The Amherst news-times. (Amherst, Ohio), 2000-03-15

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Amherst News-Tim'
■
-  s
Wednesday, March 15. 2000
Amherst, Ohio
cents
i
Council tal
full-time A
chief until more
figures tallied
What a story
St. Joseph's School celebrates Right to Read Week with "A Millennium of Books," March 13-17. The school will be promoting
reading with a poster contest, reading coupons, a no television
night, and guest readers. John Higgins reads "Kate Shelly: Bound
For Legend" to Mrs. Park's third grade class.
by KEITH GRIBBINS
News Times reporter
City council once again tabled a
request for the fire chief to be made
a full-time position during executive
committee meetings last Monday,
citing the need for more exact information about the job description and
pay of the chiefs position.
Council members voted 5-2, with
Terrance Traster and Jennifer Wa-
silk voting against, to allow two
more weeks for council, city officials, and fire chief Ralph Zilch to
get correct information down on
paper before the request could move
before a regular council meeting.
"Matters like this are based on
discussion and need to be planned
out. I want a good working idea of
what the job is before we move it to
the floor of council. Not just on this
issue but everything," explained 'executive and insurance committee
chairperson Steve P'Simer. "...As
chairman of the committee, I would
like time to review this. I'm not disputing it. It's just timing."
Zilch made the original request
for a full-time position in October,
1999, and in December re-applied
for the position with some different
information in the second request
According to members of council,
there were two or three job descriptions and a number of salaries that
needed to be specified before they
could pass it to the floor of council
CONTINUED on page 2
All dressed up? How about a school meeting...
Amherst school district residents
who complain they never get to go
anywhere will soon receive an invitation and a telephone call asking
them out.
On Friday the board of education
will mail invitations to residents,
asking them to attend a special State
of the Schools meeting on Tuesday,
April 11 at the high school multipurpose room. About nine days later, volunteers will begin calling to
get verbal committment to attend.
About 23 volunteers met with the
school board and other school officials at a special work session last
Tuesday night to receive marching
orders and to prepare about 4,000
letters to be mailed.
Lists of school district residents
were circulated and the volunteers
each selected IS people they knew
to call.
Assistant superintendent Tim Logar said the goal is to have 400 peo
ple attend the meeting where a decision will be hammered out on how
to handle the overcrowding in the
schools.
"This is a son of coming to the
end of a decision, where our school
district, under the leadership of our
superintendent has studied over a
year and a half," Logar said.
He said the school's architect will
be a? the April meeting wto-tarrM
preliminary drawings and other information to help the board of edu
cation make a decision. There will
also be an open forum for residents.
Logar said the board is expected
to make a decision on how to address the overcrowding issue at its
April 17 meeting. The board will
likely decide on one of four "enhancement options" outlined in a facilities future report issued in March
1999. Those options include:
• Upgrading science classrooms
and building a fine arts center and
second gym at the high school. This
Nord Family grant will aid
in hiring downtown leader
by KEITH GRIBBINS
News-Times reporter
The city has made an essential
step in the process of revitalizing
the look and commerce of the community's downtown area.
City council members unanimously voted 7-0 to establish salary
and benefits for the position of a
downtown coordinator at the Monday, March 6 finance committee
meeting.
"This town needs a planner. For
what ever happens in the future depends on economic development,"
mayor John Higgins stated. "...I'm
hoping to see a downtown with
more vitality, more niche businesses, more parking, better facades,
and one that's architecturally and
historically current."
The city is looking for an indivi
dual that can initiate, coordinate,
and implement a downtown development program, according to a
packet Higgins presented to city
council at the committee meetings.
The program is aimed at promoting
activities to advance the general
welfare and prosperity of the Amherst area so that its business community can prosper.
The city is attempting to implement the National Main Street Center's process of four basic, incremental tenets: organization, promotion, design, and economic
restructuring.
"We're trying to make downtown
marketable," Higgins explained.
Over the years downtown Amherst has been cut off from a lot of
the major businesses that have
popped up in the surrounding areas.
Business traffic in downtown has
slowed over time.
"We've seen more marginal business with lower volume over the last
few years. And a little more specialty shops," explained Higgins about the decline of business in the
downtown quarter of the city. "We
don't have the grocery stores and
meat market type stores that create a
lot of foot traffic downtown."
The mayor and the city are looking for the downtown coordinator to
work with local business, the city,
and the state to make downtown
Amherst prolific again. The first
step will involve creating a marketing strategy.
The responsiblity for the development, conduct, execution, and documentation of a marketing plan for
downtown Amherst will fall lo the
coordinator. The individual is the
principal, on-site staff responsible
CONTINUED on page 10
Olympians use their heads
to solve science problems
by KEITH GRIBBINS
News-Times reporter
Achievement is the goal of any
teacher.
Helping their students achieve
their potential and thus increase
their knowledge and ability to leam
is the satisfaction of almost every
educator.
Nord Junior High School seventh
grade teacher Kelly Kordeleski has
taken a special interest in the
achievement of the local student
body. Kordeleski and her husband
Dan are the junior high and ninth
grade coaches for the Science
Olympiad team.
And achieve is just what the two
teams have done.
On April 12 the Science Olympiad A team will travel to Ohio
State University in Columbus to
participate with 80 other junior and
senior high teams at the state level.
Only weeks earlier, the team look
second at the Regional Lorain Science Olympiad tournament held at
Lorain County Community College,
a showing that stated the team's impressive abilities and showed the region that Amherst has national
potential
"I'm hooked," explained Kordeleski. "You get hooked. You want
to see the kids win and the smiles on
their faces. It's like caffeine."
Science Olympiad is an international nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality of
science education, increasing student interest in science and providing  recognition  for outstanding
CONTINUED on page 2
Students
earn wins
at regional
The following are the results of the Nord Junior High
School and ninth grade Science Olympiad competition at
the Lorain Regional
Tournameot held at Lorain
Community College on Feb.
26:
Mackenzie Anderson, 5th in
Amphibians and Reptiles;
Brett Ross and Phil Ferber,
1st in Battery Buggy, Joe Gi-
CONTINUED on page 2
option would require high school
and junior high students to share the
current high school under a block
split schedule format. The cost
would be about $4 million.
• Building a new junior high
school for grades seven and eight
with a capacity of 800 students and
making the needed improvements to
the high school. The cost would be
.—UurSIJifll million.
•Building a new 1,000-studcnt
high school for grades 10 through
12 with modern science classrooms,
a fine arts center and two gyms at a
cost of about $16.4 million.
• Building a new 1500-student
high school for grades nine through
12 with modem science classrooms,
a fine arts center, and two gyms, at a
cost of about $21.6 million.
The board is expected to put a request for a bond issue on the
November ballot for the option that
is selected.
Sweet treat
Paczki Day at the Simply Delicious Bakery
took hold of the Amherst community Tuesday,
March 2. The little dough ball sweets were the
talk of the town and people traveled from all over
northern Ohio to get their fill of the Polish doughnuts before Lent. Pictured above, Ashley Martin
gets an order, a little of everything, from a local
customer. Below Nick Mezlak, left, and Lori
Banes, right, also the Polish Princess, apply the
powdered sugar and the final touches to the
treats.
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