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,«•»,• A . * ^ ' \ * * >\ Goodluck Lady Wildcats! -...page10 : ttBB Northern New York's Greatest Weekly A Town & Country Newspaper VOL. 102 NO. 25 — GOUVERNEl'R, N.Y WEDNESDAY, FEBRIARY 8, 1989 20 PAGES - THIRTY FIVE CENTS Diary of An Offbeat 'Talent Scout' By Bill Pike I used to drive the backroads of the North Country quite a bit, a roving reporter in a trusty 'four-wheel-drive. All the St. Lawrence River valley was my beat. And most of the Adirondack mountains. I wrote a lot of stuff down in big spiral notebooks. . Oddities and profundities of spirit and place were my business; mysteries hitherto unnoticed or gnored. il was looking for real stones. It was easy; just had to keep my eyes open. Things strange, wonderful, and authentic — they were everywhere. That's how it seemed to me. I'd get hold of half an address, maybe. Or a last name. And somehow — despite mysteriously haphazard navigation methods that drove my infrequent passengers bonkers — a few hours of thoroughly unpremeditated driving would produce the person I was looking for. Or another person, just as fascinating. What a job. Tell me a guy played a fiddle like the Devil himself, lived in a haunted geodesic dome made out of fiberglass and grass clippings, purported to be an authority on quantum mechanics, and kept goats... that was all I needed. In two shakes of a whipoorwilKs tail, the Jeep and I were on the trail. I'd track the guy down, get him talking, and eventually write him up fiddle, spooks, and all. - Sometimes during my travels, when I'd just stumble across \an interesting character\ without even trying, it would make me fell like an offbeat \talent scout.\ That was always an adventure: ..'— BLOWIN' IN THE WIND There used to be an abandoned fire tower just outside Parishville and it was fairly close to an old secondary road, a thin pot-holed strip of Adirondack blacktop bordered by black spruce, . balsams, and a sprinkling of aspen, snaking through some wild, high country. While driving past the tower one afternoon in the Jeep. I was Htruck bug-eyed. There, high above the top of the old tower was a guy hanging in the air, dangling from a parachute, out over the mountain, like a human kite. He just hung there. He wasn't coming down As a matter of fact, gusts would . occasionally take him even higher. What was going on? I mean, we were talking pome serious altitude here. The idea, or rather the procedure, behind this joy-riding — I later learned — was rally fairly simple First, the wind had to be really blowing just right. Then the guy and his friends would carry all the necessary gear — \basically a parachute an a lot of nylon line — to the top of the tower. Seemed like it must have been about a hundred feet up there. Maybe more. Once they got to the observation deck, all the gear was sorted out and made ready. Under- standably, safety and organization pere big considerations. At length, the guy would don the parachute . . . When fully secured in the rig. he'd clip one end of a very, very long coil of rope to his chest The other end of the rope would be clipped to the railing of the observation deck, on the downwind side Then he'd jump up onto the railing, facing straight into the wind, with his back to the wild blue yonder. I^et me tell you It was hardly a sport .for the faint hearted. Or those afflicted with a fear of heights \Ready 9 \ the guy's friends woudld start pulling the parachute from its colorful backsack. letting it catch the wind. fill, and lift Nothing to it. until... Whooof With a rousing cheer, the guy would be snatched See Diary Pg. 6 Oops! Village Water, Sewage Bills Wrong This first billing with new wat*T and formats contains two errors according to Village Administrator Scott Hudson The village's new computer was used for the billing The first error occurs in the portion of the bill that identifies when the service period i* The bill says from 02 01 89 to 01 17 89 Non metered bilk should read from 02 01 89 to 04 30 89 Metered bills should read from 10 11 88 to 01 17 89 The second error on the bill occurs in the portion of the bill that states the due date This read* 03 01 09 and should read 03 01 89 The amount due on or before 03 01 89 is the amount shown on the hjrht hand side of the bill labeled net Apparently, there ha* been aotne confusion over this Also there has been no water and sewer rate increase thi* qmarter Ifanvon* ha* any qwemtkmM cm their bilk, contact the villa** at 2T 1720 • . i - •-•••. • Parents: Why Can't Jason Read? Gouveftieur's 'Open Court' Reading Blamed; Changes Made By Lisa L* Reape Gouverneur Central School District likely will have a new elementary level reading program in place next fall, but it couldn't come soon enough as far as one dissatisfied parent is concerned. Cande Houghton, Hailesboro Read, said she and her husband, Jerry, have been fighting the school for years to ensure their son, Jason, is taught to read. Mrs. Houghton said her family's troubles began when Jason, now 14, first encountered the u Open Court\ reading program in the first grade. She re- called attending the meet- ing the school sponsored to introduce parents to the new system. . \English was never quite my subject,\ Mrs. Houghton admitted, but the Open Court system was \absolute Greek to me, 1 \ she said. With its system of ''hard block AV and other classifications of vowel sounds, Mrs. Houghton said she and her husband found it impos- sible to help their son with reading or spelling. Td ask him (Jason) to spell 'sail/ and he would ask me, What kind of an A is it?* Well, how do I know what kind of 'A' it is? Unless you had received the instruction in the classroom, you would have no idea what they were talking about.\ Frustrated in their at-' tempts to help their son, Mrs. Houghton said Ja- son was \totally lost\ in the first grade at East Side School, which he had to repeat. At that point, he entered the Title program for reading, in an attempt to improve his reading skills. \He muddled through the first grade, second grade, and third grade,\ she said. a By this time, he was frustrated and he didn't want to go to school. He cried; we cried; every day was a battle to get him to go to school.\ The fourth grade found Jason attending Fowler Elementary School, but it was no different there. Finally, after seeing Ja- son's 30-weeks' report card, Mrs. Houghton said, \my husband had had it. He went up to the Fowler school, where Mrs. Thayer was principal at the time, and literally pounded his fist on her desk. \We pay $400 a year in taxes and you're going to teach my son to read/ he said.\ The school psychologist then conducted a number of tests on Jason, and determined the boy had a \short term memory learn- ing disability.\ Although Jason had only a second grade reading level, Mrs. Houghton said the school \was fully will- ing to pass him.\ \I informed them that if he was reading at a sec- ond grade level, what good would it do to promote him to fifth grade,\ she said. At that point, a friend of the Hough tons who taught fourth grade at East Side School suggested they request he be placed in her class. The school con- sented, and Jason then entered the fourth grade at East Side Scho3l. At the same time, he entered a learning disabilities class, where the teacher found a reading series Jason could understand. Mrs. Houghton said she has never been bothered by the school labeling Jason as having a learn- ing disability. \As long as they taught him to read, I didn't care,\ she said. And teach him to read, they did. - ..... By placing Jason in an LD class two hours a day, rt the teacher was able to bring him up two reading levels in one year,\ Mrs. Houghton said. At last their son was making real progress. But, Mrs. Houghton said, \it took our getting really angry with the school and making phone calls to make any head- way. I'm concerned about the other children, whose parents maybe didn't push as hard as we did.\ Mrs. Houghton said she and her husband were not alone in their frustrations over the Open Court sys- tem. She said she began noticing more and more children enrolled in Title programs. Like the Houghtons, other parents questioned the effectiveness of the program. \We (local parents) wanted to ask questions about how the program was working,\ she said. \^W*e wanted to ask 'are there more kids in Title now than there were be- fore Open Court? 1 We were told that was like compar- ing apples and oranges. \We asked Tiow can we help our children read and spell when we don't under- stand the system—if we don't use the right termi- nology?* \ Determined that Jason should learn to read, the Houghtons had enrolled their son in a reading clinic at the State University College at Potsdam dur- ing the summer before fourth grade at East Side School. They also paid to have him privately tutored for two summers. Jason did very well in the sixth grade, Mrs. Houghton said. So well, in fact, that the board that reviews LD children rec- ommended he be promoted to the eighth grade. Mrs. Houghton explained that if Jason was required to complete the extra grade, he would be 20 years old by the time he graduated school. \The board thought he might be tempted to drop out of school before he finished if he had to go the extra year,\ she said. Now in the eighth grade, Mrs. Houghton said Ja- son is still attending LD See Parents Pg 6 Local musher Gary Jareo a construction engineer from Gouverneur. directs his 16 Alaskan-bred dogs over a grueling 17 1 mile course Jareo will race at Tupper Lake and Paul Smiths this month See story page 6. * w y,,-\ Only Case In 1988 Napping Woman Bitten by Bat; Two Treated Although St Lawrence County had only one con- firmed rabies case last year, the lone incident was a story for the record books and a lesson everyone to Warn. DT Charles L. Duncan of the St La wTence County Health/Menu! Health Service*, in his annual report on the county ra- bies program, taid the unusual case involved a rabid bat *A lady who was nap- ping one afternoon, was awakened by a bat which had bitten her on the fin- ger and was holding on the doctor bat and so was exposed •Admittedly, it is diffi- cult to think clearly when someone is frantically calling for help to remove a bat, but in a circum- stance such as this, he might better have used gloves, a towel sheet or anything to protect his hands from the bat. Both people are healthy at this time, six months later* Statewide, there were 38 confirmed cases of rabid bats, one rabid grey fox and one rated bovine. Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and Oneida counties each reported one rabid bat, while Franklin, Hamilton aod HirkiiMr count** had no confirmed cast* of At St Lawrence County clinics, 1,800 dogs, and 745 cats were vaccinated against rabies. Veterinary practitioners vaccinated 5,046 dogs, 3,411 cats and 239 horses for a total of 11,002 pets. *I am gratified that pet owners are still interested in having their pets vacci- nated, even though our Police Cuff Three In Burglary Spree Gouverneur Village Police, in concert with State Police, Thursday charged three Gou- varneur men with 22 burglary counts in con- nection with a string of burglaries to businesses in and around the village during the past month. Arrested were Robert James Aldr*h,23, of!8 1/2 South St, Mark A. Miller. 23, Route 1, and ADen G. Bigwarfe, 21, also of Route 1. Aidnch was charged with eight counts of third- degree burglary, one count of attempted third- degree burglary, and three counts of petit lar- Se* Police Pg. 6 rabies cases have de- creased to only one bat in 21 months since March 1987,\ Dr. Duncan wrote. *Our neighbors to the north weren't as lucky as we were. As of the end of November 1988, the six Canadian eastern region areas encompassing East- ern Ontario to just beyond Kingston-Frontenac had 267 positive animals, com- pared to 383 the same time in 1987. Charles Trimarthi of the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Re- search, State Health De- partment, noted in his report that \The red fox rsiaie* outbreak that has occurred cyclically in our northern counties for three decades was not evident during 1988. This was the first year since 1980 that fox rabies was not confirmed in that area. On both previous occa- sions when that outbreak was interrupted for a year or more, it began again, with the first cases occur- ring on islands of the St. La wrence River or in town- iships bordering the river \ \We can see the prob- able reason when we ex- amine the figuret reported by the Ontario Mimstry of Health,\ Dr Duncan noted. Tf our winter u mild enough to k*ep~thfc. river from freezing, wt may stay free of rmbiM for 6
