Amherst News-Times, 2002-06-26

              Phones help stop violence — Page 2 | Former Comet now Iowa coach — Page 6
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Amherst News-Timel
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Man shocked,
Merchants help
Business owners from downtown
Amherst have come together to create a benevolent fund for the worker
who was shocked when he came in
contact with overhead wires carrying 7,200 volts of electricity.
Twenty-year-old Derek Carter
was cutting mortar between bricks
on a building on the corner of Park
and Cleveland Avenues last Monday, when he apparently leaned
back and touched his head against
the electrical wires.
Carter was in a hydraulic lift,
sometimes called a "cherry picker"
and holding a tool when the accident happened.
A downtown businessman who
asked not be named said his wife
works across from where the Carter
had been working and they both felt
that something had to be done. They
decided lo get together with other
business people to raise funds lo
help with Carter's care, which will
likely last years due to his injuries.
"The kid's just getting started in
life," he said.
He said he and his wife thought Carter was a nice young man and they
noticed how hard he was working
for his employer, CAR Masonry.
The businessman said Carter was
very proud of his job.
He said he thinks this is something all the Amherst businesses
will get involved with.
"Somebody's in need," he said.
Wingard Racing, a new business
on Park Avenue specializing in
muscle car accessories, is also collecting money for Carter. Michelle
Wingard, who owns the business
with her husband, said the company
is offering a discount to customers
who contribute at least five dollars
to the fund to help defray the costs
the family faces because of Carter's
accident
According to reports. Carter, a
drummer in the praise band at
House of Praise church in Lorain,
had to have his left hand amputated
because of damage that occurred
when he electricity exited his body.
He graduated in 1999 from
Southview High School in Lorain.
Carter is still in critical condition
at MetroHealth Medical Center in
Cleveland.
The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration is still investigating the accident
Contributions to the Derek Carter
Benevolent Fund car. be mailed to
FirstMerit Bank 160 Cleveland Ave.
Amherst, 44001 or dropped off at
any FirstMerit Bank location.
Police seek fifth
break-in suspect
At the Lorain County Sheriffs
Department issues a warrant for the
arrest of a fifth suspect in a string of
daylight robberies, it seems the man
they worked so hard to nab last
month was just the tip of the
iceburg.
The men are suspected in at least
nine, bold daylight robberies around
Lorain County, including several in
Amherst
Sheriffs deputies arrested the
first suspect Jose Ortiz, 18, after a
five-hour chase. Ortiz led police
from five departments on a foot
chase through residential neighborhoods, the Golden Acres nursing
home and the woods before he was
nabbed by the deputies and an Amherst Township resident
Antonio Tannon, 33, who goes by
several other names including Antonio Colon, was arrested in southern
Michigan while driving a Lincoln
stolen from Amherst Tannon, who
is from Chicago, had a suitcase full
of clothes from a South Broadway
burglary in the trunk. He was also
seen driving the Ford Contour that
Hector Rivera, the third suspect,
was suspected of driving the day of
the manhunt the day the car was
stolen in May.
Rivera, 21, was arrested in Cleve
land June 13. Deputies said that
Rivera has been mostly cooperative.
Omar Guticrrez,19, was arrested
the following day. Deputies had a
nickname lo work with, and heard
he was coming into town, so they
staked out the house he would be
visiting.
Ortiz had only known Rivera
briefly before the burglaries, and
Gutierrez had known him about a
month. Rivera and Tannon have
known each other for years, according to Lopez, and refer to each other
as brothers.
The fifth suspect is a relative of
Rivera's. The sheriffs department
issued an arrest for the unnamed
suspect Monday afternoon.
Rivera is suspected in a burglary
that took place after the arrest of Ortiz, as well as the original nine. His
cell phone was found below a window outside the home. He claimed
he loaned it to Gutierrez.
Lopez said most of the victims
were older. One of the victims, a
92-year-old woman, had to be hospitalized after the burglary. She is
now home, staying with family.
Some of the jewelry allegedly
stolen from the burglaries was
traded for drugs, but much of the
other property has been retrieved.
Driver sentencing
stalled for testing
Five years and three psychiatric
evaluations after sexually abusing
junior high school girls, former Amherst bus driver Andrew J. Bishop
still has yet to be sentenced.
Lorain County Common Pleas
Court Judge Mark A. Betkski ordered the man convicted of 19
counts of rape and four counts of
extortion to be evaluated again.
Two out of the three mental
health experts that evaluated Bishop
thus Car have said that he shows
signs of malingering. They said that
Bishop was intentionally falsifying
or exaggerating symptoms to appear
mentally ill.
Bjshop could be sentenced lo life
in prison for blackmailing the young
guis into having sex with him. He
claimed to have pictures of them
lifting their tops at a football game
and threatened to make them public
if they did not have sex with him.
Bishop pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity initially. He was ordered fit to stand trial in January and
returned to the Lorain County Jul
from the North Coast Behavioral
mental health facility. He then
changed his plea to guilty.
Louis Romero and his wife, Cheri, pose with their grandchildren on the new ramp provided for them by friends and strangers.
Man blessed by Eagles, others
by AMY PERSINGER
News-Times reporter
Anybody taking a look
from the outside at the turn
Louis Romero's life had taken
in the last four years would
be surprised if he wasn't
starting to get a little bitter.
But1 after five minutes in
the living room of the home
in WeSlwoods he shares with
his wife Cheri and their two
young'grandsons, any outsider
would know that Romero
counts his blessings.
He can't stop telling people
about the nice tilings that
friends and family keep doing
for him lately, like the ramp
the Eagle's Club built for
him.
Romero, 47, has diabetes.
Last fall he developed a complication called Charcot joint
The bones in his feet just
started breaking. The problem
is worsened by the fact that
due to his illness, Romero
can't feel pain in his legs
and didn't know how much
damage was batiig caused to
his feet and legs.
"He worked his whole
life," Cheri said. Not being
able to work was. nearly devastating to him.
Romero can stand, but he
can't walk around very well.
He uses a wheel chair anytime the family goes out He
wears braces on both of his
feet and ankles to reduce the
chance of injury to his bones.
The couple had set up a
portable ramp on the stairs
leading out of their home.
Cheri was talking to her
friend, Juanita Robinson, one
day about some of the trouble
her husband was facing. It
was just one of those regular
conversations friends have,
catching up on the good and
the bad everyone goes
through. But what happened
from that conversation is what
is so moving to Romero.
Robinson talked to her husband about the Romeros' situation, and the two felt compelled to do something to
help their friends. The
Romeros said they told Robinson they were fine with
the portable ramp they had
set up, but Robinson wouldn't
have it
"David came over with a
friend, and next thing I know,
I had a ramp," Romero said.
The actual process took a
little longer than that but not
much. Robinson brought over
his friend Ron Harper and the
two of them made measurements around the porch and
front of the Romeros house.
Robinson, a member of the
Amherst Eagles Club, described the family's situation
to the club and asked them
for the funds to build Romero
a ramp. He had already gone
to Carter Lumber and told
them the situation and worked
out a price.
Carter Lumber agreed to
provide the lumber below
cost
CONTINUED on page 3
Race driver turns entrepreneur
People say to start a great business start with a passion and a need.
The owners of a new store downtown did just that
Michelle Wingard, 24, and her
husband, Jerry, 30, decided to take
something that they both loved and
turn it into the only business of its
kind in the area.
The Wingards both love cars.
More specifically, they love Mustangs. She races them at Norwalk
Raceway Park in Norwalk every
chance she gets and her husband
loves to work on them. He keeps
them in racing condition for her.
Currently the couple owns three, a
'91 CX and two '95 GTs.
It works perfect" Jerry Wingard
said, "I like to build them and she
likes lo race them."
The problem, according to Michelle Wingard, is that most local
"speed shops" are geared toward
Chevy enthusiasts. Before they
opened their own store, any time
they needed parts for one of their
cars the couple would have to have
it ordered, because the shops
wouldn't have what they needed in
stock.
The gears started turning in their
heads and the couple started discussing opening their own "speed
shop."
On May 6 the couple opened
Wingard Racing at 135 Park Ave.
The company specializes in American muscle car accessories, Wingard
said She said you'd go to Wingard
for "anything to do with car parts."
Wingard said late model Ford
parts make up about 80 percent of
their business and the store is doing
very well.
Wingard said she grew up in Amherst and when they saw the space
open up on Park Ave., she knew that
was the perfect place for their shop.
She said it was a prime location and
easy to find. When she tells customers that the store is right downtown
Amherst, they know exactly where
she nwanff
"We love Amherst," Wingard
said
Wingard racing is one of several
downtown businesses that are taking
donations for Derek Carter, the masonry worker who was injured in
Amherst last Monday. The business
is offering discounts to customers
who donate five dollars or more to
the fund. She said her customers
have been more than willing to help
the family with their need.
The couple has three daughters,
Michaela, 7, Sydney, 4 and Shelby,
6 months.
Jerry Wingard says he learned everything he knows about cars from
his father, Gerald "Barrie" Wingard,
who loved working on cars as much
as he does. His father died in 1998
of Lou Gehrig's disease. The Wingards said that Jerry's father was very
much in their hearts as they made
preparations to open the business.
Wingard said her father-in-law
built cars from the ground up, completely rebuilt at least 25 cars. He
even built a kit car in 1964.
"He was always working on
something," Jerry said of his father.
Wingard said they recently completed rebuilding her car and she
plans to be back on the track at Norwalk soon, with her partner waiting
for her in the pits.
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