Amherst News-Times, 1999-09-08

              Age is no difference to pen pals — Page 3     Players take to the stage — Pac
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Amherst News-Time
Wednesday,  September 8.  1999
Amherst, Ohio
City drops Moore tax charges but says littli
The city of Amherst has abandoned one battlefield in its fight
with David Moore, but the war is far
from over.
The city last week filed a motion
to dismiss criminal charges against
Moore for failure to pay city income
taxes. Law director Alan Anderson
would not comment on the city's
reason for dropping the charges, but
he said the city would continue to
fight.
"The city has not given up on its
efforts to collect and have paid any
taxes that are owed," Anderson said.
Moore said he was pleased wilh
the city's decision, but he was not
ready to drop his civil suit against
the city.
"They should have done it in February," Moore said. "This is just a
travesty what they've done to me."
Moore and the city are at odds
over an alleged underpayment of
payroll taxes for Moore's Crystal
Mortgage Company. Moore said the
city was trying to collect payroll on
income generated by his offices outside of Amherst for 19% and 1997.
In April Moore filed a civil suit
against the city charging the city
with unconstitutionally overtaxing
him and unfairly filing criminal
charges against him. In addition, he
has mounted a campaign unseat Anderson, who is running for reelection this year, and city treasurer
Kathleen Litkovitz, whose term expires next year.
That suit, too, could be dropped if
the city agrees to a compromise
proposed by Moore last week. In a
letter to the city, Moore said he
would end his civil suit in return for
an apology from city officials, including Anderson and Litkovitz.
In addition to the apology, the letter asks for a letter, approved by city
council, including an outline of the
Amherst city tax code and a statement that both Moore and Crystal
Mortgage have paid their full city
tax obligation for the years in
question.
The letter originally placed a
deadline of S p.m. last Friday for the
city to respond, but Moore's attorneys granted an extension to S p.m.
yesterday due the long holiday
weekend.
Mayor John Higgins said
Moore's request was very complicated and city attorneys needed the
additional time to study it
Local boy chosen for clinic's TV commercial
Jeff and Nancy Hewitt were expecting their first child.
Like most parents, she could
hardly wait to see the baby on the
ultrasound. Nancy, a registered
nurse, was 27 weeks along when she
saw Matthew for the first time.
The ultrasound staff noticed the
baby's kidneys were enlarged. They
concluded that both renal tubes were
blocked, causing urine to back up
inside the kidneys.
When they first explained the
prognosis to Nancy, she concluded
the prognosis was hers. When she
finally realized the diagnosis was
her son's, she was devastated.
For a week she had to take steroids to strengthen the baby's lungs.
They look the baby "C" section and
performed emergency surgery to insert drain tubes in both kidneys.
The ends exited through
Matthew's sides.
The attending physicians told the
Hewitts that the boy probably would
not last the week. Jeff, an air traffic
controller at Oberlin, and Nancy are
members of St. Joseph's Catholic
rChurch in Amherst.
They called for prayer for
Matthew and it became the subject
of a nationwide prayer chain.
In spite of the grim prognosis,
Matthew Hewitt continued to improve. It would be two months and
another surgery before he could go
home with his parents.
When Matt was two, another
surgery was required to remove one
kidney that had failed. His other
kidney Was operating at 17 percent
capacity,  but dialysis  was  not
Comet
mascot
pumps
crowds
Holy sidelines Batman — Amherst has its own caped crusader!
Marion Steele High School has
joined the ranks of high schools
having their own professional grade
mascot Comet Man was unveiled
Aug. 27 during the home opener
against the Warrensville Tigers.
The Quarterback Club, the cheerleaders, and the Athletic Boosters
began the project last year, pooling
resources to bring the mascot to the
high school.
According to Mary Ann Bigrigg,
vice president of the Quarterback
Club, Comet Man began on the desk
of commercial artist Jeff Pappas of
Westlake. The group examined a
number of drawings, sending the favorite sketch to Chip's Chancier
Creations in California. Chip's Creations makes Mascot bodies and
other one-of-kind costumes.
"We decided to go with Chip's
because he guaranteed his work and
a professionally-made mascot would
last a long time," Bigrigg said. She
declined to share the cost of Comet
Man, but did say he was very
expensive.
Because of the number of high
school sports Comet Man is to represent, a host of students will jump
into a locker room (phone booths
are not always available and Comet
Man is not svelte enough to perform
such feats in tight quarters) and don
the outfit
Getting overheated is a problem
because of the suit's insulatiilg
properties, so mascot duties are pm-
sendy shared by junior Valerie Mot-
Matthew Hewitt, 9, proves he really was In California to make a
commercial for the Cleveland Clinic by pointing out the license
plate on a car there. The youngster's lifelong battle with a kidney
problem led doctors to submit his name for the commercial.
required.
Now nine years old, Matthew visits the hospital about every two
months for blood work. His improvement has enabled him to play
normally with brothers Brad, 5, and
Brian, 4; sports are out the question.
But Matthew's larger body mass
is putting increased strain on his remaining kidney, and the vital organ
js losing ground. Barring a miracle,
a kidney transplant will be required
down the road, and mom at present
is the matching donor.
The longer they can slave off the
operation, the belter the chances sci
ence will come up with something
new to eliminate transplants and all
of the associated rejection and infection medicines.
The bright spot in the Hewitt
family's situation has come as a direct result of the constant trips to the
hospital. Matt's physicians, Robert
Cunningham, a pediatric nephrolo-
gist at the Cleveland Clinic and
Rami Boutros, who practices pediatrics and adolescent medicine at
the clinic satellite center in Amherst, saw a fax fronrthe clinic stating that the foundation was about to
shoot a commercial about chronically ill children as the subject
Boutros, who had come to know
the Hewiu family on a first name
basis, turned in Matthew's name.
Representatives of Dektor Films,
a Chicago based film company, interviewed Matthew. Hewitt was
selected as one of the two subjects
for the 30 second spot. Kyle Sherwood, a surviving clinic cancer patient and Ohio resident, was also
chosen. During the trip the boys became friends and have exchanged E-
mail addresses and kept in touch.
The Hewitts and Sherwoods flew
to Los Angeles on Aug. 26 and returned Aug. 28. A stretch Limousine
picked them up at the airport and
took them to Le Meridien Hotel in
Beverly Hills. They were treated to
dinner at a Japanese Restaurant, although Mau admits he prefers hamburgers and french fries to sushi and
other Japanese delicacies.
The rows of motor homes and
masses of people, cameras and
equipment on Malibu Beach totally
overwhelmed Matthew and the
family.
"I was in awe of the entire com-
CONTINUED on page 2
Schools' new food
service manager
comes back home
for ideal postiion
Comet Man works the crowd during a recent      through the i
football game. Tho now mascot was produced
nar and senior BIO Ferber. They clarity are restricted by a dark mesh
"hand-off" Comet Mao on a quar- screen recessed in* the mascot's
tarty beats. mouth.
Comal Mm ia constructed for Accoecting to high school prind-
people 3*9" atooutf.6'3'. short peo- pal Frtd Holland, The crowd mac-
& without Mate seed not apply, uoa m Comet Man was many great,
oceopem's field of vision and ,H» raw**** high (Ives from every-
> of tlie Quarterback Club.
one up and down the fence. Kids ran
up to touch Comet Man and many
had their pictures taken with the
After 26 years and about eight
months of planning and serving
food to people from Ohio to Texas,
Wanda Watford's dream has come
true.
Earlier this month, she returned
the Amherst schools, not as a
teacher but food service manager for
the school district
She's taken up temporary job residence at Marion L. Steele High
School, from where she graduated
in 1973. In the coming weeks, her
office will be moved from a tiny office in the corner of the Steele
kitchen to a larger office in the
school district's administrative offices on Forest Street
"I knew what I wanted to do
when I graduated and always wondered in the back of my mind if I
could ever come back here," she
said. "It took awhile, but here I am
and I couldn't be happier."
She wasn't really gone from Amhent very long. The daughter of
Amherst auto dealer Pete Sliman,
she only was away between
198449. Thorn were the days she
worked in the high tech city of Austin, Texas. She was food service
manager for a consortium of computer companies that were used to fine
dining, a far cry from school
Comet Mae's debut was capped
by a 31-S victory over the Wanens-
viUe
Prior m that, she had been ia
charge of food service at Southwest
General Hospital ia MttMmrg
Heights fcom 197740 end she Yar?
and moved south, only to return and
head food service at Ford Motor
Company's Avon Lake van plant
There, she worked for a private
company that operated the plant's
dining facilities.
Warford also was the food service
manager at the Olmsted Falls
schools until last spring. It was
when retiring Amherst school food
service manager Barbara Wolfe encouraged her to apply for her soon-
to-be vacant job.
Now she has come back to Amherst to plan meals, something that
first piqued her interest while living
in a family of six.
"We were always entertaining at
home and I was the main helper, ao
somebody around the house was always cooking," Warford explained.
"I've always enjoyed being around
food and entertaining."
That got her interested in nutrition and dietetics, a career she first
studied at Bowling Green Stale
University.
In her new position, the wil
oversee 23 miittami and helpers,
oae of whom may unofficially ba
her aaa, Jonathan, a student at
Shupe Middle School.
If he hu his way, students will be
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