic yard for leaf waste.

Today is the final day residents can drop off yard waste at the city’s Central Maintenance Garage on Garden Street.

Regular hours for dropping off at the new compost facility are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Unlike before — when residents could make drop offs without informing city employees — residents will have to show identification and/or utility bills to ensure the waste being dropped off is that of Elyria residents only.

Brubaker said the city knows some residents will continue to come to the Garden Street location during the transition.
City employees will be available to point them in the right direction of the new facility.

To educate residents on the change, a flier will soon go out in utility bills, he said.

Beyond the changes in location and time, Brubaker said residents who bag their yard waste in plastic bags will have to break the bags and dump the waste in the designated spot at the new facility.

Kurtz Bros. cannot compost the plastic bags and will not accept bagged material.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

By Ann Sanner

COLUMBUS — Opponents of Ohio’s new elections law plan today to submit enough signatures to the state’s top election official to put the measure on temporary hold while they continue to try to get a repeal question on 2012 ballots.

Among other changes, the law shortens the pivotal presidential swing state’s early voting window and bans in-person voting on Sundays.

The state’s Democratic Party, President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and others have been circulating petitions and gathering signatures in their effort to block the law.

Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern told reporters earlier this week that the groups would hand in more than 300,000 signatures to Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who supports the elections overhaul. Elections officials would have to verify the names to make sure they meet state requirements.

Opponents need about 231,000 valid signatures to get a referendum on the law before voters next year. If they are successful, the law would be in limbo until after the presidential election. That’s the earliest chance for voters to decide whether the law should be tossed out.

The ballot repeal push does have consequences for the Nov. 8 election, when voters will decide whether to get rid of the state’s contentious new collective bargaining law.

The start date for early voting this fall has been left up in the air while the groups have been collecting signatures.

By submitting their petitions today, the opponents would halt the elections law from going into effect on Friday. That means local election officials would have to operate under the old law, with early voting starting on Tuesday.

The elections measure cleared the Republican-controlled state Legislature in late June with no Democratic support.

The law shortens the in-person early voting window from 35 days before Election Day to 17 days, and the period for absentee voting by mail from 35 days to 21. The cuts effectively eliminate a five-day period during which new voters could both register and cast a ballot on the same day.

The state’s new overhaul also bans local boards of elections from mailing unsolicited absentee ballot requests to voters, but Husted has agreed to send the requests to voters in all counties in 2012. Boards in Ohio’s larger, urban counties — those that tend to vote more Democratic — have typically made such solicitations

Husted has argued that each of the state’s 88 counties should have the same early voting hours and be open on the same days. He and his fellow Republicans contend it’s unfair that a voter in one county can cast an early ballot on a day when a voter in a neighboring county cannot.

Democrats contend the new law will lead to longer lines and make it difficult for working people to cast a ballot.

About 30 percent of the state’s total vote — or roughly 1.7 million ballots — came in ahead of Election Day in 2008.

Ohio is one of 32 states that allow voters to cast an early ballot by mail or in person without an excuse.