A lady that grew up on Chester Avenue, went through the Wellsville school system and went on to become a lawyer announced to the newspapers Tuesday that she is going to file for judge of CC Common Pleas Court. That seat is going to be vacated by Judge Dave Tobin some time this summer. He announced his retirement not too long ago.
Hoping to fill that vacant seat is a Wellsville child, Judge Melissa Byers-Emmerling. She is the daughter of the late Ed & Dorothy Byers and grew up in a house her father built from the ground up at 1786 Chester. She graduated from WHS in 1974, got her B.A. from Miami U and her law degree at Akron U's Law School. She started practicing law in Cleveland and then relocated to hang her shingle in East Liverpool. She did time as an Asst. County Prosecuting Attorney from 1984 to 1989. According to the newspapers she prosecuted just about the whole range of felons from drug dealers to murders to child sex abusers. In 1989 she was first elected to EL Muncipal Court judge and has held that position to this day.
This past summer Byers-Emmerling was the keynote speaker at a Wellsville Chamber-of-Commerce luncheon. Her topic was a litter control program that she initiated in EL. Instead of sentencing some of the misdemeanor cases to jail time and hefty money fines she gives them community service time. We remember her telling us she has assigned them to some of the townships in addition to just having them clean up East Liverpool. At the luncheon she offered to assign some work parties to Wellsville. All that is needed is some garbage bags and supervision.
Melissa is not only a Judge she's a mom too. Her and husband Fred are the parents of son Bo. He must be a big kid. We remember when they dedicated the Shoe Tree she brought a pair of Bo's old tennis shoes. Barges came to mind at the time. The last time we saw her was at the Martin Luther King Birthday Celebration at Village Hall. She said her morning was full of grief only a Mother can experience. She thanked everyone there for picking up her spirits with the program. The grief was resolved when the keys and wallet was found just before she got there.
We can't tell you when our paths first crossed but we can tell you Melissa is a good friend of the village. We've seen her at several Wellsville events, even before Tobin decided to go fishing. What do they say, you can take the girl out of the village but you can't take the village out of the girl? Something like that... We can tell you Melissa is Orange & Black Wellsville Tiger through and through. We think her record on the bench speaks for itself. With over two decades of service in Municipal Court we hope she gets the chance to move over to Lisbon.
Shown here with Leetonia PD Chief John Soldano is Her Honor at Wellsville's Italian Festival this past summer. Soldano is also a Wellsville native. Isn't it exciting to see Wellsville kids do good?
Good luck kid...
ole nib
4 comments:
Has there ever been a Common Pleas Judge from Wellsville?
And what's going on with Wellsville joining the E.L. Court? Seems like such a no brainer. I suspect politics has reared its ugly head.
Anyways, Go Judge Melissa!!
We would have to go back in the history books to answer your first question. We don't really know and in our memory can't recall of there ever being a Common Pleas Judge from the ville.
In our "Notes" post dated 12/30/09 we covered the latest on moving to EL Muni. The State Supreme court suggested there are too many Muni courts in CC and threw it back to the powers that are. Haven't heard anything since then.
Politics can get ugly at times. So far it hasn't in the early stages getting ready for the forthcoming elections. At this point timing & getting known is very important in our opinion. It's been our observation that judicial races are usually more dignified and can't foresee this one being anything else.
nib
She will have some stiff competition. Already heard several qualified people running, both men and a woman.
We think it might be one of the more interesting races in this year's elections. We'll see. Think the filing deadline for the Primary is February 18.
We think Byers-Emmerling is very qualified with her 21 years on the bench, knowledgeable and innovative. Others may be just as qualified but we're still rooting for the Wellsville girl.
nib
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