Amherst News-Times, 2000-01-19

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Amherst News-Time
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Wednesday, January 19, 2000
Amherst, Ohio
Students face expulsion for bomb thre
Fallout from the Jan. 3
prank bomb threat called in
to Marion L. Steele High
School, has become no laughing matter for the three senior
students involved with the
incident.
The bomb threat caused the
temporary evacuation of the
school while authorities
searched the building.
Ronald Gargiulo, 18, of
230 Sleepy Hollow Drive,
who will be tried on inducing
panic charges in Oberlin
Court at the end of the
month, was given a punishment of an 80-day school expulsion by school superintendent Bob Boynton.
The 80-day expulsion is the
maximum allowable days of
expulsion that can be handed
out.
"We can not and will not
tolerate this kind of behavior," Boynton said.
The 17-year-old female accused of actually placing the
threat was also given an
80-day expulsion. She also
faces charges of inducing a
panic. Neither will be able to
make up missed assignments
or tests.
The superintendent would
not comment on how this
will effect graduation for the
two seniors, but did mention
options.
"In the hearings with the
students and their parents we
discussed the educational options for each (student)," Boynton said.
The stiff penalties were
handed down as a deterrent
for others who might be considering their own senior
escapades.
The third member, a
17-year-old male, who is facing delinquency charges for
failing to report a felony in
progress, will be allowed to
return to school following a
10-day suspension, because he
was not a participant in the
bomb threat.
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'First lady' of Amherst
likes husband's hobby
but prefers motherhood
by STEVE BARRY
News-Times reporter
If you meet mayor John Higgins,
and you are expecting his wife to be
a Hillary Clinton Higgins, your expectations must change.
While Marilyn Higgins is the first
lady of Amherst, she would probably be better described as the first
mom of Amherst.
Marilyn, who graduated from SL
Mary's High School in Lorain in
1958, openly admits she is not political, by nature.
And while she graduated from
Dyke College (now David Myers)
as a paralegal, she was more inclined to stay home with three kids,
and never pursued a career in law.
She remained at home until the
youngest, Mary Lynn, was 12. Mary
Lynn is now 28, middle son Tim is
30, and the eldest, Tom, is 32.
When she did decide to go to
work, she chose the Lakeland Insti
tute Alcohol Treatment Center, and
was there until it closed some IS
years later.
"There is a need for this type of
center in Lorain County," Marilyn
Higgins said. "I really liked it there
because all the doctors and nurses
were just like family."
Family probably sums up Marilyn
Higgins.
"When the kids were young, it
was nothing to have 30 of their
friends over here on the weekends.
Of course, during those sleep-overs
I was up all night to ensure the girls
stayed upstairs and the boys downstairs," Higgins replied with a
chuckle.
When they all got up, the Hig-
ginses cooked them breakfast One
of the "kids" referred to the Higgins
household as Camp David, but Marilyn still insisted he pick his clothes
off the floor during his visits.
The Higginses once owned
Nemo's Pizza in Vermilion, and
planned on turning it over to Mary.
Mary wasn't all that interested, and
trying to keep good help was a constant battle. The shop became a burden, so they sold the business. Marilyn did the books but managed to
avoid delivering pizzas.
Currently Marilyn is a deputy auditor, and works for Lorain County
auditor Mark Stewart.
The Higginses have had so much
fun as parents that it grieves her that
there are so many one parent families, and if she could wave a magic
wand, all kids would have two
parents.
She would rather work with kids
than anything else.
"My dream is to work with teens
and be a youth minister," Marilyn
said.
Both the mayor and first Lady
Higgins enjoy history,'and Marilyn
would like to be a decent or charac-
CONTINUED on page 2
Acres' residents
recall memories
by STEVE BARRY
News-Times reporter
At the Golden Acres senior home,
some of the residents were bom around the beginning of the 20th century. They faced living in a new
century.
What do they remember? What
was important to them?
Opal Hambley was bom in 1906
in Kywonee. DI. She was six when
her family moved to Lorain, when
her dad came to work at the steel
plant.
She has vague memories of the
Titanic disaster, which happened around the time they moved. She remembers when houses were heated
with coal, then fuel oil, and when
they converted to gas light and heat
She remembers when electric heat
was introduced.
"I quit school after eighth grade,
married and became a housewife,"
Hambley said. Her second child,
Charles Jr., was bom during the
Great Depression.
Her youngest child, Judith, was
afflicted with rheumatic fever. The
damage to Judith's heart forced the
family, per doctor's orders, to take
her to a warmer climate. Opal, her
husband Charles, oldest child Beverly, Charles Jr. and Judith settled
in Florida.
The passing of Opal's husband in
1986, coupled with some severe
family problems, compelled her to
return to Amherst and move in with
daughter Beverly.
Georgette Ingersol, bora in 1921,
remembers the farmers' picnic at
Crystal Beach Amusement Park.
Crystal Beach was a small version of Cedar Point, located on the
lake in Vermilion. The last vestiges
of the old park — the dance hall,
was razed during the early 1970s, to
nuke way for the Erie County Bank
building.
Helen Vanes, bom in 1917. remembered the dances that were regularly  held at Alberta  Beach,
another lakefront community in
Vermilion.
Raymond Riechart grew up in the
same house he was bom in at Lorain
in 1913. His family had a model T
Ford that was a "pistol to start."
"We had to get up at 3 a.m. to get
the car going so we could go to Cedar Point We put our picnic baskets
on the running boards. If you hit the
brakes too hard, you didn't have any
lunch," Riechart remembered.
Riechart's dad had a job during
the Depression, so they weren't as
hard pressed as other families during those years. His dad did lose
most of their money when the banks
went belly up during the 1929 stock
market crash.
Emma Kinzel was bom in 1911,
and lived near Oberlin most of her
life. She remembers traveling to
town in horse drawn buggy, and that
the milkman came around with a
horse drawn milk wagon.
Margaret Stuart remembers her
brother telling them about his experience in Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7,1941.
He was asleep when the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor, and an explosion literally threw him out of bed.
Several of them remembered the
Jewel Tea man, who came around
with a horse drawn wagon and at
first just sold tea. As the business
grew, Jewel Tea became a department store on wheels.
Burlene Cutlip was bom in 1918
in Kentucky. She used to hunt with
a .22 caliber rifle, bringing home
such delicacies as rabbit squirrel
and 'possum.
Should you live to be almost one
hundred, and given that at such time
you are just like those interviewed
who already are nearly one hundred,
highs and lows all appear to level
out
Most of those interviewed appeared to be excited just to be able
lo remember any fragment of their
lives — good or bad. Concern or interest in the days of yore faded rapidly as they became aware that
lunch was being served.
Marilyn Higgins, Amherst's first lady and first Mom.
Despite layoffs,
EMH says hospital
to stay open here
by STEVE BARRY
Emma Kinzel
News-Times reporter
Amherst Hospital experienced
heavy smoke in the visitor's elevator around 11 a.m. on Thursday Jan.
13. The Amherst Fire Department
was called out and South Amherst
units also responded to the scene as
a back up.
There really was no fire. There
were no flames. We just had a motor overheat and it has been replaced," explained spokesperson
Lois Koehler.
"We ventilated out the elevator
shaft and cleared out the smoke,"
said Amherst Fire Chief Ralph
Zilch.
According to Koehler the problem was so minimal that there was
no need to evacuate anyone from
the building, nor were any injuries
reported.
Other developments at Elyria Memorial Hospital, which now owns
Amherst Hospital, have been a little
more serious than just smoke in an
elevator shaft, and have affected the
jobs of around 15 people at Amherst
CONTINUED on page 12
Visiting grandmother
slips; suing schools
Vlckl Nowlck
Raymond Reichert
This has not been a very good
start to the millennium for school
superintendent Bob Boynton or the
Amherst school system.
A bomb threat on Jan. 3, a drug
bust later in the week, and then
Boynton read in the paper that he is
being sued on top of everything
else.
According to the lawsuit filed
Jan. 10 in Lorain County Common
Pleas Court Beverly Oney was permanently injured while visiting her
granddaughter at Shupe Middje
School on Jan. 13, 1998.
Oney is reported to have fallen in
the hallway of the school after slipping on food mat had been dropped
on the floor, and fractured her
patella (knee cap) causing further
complications.
The suit names me board of education, superintendent Bob Boynton,
principal Stephen Demko and the
janitor/janitorial service as defendants in the case. Boynton was a
principal at the school at the time of
the incident. The name of me janitor
or janitorial service was not known
at the time of the filing.
- The suit claims that those named
were negligent in not warning Oney
of the "unsafe condition of the hallways."
Overcrowded conditions in the
school have "spilled over" into the
lunch time ritual, where students are
forced to go to the cafeteria to receive their lunch, then carry that
lunch back to their rooms to eat it If
a child spills all or part of his or her
lunch in transit an unsafe condition
could exist arxordmg to the suit
According to the suit Oney's injuries have forced her to endure
physical and emotional pain preventing her from going to work,
subsequently causing her lost
wages. The Oneys are seeking
$25,000 h damages.
According to Boynton. The matter will be tuned over to the f
ance company, aad they will I
it"
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