Amherst News-Times, 1999-01-27

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Amherst News-Time
3
Wednesday. January  27,   1999
Amherst, Ohio
Athletes
remember
coach as
great guy
by PAUL MORTON
News-Times reporter
Amherst soccer coach
Glenn Robert Voss had a
heart as big as a soccer field,
but it finally gave out last
Saturday.
Voss, SO, died in the
emergency room of Amherst
Hospital after suffering a
heart attack at his home. Amherst athletic director Jeff
Reisen said he was shocked
at the news.
"The first thing that hit me
when I heard was about his
integrity and character."
Reisen said. "He was very
disciplined, a leader by
example."
Senior soccer player Steve
Szucs said that leadership by
example extended to Voss
joining the team in their
workouts.
"He would give us direction, then go out of his way
to run with us and do the
drills with us," Szucs said.
"He was a fun guy. He made
soccer fun."
Voss worked as a soccer
coach for 18 years, coaching
all age groups. From 1990 to
1994 he coached the junior
varsity team, and in 1996 he
became the varsity coach.
Reisen, who has been athletic
director since 1997, said Voss
made a difference in the
program.
"I know from speaking
with Dick Roth, who was
athletic director before me,
that Glenn turned the soccer
program around to where it's
respected in the area," Reizen
said.
Voss was not a teacher in
the schools, at least not in
the classrooms. He was a
production planner for the
USS/Kobe steel plant in Lorain, where he worked for
more than 30 years. He graduated from Bowling Green
Stale University with a degree
in journalism, and for a time
worked for the News-Tunes
writing sports stories. But
high school principal Fred
Holland said his primary focus in life was working with
kids.
"He was a positive man
who worked bard with the
kids." Holland said. "And not
only in soccer."
Szucs said he might forget
what his coach taught him
about soccer, but not what
Voss taught him about life.
"He impacted a lot of peoples* lives," Szucs said. "He
always talked about being a
class act and a class guy.
And he was that"
I'm a senior, so this was
my last year playing with
him. But when I stepped off
the field for the last time, I
didn't realize I'd never see
hhn again," Szucs continued.
"Ha was a great coach and •
great guy."
Aside from working with
high school students, Voss
also volunteered his time assisting with the Special
Olympics. Voss's family suggested that inemorial contributions may be made lo the
Special Olympics.
Holland said he spoke to
students at the high school oa
the rlaasroom television system Monday inaning lo inform them. He said the
for students who
needed help dealing with
Vote's
Taxpayer money's getting washed ivr
*»f
The street department wants
to build a salt storage dome
behind its Gordon Avenue
garage to prevent Mother Nature from taking money out
of the city's pocket
Each year, rain and snow
dissolve about 200 tons of
road salt piled behind the
garage, a loss equivalent to
$6,000 or $7,000 of salt, according to city utilities superintendent Don Woodings.
The estimated $80,000
dome-like structure was endorsed by city council's finance committee Jan. 19 after
Woodings explained it will
save the city money over a
period of several years. An
ordinance authorizing bids for
a protective structure is expected to be approved by the
full council as soon as
possible.
Woodings said the idea for
building what is referred to
as a salt shed has been on
the "back burner" for at least
27 years because of the
Nordson Corporation's interest
in buying the city property.
The company is adjacent to
the garage and other city
property on which Nordson
could expand.
Because the company has
not expressed interest in the
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Utilities superintendent Don Woodings
checks out a pile of road salt after an all-
night Jan. 22 rain washed some of it away.
land in several years, Woodings said he now wants to
build a protective structure to from being washed away,
stop the expensive salt piles If Nordson should change
its mind, he said the protective structure can be moved
because it is easily disassembled and reassembled.
Exposure to rain and snow
also turns the top crust of a
salt pile into a hard mass that
often plug salt truck distribution mechanisms. For safety
reasons, drivers must stop
salting and return to die garage where they can get help
in breaking up the chunks.
"So we are losing a lot of
time in addition to money,"
he added.
The lost money is the cost
of the salt for which the city
now pays $34 a ton, nearly
10 times more than it cost 10
yean ago.
The cost will continue to
rise given the demand for
road salt Some cities, including Elyria, faced a critical
shortage during the heavy
snow that fell earlier this
month and the road ice that
formed, he added.
The city once considered
storing salt in the old city
electric building. The idea
was abandoned because salt
eventually would have deteriorated the building's brick
and mortar.
The storage domes are not
affected by salt, he said.
Motor man finds his name in hall of fame
by QLEN MLLER
News-Times raporter
John Penton was inducted into the
AMA's Hall of Fame Jan. 23 for
creating a piece of slick machinery
that's become a collector's item for
a lot of people.
Penton is not a doctor. The AMA
is the American Motorcycle Association and the piece of machinery
that he built is the Penton Motorcycle, the predecessor to what is now
the KTM motocross motorcycle.
Penton, 74, picked up much of his
mechanical skills in the Navy and
Merchant Marine during World War
II and much of his knowledge about
business affairs while attending
Baldwin Wallace College after the
conflict.
He and his brothers, Ike and the
late Ted and Bill Penton, were avid
motorcycle riders. Bill started Pen-
ton's Farm Market.
Penton remembers riding to and
from the Berea college on his motorcycle, "a fast and cheap method
of transportation," never realizing
the role the machine would play in
his future.
Pentoo's interest in motorcycles
and off-road competition started
when he went to a motorcycle competition in Michigan in 1948.
He eventually went into business
by opening a small motorcycle shop
in what is now a pet grooming shop
at 116 N. Ridge Road.
Penton can hold his head high in
the record books, too. In 1949, he
won second place out of 500 entrants in an enduro (endurance)
cross-county race in Michigan. He
later captured first place in a
250-mile national enduro race in
19S8.
One of his biggest achievements
came that same year by riding a
BMW motorcycle non-stop from
New York City to Los Angeles in
32 hours and 11 minutes.
By the early '60s, he had become
the U.S. national motorcycle
champion and within a few yean
was voted the most well-known and
popular motorcvclist ia Ike country.
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But this was just a precursor of
things to come. He decided to Hy
his tuck at cross country racing in
Europe. Off he went across the Atlantic to nee.
A few yean later, he aad a partner, Edison Dye, became excited by
the a>>ejppa»rnf of a new type of
European off-road Baotoreycling —
motocroat. They Hked what they
saw — aad lode, too.
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Above, John Ponton is
accompanied by his wife
Donna in the -60s as he
csopiaya some of Ma many
trophies won at various
competitive niotorcyew
avanta. At left ia John Ponton, now 74 years young.
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