Amherst News-Times, 1997-04-02

              Softball team marks 20 years — Page 10
Amherst News-Time
m r-
Wednesday, April 2, 1997
Amherst, Ohio
City-hired water
manager to help
end flooding,
sewer troubles
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
The recent hiring of a water
management project engineer
fpr Amherst increases the city's
chances of curtailing some of
the flooding and sewer problems
that have plagued it in the past.
At a city council meeting held
on March 24, council voted 7-0
to hire Michael C. Menoes, a
professional engineer who
works for Hydrosphere Engineering in Cleveland, for the
part-time position. Menoes will
be paid $55,296 for working 24
hours a week for 48 weeks.
As part of the ordinance established to create the project
engineer, Philip H. DeGroot,
also of Hydrosphere, has been
hired to work three hours per
week for 48 weeks as die supervising engineer. DeGroot will be
paid $12,096 for his
contribution.
Other costs, including equipment, software, document productions and mailings, and telephone, arc included in the salaries, which arc not to exceed a
one-year maximum of $67,392.
City council has voted to use
money from tbe water, sewer
and wastewater funds to finance
the positions.
At a previous executive committee meeting, DeGroot and
Menoes outlined their proposal,
which is a three-stage project
over as many years, "We plan
on utilizing a G1S (Geographic
Information System) mapping of
the city, which will allow us 10
supervise the placement of benchmarks," DeGroot said.
Menoes told council that as
project engineer, he would be
developing a storm water management model, supervising the
collection of sewer system data
and assessing current water and
sewer-related problems ia the
first year.
DeGroot and Menoes distributed a pamphlet to council
members, which detailed current
water problems in the city, including basement flooding (from
both storm and sanitary sewage),
deteriorating sewer systems, water pressure issues, and an overloaded wastewater treatment
plant
"Accurate, unbiased information is the key to planning for
future expenditures," Menoes
said, adding that Ihe mapping
system will go a long way in
stemming problems related to
sewers and water mains.
"Right now, you have a
superintendent of utilities who
has the knowledge of where
sewer and water lines are stored
in his head, but when he retires
in a few years, he takes that
knowledge with him."
Menoes told council the position of project engineer would
not conflict with Mitt Pommeranz duties, who is tbe acting city
engineer. Instead, his job would
help to relieve some of Pommeranz "s already overburdened
work load.
Also planned ia conjunction
with die new positions is the
city's utilization of two civil engineering students, who will assist with creating the mapping of
storm and sanitary sewer system
data.
Mayor John Higgins told,
council that the new in-bouse
position would be much less expensive than contracting out,
and because of the severity of
Amherst's water-related problems, the project engineer's position makes sense. "These costs
would be the same or higher if
we brought in an outside person.*' Higgins said. "I don't want
to have to go through trial and
error."
The mayor told the News-
Tunes that the GIS mapping system is something that can be
added on "layer-by-layer,** so
that every tiling from utility locations to cemetery plots could
eventually be accessed by
computer.
Hi
Hundreds turn out
for annual egg hunt
Mother Nature did her best to cooperate with Saturday's Easter egg
hunt at Maude Neiding Park. Hundreds of youngsters turned out for the
XS&flf^hich was sponsorea by the Amherst Leo and Rons Clubs.
The following prize winners were announced:
• Three and under, stuffed toy lion: Christopher Pullin, David Kulp,
Matthew Krieg and Matthew Shinsky.
• Four to six, Amherst Theater movie passes: Levi Toth and Dakota
Wattcrson.
• Seven to 10, Amherst Theater movie passes: Emily McKilrick, Eric
McGinnis, Amber Ortiz, Brandon Knew, Zach Gargasz and Malt Ewald.
Organizers report that three prizes went unclaimed. If any of the egg
hunters are still holding one of the plastic eggs marked as a prize winner,
their prize may be claimed by writing to the Lions at 238 Church St. Include a name and phone number with the claim request and arrangements
will be made to have the prize delivered.
Jerry Coghlan and Hilary Hoak rehearse a  of "All My Sons."
scene from the Workshop Players' production
Workshop Players stage Miller's
story of wartime in 'All My Sons'
The Workshop Players, Inc.
fourth production of the season
will debut Thursday, April 10 at
the troupe's theatre at 44820
Middle Ridge Road.
Arthur Miller's "All My
Sons," is a wartime drama that
portrays a factory owner torn
between devotion to his family
and responsibility to society.
Directed by Don Wozniak
and Marilyn Hubbard, the cast
includes Jerry Coghlan of Vermilion as Joe; Pam Pickworth
of Elyria as Kate; Chip Neu-
virth of Chagrin Falls as Chris;
and Carrie Lamanna of Amherst
as Ann.
Also in the cast are Brad
Sales of Oberlin; George Mac-
donald of Bay Village, Kris Ry-
barczyk of Lorain; Charles
Westover of North Ridgeville;
Miki Pritt of Elyria; and Hilary
Hoak of Amherst.
The show will run at 8 p.m.
on April 10, 11. 12.18, 19.24.
25 and 26. There will be a 3
p.m. matinee on Sundays, April
20 and 27.
Tickets are $5.40 on Thursdays, and $6.50 for all other
performances and may be obtained by calling the box office
at 988-5613.
Quarry Road bridge closed
after steel beams damaged
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
The Quarry Road bridge that lies
north of the IG A was closed yesterday due to a recent discovery of
compressed and deteriorating steel
beams.
"It will be my recommendation
to city council that the bridge is
closed permanently and dismantled," said mayor John Higgins,
after consulting with three different
structural engineers.
Permission has been given lo the
city by Jim Mann, who owns prop-
Signs mark the entrance to the Quarry Road bridge which was
damaged by a heavy load recently. An inspection shows steel
beams were damaged.
eny on Quarry Road, to allow vehicles onto his property to utilize a
dirt access road as a temporary
CONTINUED on page 2
School board searching for new
assistant transportation worker
The Amherst school district's
busy bus coordinator will be getting
some much-needed help beginning
in the fall.
At its March 17 meeting, the
school board agreed to create the
position of assistant bus coordinator
in order to relieve the workload of
bus coordinator Ruth Williams.
"She gets very busy these days.
There's a lot more to the job than
jusi making sure kids get picked up
and dropped off from school by
(bus) drivers," superintendent Howard Dulmage said.
Williams needs help in setting up
bus routes, arranging for dozens of
field trips and the transportation of
the band and athletic teams throughout the state and northern Ohio.
She also drives buses when a
driver calls in sick, a job the assistant will assume.
The job dudes call for the assistant to help with driver training, arrange workshops and meetings, assign drivers and substitutes to routes
and help Williams prepare a mix of
state reports.
The individual will be paid about
$11 hourly, according lo administrative assistant Robert Wiersum.
Williams, 60, has been with the
school district since 1969.