Community

Portman staff to have

office hours
Staff Report
On June 30, U.S. Senator Rob Portman will have
staff in Scioto County to talk to constituents.
They will meet with people at the Portsmouth Public
Library main branchs meeting room from 11:30 a.m. to
12:30 p.m.
Keeping an open dialogue with constituents is a top
priority for me and I encourage people to take advantage of the opportunity to talk to a member of my staff,
Portman said. Listening to constituents enables me to
better determine how I can fight for their interests in
Washington.
No appointments are necessary.
For further information, call Portmans District
Representative Robert Braggs at (513) 684-3265.

Area ranks among most

miserable in America
By Mark Shaffer
Scioto Voice writer
Feeling miserable? Well, your friends and neighbors probably do too.
Thats because according to the Website
MarketWatch, the area from the Huntington Metro
area which includes Huntington, Ashland and
Portsmouth ranks in the top 10 most miserable cities
in the U.S.
As a matter of fact, it ranked number one making
the region the most miserable. Charleston, W.Va.
came in number two.
So why are we so miserable?
According to MarketWatch, its a lot of reasons
including health problems including high rates of diabetes, cancer and chronic pain. Nearly have of the
people said they have high blood pressure, the most
of any metro area. Forty percent were obese, the
highest in the nation.
Also there are more smokers, 29 percent, than people with college degrees, 19 percent.
Overall, the well-being index score came in at 59.5
out of 100.

The Scioto Voice

June 25, 2015

Another marijuana amendment certified

By Mark Shaffer
Scioto Voice writer
Another effort to let Ohio voters
decide on the legalization of marijuana has been certified by the
state attorney general.
On June 17, the Cannabis
Control Amendment was certified
by Attorney General Mike
DeWine. This is the third proposed amendment to be certified.
This amendment was submitted
by the group Ohioans to End
Prohibition on June 8.
DeWine certified the amendment as having the necessary
1,000 valid signatures of Ohio
voters and a fair and truthful
summary of the proposed amendment.
In a letter to the group announcing his decision, DeWine wrote
that without passing upon the
advisability of the approval or
rejection of the measure to be
referred... I hereby certify that the
summary is a fair and truthful
statement of the proposed law.
Now that the summary and the
signatures are certified, the Ohio
Ballot Board must determine if the
amendment contains a single
issue or multiple issues.
Ohioans to End Prohibition
must now collect signature for
each issue from registered voters
in half of Ohios 88 counties equal
to five percent of the total votes
cast in that county during the last
governors election. That must
equal 10 percent of the total vote
in that election. The group is try-

ing to get the amendment on the

2016 general election ballot.
This is the second attempt at
certification by Ohioans to End
Prohibition.
On May 21, DeWine rejected
the proposed rejected the petition
for the proposed amendment
because the summary was not
fair and truthful.
Among the reasons the petition
was rejected was because the
summary has numerous inconsistencies with the amendment language regarding restriction on
minors, the summary says local
officials can ban commercial distribution of marijuana and related
items in whole or in part but
there is no provision allowing a
partial ban, and the summary
uses the phrase marijuana concentrates in places where the
phrase does not appear in the
amendment.
One of the other two proposed
amendments to be certified are
the Legalize Marijuana and
Hemp in Ohio amendment was
submitted from the group, Better
for Ohio. It was certified on May
7.
If passed, the amendment
would allow anyone over the age
of 21 to legally have access to
marijuana for medical or personal
use. It would also have 40 marijuana facilities throughout the
state and people could grow it at
home without registering on state
database. People would be
allowed to use, transport and

Faulkner

Continued from front

He was held in the Ottawa
County jail until he was transported to the Scioto County Jail on
June 22.
Faulkner was been charged with
one count of first-degree misdemeanor domestic violence and
one count of first-degree felony
rape. He appeared in the
Portsmouth Municipal Court on
June 23 and his bond was set at

$100,000.
Donini said the investigation is
ongoing and more charges will be
presented to the Scioto County
Grand Jury at a later date.
Anyone with information about
this case is requested to call
Detective Jodi Conkel at (740)
251-1091. All calls will remain
anonymous.

Pill Mill
only accepted cash payments and a limited number of insurance payments for filling prescriptions. The Temponeras
also allegedly referred
customers to Fankell to
fill prescriptions.
The three were charged
with two counts of illegally distributing medication, with each count carrying a maximum penalty
of 20 years and a million
dollar fine. The charges
have an additional penalty of 20 years to life in
prison if a death resulted
from the medication.
John Temponeras and
Fankell were charged
with one count and
Margy Temponeras was
charged with two counts
of maintaining place for

the purpose of distributing controlled substance, which carries a

maximum penalty of 20
years and a $500,000
fine.
On the day of the raid,
Margy Temponeras had
her DEA Certificate of
Registration suspended
which took away their
authority to prescribe or
dispense Schedule II-IV
controlled substances.
The decision was based
on a preliminary DEA
investigation that found
their actions amounted
to imminent danger to
public health and safety.
The DEA alleges that
between Jan. 1, 2007
and Nov. 3, 2009,
Temponeras made over
3,000 unauthorized dis-

tributions of controlled
substances and that she
ordered
more
than
800,000
units
of
Oxycodone products in
2010.
According to the indictment, at least eight people were found dead
after consuming medications prescribed by and
dispensed from the
Temponeras. The indictment linked the deaths of
Thomas
Austin
in
September 2008; James
Smith and Monte Loop
Jr. in October 2008; Troy
Dummitt in January
2009; William Stapleton
in April 2009; Ira Marsh
in October 2009; James
Tolliver in 2010 and
William Darby in March
2011.

out of Los Angeles,

California, and theyve
been around about two
years,
said
Cline.
During times of nice
weather,
kids
are
allowed to have recess
outside, and while some
students use sunscreen
to protect themselves,
not all students have
sunscreen available to
them.
As a result, Mashing
Melanoma decided to
raise the funds to install
a sunscreen dispenser
so all students at West
Schools would have the
option to apply some
sunscreen before enjoying outdoor activities.
Mashing Melanoma
currently has two dispensers on order. They
are expected to be delivered to the WashingtonNile School District
(West Schools) sometime in early September.
The dispensers will be
made available for the
schools various outdoor
activities. The school will
not have to maintain the
dispensers, as Mashing

Melanoma will maintain

both
dispensers.
Whenever they need
refilled, they can just call
us and well refill it for
them, said Cline. When
full, the dispenser can
hold about 900 doses of
sunscreen.
The group received
permission from the
Washington-Nile School
Board to install the two
dispensers during the
boards May meeting.
After the approval,
Mashing
Melanoma
submitted its order of
two dispensers, which
are currently on backorder, but will be installed
in the school system
shortly after the beginning of the 2015-2016
school year.
Mashing Melanoma
hopes to be able to
install other sunscreen
dispensers around the
county in the future.
In cooperation with its
mission to raise awareness and educated the
public on the dangers of
melanoma and other
skin cancers, Mashing

Melanoma also developed the Angela R.

Arnett
Diamond
Memorial Scholarship,
which gives away two
$1,000
scholarships
every year to a student
of Portsmouth West
Schools who participates in the schools
softball or baseball programs.
Additionally, Mashing
Melanoma also operates the Angela R.
Arnett Memorial Softball
Tournament, which is
also used to raise
awareness of melanoma
and other skin cancers.
The softball tournament
also helps raise money
to fund the scholarship
program and help pay
for the sunscreen dispensers and sunscreen
refills.
More information on
Mashing Melanoma, the
Angela
R.
Arnett
Diamond
Memorial
Scholarship, and the
Angela
R.
Arnett
Memorial
Softball
Tournament can be
found by visiting their
website, www.aradiamondscholarship.com.

Melanoma
Continued from front
free for the schools and
the kids, and theyll be
able to use them at the
softball and baseball
fields. The kids will also
be able to use the sunscreen for outdoor activities like recess, field
trips, among other outdoor activities. Were
very excited about that,
said Cline.
The dispensers will act
much like a hand sanitizer dispenser, which is
commonly found in
schools,
restaurants,
and hospitals around the
area. When using the
dispenser,
a
small
amount of sunscreen
will be released by the
dispenser which can
then be rubbed onto a
persons body to help
protect them from potentially harmful ultraviolet
rays from the sun, which
can cause melanoma.
The idea for the installation of sunscreen dispensers came about
after some conversations between Mashing
Melanoma, and The Sun
Shield. They are based

share up to one ounce of marijuana.

The first marijuana possible
amendment that DeWine certified
was the Marijuana Legalization
Amendment
to
the
Ohio
Constitution from Responsible
Ohio which was certified as having a fair and truthful summary on
March 13.
The proposed amendment by
Responsible Ohio would legalize
marijuana for Ohio adults over
21. They say the move would end
black market marijuana and that
it would create over 1,100 small
business license for retail and
manufacturing.
There would be 10 sites chosen
for growing and five spots for
testing the marijuana. There are
six proposed sites in Ohio, all of
them near colleges, including
Scioto County which was chosen
because
Shawnee
State
University has its campus here.
The groups have until July 1 to
gather over 300,000 signatures
to get their proposals on the
November ballot.
The full text of the letter and the
amendment petitions submitted
can
be
found
at
www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/B
allotInitiatives.
Washington and Alaska have
legalized the sale of marijuana
for personal use.
For a list of ballot initiatives go
t
o
www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Ba
llotInitiatives.

Seal

Continued from front

During the investigation, detectives learned Faulkner had
jumped a train in the Minford area
and rode it until it stopped in the
Port Clinton area.
On June 20, the sheriffs office
got a call from the Port Clinton
Police that an officer had found
Faulkner. He was then arrested
on a domestic violence warrant.

Continued from front

The indictment alleges
that the doctors would
examine more than 20
customers a day and
would write prescriptions for large amounts
of medications to the
customers who they
likely knew were drug
addicts who were diverting or selling the medication. The Temponeras
would charge $200 cash
for an office visit and did
not accept insurance.
After some local pharmacies refused to fill the
prescriptions from the
Temponeras, they had
Fankell train a pharmacy
technician to work at the
dispensary
called
Unique Relief LLC in the
pain management clinic
building. The dispensary

A3

the bicentennial seal, prompting the contest and

eventual adoption of Flanagans design.
The seal includes a view of Portsmouth, looking up
at the town from across the water, and includes the
river, to highlight that vital economic and cultural link
for the city. The seal also includes the Grant Bridge,
as the co-designer of the seal, the Bicentennial
Committees Michael Vermillion explained, to symbolize bridging connections to the future as well as
other communities.
I lived in South Shore for about a year when I was
going to college, Flanagan said in explaining her
design, and my favorite view was coming from
South Shore into Portsmouth, across that bridge.
Chabot noted that the timing of the adoption was
especially fortuitous, as ODOT has offered to incorporate the design of the new seal into the abutments
of the new bridges they will be building for the new
bypass.
This is only the second seal adopted by the City of
Portsmouth, which Chabot said feels appropriate
as the city moves into their next 200 years.
In other action, Council moved unanimously to pass
ordinances amending Chapter 131 of the Codified
Ordinances of the City of Portsmouth, to change language related to the Mayor, amending Chapter 139
related to Department of Fire, and amending
Chapter 153 related to Miscellaneous Fees.
Council also moved to pass an ordinance repealing
Chapter 161 of the Codified Ordinances - Citizens
Council on Human Relations, with First Ward
Councilman Kevin W. Johnson the sole voice of dissent. As Johnson explained, the Council was first
organized to address issues of fair housing within
the city. But while that is no longer a pressing issue,
Johnson feels that rather than repeal the chapter
and disband the Council, it should grow and adapt to
new missions to reflect the needs and diversity of
Portsmouths citizens.
Before moving to Portsmouth, Johnson served on
the equivalent commissions in both San Francisco
and Concord, California.
I saw what those commissions could do for a city,
he said, in making sure that people understood and
got along from different religions, backgrounds.
He said that as the city grows and changes and
attracts new businesses, it will attract new folks from
different backgrounds.
Well be bringing new people in here, he continued, and theyre not all Christian, theyre not all
white, they dont all think the way we do, and we
need a way to connect to and embrace them in our
community and thats done with a Human
Relations Commission. Thats what I wanted to see
here, and thats why I voted against it.
Council also passed an ordinance authorizing the
City Manager to advertise for bids and execute a
deed for the transfer of city owned property located
at 720 and 722 Sixth Street, for the winning bid over
the minimum appraised value of $50,000.
Councilmen Kevin E. Johnson and Jim Kalb
opposed the ordinance, allowing it to pass on a 4 to
2 vote.
Council further moved to amend an ordinance on
second reading relating to amendment of Section
169.15 - Bonds. This amendment reduces the bond
required for the city solicitor from $200,000 to
$100,000. As city auditor Trent Williams explained,
this places Portsmouth more in alignment with other
cities of their size while still safeguarding their financial responsibilities. If a greater bond were required,
Williams explained, the city has enough funds in
other general bonding to cover those needs.
Council also reported that a public hearing is
scheduled for 10:30 AM, on Monday, July 6, on
granting a new alcohol license to the Dollar General
store located in Sciotoville.