The Amherst news-times. (Amherst, Ohio), 2002-07-17

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See Jamboree in pictures — Page 4
Rivals stop swim team streak
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Aging office faces financial question
I n i s
W
by AMY PERSINGER
News-Times reporter
The Standstone Office on Aging
has money problems — problems
with money it gets from the city of
Amherst, and problems with money
that could stop coming from Amherst Township.
Mayor's
heart
surgery
success
Last week the city's ordinance
committee voted to table an ordinance that would formally call the
office on aging a city department after councilman David Williams and
council president John Deitrich met
with the office's board president,
Gary Mead, and decided they still
had too many questions to address
the issue.
••'.
Nina Lorandeau, executive director of the Sandstone Office on Aging, said that she would be meeting
with Mead and the agency's treasurer, Elmer Valentine, next week to
discuss the questions council provided and formally respond to them.
Diane Eswine, city auditor, told
council that in 1997 the stale auditor
found that the office is a "de facto"
department of the city, and that the
city needs to pass an ordinance to
formalize it as one.
This means that whether it is
called a department in name or not,
it is a department in fact She told
council that the office staff consists
of city employees and the city pays
the bills. The city has provided the
agency with its last three vehicles.
Lorandeau said she is a city employee. She said the situation needs
to get ''straightened up."
Lorandeau said the city receives
grant money from the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging to help
run the Sandstone office.
"Our grants are signed by the city
and deposited into city accounts,"
Lorandeau said.
She said the situation has never
been formalized but it's long past
due.
The Amherst office serves seniors
in the city aa well as Amherst
Township, South Amherst, Brownhelm and Henrietta.
Amherst Township trustee Neil
CONTINUED on page 2
V>     it looks like mayor John Higgins
has no intention of sitting home and
frittering away the time while he re-
^cuperates from heart surgery.
Higgins was staffing the Dcmo-
MgCratic Women's booth Saturday af-
KoMernoon at the 29th Annual Old
(DaiTime Jamborec- selling sandwiches
j^and visiting with festival-goers.
ofj.    He was at the Jamboree again
a 2C Sunday. He sat and visited with resi- -
Adr dents while they ate their lunches at
lhe one of the festival's covered areas.
ven    Higgins went back to work at
__ town hall last week after spending
"" six days in the Cleveland   Clinic.
He said he had "a fainting spell"
four times so he went in for medical
testing.
. Tests found that Higgins's heart
•it „ aWtl beating irregularly. The valves
JP|in his heart were pumping blood out
lof sync with one another.
Doctors at the clinic decided Higgins needed a pacemaker to regulate
the beating of his heart The mayor
told the members of city council and
residents who watch the council
meetings on Amherst's cable channel about the surgery at last week's
regular council meeting.
He also said that the doctors feel
that the arrhythmia is completely
under control and that they gave
him a "clean, bill of health."
At the Jamboree on Saturday,
Higgins said he just had to get back
to work. And judging from the huge
grin on his face, that might just be
the best medicine.
e
Grad's
game is
business
venture
by PAUL MORTON
Associate editor
We all know life isn't all fun and
games, but Josh Perry would like his
little corner of the world to be just
Perry, a 1991 graduate of Amherst Steele High School, is opening
Matrix Games at 27 S. Main St in
Oberlin. He said it will be a "sister
store" or a franchise of an existing
store in Sheffield Lake, and will feature games of all types and more.
"Our sister store has adopted the
tag name 'and diversions' because
we cany divenions," Perry said. "I
do all aorta of role-playing games,
muuature games, family- and party-
style board games. I do collectible
canl games. And those are just the
gsming products.''
The store will also feature comic
books and related nsen&andiae. He
will cany tee-shirts, key chains, and
ether items tied to the fames and
comic books.
He even has one riisiributor who
supplies a wide variety of gaming
ntaarehandiae tied to current movies.
Bat you won't find lb* lateet of-
tbn^taX-s^sivQanaCvbtoi
Saw
Alert cop saves family from fire
by AMY PERSINGER
News-Times reporter
Three little girls, one of
them only three weeks old,
are sleeping in their beds.
Their mom and dad and their
grandpa, who came to see
them from Michigan, are
sound asleep right down the
hall. Everything is quiet
inside.
But outside, a frantic cop
beats on the door because the
entire back of the young family's house is engulfed in
flames.
What sounds like a scene
out of a scary movie was all
too real for one local family,
but thanks to the determination of a police officer driving by no one was hurt in
the early morning blaze.
Patrolman Michael
Rosebeck was working the
night shift when he was
heading into the police station
on North Lake Street to have
his lunch break around 3
a.m., July 7.
To the left in Apple Orchard Estates, it looked like
someone was having a
bonfire.
Rosebeck turned around and
headed toward the fire. Bonfires aren't legal inside the
city.
He said what he saw when
he got there was no bonfire.
The entire back deck of William and Linda Spehn's house
was burning. He said he
could see the flames over the
six foot privacy fence and
Amherst patrolman Michael Rosebeck poses
with William Spehn's sister and baby Grace
Spehn, who Rosebeck saved, along with her
parents, sisters and grandfather, from the
Spehn's burning house in the early morning
hours of July 7.
that they were getting very
close to an overhang. He
called the police dispatcher
and she in turn called the fire
department The fire was
spreading up the vinyl siding
of the family's home.
Rosebeck ran to the front
and banged on the front door
of the house. He said he
couldn't raise anyone from
sleep.
"Patrolman (Jacob) Perez
came and he laid on the siren
and they still didn't wake
up!"
Frantic, Rosebeck said they
were getting ready to break
in the door when the family
finally opened it
No fire had spread to the
inside of the house yet so
the officers told the family
they could grab some things
before they left the house.
Suddenly, they couldn't locate
one of the girls. Rosebeck ran
upstairs to the bedrooms to
search for the girl. He said
smoke was beginning to pour
in the master bedroom. Someone called from downstairs
that they'd found the missing
girl and they fled the house.
Abruptly, in the middle-of-
the-night confusion, one of
the pre-schoolers headed back
into the burning house and
sat down on the couch. The
back of the couch faced the
wall that waa on fire.
"The fire was right behind
her," Rosebeck said.
Rosebeck said he grabbed
her hand and walked her out
of the house.
After the family was in the
yard the smoke detectors began to screech.
William Spehn said he was
amazed at how quickly the
Amherst Fire Department
arrived.
He said they were at the
scene almost immediately.
Spehn said they hadn't
grabbed car keys and the cars
were in the garage. He said
thanks to the fire depart-
CONTINUED on page 3
Sprenger
legacy
remains
at manor
A local woman whose rjetennina-
tion as a businesswoman led to the
founding of Amherst Manor, and
Sprenger Retirement l^nteipriaes,
died last week at the home she
created.
Grace Sprenger died at Amherst
Manor, where she was a resident on
Monday. July 8. She was 85 yean
old.
Bom in 1917 in Michigan, Sprenger lost her nsother and sisler in
childbirth when she waa three years
oil She waa sent to live with hor
and five
u 1934. an oilman and
Josh Perry is a game nut. He Hkes everything to do with game*.
Now he's opening Matrix Games, a store devoted to games. The
store will "beta test" open on Thursday. Aug. 1, with tha hop* to
work out aa the bugs before the grand opening, Saturday, Aug. 10.
drittaf for oil on her j
' property. Only 17, her
far her to be
to Welt
Play Station 2. In fact there will be
very few electronic games, with the
exception of PC or Macintosh versions of fwfitjig board y****
"You can not compete in drat
market if you're a mom-ejad-pop
(operation)." Perry said. "Beat Buy
will always beat your price by $10
to $13, and no matter how loyal
are. $10 to $15 is
$10 to $13. Aad what they
't sell they can ship back to
lo rediatri-
33 yean old.
and     TheSoMtts
bate to
Wl^.ne.ifIdUB't.nnagamein
the first tasee weeks. die Ion* want a
He said after the store is up and
ba -eight sell
m '
Urxtronic games will not be a major "I like to pity board asanas, sad The Spnmgnre moved to i
part of the buanea*. dice fames, aid card aanrna, and Mich,, where Wak worked
"I would love to sell video word games,  end  fun-while- tarje oil drilling
games." he said. "If the industry yw'rcHMvor^n-tlie-car gsme*. I Stronger had five csikawsc Wak.
changes and they make it so mom love sssms, I love to play." EttteL Tony, DonsJ sad Den. Eatat
and pop can conr/pete, I'm in."
It's not that Perry doesn't like to
play video pan**. Quae the oppo-
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Penyar*Jdhes>svapa.Aa»hani Ipwsasss^macaraaabm 1942.
end giamn.iirl from Marion L.      rtadaeBMiirah aha had as net esj
Steele High School in 1991. Bat rhsMed tan hjah echool, and baa
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