Amherst News-Times, 1999-08-18

              Taxing change for mobile homes — Page 5   Bus routes listed — Pages 3, 6
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Amherst News-Time
i
m
Wednesday,  August   18,  1999
Amherst, Ohio
I
Teen killed in motorcycle/car crash Aug.
by QLEN MLLER
News-Times reporter
William Quickie would have begun his senior year at Marion L.
Steele High School next week had it
not been for his love of riding his
father's motorcycle.
Lorain police report Quickie, 17,
was riding westbound on Cooper
Foster Park Road near Rt 58 shortly
before 5 p.m. Aug. 9 when a sport
utility vehicle driven by a Tracy L.
McClough, 36, of Elyria, turned into
his path while attempting to enter a
bank parking lot. Police reported
she was crossing three lanes of
traffic.
Quickie's motorcycle crashed
into the side of the eastbound vehicle. He died enroule to Community
Health Partners hospital in Lorain
despite the efforts of emergency
medical technicians.
McClough was not injured in the
crash but has been charged with
vehicular homicide.
Quickie, of Lorain, reportedly
had borrowed his father's Honda
730 motorcycle and was enroute to
his grandparents' home on Kolbe
Road when the accident occurred.
Quickie lived with his grandparents,
Stacy and Cheryl Quickie, of
Lorain.
An experienced motorcycle rider,
he obtained a motorcycle license about six months ago and had been
riding a dirt bike when he was seven
years old.
High School principal Fred Holland said Quickie wrestled on the
school varsity wrestling team and
served as a junior class representative on student council last year.
"He was well-liked and well-
known by kids in the class," he said.
"We're not back in school yet, but
those who have heard are shocked.''
Quickie is the second Amherst
area teenager to be killed in a motor
vehicle accident within the last three
months. Christina Johnson, 18, was
killed early June 9 in the parking lot
of Country Hearth Inn after falling
from the trunk of a car driven by
Carl B. Mercer. She had graduated
from Marion L. Steele High School
June 6.
Mercer, of Lorain, has been indicted by a Lorain County grand
jury on felony aggravated vehicular
homicide. He pleaded innocent to
the charge and one count of driving
under  the  influence  in  Lorain
County Common Pleat Court Aug.
11.
Amherst police reported Johnson
and a friend, Melissa Niskey, 18, reportedly were sitting on the trunk of
Mercer's car eating fast food when
he allegedly started the car snd
drove away with them on it    }p
Johnson was thrown to the pa**e-
ment and suffered a fatal head injury when Mercer turned a corner in
the parking lot Niskey also fell aat
escaped serious injury.
Crowded conditions will greet school kids
by QLEN MILLER
News-Times reporter
Students will find more
than polished floors and new
books when they return to the
Amherst schools this year.
They will find a little less
room to move around within
the city's five public schools,
particularly Nord Junior High
School and Harris Elementary
School.
Depending on last minute
enrollment, the two schools
each will have at least 600
students, a record number of
kids to educate when classes
resume Thursday, Aug. 26,
according to superintendent
Robert Boynton.
District wide, there will be
about 20 new teachers, an average of about four per
school. They replace 12
teachers who have retired and
eight who have resigned.
But that doesn't mean they
are fresh out of college and
novices to the tomfoolery of
students. Most have prior
teaching experience, Boynton
added.
The teacher turnover is greater than Amherst schools
have previously experienced.
In the past, each school has
gotten an average of two new
teachers each year, he said.
Veteran Amherst teachers
return to school Aug. 23-24
for in-service days while
those new to the school district will be oriented Aug. 25.
This year enrollment in the
overcrowded school district
A tired drummer with the Comet Marching band takes a reclining
break during a pause in practice at Marion L. Steele High School.
The band, along with sports teams, coaches, students and teachers are preparing for the return of classes next week.
will exceed last year's record
3,747 students. The final figure won't available until after
school begins, although Boyton said he expects enrollment
to reach at least 3,800, a
conservative estimate. The increase will be at least 10 io
20 students per building.
"These are just preliminary
figures. We also will probably
have a few kids withdraw be
fore the start of the school
year, so at this point it's hard
to give a hard and fast number," he added.
Alleviating the overcrowded
conditions in the schools will
be among the board of education's top goals in the coming
year. To help reach that goal,
school officials have scheduled a series of public meetings to discuss the overcrowd
ing and possible solutions.
They will be held Sept 21,
23, 27, 30 and Oct. 3 at 7
p.m. in the high school multipurpose room.
"We want the public to really be concerned and get involved in them because the
decisions we reach will effect
the whole community and the
kids in the schools," Boyton
said.
The schools have been using storage rooms and buying
modular classrooms to help
alleviate crowded conditions,
although school board members and school officials have
said these solutions are
temporary.
Despite the overcrowded
conditions, more than
$150,000 worth of improvements have been made over
the summer months. They
came from the school district's permanent improvement
fund.
The improvements include a I
new roof on the Marion L.
Steele High School gymnasium, a new heating and
cooling unit at Nord, new
ceiling tiles in some hallways
and classrooms at Shupe
Middle School, new windows
in the front hallway of Powers Elementary School, and a
resurfaced parking lot and
playground at Harris Elementary School.
Nord Junior High School
has a new principal, Michael
Diamond, a former teacher at
the school. He replaces William Mariey, who has retired.
Diamond comes from West-
lake, where he was assistant
principal of that school district's junior high school for
one year.
In addition, Wanda Warford, a former Olmsted Falls
school dietician and Amherst
resident, has joined the school
district as its head dietician.
Sl Joseph Catholic School
will have about 300 children
and a new principal, John
Gregory, this year. He replaces former principal Mary
Jo Ludwig, who has returned
to college to further her
education.
Classes at the parochial
school begin Wednesday,
Aug. 25.
Boyton said no new programs have been
CONTINUED on page 3
Dentist turns blacksmith for museum complex
For some people, it might seem as
if Robert Stilgenbauer's job as a
blacksmith for the Standstone Museum Center is a role reversal.
It's bard for his dental patients to
imagine him smashing a hammer
against an anvil or heating metal in
a coal-fired stove or stone oven. Af-
terall, they expect him to be as
gentle as possible, not a strong-
armed molder of metal.
i. Not so, says the Lorain dentist
He's just following an age old tradition that probably started long, before the era he will portray as the
museum's chief blacksmith this tall.
Town blacksmiths were often
anmiiiii way back when. They had
the necessary strength to pull teeth
ind the ability lo make the delicate
(ools that were used to get the job
QOOCe
I Hi's just turning things around.
"I'm the dentist first and a blacksmith second," he explained.
; Stilgenbauer has even carved
small smiling faces with a hot iron.
i "Some of the things we do involve a degree of delicacy," he said.
"Yes. you do hit, but there ia a dene of finesse tint's involved because yon don't dan into things
' Area school kids will get io see
Stilgenbauer working at his avocation this all when they tour the museum's outdoor Hark smith shop and
AtaSsTiiai for 25 veers, he secants
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in lilwifiihlng a hale
Ban daiacatd Snlgeabauer<
Scott Kodger.
She just happened lo
her husband's hobby. He
met with Kodger and waa infonned
of plans to build a blacksmith shot-
on the museum Bounds aad find
one or more blscksmiths to vokni*
teer their time it iL
StUgenbeuer eagerly acCTptrBd tke*
job and is in the process of
ing other blacksmiths to work at
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He supports plans to t
museum's five historical
and wooden buildings into a small
historical village complete with peo*
pk dressed in clothing of the mtd to
bae 1800s.
Historical Williamsburg. Va. jfe
oae of hit favorite places.
1 think this (tke Sandstone Ma-
Center) is just a great idea**
seum Kjeaax) is just a area* mar -
he said "I love a) aw places whan.:
yea caa jant nap back mo tfcae taaf
see how life need io be aad waya:
Mass were dona."
Mackaraitkiag after
ww at a
coarse ia Par
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