Friday, June 5, 2009

Notes From The Past Couple of Weeks

With his Army Reserve unit activated and expecting to be in Iraq by the time J.C. Amato's murder trial starts August 18, former WPD Officer Mike Garber gave his testimony last week. Garber now works for the Perry Twp. Police Dept. He was one of the first officers on the scene after being called by J.C.'s father. According to Tom Giambroni's article in the MJ last Saturday Garber gave an account of what he found at the house on Commerce St. and Amato admitting he shot his wife but claiming it was in self defense. That shooting took place on July 1, 2007.


Wellsville resident Kimberly Powell pleaded no contest and was found guilty of three felony counts of drug trafficking. She was sentence to one year in prison last week. She also received 180 days for endangering children which is to be served concurrent with her prison time.

Read in the paper last week that Wal-Mart is boasting of creating 22,000 jobs in the U.S. this year when they open 150 new stores across the country. They failed to mention that in stores already open they are not replacing any workers that leave the company. In many of those situations the remaining employees are expected to pick up the slack in the name of budget restrictions. Five years ago Wal-Mart had a standard that stocking employees were expected to work 40 cases of new freight an hour. With the short staffing such as they have in the Calcutta store that standard is sometimes jacked up to 60/65 cases.

A couple of weeks ago Jefferson County's Joseph Moran arrested in the death of an 18 month old toddler in Richmond this past March had murder charges dropped by the County Prosecutor. The Jefferson County Prosecutor was quoted in a MJ article that it was because forensic evidence hasn't been completed and by law a suspect has to go to trial within 90 days of his arrest if he remains in jail. It also stated that charges can be refiled once the evidence analysis is completed.

The County Auditor has appraisers from John G. Cleminshaw Inc. going around the county reappraising homes for the next round of real estate tax evaluations. They were at my house last week.

It's a sad commentary that our two local newspapers, both Ohio papers, have yet to report anything on what's going on with next year's election for governor. Had to read in a Pittsburgh paper that there are already two people that have announced running for that office. State Senator Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls and former US Congressman John Kasich of Westerville have entered the race. First elected in 2006, Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to run for re-election but hasn't made a formal announcement yet, according to that Pennsylvania newspaper.

Congressman Charlie Wilson was in EL last week. He spent some time with the FISH people at one of the food pantries and kicked off a seminar about small business loans with the SBA folks. While he was here he took time to chat with some Tea Party representatives.

Kudos to Wellsville Street Dept. employee Kevin Fullerton and his co-workers for getting the Broadway fountains working and turned on in time for the Memorial Day holiday. They certainly look nice and add greatly to the parks attractiveness. They're all running except for the big one in the middle. That's going to take some major maintenance to repair and that means some big bucks. Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?

Kudos also to the woman in Hillcrest that stood her ground and wouldn't let her son's girl friend leave to go home to Salem after having a few adult beverages. Son & girl friend are both adults but Mom felt it wasn't safe for her to drive home. The girl friend called the Sheriff and deputies flunked her on a field sobriety test. After deputies explained what would happen legally if she tried to drive the girl friend decided to spend the night.

WFD Chief Bill Smith reported at this weeks Council meeting that calls were up in the month of May for the department. Wonder if that increase could be contributed to the sewers being smoke tested? Word on the street was that the WFD was kept busy with some houses filling up with smoke while that was going on. No damage was done but it would be scary and had to be checked out. If you think your sewage bill is too high you can thank those people with the smoky houses.

Kudos and a hero's award should go out to the people that pulled that Akron kid out of his car after wrecking on Rt. 39 last Sunday. The car burst into flames right after they got the kid out and was fully involved by the time the firemen got there. The newspapers reported that Ronald Haddox of Irondale Road & Kim Weekley of Toronto were first on the scene and pulled the victim out of his car. However, a member of the Jarvis family told me that Dave Jarvis, son of Pat & Dave Jarvis of Broadway, was actually the first on the scene and had the victim out by the time the other two got there. All three must have arrived within seconds of each other and the important fact is that a life was saved. In my book they are all heroes.


DTV kicks in next Friday. Are you ready? If you have an analog television or use rabbit ears or an outdoor antenna all you'll see is fuzz. You need a converter box. Believe if have you have cable or satellite you're in good shape. A quick call to your service provider will easily determine the answers to any questions you have.

As of last Sunday the roll of WHS alumni increased by 54 members. Congratulations and good luck to all the new graduates no matter where you went to school.


ole nib

1 comment:

Dave Jarvis II said...

In response to "Kudos and a Hero's award" While indeed Dave Jarvis was the 1st on the scene, called 911 got the car door unstuck and started to remove the victom from the passenger side, that is when the victoms foot got stuck on the pedals. Then is when Ron Haddox and Kim Weekly arrived. One of which reached in the drivers door and unhooked the victoms foot and the other joining Jarvis at the upper torso. All of which took place while the car was already in flames, otherwise the vitom would've remained in the car where he was found. With that being said, the victom was not safely out of the car and may not have been had it not been for Kim and Ron, as well as Dave. I konow because I was there. Watch your 2nd 3rd and 4th hand information before printing it.