Amherst News-Times, 1997-02-12

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Wednesday, February  12,  1997
Amherst, Ohio
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Downtown w
could be easJL
by land purchase
City negotiating for parking lot
by BILL ROSS
Josh Dotson is joined by small-group instruction tutor Rebecca
Miltenberger, as they discuss the results at a social studies exam.
Miltenberger says that Josh has flourished this year after receiving
the individualized instruction that small-group tutoring provides.
Special teacher puts boy on track
by BILL ROSS
News-Times raportar
Sometimes all one needs is a
clean slate to turn a life around —
which may not be so easy if you are
a kid who seems to have been a
magnet for trouble for as long as
you can remember.
But at Shupe Middle School,
there is a woman who finds joy in
encouraging kids with learning
problems to get back on the right
track — and she has been helping
one child with special needs to turn
his life around.
He's turned his life around
trading streets for schools
Joshua Dotson is 11 years old and.
has lived with Ids paternal grandmother, Betty Dotson, since be was
one and a half months old. According to his graiadrnother, both Josh
and his sister Heather (now IS),
were destined to have problems because both of their parents drank,
used drugs, and fought incessantly.
One day a friend of Josh's mother
called David Dotson, tbe children's
father, iQJnform him thai, they had
been abandoned by their mother in a
motel room.
David found them in the unlocked
room and took them to live with his
mother, because he had too many
problems of his own to handle them
by himself. He lived with them in
the home on Jackson Street, owned
by Betty Dotson's 84-year-old
mother, Lillian Meyers, for the next
four years.
Josh's father continued to have
problems with drinking and drugs,
and then to make matters worse, had
to undergo chemotherapy and col-
balt treatments for Hodgkins
Lynqthoma. ,. ^^^ .. .■„_._^1
"Those treatments were just making him become violent and he
couldn't handle the pressure of being a father, so he left us about seven years ago," Dotson explains.
She adds that her son is now in remission, but continues to have other
problems in his life.
CONTINUED on page 2
News-Times reporter
The lack of public parking space
in downtown Amherst could be a
thing of the past if negotiations between the city and Milad Abraham
— who has a prime parcel of land
up for sale — are successful.
At the city council meeting held
on Jan. 27, council members ordered the safety/service director to
negotiate with Abraham for the
property.
At the end of the council meeting,
an executive session was requested
by mayor John Higgins in order to
discuss the deal with members of
council — as well as with Abraham,
who was also in attendance.
Higgins said later the city is making progress on the deal; the property is located at the northeast corner of Church Street and Tenny
Avenue.
Higgins said the city has entered
into preliminary negotiations with
Abraham, and although he would
not discuss a sale price, the mayor
said the amount could be paid over a
20-year period through cash raised
by parking meters and parking
permits.
"Right now, approximately 42
percent of the parking in the downtown area is being used by long-
term needs," Higgins said, adding
ihat these are spaces being occupied
by business owners, employees and
tenants who live above businesses.
Higgins said drivers with long-
term needs could buy permits for
the lot, with a special section set
aside for their use. Then, the downtown parking spaces in front of businesses could be designated as
"courtesy parking spots," limited to
two hours of use. The two-hour
limit would be strictly enforced, unlike the current procedure, where a ■
complaint needs to be lodged before,
action is taken.
The lot is big enough for about 80'.
spaces, according to the mayor, who'
adds that "we would need to provide •
additional drainage, grading, land-,
scaping, safety lighting and curbing!
in order to create a suitable parking
facility."
Higgins said the cost for the project would be about $59,000, which
does not include the purchase price
of the property.
The estimate also does not in-;
elude the price of meters.
Currently, there is only one off-'
site municipal parking area near
downtown Amherst, which is adjacent to the Amherst Cinema on
Church Street and only has a limited
amount of space.
There is also an area designated
as municipal parking that is located
on the south side of the Conrail
tracks, between West and Church
streets, but much of that land is actually owned by Conrail.
"The problem there is that kids
have been known to throw things at
parked cars from the tracks, and we
just recently had a vehicle towed
from there that had been so severely
vandalized that the owner probably
just gave up on it," Higgins said.
If negotiations with Abraham are
successful, the city will use the firm
of Butler Wick &. Company, wtoa
would into the best possible finance
package for the city, which could
take about three months.
Under a best-case scenario, the
mayor said the project would be
completed in August.
Safety/service director Cookie
McLoda is also looking at the idea
CONTINUED on page 5
County chamber
payments piay be
wrong; CC waits
for legal opinion
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Two shared lifetime of valentines
Couple's
advice:
'Learn to
get along'
by BILL ROSS
Naws-Timas reporter
It takes a special kind of love
to make a second marriage last
for more than SO years — enduring the separation of war and
surviving the loss of children —
and special is how Theltna and
Joseph Fisher describe their lifelong love affair.
The Fishers have known each
other since grade school, and
used to hang out with a group of
kids who spent their summers
together in Lorain. Theltna, who
at 85 years old, has a couple of
years on her husband, got out of
school first and went off to
many before she and Joseph
ever had a chance to get to know
each other on a different level.
Joseph also got married and
moved with his first wife to
Elyria. But things didn't work
out and Joseph moved back to
Lorain. This was somewhere around 1937, according to Joseph.
Just before Joseph returned to
Lorain, Thelma's fust husband
was lulled and left her widowed
with six children. Joseph does
not really remember when and
where he ran into her, but once
they met up again, the sparks began to fly.
"I started taking ncr on roller
skating dates — we had a great
time at that roller rink," Joseph
Joseph and Thelma Fisher relax at Amherst
Manor during one of Joseph's daily five-hour
visits. Although Thelma would prefer to still be
living with Joseph at the Westwoods Mobilie
Home Park, she requires medical attention that
her husband is unable to provide, so his regular visits are the next best thing.
said with a smile.
They continued to date for about six years before tying the
knot, and Thelma said all of her
children took to him from the
start: "He was always so kind to
them — and they just loved him
so much."
When asked if he had any Ue-
pidetion about marrying a woman with six lads, Joseph replied: "No, it didn't scare me a
bit, I bad a ready-made family."
There were two boys and four
girls, the youngest was only six
months old when Joseph and
Thelma started dating. "He took
to her like a fish to
Thelma said.
Ova the years, the Fishers
have had their share of family
tragedies, having lost three of
their children along the way, but
their special bond is what has
helped them to overcome
adversity.
Their secret to a long and
happy marriage is, according to
Joseph, "Just doing your best to
get along," and Thelma added
"If you don't like it, just don't
fight — my grandmother always
told me to leave it at the bedroom door."
Joseph was drafted into the
army during World War II and
was an artillery man on an M-7.
He had a few close calls but regular leaers from Thelma helped
pass the time.
After returning home, Joseph
worked at U.S. Steel until retiring 35 years later.
Upon retirement, the Fishers
downsized and bought a mobile
home — and that is when they
really started to have fun, according to Joseph.
"In 197S we bought a brand
new car and put 150,000 miles
on it in less than four years."
They have been all over the
CONTINUED on pags S
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