Simpson cards hot item for local LANCASTER EAGLE-GAZETTE TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1994 ESTABLISHED 1807 LANCASTER, OHIO 35 CENTS 16 PAGES Storms cause fire, power outages Lightning blamed for two apartment fires at Muirwood Village From staff reports Severe thunderstorms swept through Fairfield County Monday downing trees, knocking out electricity and causing a fire at an apartment building. Power was restored at 4 a.m. today to Ohio Power Co. customers in Millersport who lost power at 6:30 p.m. after lightning hit a transformer.
That was Ohio Power's longest outage in Fairfield County, said Lonnie Leonard, area manager. Former airman kills four during rampage SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) A man who had been discharged from the Air Force for psychiatric problems dressed himself in black, took a taxi to a hospital at his former base and stalked the halls spraying bullets from an AK-47. Four people were killed and 21 wounded before a military police officer shot him dead. One of the first people killed Monday at Fairchild Air Force Base was the psychiatrist who had recommended Dean A.
Mellberg's discharge. "He knew where he was going. He went directly to that office, Undersheriff John Goldman said. Eight of the wounded were in critical condition today. Among the wounded were a 3-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl.
Hospital would not release their conditions or the names of the victims. Goldman identified the gunman as Mellberg, 20, Lansing, Mich. He had been stationed at Fairchild as recently as February and was discharged in May, Goldman said. Details of his psychiatric problems were not immediately available. The gunman wore black jeans, a black T-shirt and sneakers.
He stowed his AK-47 assault rifle In a large duffel bag during the 10-mile taxi ride from a Spokane motel to the base, Goldman said. CAN. WASHINGTON Spokane Fairchild Air Base Force IDAHO 50 miles Gunman attacks 50 km OREGON Lightning from Monday's storm was to blame for two separate apartment fires at Muirwood Village Apartments causing an estimated $2,000 damage to each apartment. The fire in Apartment 486, home to Tanya Conrath, began in the laundry room where a stuffed animal was laying on a water pipe. The flames began in the attic of Apartment 496, occupied by Carl Zelinka, where firefighters believe lightning ignited a dryer vent that extended to the ridge vent in the at- tic.
The vent apparently fell and ignited tresses and wood framing of the building. Fire damage was limited to roof framing and the dryer vent with water damage caused to the closet below. Zelinka was not home at the time the fire broke out. No injuries resulted from either blaze. Lightning also caused about 100 Ohio Power customers in the Cedar Hill Road area to lose electricity for about 75 minutes.
The worst Ohio Power outage How the garden grows was unrelated to Monday's storms. About 1,200 customers on the south side of Lancaster were without power from 3:35 to 6:50 p.m. because of equipment failure that could have been caused by an earlier storm. About 600 Fairfield County South Central Power Co. customers also lost power.
Electric service had been restored to all customers by this morning. South Central Power Co. spokeswoman Cathy Bitler said Frank Talbert did not let the heat keep him from tending his garden Monday at Diamond Power. Talbert uses a push-type plow to work between the rows. Diamond Power furnishes garden plots for employees and company retirees.
(E-G photo by Dave Kline) AP Would-be IGA burglar linked to other crimes By JOAN SLATTERY WALL The Eagle-Gazette Staff Fairfield County Sheriff's Office Monday filed charges against a man accused of trying to break into Bay's IGA in Lithopolis. Seth Joseph Field, 20, Columbus, was charged with one count of breaking and entering in connection with the Sunday incident, after which he and two boys, ages 12 and 14, were arrested. The trio did not gain entry into the main store. Detectives linked Field to other crimes in Lancaster and the surrounding area, Sheriff Gary DeMastry said. Field was charged with one count of complicity to robbery for his alleged part in the theft of a purse from a woman at River Valley Mall June 9.
A Lancaster woman told city po- outages affected customers in Pickerington, Canal Winchester and Carroll. Customers in Oakland made up 185 of the total South Central Power Co. outages making it the area with the most outages in the county. Power was restored in the Oakland area in about two hours. Eighteen customers in Pickerington were without power for about hours the longest outage in the county.
Storm damage in Lancaster was minimal, said Jerry Canfield, city street superintendent. An uprooted tree in the 600 block of North High Street blocked an alley. Fallen limbs blocked the intersection of Udell Street and Cleveland Avenue for a short period. And a limb hit a porch in the 800 block of Maywood Avenue. Firefighters responded to the 200 block of South Memorial Drive, where a power line was down in (See Voinovich believes school funding constitutional Governor says system efficient and thorough, but it is not equitable By MIKE RUTLEDGE Eagle-Gazette Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS With the possibility looming that a Perry County Common Pleas judge will declare Ohio's school-funding system unconstitutional in the next few weeks, Gov.
George Voinovich and his budget director launched a preemptive strike. "In light of the upcoming court decision in Perry County, I will say again: I believe our state school funding system is constitutional," Voinovich said. "It is in fact thorough and efficient. "However, I do not believe the system is equitable," he said. "The system has been inequitable for a long time.
The question is how do we deal with Voinovich's prescription: "Keep doing what we're doing. Keep reallocating resources." Critics call Ohio's school-funding program the nation's most inequitable, noting that spending per student ranges from $3,000 to $12,000 across the state. Voinovich's budget director, Gregory Browning, used charts and graphs to show state spending for primary and secondary schools has climbed 146 percent from 1982 through 1995, at a time inflation rose only 61.9 percent. Local funding rose 124 percent during the period, and federal funding climbed 140 percent. During the same period, the number of children enrolled in the schools dipped 6.7 percent to 1.78 million, he said.
Voinovich, meanwhile, attacked the "fat cat" salaries of school administrators, noting the number of administrators has climbed during the period from 6,800 to 7,600. Voinovich's administration in 1992 started a program to pour $43.7 million in "equity funds" in- "However, I do not believe the system is equitable. The system has been inequitable for a long time. The question is how do we deal with it." Gov. George Voinovich to the state's poorest districts.
Last year, it started distributing $68 million in capital money to poorer districts. The leader of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, which filed a lawsuit in Judge Linton Lewis' Perry County court, disputed Voinovich's points. "If we're on the right track, we're regressing," said William Phillis, the coalition's executive director. Phillis called the funds for poor districts "a political maneuver rather than a conscientious effort." "We're not adequately funding a basic education program." Phillis said. Voinovich, who predicted the state will lose in common pleas court.
because. "I have a lot of respect for the judge there, but he is from Perry County." Voinovich pledged the state will appeal. "We're beginning to turn the corner," he told reporters. "We've got a long way to go." Voinovich was asked when Ohio's schools will reach the destination. "We'll never do it," he said.
When will Voinovich be satisfied with the progress? "I'll never be satisfied. If I'm on my death bed, and I'm satisfied, then I've missed something." Wilkes will be remembered red with Festival Orchestra chair lice a juvenile came up behind her in the parking lot and forced her purse off of her shoulder. The sheriff's report said Field told deputies where the purse could be found, and it was recovered. Field also was charged with two counts of receiving stolen property after deputies found in his vehicle two license plates that were reported stolen from vehicles at River Valley Mall June 7. Field also is charged with breaking and entering into the Marcy Store, Canal Winchester, on May 31.
Lottery tickets, cigarettes and chewing tobacco were taken. Someone attempted to redeem the tickets later at a Gahanna store. Field is being held at Fairfield County Jail on $30,000 bond. DeMastry said the juveniles were released to their parents, and charges will be filed later this week. Sunny Low 85 Details on page A2 INDEX Accent.
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By MOLLY O'REILLY The Eagle-Gazette Staff The late Dr. Raymond Wilkes is being remembered for his help in starting Lancaster Festival. The Festival board of directors has created a special chair in the Lancaster Festival Orchestra dedicated to the memory of Wilkes, a longtime board member and dean of Ohio University-Lancaster. The board needs $20,000 to endow the Wilkes Young Artist Fellowship. About one-third of the funds has been raised, Festival codirector Eleanor Hood said.
Wilkes died April 23, the day after his 53rd birthday. "I think it's a very fitting memorial. It's really keeping with Ray's belief in continuing education, and we both are pretty much committed to education and youth," said his widow, Maria, principal of Sanderson Elementary School. "Dad would always talk about looking out the window Wilkes of his office onto empty land Wilkes across the creek behind OU-L, and he would imagine having a community festival which would bring music and the arts to Lancaster," said the Wilkeses' son, Joe. "One of his great joys was watching the Festival grow, and watching Lancaster's artistic appreciation and sophistication grow with it.
While he was never a musi- cian, he always appreciated the arts, and he saw the Festival as another great opportunity to educate, and more importantly, as an opportunity for himself to learn." Joe Wilkes said. Each year the musician who fills the chair will stay with Maria Wilkes in her Lancaster home. She is looking forward to hosting a different musician each year. The first recipient of the award will be 18-year-old violinist Mirabai Weismehl, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. "I'm pleased to have a violinist for the first year because I was a Maria Wilkes said.
She took lessons from fourth grade through college and played with the (See.
