Amherst News-Times, 2002-10-16

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Amherst News-Time
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WEDNESDAY, October 1ft, 2002
AMHERST, OHIO
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Business owners cry foul over early pay
by JASON HAWK
News-Time* reporter
Members of downtown Amherst
businesses have expressed anger at
the way city auditor Diane Eswine
chose to distribute downtown revita-
lization funds.
At a monthly meeting of the Amherst Downtown and Betterment
Association, members said that Es-
wine's early delegation of state
funds to one business owner was not
fair.
Eswine made $10,249 in state
Community Development Block
Grant (CDBG) funds available to
Dave Coffman, owner of Sandy's
Tax & Financial Services, TJ.'s
Framing, and Mary's Bird World.
She said she reimbursed him with
state funds within 48 hours of completing work on his building because he said he had a financial
need.
The CDBG money matches (up to
$10,000) expenditures by business
owners to fix up downtown areas
and give buildings repairs and aesthetic improvements. Usually funds
must be cleared with the state and
provided to the city before being
dispersed — a four- to six-week
period.
In this case, the monies were
reimbursed within 48 hours.
Members of the ADBA said that
this wasn't equal treatment.
Eswine said she bypassed the normal policy to accommodate the business owners' need.
"I think I have the legal right to
do that,*' she said. "I feel that is my
judgement call to make.*'
She said that the city has a responsibility to help its residents, and
that in this case, she had the
opportunity.
"Everybody always accuses auditors of being bean counters, and not
being responsive to the needs that
are here. I see myself as being more
than just a bean counter," she said.
Eswine addressed the concerns of
downtown business owners in a
statement at the Oct 3 ADBA
meeting.
"As a responsible steward of the
city, if there is a serious financial
problem that has arisen, the auditor
can review the situation and address
the issue of expediting payment.
"The purpose of the CDBG program is to help the downtown bu
sinesses to become more fiscally
viable. It would be counterproductive for the city to be blind to a potentially damaging financial situation for a business person simply to
get a few more dollars in interest
from the city's money,*' she said in
a short speech to assembled ADBA
members.
"It is within the authority to use
his/her judgement to determine
when an exception needs to be
CONTINUED on page 5
Vandals cost
Drapery Decor
owner windows
by JASON HAWK
News-Times reporter
Downtown business owner Mary
Phillips is angry.
Phillips, who owns and operates
Drapery Decor & More on Park
Ave., got a nasty surprise Monday,
Oct 7, when an early morning employee phoned to inform her that
two faces of her storefront windows
had been broken out.
"My first thought was that it happened because of a bar fight," said
Phillips, who found a broken beer
bottle on the sidewalk under the damaged windows. "I've heard people
■ay that there are two downtown
Amhersu — the daytime one and
the nighttime one," she said. "I
know that there are fights in town at
night from the bars."
Initially reluctant to clean up the
damage because she feared that removing the evidence would erase
valuable clues for police, Phillips
did some investigation of her own.
Looking closely at the glass, she
found what appeared to be small BB
gun marks in the glass, and discarded the bar fight theory, she said.
Police later told Phillips that BBs
leave a perfectly round hole all the
way through glass, and the marks
did not match those indications.
They told her the damage was most
likely caused by concrete being
thrown at the glass, although Phillips said no foreign objects were
found inside the store or in the window showcases.
With nobody to blame yet, the
window repairs and replacements
will cost her $600. Phillips also said
she was afraid that the vandalism
would cause her insurance to rise.
Phillips has been specializing in
custom window treatments at her
Park Ave. location since 1993, and
although this is the first time she has
had problems with vandalism, she
said several other local businesses
have had similar occurrences.
The owner of the nieghboring
CONTINUED on page 7
Boys and ghouls just want to have fun
Friends (from left to right, bottom to top) Madyson, Mark, Mariah,
Blake, Tyler, and Vinny hang out with the decorations at 882
Cleveland Ave. on their day off school last Friday. Families up and
down the street and all around town are busy decorating for the
Halloween season with pumpkins, hay stalks, colorful festive ar
rangements, and scary monster props. Amherst kids will get to enjoy the decorations during the annual Trick-or-Treating event on
Sunday, Oct. 27. There will also be a Halloween parade that day at
4:30 p.m.
Sewer system update to cost city
by JASON HAWK
I
News-Times reporter
Amid continuing questions about
water and sewer cost increases,
mayor John Higgins made a statement this week to clarify the issue.
According to Higgins, rising costs
are intended to compensate for the
cost of constructing a new wastewater treatment plant
' The $11 million building project
is the direct result of threats of prosecution from the Environmental
Protection Agency, which has declared that Amherst is in violation of
EPA regulations for proper disposal
of sewage.
"We want to avoid having the
EPA lower the boom on us," said
Higgins, who also stated that in accordance with state law, the EPA
could fine Amherst $25,000 each
day until the regulation breaches are
corrected.
"I believe that the state attorney
general had. already started to move
against us, but the fact that the city
started to take steps to comply
stayed,the fines," he said.
City council voted unanimously
on all recent ordinances related to
the project, including measures to
seek funding, to seek contracting
work, and to have a $40,000 manual
written for the future facility.
But with a budget in decline, city
officials are forced to find a way to
fund the extensive wastewater treatment plant project Higgins said that
in addition to seeking grants and
loans, the city has gradually raised
water and sanitary sewer charges
over the past two years in a three-
step program.
"Our hope is that by starting out
early, we'll build up a surplus of a
few million dollars that will help offset the costs we'll see," said Higgins. "That way, we won't have to
CONTINUED on page 7
Baker believes in using the best
by JASON HAWK
Newa-Times reporter
Well, South Amherst resident
Marilyn Miller sure gets my nomination for "Super Grandma" status.
Miller bakes her award-winning
pies, cookies, and breads every
Wednesday and babysits six lucky
grandchildren every Thursday.
"My family doesn't ever seem to
get tired of sweets," she laughed
when I talked to her last Friday in
her toasty little kitchen.
And who can blame them? I
wouldn't get tired of eating baked
foods whipped up by the woman
who won 22 ribbons this year at the
Lorain County Fair.
Miller won bint ribbons for her
blueberry jelly, strawberry freezer
jam, peach freezer jam, nut cake,
carrot cake, angel food cake, tpvngr
cake, pumpkin rolls, holiday bread,
rolled cookies, and filled cookie*.
She also won first place in the "any
other" cakes category.
And let's not even get into the
second place and third place ribbons
she grabbed.
So what's so great about her
Mking?
"Everything's made from
Miller told me. "I pick all
CONTINUED on page 5
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Marilyn Miner has a shoebox filled to the brim
with Lorain County Fair ribbons that one's won
for her baking, sewing, palming, and photogra-
phy entries over tha past 30 years.
APD has
free locks
for guns
The Amherst police department is presenting a special
child safety program called
"Operation Gunlock" next
week. The program is intended
to create awareness of the need
for gun owners to protect young
children from death and injury
from the misuse of firearms.
With proof of residency, Amherst residents may pick up a
free gun lock and literature on
gun safety any time between
Wednesday, Oct 23 and Sunday, Oct 27 at the Amherst police deoartinent
The gunlocks are limited and
will be distributed on a first-
come, first served basil. Only
one gunlock per residence will
be given out
The police i
that residents do not bring fire-
anns to the station.
The Ohio Association of
Chiefs of Police and the Law
Enforcement Foundation,
through a grant from the Ohio
Office of Criminal Justice Services, sponsor the Operation
Gunlock program statewide.
National statistics show that
every seven hours, a child i
19 yean of age dies from a
gun-related incident At I
four times that many sm
daily in emergency facUites for
ftrearm-related injuries.
Through Operation Gunlock,
the Amherst police <
seeks loi
developing sale handling and
storage procedures for all gun*
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