Amherst News-Times, 2000-09-27

              Seniors enjoy puppet show — Page 6  I   Gridders have perfect season — F
D —   D 3 ________
D £   X X ' |
- X    rt -
- /    3 3
a r
Jl —   o' fi e-—ee-e—ej
Amherst News-Tinu
-a. -< •"*
j> i-- 'o
< n -^
-r J> SI
Taking it all in
William Reinwald takes in some of the beautiful fall weather we    on Jackson Street,
had last week while he sits in the front yard of his daughter's house
Quarterback Dominic Pellittieri has his
sights sst on a pert set season, which Include*
besting Avon Lake.
Leading
his team.
is QB's
top goal
in 5-0 year
by JASON TOMASZEWSKI
Nebs-Times reporter
If you ask anyone who
knows anything about the
game of football what the
most difficult position to play
is. they will always say it is
quarterback.
On each play the quarterback must know what each
one of his offensive player's
reponsibilines is, and .he must
be able to tell what the defense is doing so that he can
make the right decision in the
blink of an eye.
Repeat this chain of events
about 30 or 40 times and that
is the typical night in the life
of a quarterback. So it is no
surprise that as the QB goes,
so goes the team.
The Comets are fortunate
to have a solid quarterback in
Dominic Pellittieri. The second year starter has guided
his team to a perfect 5-0 record by destroying opponents
with the force of a neutron
bomb.
"We knew coining into this
year that we would be a
good team," explained Pellittieri. "We feel like no one
can stop us."
This season is the culmination of years of hard wok
for Pellittieri. He first began
playing organized football in
the Christian Youth
Organization,
"I played for St Joe's and
1 was the fullback on tuning
plays and the quarterback on
the passing plays," stated
Pellittieri.
From there he moved to
Lorain GuhoJic seventh grade
where he played wide receiver, tt wasn't until he
reached tbe eighth grade that
he would become a fatkbne
quarterback.
CONTINUED on page 3
X
^
Schools en
more students
at every grade
level this year
by JASON TOMASZEWSKI
News-Times reporter
Growth is a good thing. Just about any kind of growth makes people happy.
Economic growth, spiritual
growth, and even physical growth
cause joy for some people. However, the growth that the city of Amherst has experienced is the source
of a lot of headaches for school
superintendent Robert Boyton.
He has to find room for the growing number of kids that are flooding
into Amherst's limited number of
schools.
"Right now there is no room at
the inn," stated Boyton. "All we can
do is keep increasing t \e class size."
Many of the schools in Amherst
have been experiencing an influx in
enrollment Shupe Middle Schoolis
up from S87 in 1999 to 590 this
year. Powers Elementary has seen
its numbers jump by 19 from last
year. They now have 831 children
attending their school.
Nord Junior High School has also
expanded to 613 from last year's
total of 608. The high school is also
bursting at the seams. Marion L.
Steele had an enrollment of 1,193 in
1999. Now the school boasts 1,236
students. That is an increase of 43
students, about 11 more students per
grade.
The school board has a bond
issue on the November ballot that, if
passed will provide .the district with
a new junior high school. The proposed bond issue will cost homeowners $2.83 per each $25,000 of their
home value. ,
Naturally the first group to protest
the increase is the elderly. Being on
a fixed income it would be difficult
to afford an increase of any kind.
To deal with this concern, the
bond issue provides a reduction on
property taxes for senior citizens on
a fixed income if they meet certain
criteria. They must be 65 years old
or totally and permanently disabled,
are the owner and have occupied the
home as of Jan 1, 2000, and their
income is less than $23300 including the income of a spouse.
If a person falls into this category
they can receive up to a 75 percent
reduction.
While the bond issue will raise
money to build a new school, no
new money will be needed to operate the school until 2005.
Opponents of the bond issue
claim that by eliminating open enrollment the overcrowding problem
wil) also be eliminated. There ate
currently 103 students from other
districts that are enrolled in the Amherst schools. Eighty-four students,
who live in Amherst attend schools
in other districts. Nineteen students
spread over 13 grades have very
little impact on class size. By eliminating open enrollment the schools
would still be overcrowded and the
system would lose over $300,000
from he general fund each year.
The reason that the plan calls for
a new junior high is because a new
high school would cost $10 million
more. Also there is not enough land
on the Harris property to build a
new high school.
In addition to the new junior high,
the proposed plan also calls for additions and alterations to the high
school and junior high.
With the bond issue being so critical to the success of the school system, it begs the question "What happens if it fails?"
While everyone involved with tbe
schools is hoping the issue will pass,
there is a plan of acton that will go
into effect should the issue fail.
The high school will be split
CONTINUED on page 3
Nordson makes
deal to buy R.I.
manufacturer
The Nordson Corporation announced last week that it signed a
deal to buy EFD, Inc., a privately
held company headquartered in East
Providence, RJ.
The company is the world's leading producer of precision, low-
pressure industrial dispensing valves
and components.
The $280 million transaction is
expected to be complete at the end
of October.
The company's valve applicators
are used to dispense a vareity of
fluids, including solder paste, electronic coatings and adhesives,
fluxes, inks, paints, sealants and
solvents.
EFD's products are especially
well suited tor the high-growth electronics and medical products
markets.
"EFD's product line complements
our high growth business for dispen-
ing high-performance materials for
markets such as electronics and product assembly," explained Edward
Campbell, Nordson president. "This
acquisition will leverage Nordson's
unique global potation and accelerate growth in targeted markets
with EFD's outstanding reputation
and high-quality products."
EFD president John S. Carter will
be retiring from the company. Carter founded EFD in 1963 and built
the company into an organization
with more than 280 employees at
four locations in Rhode Island, the
United Kingdom and France.
Randall D. Richardson, vice president of Nordson's nonwovens systems group, will succeed Carter at
EFD. Richardson joined Nordson in
1981 and previously was vice president of the company's packaging
and product assembly group.
Fire department to flush
township fire hydrants
The Amherst Fire Depeitment will be testing the fire hydrastt
in Amherst Township starting the week of Sept 25 .wd continuing for .tout two weeks.
If fire (fcipsfrtmeu equipment is observed m your neigtthratMod,
avoid the use of water, particularly Cor wari^ dothes. After the
flushing is complete, residents should nm their water for two or
three nuhutet until it becomes clear.
!%ehyd*^ifa^.sptribn»edtocMure
ia inset wetting order md to measure aad ceooni ttteaamatof