Amherst News-Times, 2001-12-19

              Top students hear top speaker — Page 13        Early deadlines set — Page 14
Amherst News-Tim^
Wl DNISDAY, DECEMBER 1(>, 2001
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School board hires
assistant principal
to lead high school
About one month after the
sudden departure of Mike Dixon, Marion L. Steele High
School has a new principal.
Former assistant principal and
athletic director, Jeff Riesen is
now the school's new leader
after spending the last month
as its interim principal.
The school's head football
coach, Riesen was concerned
that he might have to leave
those duties behind in order
to take the principal position.
"The big *if was would
they allow me to continue to
coach,*' Riesen said, speaking
about school superintendant
Robert Boynton and the
school board. The board of
education voted unanimously
Monday to accept Riesen as
Steele's new principal and allow him to continue his
coaching. "They were gracious
enough to let me do that," he
said.
He will, however, have to
give up his duties as the
school's athletic director. According to Riesen, throughout
his 20 years in die teaching
profession, he had always
wanted to be an athletic director. Already having a master's degree in athletic administration when he came to
Amherst in 1992, Riesen
found that in order to be
Amherst's athletic director, he
also had to be the high
school's assistant principal.
After earning another master's in school administration
he eventually was named the
athletic director and assistant
principal.
Now, Riesen said, a temporary dean of students will
be named for the rest of this
school year. The person that
holds that office will fill
some of Riesen's old responsibilities regarding athletics.
Next year, a new assistant
principal and athletic director
will be named.
Riesen said that if it wasn't
for his long-time interest in
athletics, he would have considered the principal position
years ago.
"I'm both happy and excited about having the oppor
tunity to be the principal here
at Steele," Riesen said. "I
feel we've got a great staff
and I really enjoy the
students."
Riesen lives in Carlisle
Township with his wife
Dawn. They have two children, Tracey, 24, who is pursuing her master's in psychology at the University of Akron and Amy, 20, who is
studying civil engineering at
the University of Toledo.
Riesen, who has lived in
the area throughout his teaching career in North Ridgeville, Elyria and Avon Lake,
does not forsee having the
same problems that former
principal Mike Dixon cited as
reasons for his resignation.
Those reasons included a
long drive to work of more
than an hour each way.
"My drive is 20 minutes
and I kind of like it," Riesen
said. "It g'ves me a chance
to think of everything I have
to do."
City's
Main St.
bid fails
at state
by ERIK YORKE
News-Times reporter
Following a great deal of hard
work by city employees, downtown
business owners and other community members, the city of Amherst
was turned down for the second
•consecutive year by Downtown
Ohio, Inc. for being considered a
Main Street Community.
Downtown Ohio, Inc. is a
Columbus-based company that takes
in numerous applications every year
from communities wishing to be designated as Main Street Communities. That designation, while it carries no funding to be granted those
designated communities, provides
them with numerous training opportunities geared at creating and sustaining viable business areas much
like the Amherst downtown.
According to Amherst's main
street director, Lesia Boytchuk-
Schneider, Downtown Ohio, Inc.
can pick six communities a year for
designation. This year they chose
only two. Those two communities,
announced at a ceremony on Dec.
13 by State Development Director
Bruce Johnson, were Bowling
Green and Amherst's close neighbor, Oberiin.
She added that she was given the
impression by lVIain Street officials
that Amherat was a close runner-up.
"I'm disappointed but not discouraged," she said. "My recommendation is to reapply."
One of the reasons that Amherat
was not given the designation this
year, Boytchuk-Schneider said, was
that they wanted to make sure that
her's was a stable position. The person who previously held that position, then called the city's downtown coordinator, Greg Balbierz,
was fired in June.
Other reasons for Amherst not
getting the designation. Boytchuk-
Schneider said, were small inconsistencies that she feels can be
smoothed over before the city reap-
CONTiNUED on page 14
'   ■
Christmas experts, above, from Powers Elementary School share
their knowledge with the News-Times staff and readers. Most of
Santa's secrets are out just in time to prepare for his visit next week.
Youngsters tell
all on Clauses'
Christmas plan
Connor, below, a member of Mrs. Reichert's first grade class, demonstrates just how small the chimney Is at his house in Amherst.
by DIANA HOUGLAND
News-Times reporter
Amherst probably does not realize it, but there are many Christmas
experts attending school here. Many
can be found in Donna Reichert's
first grade class at Powers Elementary School.
So, with the holidays quickly approaching, the News-Times spoke to
several of these young experts about
Santa's rituals before beading off, as
well as a more personal, up close
look at how each first grader looks
forward to the big night, Christmas
Eve.
Expert number one. Savannah,
admits to knowing a lot about Santa
and Christmas.
"Because I really love Christmas," she explained. "You get to
spend time with family and the people you don't live with you get to
see."
Savannah has a pretty good idea
about what goes on at the North
Pole before Santa takes off far his
long trip.
"He gives the deer extra food before be leaves," she said. "Then, before he gets into his sleigh, he looks
at his list to see where he has to stop
first."
Connor, another member of Ihe
first grade class, also claims to be an
expert and knows what Santa does
before leaving.
CONTINUED on page 14
News-Times reporter
Earlier this month, Firefighters
and police from the area gathered in
Amherst to get a better look at what
death looks like under water.
Twenty-two police and firefighters from nine departments met at
Safety Service Divers in downtown
Amherst for two days to hear William Heckler give a seminar entitled
"Investigating the Water-related
Death."
The Amherst police and fire departments, the Elyria fire department, the Avon police department,
jhe Sheffield Lake police department, the Bay Village police and
fire departments, the Rocky River
fire department and the Lorain
County Sheriffs Department all had
representatives present at the
seminar.
According to Ron Westmoreland,
owner of Safety Service Divers and
an Amherst firefighter, many police
and fire departments have dive
teams trained to retrieve bodies and
evidence.
Westmoreland said the seminar
focused primarily on slides and pictures of dead bodies with different
characteristics for the police officers
and firefighters to study. He said
that he had to close his store for the
two days and place tarps over the
windows so that passersby would
not see the grisly images that were
being shown.
"(The pictures) even bothered
some of the cops, but it's part of the
job," Westmoreland said. "They
learned a lot."
Westmoreland said that police officers and firefighters have very different roles in a water-related fatality investigation. Firefighters, he
said, are responsible for the rescue,
if possible, or retrieval of bodies. He
said police act primarily to gather
evidence.
There seems to be an increase in.
people disposing of stuff in the wa-
CONTMUED on page 14
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