Amherst News-Times, 2000-12-20

              Our letters to Santa continue — Page
Amherst News-Time
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Wednesday, December 20, 2000
Amherst, Ohio
a
Dean Sanl-ci
Santa Claus will be coming to town on Christmas Eve
with a sleigh full of toys and goodies for children and those
still young at heart.
The News-Times is helping Santa Claus with his Christinas
list by sharing Christinas letters exactly as written from local
school children.
Here's what the area's youngsters are hoping they will receive under their Christinas tree.
Dear Santa:
I want Banjo, spider stompin, holey moley trouble, and a
baby sister.
Ryan Johnaon
Dear Santa:
Merry Christmas! I have tried to be good. I am asking for
a toy castle for my little sister Ally and me. Thank you.
Teddy
Dear Santa:
Please bring me a barbie slugbug car, barie 200 and barbie
doll cake. Thanks Santa.
Corrlnne Niskey
Dear Santa:
I would like to have a Britney Spears doll, a radio. I
would like to have a bandana and an ansync watch and a
Backstreet Boys movie.
Mkhalyla
Dear Santa:
I want a great Christinas with my family.
Tyler Paterchak
Dear Santa:
My name is Elicia. I have been very good. I will try my
best to not mas my room up. Please bring me a hay you
pickajo. With a poji and sopr poji for Christmas.
Dear Santa:
My name is Jeffrey. I have been very good. I will try my
best to clen up my rom. Please bring me legos.
Love Jeffrey
Dear Santa:
My name is Nate, I have been very good. I will try my
best to lisin to mom. Please bring me a scatebtod and new
gameboy.
Dear Santa:
My name is Taylor. I have been very good. I will try my
best to lisin to my mon. Please bring me hors and a pen.
Dear Santa:
My name is Lynscy. I have been very good. I will try my
best to: I will licin to my mom. Please bring me snobord.
Love Lynsey
Dear Santa:
My name is Matthew Crist I have been very good. I will
try my best to be good in school. Please bring my play-
stashin two with games.
Dear Santa:
My name is Kayla. I have been very good. I will try my
best to be good. Please bring me Shade and a reel! puppey.
love Kayla.
Dear Santa:
My name is Cassie E. Brown. I have been very good. I
will try my best to: I will ceen my rom. Please bring me
mackup.
Love Cassie Brown
Dear Santa:
My name is Aleak. I have been very good. I will try my
best to hap my mom.
Dear Santa:
My name is Shayna. I have been very good. I will try my
best to b qwyit in clas. Please bring me a britne spears tap
and a pup.
Dear Santa:
My name is Alex. I have been very good. I will try my
best to clen the hoso. Please bring me a scoodr rabbit
Dear Santa:
My name is Trent I have been very good. I will try my
best to be good. Please bring me a bock and a top.
CONTINUED on
Early deadlines enforced
for Dec. 27 newspaper
Early deadlines will be enforced for the Wednesday, Dec. 27
issue of the News-Times. Our offices will be closed on Monday,
Dec. 23, however, the tax lines will remain open throughout the
long weekend,
News items and bulletin board items, kstien «k! sports updates
-axed to the News-Times at 988-2802 by 5 pjn. on Dec 23 will
be -ncluded in the paper.
ClaMJeVd ads must be secured by noon on Wednesday, Dec.
20. Ads for the Shopping News only must be reserved by 4 pjn.
on Wednesday, Dec 20 and ada for the News-Times most be reserved by ftiday, Dec. 22 by 4 pjn.
No injuries reported as man'
van crashes fence, jumps poui
by JASON TOMASZEWSKI
News-Times reporter
Cars in pools is beginning to look
like a trend in Amherst For the second time this year a vehicle has
found its way off the road and into a
swimming pool
The first incident took place on
July 11 when a female driver went
airborne while crossing North Ridge
Road before landing in a pool on
Linn Drive.
The latest incident involving an
aquatic recreational facility took
place on Dec. 11 near Nord Junior
High School.
Hairy Walker, 63 of Lorain, was
parked in front of the school... facing south to pick up his granddaughter at 2:30 pjn.
It was when he started to pull out
that everything went wrong.
Walker's minivan accelerated out of
control. He swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and lost control. He
turned his van on a 90 degree left
turn through a fence and into a
swimming pool owned by Richard
Orseno.
"I was in the garage working on a
Christmas project for my granddaughter,'' stated Orseno. "I heard a
huge crash and ran out back to see
what it was."
What Orseno saw was a minivan
floating in his pool. "A woman
came running over to see if she
The fence that surrounded a pool was knocked
down when a driver lost control of his vehicle and
i ■UM.
plunged through the fence and into the pool. Fortunately no one was hurt.
could help," explained Orseno. "The
two people in the van tried to open
the doors, but the pressure was too
much. That is when they rolled
down the windows."
Orseno said the van was close
enough to the side of the pool that
no one was required to jump into the
icy water. "We were able to pull
them through the passenger side
window," stated Orseno. "The girl
was pretty shaken up, so she came
out first"
According to Orseno, Walker
claimed that the accelerator on the
van got stuck when he pulled out
The Amherst Fire Department
was called to help remove the van
from the pool. Divers attached
chains from a tow truck to the water
logged van and pulled it onto dry
land.
The woman who aided Orseno in
the rescue was also parked in front
of Nord waiting to pick up a child. It
turns out that the woman was the
leader of the Girl Scout troop that
Walker's granddaughter is a mem-
CONTINUED on page 2
Recount ousts local candidate
After weeks of recounting votes,
two things are final: 1. Caorge W.
Bush will be the next president 2.
Mary Jo Vasi will remain a county
commissioner.
Vasi overcame a 421-vote deficit
to defeat Amherst candidate Eric
Flynn by 117 votes tor the commissioner's seat
Flynn's original margin of victory
was so slim that it triggered an automatic recount Both Vasi and Flynn
were present for the recount which
was held on Dec. 12 at the Lorain
County Board of Elections. Flynn has questioned the board of
The recount began with a portion- ^ etast-ans, claiming that they may
of the ballots being counted by   nave violated state law by allowing
hand. This was to check the accuracy of the machine counters.
Election workers first hand
counted three percent of the ballots,
then fed the same ballots through
the machine.
At times the job of overseeing the
counting of 114,000 ballots became
tedious. However, there was at least
one representative of each candidate
present at all times.
inactive voters to cast a ballot Any
voter in Ohio who has not cast a
vote in four years is considered inactive. It is the job of the board of
elections to purge the name of that
voter from the registration rolls.
However, Ohio Secretary of State
J. Kenneth Blackwell staled that if
an election board fails to remove a
voter's name from the list and that
person chooses to vote after being
inactive, the vote will still count and
the registration is maintained. This
is where Flynn disagrees.
While be is disappointed in the
results of the recount, Flynn staled
that he was unsure if he would per-
sue the matter further. He also stated
that he only wanted to make sure
that everything was fair for
everyone.
He considers the narrow margin
of defeat against a 12-year incumbent a victory.
Family tree extends throughout
this neighborhood of friends
by JASON TOMASZEWSKI
News-Times reporter
There are people in this
world who have very large
families.
Often times they need to
rent party centers because
they can't fit the entire family in one home.
This is the case for Virgina
Jones of Amherst
However, the unique thing
about her "family" is that
many of the people are not
related to Jones by blood or
marriage They are simply a
group of very kind people
who help to look after the
kind woman.
"There is a gentleman who
lives across the street who
mows the lawn and rakes the
leaves," stated Jones. "There
is a woman down the street
who comes and tends to the
gardening. In the winter one
of the neighbors cornea and
clean the driveway."
Jones also has a neighbor
who picks her up and drive*
her to her water walking
This all seems wonderful,
but this group of people on
Valley Drive really showed
their worth when diaaster
tbe home of the
into the basement According
to Jones the water created a
large hole in the floor to the
basement
"I didn't know what to
do," stated Jones. "I called
911, and then ran across the
street to get some help. I
didn't know where the main
faucet was so I couldn't shut
off the water."
Luckily for Jones her
neighbor across the street did.
"Donald Hardman knew right
where the faucet was and
shut it off for me," staled
Jones. Now the water was no
longer running, but there was
an awful mess.
Jones contacted her insurance company who informed
her that she was covered and
that they would be out to asses the damage shortly. That
is when the neighborhood really pilled together.
"Donald and his wife Alice
over with buckets and
Virginia
It was back in
ber," to exptainec
the toilet i
Iliad
d left the
room. When I returned some
time later the water waa
ftHwrtfr-j gut of the toilet like
a fountaia! There was water
everywhere."
Jones said the
over an inch deep ia her bedroom, which is across the haB
from the baibreom, The water
.trough to floor tad COffTtNU-lP on
Jones. "Do_orie
Jean BectoU cm
Dvuyuuoy wanton so nam to
clean up all of to water."
Jones stated that to tod-
lies brought wet vacs to suck
up to wattr. aad big toa to
help .peed to drying proccac
1 can't believe aD to tod
wont tot toy did.- to toL
1 tow heard about ale*
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