Amherst News-Times, 1997-04-09

              Counterfeit bills circulating — Page 7
Interchange is put on hold — Pat
Amherst News-lime
Wednesday, April 9,  1997
Amherst, Ohio
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Governor pitches
house bill to aid
adoption process
during local visit
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
Governor George V. Voinovich
paid a visit to Wendy's Restaurant
at 604 Leavitt Road last week during a month-long campaign geared
toward improving conditions for
Ohio's children.
The governor was here Thursday
to support Wendy's International for
its efforts in adoption campaigns
and to announce that Northeast Ohio
has been chosen to be the pilot area
for AdoptOhio, a practice reform initiative that complements House Bill
419. The bill was passed last spring
to streamline the adoption process.
Voinovich met with six foster and
adoptive families, along with their
17 children, and told them that "you
arc the real stars of all of this."
Also in attendance were state representative Bill Taylor, whose district includes Amherst, and representatives from social service
agencies, the governor's office and
Wendy's International.
Voinovich told the audience,
"This week kicked off a month-long
campaign to celebrate the month of
the young child," which focuses on
everything from early education, to
adoption and parental training.
"Wc have redefined education,"
the governor said. "It starts at conception." He elaborated by saying
thai prenatal care, well-baby care
and nutrition all contribute to redefining education.
During his visit, Voinovich met
with ihe families, handing out special teddy bears to the kids, telling
jokes and getting some background
information on them.
"Parents are the most important
people in education," the governor
said, adding that "the well-being of
our children is our highest priority."
Voinovich presented a plaque to
Robert Bolton, president of the
Northeastern Ohio Cooperative of
Wendy's franchises, and Sandy
Heller, field marketing Manager for
CONTINUED on page 3
Above, Governor George V. Voinovich greets representatives from
Wendy's and social service agencies during his visit last week to promote
the month of the child. At right, the kids were the stars of the show who
were also treated to some Wendy's fare.
Cohen clears the way for her boss
When it comes to organizing
events and appearances for the
governor, such as last week's
Wendy's appearance, experience
goes a long way.
Mardelc Cohen, director of
special events for die governor,
said that not counting travel
time, she can organize an appearance by the governor in as
little as 45 minutes.
'"With April being the 'month
of the young child,' the governor has seven or eight separate
appearances throughout the
state, and my job is to make sure
things run smoothly," Cohen'
said. "The first thing I do is get a
contact name and then visit the
location and ask the contact
what they would like to see."
In this case tne contact person
was Patti Jo Burtneu from Lorain County Children's Services,
who was in charge of organizing
the foster and adoptive families
to visit Wendy's to help kick of
the AdoptOhio initiative.
Cohen quickly set the agenda
from there, and concentrated on
logistics, parking and security
measures.
She received additional help
from Wendy's International
field marketing manager Sandy
Heller, franchise coop president
Robert Bolton, and Jann Hef-
fner, the director of the Dave
Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which helped to ensure the
event wag*o*wm:__r>n such a
timely mafBiW. """"*"'
The governor normally travels
with one security person, who is
part of a three-member select
team of highway patrol officers
who rotate the duty. At last
week's Wendy's visit, two of
the patrolmen were keeping an
eye on things because of the
way the trip had been divided
between plane and car.
Cohen's unflappable nature
and sense of humor, coupled
with the organization skills of a
drill sergeant, are what makes
her a perfect candidate for the
job.
Before the governor arrived at
Wendy's, she took to the podium and outlined the event to
everyone present from start to
finish — efficient, but not
overbearing.
As the governor's visit wound
down, Cohen could be seen
schmoozing with government
officials, department beads and
little children with equal ease.
"It's really not as difficult as
people might believe to put
something like this together,"
she said.
Easy for her to say.
/ I'
Foster parents ready for challenge
Small family to open their hearts, home to homeless
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
Becoming a foster parent isn't for
everybody — it often involves accepting a child or children who have
been removed from homes because
of abuse or neglect.
According to Patti-Jo Burtneu of
Lorain County Children's Services,
there is only one family in Amherst
presently who has a foster child
through Children's Services, as well
as one couple who recently became
eligible to receive a foster child.
Debbie and Rick Leidenheimer
have completed a battery of interviews, inspections and classes, and
now they are hoping to bring a foster child inu) their Middle Ridge
Ro-d home as soon as possible.
Debbie Leidenheimer, 40, who
works for the Lorain County Metropolitan Housing District, said that
her experiences while working there
are what planted the desire to help
out a child in need.
"My job involves finding housing
for people with low-incomes, and so
often I come across women who for
one reason or another have had their
children removed from their custody," Leidenheimer said. "I
thought to myself, 'if I can make the
difference for even one child, it
would make me very happy.'"
But Leidenheimer did not have
only herself to consider, and had to
pilch the idea to Rick — as well as
taking into account the needs of
Vandals target cars,
windows in drive-by
shooting spree here
The Leidenheimer*, Rick. Britney and Debbie, are hop- than enough room and plenty ol love to give to the new
ing to hear soon about when they will be able to bring a  addition,
foster child into their home. They say they have more
their own two-and-a-half-year-old   and at first he was a little apprehen-   task?,' and I told him I was ready,
daughter, Britney. , Jive," she admits. "He asked me,
"! approached Rick with the idea,   'Do you really want to lake on this
CONTINUED on page 15
Police have few clues to help
them arrest vandals who
targeted cars and buildings between March 26 and March 29.
At 3:49 a.m. on Thursday,
March 27, the Amherst Police
Department received the first of
four calls that day regarding
windows that had been shot out,
apparently by a BB gun.
A business, a residence and
two vehicles were all the targets
of the apparent random act, and
detective Alex Molnar said that
no suspects have been identified.
"It appears that in all the incidents where a BB gun was used,
the shots originated from the
street," Molnar said. "Apparently the suspect or suspects
were driving around choosing
their targets at random."
Although the reports of the
broken windows all came on
Thursday, the actual vandalism
could have occurred anytime between 5 pjn. Wednesday and
early Thursday morning when
the first broken window was noticed, according to Molnar. No
one reported hearing the attacks
take place.
At 7:35 p.m. that same day, a
resident of Sheffield Lake reported to police that someone
had spray-painted her car while
it was parked at Crystal Mortgage on Park Avenue.
Then two days later on March
29, « resident of Elyria called
police around 10 p.m., and told
them that someone had broken
the windshield of her car with a
bowling pin that she found in
the front seat while the vehicle
was parked in front of Park
Lanes. She said she believed the
bowling pin may have been stolen from a display case inside
Park Lanes.
An hour and fifteen minutes
after ihe bowling pin report, a
police officer noticed a windshield had been broken out of a
vehicle that was parked on
Cleveland Avenue behind Al's
Bar A Grill, and he contacted
the owner inside.
The cause of the broken
windshield could not be
determined.
Molnar does not know
whether the incidents are related; in cases with few clues,
patrolman often file the report
without passing it to the detective bureau.
"If it is something like the BB
gun vandalism where there are
multiple incidents, we lake a
look at it," Molnir said. "But if
it is an isolated act of vandalism,
the report will just be filed un-
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