Amherst News-Times, 1999-04-14

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Amherst News-Time
'cdnesclay,  April   14.   1999
Amhorst.  Ohio
fc
Residents urge
congressman
to lower costs
of health care
by QLEN MLLER
News-Times reporter
Congressman Sherrod
Brown comfortably sat on a
serving bar at the Crossroads
Grill as he spoke to about 30
of his Amherst constituents
early April 9.
The U.S. representative originally had chosen the restaurant as the site for informal "town meetings" he likes
to hold about a year ago.
Last week's breakfast meeting
gave him the opportunity to
And out what's on the minds
of people in a relaxed
atmosphere.
The informal meeting was
one of several Brown's local
staff squeezed into his busy
schedule last week. Another
was held in Columbia Town
ship and more will be held in
the coming weeks in Medina
and Lorain counties.
"I have enough formal
meetings and sometimes people tend to stay away from
them or aren't as willing to
feel free to talk," he explained. "Here, it's more like
just shooting the breeze. I let
them tell me what concerns
them and ask questions."
Amherstonians drank their
morning coffee and munched
on ham and eggs or baked
goods as they listened and
asked Brown questions.
Health care and its ever increasing cost dominated the
meeting.
People complained about
the increasing cost of prescriptions, up nearly 400 percent in the last few years, ac-
CONTINUED on page 3
Congressman Sherrod Brown discusses health care and world
events with a group of 30 customers at the Crossroads Grill. Brown
said he hopes to hold future town meetings at the restaurant because of its relaxed atmosphere.
City will ask ODOT for Main/Kolbe traffic light
A request for a badly-needed
traffic light system at the intersection of North Main Street and
Cooper Foster Park Roed soon will
be in the hands of the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). .
The request is based on a study
by engineering consultants R.E.
Warner, Inc. that found 20 accidents
occurred at the heavily traveled intersection between January  1996
and 1998. A dozen people were hospitalized, although most only involved minor injuries.
Most accidents occurred at-the
Cooper Poster Park Road east and
westbound approaches to the intersection. The majority happened
during the day and were caused by
people driving on Cooper Foster
Park Road who failed to yield to
traffic on North Main, a through
street.
The firm did perform a traffic
volume count that revealed an average 24.000 vehicles %datttJaflKti
through the intersection^ mtaax between 4:15 and 5:15 pjn. The majority of vehicles travel south and
turn east (left) on to Cooper Foster
Park Road or west from Cooper
Foster north (right) on to North
Main Street and Kolbe Road.
It has recommended installing a
semi-actuated three-phase traffic
signal and adding a left turn lane on
to North Main and a right turn lane
on to Cooper Foster.
The solution will increase safety
at the intersection. The turn lanes
will increase vehicle capacity and
result in decreased delay for east-
bound drivers turning on Cooper
Foster and westbound motorists
turning on to North Main.
It also "provides the highest level,
of safety for the present and allows
for the ongoing increase in commercial Jnd residential development in
the area without compromising the
future safety and efficiency of the
intersection," the report said.
Lorain community development
officials have applied for a $1.3 million federal grant on behalf of Lorain and Amherst to help pay for the
widening of Cooper Foster Park
Road.
Plans call for it to be widened to
five lanes at its intersection with
Leavitt Road and three lanes from
Sharondale Lane west to North
Main Street
The grant sought by .Amherst is
separate but will be part of the total
improvement project, according to
mayor John Higgins.
They planted seeds of religion
Baumanns proud of their 35 years of mission services
by QLEN MLLER
Newt-Times reporter
At least once a week, Faith
and David Baumann find their
minds straying to a land on
the other ride of the world.
India was their home for
35 yean at missionaries for
the Methodist Church. They
have returned to it since retiring in 1986 and returning to
the U.S. Now residents of
Amherst Township, they enjoy
checking on the seeds of
Christianity they helped plant
as India was developing as an
independent nation free of
British rale.
The retired couple stay in
touch with and occasionally
get visitors who were once
the children and young people
in winch they instilled Christian beliefs. Today, some are
Methodist church leaders in
their country while outers are
professional people or community leaders in Gujarat, an
Indian stale northwest of
Bombay, the capital.
The Baumanns went to the
rural area separately, she in
1950 as a missionary with the
Canaan United Church of
Christ, and he the following
year with a group horn the
Methodist Church. He is a
Methodist mlnlstrr ordained in
the 1940s.
The couple met at a language training center for vari-
ous different Christian mis-
Armed with a 16 millimeter
camera, projector and five
films, the Baumanns went
from village to village preaching and teaching God's word
to Hindus and Muslims.
Eventually, he developed an
extensive Christian film
library.
"A lot of times we had to
show them outside because
there was nothing big enough
to get the entire village into
then," lie explained.
Their last 25 years were
spent teaching modern agricultural techniques to farmers.
One project involved using
manure from sacred cows to
make bio-gas that was used
to make fuel for cooking.
"It was perfectly okay and
done in remote rural areas as
far. as we know," David, 79,
said.
They also trained local
church lay leaders to help
them make converts. When
they did, whole tsf.i'prt usu-
of whom were from India's
lower castes.
Christian conversion was
seen ss one way of breaking
out of the caste system,
by the
David and 1*11111 taumann
love. They
1955
loo
ia
Soon they were joined by
David Mid Mark, were bora
and raised ia India.
They originally ware peg hi
charge of a hostel for 90
boys, ahhoagh David
eventually I
Today. Faith arid ths once
rigid caste system is breaking
dawn as people from claaaes
meet and marry. With ths
help Of the **--*imam gf ajn
City to add curbs
and catch basins
to street repairs
The city's annual repaying program will cost more than usual this
year because of a decision to add
curbs and catch basins to the list of
streets in need of repair.
Curbs will be added to streets that
don't have them to control street
flooding and water runoff Leaky
catch basins will be fixed as part of
an effort to reduce unwanted storm
water from seeping into the city's
sanitary sewer system.
The latter is being done as part of
the city's effort to upgrade its waste
water treatment plant and meet stricter guidelines nuuadated by the federal Environmental Protection
Agency, according to mayor John
Higgins.
The city has a large number of
old catch basins built out of brick
and motor that have cracked and
leak storm water in sewers. All the
streets paved will have their catch
basins replaced.
The total estimated cost of the
projects is $849,000 aad includes
the curb sad catch bash, unprove-
ments. Chy council Wll be informed of the aadmiatawal corrective
at its April 12
1 know this is a very
bat we haws to start cor-
water tower and the water treatment
plant The city is investigating the
possibility of using rubber recycling
grant money to defray the costs of
those projects.
The single most cosdy project
will be the rebuilding of the Jackson
Street bridge over the Conrail tracks
through .Amherst. It will Cost
$700,000.
The city will use $425,000 in
street income tax levy money. The
remainder will come from a state
Issue 2 grant, money made available
for a variety of public works projects throughout Ohio.
Pending council's approval,
streets that may be included in the
1999 program are: Green Forest
Drive from S. Lake Street to the
end. Maple Creek Drive trom Green
Forest Drive to 171 feet east. Tana
Lane from Sunrise Drive to 350 feet
north, Virginia Court horn Weavers
Drive to the end. N. Main
boss Martin Street to 214 feet
of Brandt Avenue, Tenney A-
ton S. Main Street to Spring
Street, Brennan Drive from Middle
Ridge Roed to Gordon Avenue, and
Forest Street between Pa* A
to
The
$50j000.
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