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LORAIN COUNTY
AMHERST NEWS-TIMES • OBERLIN NEWS-TRIBUNE • WELLINGTON ENTERPRISE Thursday, April 29, 2021
Submit items to news@lcnewspapers.com
COMET RELAYS
Volume 8, Issue 17
PRIMARY ELECTION ISSUES GUIDE
See pages B3-B4 for information on local road, library, operating and ambulance district renewal levies on the May 4 ballot.
Kelley ready to pass the torch From fires to floods, tornadoes and 9/11, county EMA director has seen it all JASON HAWK EDITOR
PHOTOS ON PAGE A6
Back to just two semesters at OC STAFF REPORT
OBERLIN — Oberlin College will roll back the three-semester model it put in place at the outset of the pandemic and return to a traditional academic year. "Now that we expect to achieve a vaccination level that will allow us to achieve herd immunity, I am excited to share that we plan to return to a twosemester calendar, beginning this fall," President Carmen Twillie Ambar said in an email to the campus community. "We anticipate dining, residential living, and academic delivery will be similar to what we enjoyed on campus prior to the pandemic," Ambar said. "Courses will return to in-person instruction, and students will enroll for
an in-person experience on campus." That doesn't mean everything is quite going back to normal. Fall classes at Oberlin will get a late start on Oct. 4 and students won't begin winter break until Dec. 23. The fall semester will resume well into the winter, wrapping up with a stint from Jan. 3 to 24. A brief winter term will run from Jan. 25 to Feb. 17. That means the spring semester won't begin until Feb. 18. Commencement, traditionally held on Memorial Day, will be inched back almost a week to June 5. Because of uncertainty over the battle with COVID-19, decisions about the college's academic calendar were made fairly late this year.
Bruce Bishop | Chronicle
Tom Kelley, director of the Lorain County Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security, talks on a radio in his department's command center in 2011. While others slept soundly, he's watched and prepared for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, chemical spills, plane crashes and power
outages. Perhaps the largest local emergency response ever mounted came after the August 1993 explosion of
KELLEY PAGE A3
Beaming with pride
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ELYRIA — Tom Kelley has worked in public safety for 42 years. Now he has less than 42 days left until retirement. The longtime Lorain County Emergency Management Agency director is preparing to pass the torch June 4 to his successor, Jessica Fetter, who was appointed March 31 by the county commissioners. For decades, Kelley's eyes have been scanning the horizon for unseen dangers.
the Aztec Catalyst plant on Garden Street in Elyria. Kelley said he'll never forget how about 6,000 people who lived close to the plant were evacuated overnight. After Sept. 11, 2001, Kelley was named the county's homeland security head. "It completely changed the way we operated," he remembers. "It was no longer fires and floods and tornadoes and earthquakes. It was terrorism." Suddenly, his eyes opened to new dangers — at the time, a chief concern was the threat of biological warfare. The nation was going through an anthrax scare as letters laced with white powder were discovered, leading to one of the most complex FBI investigations
News staff Jason Hawk news@lcnewspapers.com Phone: 440-329-7122 Submit news to news@lcnewspapers.com Deadline: 10 a.m. Tuesday Send obituaries to obits@chroniclet.com
Jason Hawk | Amherst News-Times
Liam Wagner, 8, writes his name in block letters Tuesday, April 20, 2001, on a steel beam that will go inside the new Firelands High School, which he'll attend one day.
Falcons families sign steel support for new Firelands HS JASON HAWK EDITOR
HENRIETTA TWP. — The signatures inscribed on a long, white steel beam last Tuesday evening will inspire generations of students who attend the new Firelands High School.
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Joanne Wagner was part of the committee that convinced voters to pay for the $23 million school. She said it was important for her sons Liam, Justin and Ben to sign the beam. "We worked really hard to pass this levy," Wagner said. "It's such an BEAM PAGE A3
INSIDE THIS WEEK
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Students and parents flocked to add their names to the 56-foot long, 3-foot wide, 7,000-pound beam that lay just outside Falcons Stadium. "I like to show my family is here, and I'm very thankful to be open enrolled into Firelands," said Josh Yost, who wears Firelands black and red while playing football and running track.
Amherst
Oberlin
Wellington
Turnpike plazas shut down after threat called in • B1
Reservoir-to-wetland plan takes shape on Morgan St. • B1
Former Fire Chief Tony Marley dies at age 86 • B1
OBITUARIES A2 • HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS A4-A6 • CLASSIFIEDS A6