The Amherst news-times. (Amherst, Ohio), 1999-03-31

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J Ideas sought for old post office — Page 2 I Another traffic blitz planned — Page 3    p
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Amherst News-Time
3 X
Service
groups
planning
egg hunt
The Lions and Leo clubs
pf Amherst are finalizing preparations for the annual
community-wide Easter Egg
Hunt
The hunt begins at 11 am.
on Saturday, April 3 at
Maude Neiding Park.
Sponsoring the event for
the third year, the two service
clubs are planning an even
more enjoyable time for .Amherst youngsters. Lions Club
president Maty Plato said the
Easter Bunny will be on hand
to oversee the activities.
"We hope a visit by the
Easter Bunny this year will
add to the thrill of the hunt,"
Plato said.
About 8,000 plastic eggs
stuffed with candy will be
scattered throughout the park.
"The quality and diversity
of the candy will be much
better this year thanks to the
Amherst Giant Eagle store,''
he said, adding the Giant Eagle store is donating all 80
pounds of candy used for the
hunt.
In addition, Plato said the
Amherst Ben Franklin store
assisted in getting thousands
of plastic eggs, while the
local Discount Drag Mart do
j |    ;   nated several prizes.
"We greadey appreciate
their support to this community activity," he added.
The Amherst Loot, made
UP of high school students
from Marion L. Steele High
School, will begin stuffing the
eggs on Saturday, March 27.
"We'll be stalling at 9 in
the morning," explained Leo
Club secretary Sara Walzer,'
"and we'll keep at it until
we're through, hopefully by
mid-afternoon."
The MLS junior has been
involved in the stuffing and
hiding of eggs for the previous two hunts.
"Stuffing the first couple
,-jhousand eggs is fun, but then
y it becomes a little tiresome.
Thai's when we start throwing some of the candy at
each other," she admitted.
The Easter Egg hunt begins
promptly at 11 a.m. and there
will be three areas marked to
accomodate the following age
groups: ages three and under,
four- to six-year-olds; and seven to 10.
In addition to the candy
stuffed eggs, there will be a
number of specially marked
eggs that can be redeemed
for prizes.
Plato advises parents to
plan to arrive early at the
park.
"The Maude Neiding parking lots cannot serve all the
kids and parents attending,"
he said. "A number of people
are forced to park several
streets away and then hike lo
the park. We hope they plan
ahead to make it in time for
die 11 tun. start because it's
an over in a matter of a few
Participants should alto
bring their own bags or bn-
skets for gathering eggs.
The Uons and Leos wiU
ba doing some gathering of
their own. A coafcetaon boa
will be set up for people to
deposit any old eye glMses
they ao longer need. The
to those hi need ia
Lesson in I
Students, c   q
endorse locai
stone for state
in' with Buzz
A St. Joseph School student rocks with Buzz
the Beaver, the mascot of the Cleveland Lumberjacks during a school assembly. Buzz visited
the school as part of a program emphasizing the
importance of reading.
Sandstone could soon become
Ohio's state rock if the General Assembly enacts a bill created at the
suggestion of some Firelands High
School students.
Introduced by state representative
Bill Taylor of Norwalk. H.B. 208
was suggested by English teacher
Anne Callahan's class.
Now Amherst city council is getting into the act. At the suggestion
of auditor Diane Eswine, it is considering passing a resolution supporting the bill.
"For us being the Sandstone Center of the World, I think it would be
in our best interest to support this,"
she added. "Maybe this could get
people to write to their state legislators and ask them to support this."
Several people who are aware of
the bill already have written or
called Taylor's office, although so
have a few people from Erie
County. That's because limestone is
mined in the Sandusky area.
They think limestone should be
considered also, although Taylor's
legislative aid Matt Formey said letters supporting sandstone are "far
ahead of them."
He said Taylor liked the idea and
officially introduced a bill on Feb.
23. It has been placed in the hands
of the legislature's state government
committee for consideration and
study.
Even though the students are not
of voting age, Taylor felt it allowed
them to get involved in the legislative process and learn how a bill
gets to the floor of the General
Assembly.
"There have been some tongue in
cheek things said about this, but he
is taking this seriously because of
the involvement of the kids and
other supporters he's heard from or
who have written him," Formey
said.
Once the idea was formalized, the
Firelands students initiated a letter
writing campaign to let Taylor know
they are serious.
High school officials said the
letter-writing campaign was part of
an exercise on writing business letters assigned in Callahan's English
class. The teacher got the idea after
reading an article on state symbols,
they explained.
Students researched sandstone,
information about which was conveyed in many of the letters received by Taylor and read by his
staff.
Hospital matSfhity ward (JldSing Friday
After 81 years of caring
for newborn babies, Amherst
Hospital's maternity ward will
close its doors Friday.
Plans to close the facility
were initially announced in
early February, although the
closing day was not.
Hospital officials declined
comment about the closing
and referred all calls to Lois
Kohler, community relations
director for the Elyria-based
EMH Regional Health Care
System.
Kohler said there are no
immediate plans to use the
maternity unit for another use.
It is being closed because of
a decline in births at the hospital and a decision to
streamline operations by
merging maternity services
with those at EMH Regional
Medical Center in Elyria.
A new birthing unit is
among the facilities to be included in a new building that
will be located across the
street from the main Elyria
As many as 11 maternity
nurses at Amherst Hospital
may lose their jobs. Kohler
declined to comment oh the
possible layoffs. She said all
are eligible to "bid" on vacant nursing jobs available
with the EMH Regional Medical System if they are qualified for a vacant post.
One nurse said she has serious questions about the bidding procedure. She and other
nurses preferred not to be
identified for fear they might
not be considered for a vacant post
"I'm surprised it came this
quick, but then again, I'm
not," said one nurse. "It's
been very quiet around here
lately and we knew this was
coming, but not when. Now
we do."
The maternity unit closing
brings to end a Girt Scout
tradition of making a quilt for
the first infant born during
Girl Scout Week. The last
quilt was given to a Lorain
woman and her baby by scouts from troops 077, 078
and 526 March 8.
Also closing is a special
clinic for low-income pregnant
women staffed by Amherst
Hospital nurses.
Its patients will be transferred to a clinic that is expected to soon open in the
Lakeland Medical Center adjacent to Community Health
Partners hospital in Lorain.
Many of the clinic's patients gave birth at the hospital because it performs tubal
ligations, a procedure not
done at the nearby Catholic-
operated Lorain hospital.
The clinic's doctors have
requested privileges at the
EHM Regional Medical Center in Elyria so they can continue to perform the
procedure.
'Check sheet' checks kid computer skills
by PAUL MORTON
News-Times reporter
With the national push to put
computers in every classroom, the
Amherst school board has approved
a schedule for what students should
know about computers at each grade
level.
At its March 22 meeting, the
board approved the 'Technology
Skills for Amherst Students K-12".
a document prepared by the Computer Science/Technology Education
committee. The committee consisted of a school employees, repre-
senting every grade level, plus curriculum director Timothy Logar, who
chaired the committee, and media
and technology specialist Judy Ale-
xander, who presented the document
to the school board.
"These are a list of skills that we
think tittdfiMt should be introduced
to awnepbee along their education,"
Alexander said. "And there are a
few things from kindergarten on awl
the teachers wiU be building on
those in their own lesson plans ia
reading, language arts, science, and
so forth."
The document, which Alexander
called now of a "scope snd aeqo-
list* 97
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But before teachers start wonder*
ing how they will be expected to
teach technical skills, Alexander
said the schools would provide suggestions for tiring computers in then-,
lesson plans.
"Since we haven't done anything
like this before, we started out at a
very basic level," Alexander said
"It's something we think that moat
of our teachers have the skills to do
right now without a lot of training
and anguish on our part in nuking
them face things they're not ready
for."
Alexander said the committee
used examples from several schools
to help model their list
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