Melissa Hebert, Patch Staff

Melissa is a native of Connecticut with 20 years of journalism experience. Over her career, she's been a sportswriter, a features writer, a news reporter, an entertainment reporter and a copy editor. She's written about decorating trends, dysfunctional government meetings and cutting horse competitions. Before coming to Patch, Melissa worked at the Plain Dealer and the Chronicle-Telegram.

Melissa lives in Avon Lake with her husband, John, and pets Buckwheat (a green iguana) and Mackenzie (a Florida red-bellied turtle). Her loves in life -- outside of John, their families and their pets -- include East Coast pizza, her college alma mater Central Connecticut State University, house stuff like decorating, baking, the Browns and the Boston Red Sox.

Your Beliefs<br>At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.<br><br><b>Politics </b><br>I believe that government is not always the enemy. <br><br><b>Religion</b><br>Raised Catholic<br><b><br>Local Hot-Button Issues</b><br>Westlake has become a major player in western Cuyahoga County. With American Greetings coming to town, Westlake will be home to one of the major employers in Northeast Ohio. Balancing business development with residential needs is going to be a long-term challenge and opportunity for the city.