Amherst News-Times, 1999-11-17

              Thanksgiving service set — Page 2      Football coach earns kudos — Page
Amherst News-Time
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Wednesday. November 17,  1999
Amherst, Ohio
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A combined 21 gun salute is part of the ceremonies held at city hall observing Veterans Day.
Veterans give students
lesson on 'ultimate' job
Veterans Don Breen and Howard Maegle are
showing kids at Powers Elementary School how
to fold and handle a U.S. flag.
Beginning this year, the state
government has now legislated that
schools have some type of awareness program on Veterans Day.
According to documentation send
to Powers Elementary School principal David Anghilantc on Oct. 29,
the new ruling is an amendment to
the Ohio Revised Code, mandating
that all schools in all districts devote
times in observance of Veterans
Day. Anghilante believes the
amendment must have recently been
approved.
"There is a support group for education that normally provides us
with materials that we can purchase.
Apparently this change happened so
•quickly that none of thooPBds were -
available to us this year. Next year
we may have age appropriate materials." Anghilante said.
This year's school observance
was handled by Jean Tammaro, who
knows veteran Don Breen, and put
together the Veterans Day program.
The observance began Nov. 10, with
a movie on veterans shown to all
students. Breen, and fellow veteran
Howard Maegle, then spoke to students last Thursday, the official Veterans Day holiday.
Breen is a past local Veterans of
Foreign Wars Post commander, a
retired school teacher from South-
view, and World War II veteran,
where he served as a sonar operator
on a navy fleet tug in the Pacific.
Maegle, also a WWII Navy veteran, served in Panama and the Pacific on both on a sub tender and on
a destroyer tender.
1 The men demonstrated the proper
way to fold and handle a U.S. flag.
After completing the school demonstration, both men joined others
from their posts for a Veterans Day
ceremony at city hall.
From the steps of city hall mayor
John Higgins spoke to a number of
city officials, participating veterans,
members of the community and the
press.
The mayor thanked the veterans
for their willingness to risk their
lives to keep America free. "Every
day I thank you," Higgins said.
"Amherst needs to remember the
unselfnh deeds of its veterans, especially those that paid the ultimate
price and gave up their lives, never
to see their wives, sons and daughters again."
Participating veterans groups represented were Amherst Veterans of
Foreign Wars Post 1662, American
Legion Post 118 from Amherst and
Post 197 from South Amherst.
The ceremony concluded with a
joint 21 gun salute and taps played
by bugler Orville Butler.
City agrees to apologize for filing tax charge
by KATHLEEN WILLBOND
News-Times editor
Basking in the glow of seeing city
law director Alan Anderson defeated at the polls in the Nov. 2
election, David Moore is now glowing over an apology he has received
from the city for its pursuit of criminal charges against him.
The city last week agreed not to
pursue any charges against Moore,
stemming from an attempt to collect
what the city felt were unpaid back
income taxes stemming from
Moore's business, Crystal
Mortgage.
The charges were first filed last
year, and then abruptly dropped this
fall, but Moore, adament that his
company did not owe any back
taxes, fought the charges on two
fronts: he filed a suit claiming his
civil rights were being violated and
City stays mum on case course
by KATHLEEN WILLBOND
News-Times editor
Dave Moore took a very
public approach to his battle
with the city after criminal
charges were filed against
him for alleged failure to pay
city income taxes.
He talked to the press and
openly chastised city officials,
mainly law director Alan Anderson and treasurer Kathleen
Litkovitz.
He credits his campaign to
get Anderson ousted from office in the Nov. 2 election
for the law director's demise
at the polls; Anderson lost to
Kenneth Stumphauzer who
will be the new city law director in January.
Moore printed posters,
showing himself in shackles,
and purchased newspaper advertising, urging residents to
vote in new council members
and "Anybody But Anderson,"
the catch phrase for his anti-
Anderson campaign.
He claims he'll do the
same in two years when Litkovitz is up for re-election.
City officials, on the other
hand, have said Utile through
out the venture, which ended
last week with the city and
Moore signing a consent
agreement in which the city
admitted Moore's income tax
filings for 1996 and 1997
were correct, and issuing an
apology to the businessman.
The criminal charges were
abruptly withdrawn, with no
explanation from Anderson or
Ihe city but Moore's civil suit
against the city remained intact until last week when he
agreed to drop it after the
consent agenda was signed.
Anderson still claims that
he acted properly and with
instruction from the treasurer's
office.
"The last communication I
got from the treasurer's office
was that there were taxes
due," Anderson said last
week, adding that the communication indicated that $7,500
in withholding taxes had to
be paid.
"Litkovitz could have said
at any time that they (treasurer's office) were satisfied
and I would have withdrawn
the charges," Anderson said.
When asked why the
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he campaigned to have city law director Anderson ousted from office.
He won on both fronts.
Moore signed a consent agenda,
along with mayor John Higgins, Anderson and city treasurer Kathleen
Litkovitz last Tuesday.
All parties agreed to drop their
charges and suits and the city agreed
to apologize to Moore, something
he has insisted must happen
throughout the affair.
According to the agreement, the
city "accepts, as filed and without
any changes, the 1996 and 1997 city
tax returns of Crystal Mortgage
Company, Inc., David J. Moore,
Lenders M.D. Inc., Bayside Title
and Escrow agency. Inc., DJ.
Moore Enterprises, Inc., FTP, Ltd,
and the employees" of all these
businesses.
The city also agreed it would not
CONTINUED on page 8
Spanish teacher
adds some spice
to St. Joe's class
by KEITH GRIBBINS
News-Times reporter
When Anna Castillo walks
through the halls of St. Joseph's
Elementary School, she gets a little
different reaction from the student
body than most teachers might get.
"I'll be walki...,* down the hall at
the end of the day and I'll have
children say adios or via condious,"
Castillo said. "It's really a wonderful feeling."
Castillo is the pillar of the new
conversational Spanish program at
St. Joseph's. Singing songs, playing
games, and developing vocabulary
in Spanish, St. Joseph's is taking a
new route to enhancing language
development for their young student
body.
"This is wonderful I have to recommend it to all schools," stated
principal John Gregory. "This not
only helps the children learn Spanish but helps them learn English as
well."
Castillo is a native of Los
Angeles; her parents are Guatemalan. She attended Allentown College
in Center Valley. Pa., before moving to Amherst with her husband
and two children. She heard through
her parish Sagrada Familia, holy
family, in Amherst that St Joseph's
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