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Sharon, Pa.
Thursday, November 11, 1999
A-2
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52 S. Dock St., Box 51
Sharon, Pa. 16146
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AP
An evacuee from the Clara Barton Convalescence Center in
Flint, Mich. rests on a bus used as a temporary shelter. An ex-
plosion at the nursing home Wednesday left five dead and two
others missing and feared dead.
A tractor-trailer ran over a
dead deer in just the wrong
way to cause the rig to leak
fuel from Jamestown to Hart-
stown, authorities say.
Jamestown Police Chief Ja-
son Thomas detailed the fol-
lowing chain of events that led
to the Tuesday evening fuel
leak:
A vehicle hit and killed the
deer, which was lying in the
eastbound lane of Route 322
about 1fi miles west of
Jamestown in West Shenango
Township, Crawford County. A
tractor-trailer driver did not
see the deer lying in the road
and his rig steamrolled over it
at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
As the rig rolled over the
deer, a leg or some other body
part was kicked up and hit
open a valve on one of the
rig’s fuel tanks.
The rig began dripping fuel
in Jamestown, leaving a slip-
pery spill when it turned from
Liberty Street to Depot Street.
The rig continued leaking fuel
all the way up Route 322 to the
driver’s hometown of Hart-
stown.
In Hartstown, the driver
smelled fuel and noticed a loss
of fuel on the rig’s gauge. He
stopped and plugged up the
leaky valve.
Jamestown volunteer fire-
fighters spread sand at Liberty
and Depot streets to clean up
the spill.
The drippings between
Jamestown and Hartstown had
evaporated when Crawford
County Emergency Manage-
Police: Deer
caused truck
to leak fuel
JAMESTOWN LOTTERIES
PENNSYLVANIA
Wednesday
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Big 4: 6495
Cash 5: 1, 7, 10, 18, 34
Super 6 Lotto: 4, 8, 18, 25,
50, 56
OHIO
Wednesday
Pick 3: 149, 515
Pick 4: 0417, 4598
Super Lotto: 4, 8, 17, 25,
43, 44;
kicker: 912347
For more lottery information
and previous numbers, call the
state lottery commissions: Penn-
sylvania, (900) 903-9999 (50
cents a minute); Ohio, (800)
589-6446 (toll-free).
WASHINGTON (AP) — In
a courtroom session far more
colorful than most, the
Supreme Court toured the far
reaches of free-speech law
Wednesday as it pondered
anew what constitutional pro-
tections cloak nude dancing.
“Nude entertainment has be-
come a significant staple of the
American scene ... 3,000 adult
clubs nationwide,” lawyer John
Weston contended as he at-
tacked a public-indecency ordi-
nance in Erie, Pa., that requires
women who work as barroom
dancers to wear at least pasties
and a G-string.
Some justices voiced doubts.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer sug-
gested that some forms of
nude dancing “have as much to
do with expression as turning a
mouse loose in a house. You
are intending to get a reaction,
not to express something.”
The nation’s highest court
ruled in 1991 that nude danc-
ing is a form of expression
within the First Amendment’s
“outer perimeters” and entitled
to protection from government
censorship. But that 5-4 deci-
sion also allowed Indiana to
ban all barroom-style nude
dancing under a state law gen-
erally prohibiting public nudity.
Weston, representing the
owner of a now-closed bar that
featured nude dancers, argued
that the 1994 Erie ordinance
was aimed specifically at such
establishments, and not at pub-
lic nudity. That makes a consti-
tutional difference, he said.
“Erie’s only concern ... was
the notion of adult entertain-
ment,” Weston said. “Erie was
unusually candid (regarding)
their content-based motives.”
Justice David H. Souter
seemed to agree when he said
the ordinance “as applied ... is
not covering all nudity” and
may be guilty of making con-
tent-based distinctions.
Supreme Court takes
up nudity laws in Pa.
The Associated Press
The former sheriff in
Youngstown has been sen-
tenced to nearly 6 years in
prison for taking mob payoffs.
Former Mahoning County
Sheriff Philip Chance, who was
sentenced Wednesday, was
convicted in July of racketeer-
ing, extortion, obstructing law
enforcement and two conspira-
cy counts.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen
O’Malley said Chance commit-
ted perjury in his trial testimo-
ny and considering that, along
with his responsibilities as a
public official, sentenced him to
5 years and 11 months. He
could have been sentenced to
20 years.
Chance’s lawyer, Angelo
Lonardo, said he would appeal
Chance’s conviction. Chance,
who remained free on bond,
declined to discuss his case
with reporters outside the cour-
thouse in Cleveland.
Chance, 49, was convicted of
taking $65,000 from
Youngstown mob boss Lenine
Strollo in exchange for ignor-
ing or protecting illegal gam-
bling.
The FBI monitored calls to
Strollo, who has pleaded guilty
to racketeering and testified
against Chance.
Strollo, who could serve as
few as 12 years on his guilty
plea in February to racketeer-
ing, testified that he gave
$65,000 to Chance for his 1996
sheriff’s campaign in return for
overlooking illegal gambling di-
rected by the mob in Pitts-
burgh.
Former Mahoning County
sheriff sentenced to prison
YOUNGSTOWN
WASHINGTON (AP) —
With the flight data recorder
from EgyptAir Flight 990 show-
ing things were normal until
the autopilot mysteriously dis-
connected, investigators look-
ing into the Oct. 31 crash say it
is all the more important that
they recover the plane’s cock-
pit voice recorder.
The search for that second
“black box” continued early to-
day amid rubble piled 6 feet
high, some 250 feet deep in the
Atlantic Ocean off Rhode Is-
land. The recorder may not
only reveal what the pilots
were saying to each other, but
what other noises or alarms
were audible in the cockpit.
“We await information off
the cockpit voice recorder,
when it is recovered, that can
help us put this information in
context,” Jim Hall, chairman of
the National Transportation
Safety Board, said Wednesday.
Hall said the New York-to-
Cairo flight had been cruising
normally at 33,000 feet when
the autopilot disconnected.
That is unusual, because the
plane was just beginning its
hours-long cruise across the
Atlantic Ocean.
About eight seconds later,
the flight “begins what appears
to be a controlled descent”
from 33,000 feet to about
19,000 feet, Hall said.
The recorder stopped short-
ly afterward, and the final five
to 10 seconds of information on
its tape are still being extracted
by safety board technicians.
990’s voice
recorder
sought
Anne Redfield/Herald
Edna Rakoci of West Middlesex holds the cover of her late
war veteran husband John’s mess kit. Rakoci’s intricate engrav-
ing work was lost in the Battle of the Bulge and buried under the
Belgian battlefield for 50 years.
Memories
Veterans share WWII
memories
from page A-1
According to John “Jack” Heintz,
85, then an Army captain, he and
four officers shared a tent and
had a problem with a rat eating
their food at night.
“We would tie (the food) up
and hang it from the ceiling,
but it (the rat) would always
get to it. So one night, one of
my buddies heard it, and
grabbed his .45-caliber revolver
and shot it. We all woke up
grabbing our guns and our
pants, and had bits of rat every-
where,” Heintz said. “My friend
just laughed his head off at us.”
Monsignor Meier, who was
ranked a captain, remembered
another sort of creature that
bothered him.
“I would always hang up my
trousers at night, and one
morning I grabbed for them
and felt something move,” he
said. “A red snake with black
dots came out of them. It went
into eternity,” he added.
Other memories weren’t so
funny.
Army nurse Mollie Stefanak,
82, remembered being sta-
tioned in Italy when Mount
Vesuvius erupted: “It was noth-
ing but fire.”
But her saddest memory
was “wrapping the boys in the
black bags to get them to the
U.S.” When asked how she
and the other nurses coped
with that, she replied, “We
shed a lot of tears.”
John Malarchick, 86, an
Army corporal stationed in Ok-
inawa, Japan, remembered “a
huge typhoon that swept every-
thing away; flagpoles were bent
in half, tents and supplies just
gone.”
“I had some buddies in the
veterans hospital,” said William
Rossell, 83, who was a second
lieutenant in the Air Force.
“They got well physically, but
mentally they were never the
same,” he added sadly.
Domenic Wolf, 87, had a dif-
ferent take on the war: “I
worked for Pan Am out of Mia-
mi and was in charge of 18
DC4 planes which transported
the wounded from Casablanca
back here. The men were then
divided up and sent out to dif-
ferent hospitals across the U.S.,
depending on where they were
from.”
Because the planes were all
camouflaged, they had to be
sure to stay away from the war
zones.
“Once the European theater
ended, we were transporting
the men from Beijing to Mia-
mi,” Wolf added.
At the war’s end, Rossell re-
membered that “within two
weeks every bottle of beer was
gone in Okinawa. We didn’t
like the saki (a fermented rice
drink).”
Several of the men laughed
about that, and agreed with
him.
Sam Rivetti, 75, then a cor-
poral in the Air Force, remem-
bered being stationed in Japan
during the worst of the fight-
ing.
“They fought the war with
such a fierceness,” he said. “I
guess they wanted to get the
war over with.”
They all agreed with Rossell
who said, “A lot of young kids
don’t know anything about the
war. They know more about
the Civil War than World War
II. I guess they don’t teach
much about it anymore.”
Job
Sharon getting
job center
from page A-1
CTW Development of Warren,
Ohio, wanted to buy the build-
ing and transform it into offices.
CTW was waiting for the green
light from WIB before buying
the building.
Cocca Co.’s Sharon building
was chosen as a backup site.
Cocca is based in Girard, Ohio.
Mrs. Lenzi told the board
she was a strong supporter of
the Stambaugh’s site because
the building is easily accessible
to all county residents. Located
in Hermitage Hills Plaza, the
building is next to the U.S.
Route 62 and state Route 18 in-
tersection, one of the most
heavily traveled in the county.
But last week the state De-
partment of Labor and Industry
said the rent of about $14-a-
square-foot a month was too
high.
“They said they wouldn’t
even accept $10 a square foot,’’
Mrs. Lenzi said.
After that, she said, the com-
mittee met with representatives
of Cocca Co., who trimmed
their rent for the Sharon build-
ing to $9-a-square-foot a month.
Delaying a decision on a lo-
cation could mean the loss of
state support for the center,
she added.
A switch in sites drew fire
from some board members
from Mercer County.
The Sharon site is less than
a mile from the Ohio border
and isn’t easily accessible to
residents outside of the
Shenango Valley such as those
who live in Grove City or
Greenville, said Kyle Klaric.
“This has to be centrally lo-
cated,’’ he insisted.
Mrs. Lenzi, who is director
of the Mercer County Job Cen-
ter in Sharon which plans to
move to the new center, said
satellite offices in towns out-
side of the Shenango Valley
could be created to serve those
residents. Klaric shot back that
extra offices would drive up
costs.
Choosing a site has been
embroiled in politics, said
Charlie Rice, who also ques-
tioned the Sharon location.
When Stambaugh’s was cho-
sen as the top site, money was-
n’t an issue, he said.
Dissenters hammered away
that having a centrally located
office in Mercer County is cru-
cial.
“I’m really glad the state is
watching our tax dollars so
carefully,’’ Dale Deist said of
the state’s rejection of the
Stambaugh’s building. “But
this is a tough one. I’m really
troubled by the accessibility of
this (Sharon) site.’’
Dewitt Boosel, director of
the Mercer County Housing
Authority, said he supports the
site.
After defeating a motion to
table the decision, members
voted 14-6 in favor of the
Sharon location.
After the meeting Larry Re-
ichard, a WIB member who
also heads Penn-Northwest De-
velopment Corp., said the city
of Sharon offered funds to help
remodel the building which
drove down the rent.
This morning Sharon Mayor
Robert T. Price said the city of-
fered a no-interest loan of be-
tween $150,000 and $175,000
for remodeling. Funds would
come from the city’s Commu-
nity Development Block Grant
through the federal Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban
Development.
Training
Teacher training
bill ok’d
from page A-1
too quickly, without the normal
committee review. They noted
that teachers in the privately run
alternative schools would not
have to meet the same certifi-
cation standards set down in the
bill for public school teachers.
Minority Leader Robert J.
Mellow said the legislative tac-
tic limited debate on the bill.
Mellow said the bill would
be costly to taxpayers and du-
plicate the efforts of charter-
school legislation, part of which
was meant to aid disruptive stu-
dents.
Pennsylvania law has prohib-
ited school districts from using
outside contractors to provide
educational services, including
the so-called “alternative educa-
tion” offered separately to stu-
dents with behavioral prob-
lems. On training, the law has
required school districts to de-
velop programs for teachers.
Blast
Care home blast
kills 5; 2 missing
from page A-1
termined.
“This is a total shock,” said
nursing home administrator
Michael Kegley.
Survivors — many of them
frail and elderly — received
temporary shelter at area
churches before ambulances
took them to five other nursing
homes. Some bedridden pa-
tients were placed on folding
tables.
Glen Fosdick, Hurley presi-
dent and chief executive, said
the patients included residents
and workers.
Eastgate Baptist Church, lo-
cated about a mile from the
nursing home, received 42 pa-
tients who did not need hospi-
talization, the Rev. Levi Parish
POLICE ,
FIRE
Sharon
ä Police on Wednesday ar-
rested two men in connection
with a burglary last week in
the 400 block of Silver Street.
Timothy Hubert Ayres, 37,
of 251 First Ave., was arrested
at 1:05 p.m. at his home on a
warrant for burglary and rob-
bery, police said. They said
Daniel Willis Keasey III, 22, of
411 Alderman Ave., Sharon,
was arrested with Keasey on a
warrant for burglary and theft.
Police said the men stole a
radio scanner and two leather
coats from the home. Ayres’
robbery charge stems from his
wrestling a man to the ground
and ripping a gold chain from
his neck Saturday at Dock
Street and Wayne Place, police
said.
Sharpsville
ä A Sharon man turned
himself in Tuesday on warrants
stemming from an incident
Sunday when he allegedly beat
a woman and took her drugs.
Police said Joseph Sakony,
35, of 1013 Hines Ave., was
charged with aggravated as-
sault, robbery and disorderly
conduct at the Sharon office of
District Justice James E.
McMahon.
Police said that on Sunday
Sakony argued with a
Sharpsville woman, followed
her home and went inside her
Third Street residence without
permission.
Sakony hit the woman sever-
al times and pulled her hair,
police said, adding she was
treated the next day for a con-
cussion and a broken finger.
Police said when Sakony left
the residence he took money
and drugs belonging to the
woman.
Widow
Veteran’s widow
touched by find
from page A-1
Mrs. Rakoci.
Each November after that
for a few years, Mrs. Rakoci
said she heard from Keirn. It
wasn’t until Feb. 2, 1999 that
she got a letter from Jean
Philippe Speder, the Belgian
who actually found the lid.
Speder said he had been in-
terested in military history and
the Battle of the Bulge. He was
mainly interested in soldier’s
stories and had contacted
many veterans to hear true
tales of battle.
Speder was particularly in-
terested in the 99th Infantry Di-
vision and looked for war
memorabilia such as dog tags,
ID bracelets or any other items
bearing a name, such as a can-
teen or mess kit, that would al-
low him to trace the former
owner.
A few years ago, Speder said
he was searching the battlefield
with a metal detector when he
found a mess kit cover. He
used his computer to match
what he though read “Rakoci
6010” with a list of 10,000 G.I.
names and serial numbers he
has compiled over the years.
Speder said he could not
find a match in his database or
through the Veterans Adminis-
tration. He placed the mess kit
in a small museum he owns,
where it remained until last
year.
One day, Speder said he
came upon a name spelled
“Racoci” with the serial num-
ber ASN 33406910. The official
listing had misspelled Rakoci’s
last name and Speder had mis-
taken 6010 for 6910.
Mrs. Rakoci said Speder’s
only request was that the fami-
ly send him a copy of a WWII
photograph of Rakoci in uni-
form.
“He didn’t want any money
for sending it,” Mrs. Rakoci
said. “He said John had already
paid for it in 1944.”
Mrs. Rakoci said she has
spent a lot of time showing the
cover to friends and family.
She plans to put the cover in
shadow box in her living room.
“I don’t know what to say,”
she said, smiling and shedding
a tear. “This is once in a life-
time.”
Residents of the Shenango
Valley and Mercer can get help
from the respective Salvation
Army units during the upcom-
ing holiday season.
Christmas sign-ups will be
held from 9:30 a.m. to noon
and 1 to 3 p.m. Monday
through Wednesday in Salva-
tion Army Shenango Valley
Corps, 660 Fisher Hill St.,
Sharon.
The Salvation Army has aid-
ed individuals in the Shenango
Valley since 1888. The corps
has distributed Angel Tree toys
to thousands of children and
makes certain every family has
a turkey dinner with all the fix-
ings.
Those wishing to sign up
should take proof of income for
everyone in the household;
proof of address, such as a util-
ity bill; Social Security num-
bers; and birthdates.
Information: 347-5537.
Mercer Salvation Army will
take Christmas basket and toy
applications from 1 to 3 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday, and
10 a.m. to noon Nov. 18 and 19
in Mercer Borough Building,
North Pitt Street. A make-up
day may be set later.
Those interested should
bring identification; driver’s li-
cense; Social Security number;
welfare card; and proof of ad-
dress and income.
Sign up soon for Salvation
Army toys, holiday baskets
SHENANGO VALLEY, MERCER