Amherst News-Times, 2002-02-20

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 20(12
AMHERST, OHIO
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Water rates have questions, ire risinc
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by AMY PERSINQER
News-Times reporter
The ire   of some members
of council is going up along
with the water rates in the
city of Amherst
Mayor John Higgins
announced to council Feb. 11
that he had sent out letters to
members of the community
informing them of an upcoming water rate increase. The
increase, which will take effect March 1, will be between
84 cents and $1.13 per cubic
foot
Higgins said that the city
had put off raising the rates
for about a year after both of
the cities that Amherst gets
it's water from, Lorain and
Elyria, raised the rates they
charge for water.
Higgins told the council
that the water department
would be bankrupt in about
four months if they didn't increase the rates the residents
paid for their water. The
Safety Service director Sherrill
McLoda, can raise water rates
without council's approval.
The interest the water department fund collects goes
into the general fund and
some council members indicated that they felt the city
would be better served if the
money stayed in the water
department's fund. Councilman
Steve P'Simer asked the Law
Director, Kenneth Stumphauzer, to prepare an opinion
indicating the legality of the
interest not following the
fund. Council agreed 4-2 to
ask for the opinion. P'Simer
speculated that a rate increase
might be unnecessary if the
interest had stayed with the
fund. Higgins responded that
the money was needed in the
general fund and that the interest from other funds the
city holds go into the general
fund, as well.
In a telephone interview
Councilwoman Jennifer Wasilk
said that she doesn't think
it's wise for a city to depend
on the interest from it's peripheral funds to support the
general fund. She said the interest rate plunge of recent
months is a good indication
why. She also said services
are expanded based on the income of interest and when
those rates drop significantly,
as they have recently, then
the city faces a tremendous
shortfall.
"You never hire or purch
ase based on interest rates,"
she said. "Or you're going to
have to make tough
decisions."
At the council meeting Wasilk asked Higgins about the
line loss the city faces every
month. She said Higgins had
told them previously that the
loss was 60 percent but the
mayor said it was about 33
percent Wasilk wondered if
the line loss was lowered if
the city could avoid raising
rates.
Utilities Superintendent Ron
Murphy said in a telephone
interview that the term "line
loss" causes some confusion
when discussing the amount
of water that goes through
the water department He said
often it isn't a loss, it's just
unbilled usage.
"Water 'loss' is not accu
rate," he said, "fires, flushing
hydrants when a resident
complains of the water color,
et cetera, all of that is covered by the general rate."
Murphy said there were
other reasons the "line loss"
doesn't indicate inefficiency.
The city experiences several
breaks each year, depending
on how cold it is, with thousands of gallons of water
pouring out, Murphy said.
Murphy said the 60 percent
figure was an internal number
indicating how much water
was not accounted for in an
individual month. He said that
the number was inflated because there is a fifteen day
period when the meters are
being read. He said that water
is later accounted for and
over the   course of the year
the average unbilled usage
was 28 percent.
Murphy also said the
American Water Works Association estimates a national
unbilled usage of 15-20
percent
"Our goal is 20 percent
There are cities with less," he
said, "and cities with a lot
more."
Murphy also said slow meters is a large part of loss.
Meters are very costly to replace. He said they are
changed as they are damaged
or need repair, but to replace
them all at $100 a piece plus
labor costs would cost the
city over a half million
dollars.
its.
Religions unite locally
to help and to educate
by AMY PERSINGER
News-Times reporter
In a year full of terrorist
bombings, anthrax deaths and
war, there is little wonder
that fear is sneaking in
through the cracks of the
American veneer.
But one local Muslim woman and a local Christian
church aren't going to let
those disasters aad that fear
further polarize tne members
of the two faiths who, along
with Judaism, were the religious foundations of the west-
em world, if they can help it
Twenty-seven-year-old
Yvonne Maffci was raised
Catholic by Sicilian and
Puerto Rican parents. She is a
graduate of Marion Steele
High School and Ohio University with a degree in International Studies and now
teaches Spanish at Lake
Ridge Academy.
Stephanie Bikel has been
the pastor of the Brownhelm
Church of Christ for six-and-
a-half years. Toward the end
of last year she put the word
out that she'd like to have
someone come to her church
and discuss the religion of
Islam with them.
Eventually, someone gave
Maffci's name and phone
number to Bikel and Bikel's
name and phone number to
Maffci. Maffci called Bikel
and they planned her first
visit to the church in .December. They asked her to come
back and give another presentation Feb. 11.
Maflei said that some of
the most serious problems
non-Muslim Americans are
having about Islam really
don't have anything to do
with Islam at all. She said
many things that are perceived as Muslim are actually
cultural, not religious. Two of
the most glaring examples are
violence and hatred for the
west and mistreatment of
women.
Maflei said that Islam is
not teaching people to be violent or to hate non-Muslims.
She said that terrorism is not
condoned in any way by the
teaching of Islam. She said
the violence of those purporting to be killing for .Allah is
preceded by a complex layer
of factors.
"Muslims do not think
what happened on Sept 11 is
justified," Muflei said in an
interview, "There was even a
Mosque in the World Trade
Center. We want to get to
the bottom of this."
She said that the issues
that lead to violence are imbedded in politics, not religion. The regions where violence is becoming commonplace are mired in political and
economic strife. The people
there are hungry, frustrated
and suffering, she said.
"But that doesn't mean
there is a justification for violence," she said, "Islam forbids suicide. Murder is
forbidden."
She also said that those
who arc *advocating violence
have a distorted understanding
of Islam. She said that those
people who are frustrated and
hungry and suffering are being manipulated by people
serving their own end.
The mistreatment of women
is not based on the true
Islam, either, Maflei said.
That too, is based in the culture not the Koran
"Oppression is cultural. Patriarchal societies have lost the
concept of Islam. It liberated
CONTINUED on page 8
Riding in sunshine
This family is taking advantage of a slightly
warm, sunny day recently as they donned their
helmets and went for a ride on their bikes. Dad,
Nathan Arlington, is joined by his son, Nicholas
and daughter, Emily, on the ride.
Amherst mother's video
helps prepare children
by AMY PER8MOER
News-Times reporter
The old adage is that practice
makes perfect What better time to
start practicing for that first trip to
the dentist than in February — National Children's Dental Health
Month?
It was the idea practice makes
perfect that motivated Amherst resident Claudia Miller-Snyder to create
a children's video about a kid's first
trip to the dentist just over a year
ago.
Miller-Snyder co-founded Boggle
Goggle Enterprises with Martha
Seely and together they produced
the video 'Pinatta's view — A Trip
to the Dentist*.
The video depicts a young girl's
first trip to the dentist with her
mother. What is unusual is that it's
portrayed from a 40-inch-high angle
— the perspective of a young child.
Miller-Snyder shows how big and
different things seem to young
children.
Miller-Snyder advocates play acting with children to prepare them
for those things that seem scary because they're big and different She
said that is how she prepared her
daughter to go to the dentist for the
first time and the video helps other
parents to do the same for their
children.
In the video, the little girl and her
mother have been practicing going
to the dentist, too, and though she is
nervous the practice had made her
ready. Again, the whole time she is
in the dentist's office, the camera's
view is that of a little child.
The video won the Oppenheim
Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award for
2002 and when it was first released
won the Aegis Award and the Inter-
CONTINUED on page 11
Breakfast of champs
Members of the winters sports teams at Ma-
on L. Steele are treated with an early morning
reakfast recently at the high school. According
> Erich Frombach, the new Dean of Students, N
is a tradition the school is hoping to start to thank
them for their hard work and to with them good
luck on their upooming tournaments.
ADBA has plans for wall
by AMY PERSINQER
News-Timee reporter
Some business owners
downtown hope to see mare
shoppers downtown eqjoying
open air markets and a beautified Tenney St wall.
At the Feb. 7 meeting of
the Amhem Downtown and
Betterment Association. Lesia
Boytchuk-Schneider. ihe city's
Main Street director reported
plans to host a silent auction
at the old Post Office widi
the protests jofaf toward the
revfcattzafai of the Teoaey
St wad.
The proposed alteration of
the wall would include false
storefronts along the length of
the wall. The facades would
be extended away from the
wall, not simply painted on,
providing an area for an open
air nunfcet in the summer.
There would also be a
.ADBA president Dave Fox
said that there might be some
volunteers available to do die
work once plans have been
drawn up. Judy Rucknsfd of
the Design Review Bored said
the ADBA could conduct a
available along the wall to
continue to post city events.
This nury be a protected area,
m____       — — -- — —— -A\      _u*l__t ■ *   ■        - * —
mm covered wan ptarroc,
Also included on the Tenney wan would be Ohio's
Biceuiounial tone.
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done by the dty for the
Safety City. The buildups
represented ia Safety City
ware purchased by city businesses with the money going to the ronaroction of the
children's area.
The auction win be called
CONTINUiOunpafe11
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