News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • 7

IB Go to www.mansfieldnewsjoumal.com for the latest sports, weather and breaking news. The News Journal's Web site is your one-stop spot for information. Call reporter Mark Caudill at 419-521-7219 or e-mail mcaudilinncogannett.com. 1 NEWS JOURNAL Sunday, January 15, 2006 PAGE 1 Lsai 'mm I Wintry weather returns just in time for Mohican's Winterfest 1 Today at Winterfest Today's Mohican Winterfest events begin at 9 a.m. with ice skating in Central Park.

Three winter hikes will begin at 10 a.m. in Mohican State Park, all starting at the state park commissary. There will be ice sculpting demonstrations downtown from 1 1 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Central Park and more at Mohican Adventures on Ohio 3 south of Loudonville from 1 to 5 p.m.

Karen White sings "Lift Every Voice and Sing" Saturday morning during the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast at Providence Baptist Church. (Jason J. MolyetNews Journal) Get out and do for yourself That's the message at Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast Creek Pine Run Grist Mill on Ohio 3, south of town.

On Saturday winter reappeared and so did the soup and sandwich events hosted by Loudonville clubs and churches along with bonfires and a 7 p.m. Snow Ball Dance at the Mohican Adventure Conference Center. Costic said he would like to return to Ashland University and bring back the Blast. "I'd love to do both Ashland and Loudonville," he said. rslmonnncogannett.com 419-521-7230 ture and hot soup in equal amounts.

In the downtown area were Costic and Myers at work on a stage, using sanders and other tools to carve huge blocks of clear ice. Many of the Ice creations were displayed on Main Street in front of the businesses that sponsored them. Many were done well ahead of time, Costic said. On Friday was a festival of lights at Landoll's Mohican Castle and horse-drawn carriage rides in downtown Loudonville. Ice sculpting demonstrations were held at the Wolf By Angel N.

Ross News Journal MANSFIELD Black people in the community need to get into the mode of doing things for themselves, city Councilman-at-large Don Culliver said Saturday at the 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast at Providence Baptist Church. "It is OK to ask for help, but we must do things ourselves," he said, Culliver urged his audience to reflect on Dr. King's life and his legacy. "Martin Luther King Jr.

set the stage for us in education as well as being a family man. He did not do things by himself; he managed to rally all types of people with a collective vision," he said. The Rev. Larry Rawls, a pastor at Mount Calvary Baptist Church, who served as master of ceremonies, said race relations have improved in Mansfield since King's death. "I see more interracial couples now than I did in the past," he said.

"The hip-hop culture has helped the races intertwine, with black and white young people listening to the same type of Rawls said more blacks are getting jobs today. "We didn't always have Stacy Marshall, of Mansfield, enjoys breakfast with her 2-year-old son D'Marian McClain Saturday at the MLK breakfast at Providence Baptist Church. (Jason J. MolyetNews Journal) I ii ii i mi MLK fundraiser "Gospel Extravaganza," a fundraiser to support construction of the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

in Mansfield's Central Park, will be Feb. 25 at 5 p.m. at the Renaissance Theatre. General admission is $10. Admission to the program and a reception is $20.

Saturday's breakfast make a difference for everyone, Asher said. AngRossanncogannetl.com 419-521-7205 Mansfield Youth orchestra will perform twice Saturday The Mansfield Symphony Youth Orchestra will present two Lollipop Concerts on Saturday at 10 am at Malabar Middle School and 11 :30 a.m. at Western Elementary School. Ettore Chiudioni will conduct the youth orchestra, which consists of 90 student musicians from a five-county area. The concerts selections are made with children in mind, from preschool age through fifth grade.

The program will include numbers from "Annie," The Wizard of Oz," and other classical numbers. The performances are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.rparts.org. SCRAP trailer hits the road this week The SCRAP recycling trailer, sponsored by the Richland County Regional Solid Waste Management Authority, will visit four elementary schools this week. Residents may drop off aluminum cans, metal cans plastic pop, milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles and newspapers.

Cans and bottles should be rinsed and caps removed. All money from the sale of materials collected will go to the respective schools. The SCRAP trailer schedule includes these 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. visits: I Tuesday Prospect Elementary, Mansfield I Wednesday Central Elementary, Shelby I Thursday Springmill Elementary, Mansfield I Friday Mifflin Elementary, Madison Local For more information, call 419-774-5861. March for Life will finish up at square Jan.

22 Pro-Life Inc. will hold its annual March for Lie of North Central Ohio at 3 p.m. Jan. 22. Participants will assemble at First English Lutheran Church, 53 Park Avenue West, and march to the gazebo on the square for a brief ceremony.

Speakers will be state Sen. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, who is running for the Fourth District congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Michael Oxley of Findlay, and Pastor Micah Pelkey of Citi Church of Mansfield. The two winners of the student Pro-Life Essay Contest, Justine Boggs of Madison Junior High School and Wendy Lambert of Ontario High School, will read their winning entries.

The event also will feature a display of entries in the Pro-Life poster contest Ashland AU radio station to unveil new format Tuesday When WRDL-FM, Ashland University's student-operated radio station, takes the air 6 am Tuesday, will have a new format Ryan Kovalaske, program director, said the station will feature an alternative rock format including punk and ska (rock with brass). In the past, the DJs were allowed to select their own music. We wanted to create a better educational experience for the students. Most radio stations have formats that they require their DJs to follow. We want to provide the experience of working within a format." A junior from Sugarcreek majoring in creative writing, Kovalaske said the new tor-mat will be strictly observed between 9 am.

and 6 p.m. After 6 p.m., DJs will follow a "random radio" format to allow students to be more creative. In addition to music, the station will broadcast home AU basketball and baseball games and sponsor a concert series. WRDL is located at 88.9 FM. By Ron Simon News Journal LOUDONVILLE "It's weather custom-made for a festival like this," Steve Allerding said as a bitter wind whipped across Loudonville's Central Park.

If Friday was shorts weather, Saturday was Mohican Winterfest with a vengeance. The first ever winterfest filled the downtown with ice sculptures created by Aaron Costic and Jeff Myers of Elegant Ice Creations. Winterfest moved to Loudonville and surrounding areas after a long stay as the Arctic Blast at Ashland University. Dave Leckrone said that when the University decided to end the Blast, his wife Jerrilynn, executive director of the Loudonville Mohican Chamber of commerce, Inc. "picked up the ball and ran with it." The result is a three-day event featuring ice sculp- Crestline police chief suspended By Mike Redelson Gannett News Service CRESTLINE City Police Chief Butch Wil-hite was suspended by City Service Safety Director Gene Toy on Friday for inappropriate use of his city-issue cell phone.

Wilhite waived a hearing before Toy on the violation. Toy suspended Wilhite for three days, Jan. 23 through 25, without pay. After a Jan. 6 discussion with Wilhite, Toy decided to investigate.

Beside the suspension, Wilhite must reimburse the city $190.61, the cost of his misuse calls, by Jan. 31. While many of the calls were legitimate business, the bulk were to a Crestline woman. Toy described them as "non-business related." Telephone records show Wilhite made 96 telephone calls to the woman's home and 64 to her cell phone. He banned the chief from making any calls to the woman's two numbers from his city-owned cell phone and to use it only for official calls.

"We can't have actions like this by a professional city official and department head," Toy said. I live my life That's the kind of persuasive moral power that Dr. King brought to the table. A mild-mannered man of God, he took his licks and came back for more. Just like his boss.

Still, remembering the nervous and unhappy spirit of the times, it took me years to finally pick up a worthwhile book on the life of Dr. King. What I found was a quiet, scholarly man from a middle-class background who would have led a quiet, cloistered life. Until Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus. 1 le was launched, almost against his will into one of the most important leadership positions in American history.

And martyrdom. Tomorrow is his day. If you have a moment, being a government worker, school person or banker, ask yourself if Dr. King in anyway changed the trajectory of your life and attitudes. I bet he did.

rwmonSnncogannrtt com 419-521 7230 Peggy Wang of Taiwan plays the flute during a rehearsal Saturday at First United Methodist Church. (Daniel MelogranaNews Journal) Exchange students learn about life in many ways Last of four drive-thru thieves pleads guilty 20 robbery on Ashland's north prosecutor Paul Lange said Phipps walked into the drive-thru masks and hooded sweatshirts threatened clerk Mallory Paw-likowski a gun and a wine bottle. They $1,000 and cartons of cigarettes. said Kintyhht held a gun to Paw-likowski's head, while Phipps broke and wine bottle at her. Woods was the lookout, while getaway vehicle.

Deborah Woodward set Phipps' for Feb. 27. He faces a maximum years in prison and a $15,000 By Al Lawrence News Journal Correspondent ASHLAND The last of four Wayne County residents charged in the robbery of the Ashland Drive-Thru, 618 Cottage nearly a year ago has admitted his guilt. Timothy M. Phipps, 20, of Shreve, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in Common Pleas Court to one count of robbery in exchange for the dismissal of charges of theft, complicity to abduction and possession of criminal tools.

Phipps and Wooster residents Matthew Kintyhht, Chester E. Woods II and Rochelle L. Tyo were indicted in August the hope and expectations that we have today," he said. "This is a great holiday and we all should try to live the message that Martin Luther King Jr. taught us every day." Mansfield City Schools board member Sondra Asher expressed here respect for King and what the did for the nation.

"We have made progress in this community in dealing with civil rights but there is still more to do," she said. Working together and sharing activities such as wind in the Old The simple act of leaving the scene at the top of their game. Actually, and this is just my take, Dr. King had moved past that point. Among the younger people involved in civil rights, he was in danger of being considered an old fogey.

That may be one reason he emerged in a leadership role during a garbage workers strike in Memphis in 1968 proof positive the turbulent '60s were far from over and Dr. King still had a role to play. He did indeed, thanks to the creep with the sniper rifle. No fading from the scene or being forgotten. Out in a blaze of glory.

I'm sure after reading the "Letters rom a Birm x. RON SIMON NEWS JOURNAL for the Jan. side. Assistant Kintyhht and wearing and with took about He waived the Lange said Tyo drove the Judge sentencing eight fine. Martin Luther King Jr.

changed the way Mok had a pretty good command of English before he got here. He's taken English lessons for more than a decade, and now he's getting a chance to learn the language in daily conversation. Jessica Lin, whose father runs an import-export business in Taiwan, attends Temple Christian School while living with Cindy Noble. An advanced pianist, she's taking lessons from an Ashland University professor. Lin signed up to visit America knowing she would be a year behind in school at home when she returns.

The year away doesn't count toward her graduation. She's not sorry. "Everything is different. Everything is interesting," she said. Taiwan is crowded.

Most live in apartments rather than individual homes. Few families need cars. "You go out, there's a bus in front of you," Lin said. Peggy Wang, also from Taiwan, first began playing the piano at age 3. She learned the violin in elementary school, then switched to the flute.

She'll play a solo on the flute at the church service. Her parents urged her to sign up with Forte International. "Both of them want to let me learn different things, try something different to challenge myself," she said. Sylvia Tseng's father runs an import business. She hopes to major in business and to work as an interpreter.

She values her experience attending Mansfield Senior High School. She said they've helped her become "more independent." rwbe nocogannnicom 419-521-7229 By Linda Martz News Journal MANSFIELD Music tends to be high on a lot of teenagers' lists of interests no matter what country they grow up in. It's definitely a top interest among many of the 22 students now placed with Richland County families through Forte International, an international exchange program. Sixteen students from China, Taiwan, Germany and Brazil are being featured this morning in a program at First United Methodist Church, 12 North Diamond St. From 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., six students will tell about their home countries in a panel discussion.

At 10:45 a.m., some of the students will perform songs during the church service. Both events are open to the public, said Wanda Den-man, local representative for Forte International, who attends First United Methodist. The students, ages 15 to 18, have been in the U.S. since August and attend local high schools. "I try my best to place the students in a Christian family," Penman said.

Most exchange students are involved in sports or music in their home countries and participate in similar activities here, said Barb Beal of Bucyrus, who also is involved with the nonprofit exchange pro-grain. Dickens Mok of Hong Kong will sing "Let There Be Peace on Earth" during the church service. His mother encouraged him to become a foreign exchange student. "She wanted me to do that (to learn) English," he said. ingham Jail" that Dr.

King considered assassination a real possibility. He went ahead anyway. Fear wasn't his ruling passion. Justice was. The 1960s were a learning decade for all of us.

It was a decade of either grow or die. No matter how it turns out, times like that have more than their share of rough moments. The '60s music, social struggle and all the killings were a nervous time for us all. I'd like to think I came out of it with an expanded world view and a better idea of where I fit in the big picture. Sometimes, of course, I didn't fit at all.

But even as others cursed Dr. King and reviled his work, I couldn't help but admire the man. I le was one of those I lem-ingway types who displayed grace under pressure. listen to him and you knew he was right. Once you knew that, it was time to see just where your own life fit into this new scheme of things.

I once thought that the reason Martin Luther King Jr. Day fell on a Monday in early January was because it provided a simple excuse for government officials to give themselves a day off not long after the major holidays were over. Wrong. Not wrong about my beloved government. Just wrong about the date.

Dr. King was born Jan. 15, 1929, in Memphis. Having lived through the civil rights wars and the shock of his assassination in 1968, it's a good idea to spend a little time thinking about his impact on America and the world. I know his impact on my life was major.

I le was, I think, the only Biblical-style prophet I have ever experienced. A gentle Isaiah for our time. And like the man he modeled himself al ter, Mohandas Gandhi, he came to a hard end. Both men were shot down by lesser men; Gandhi up close and Dr. King sniper style.

It rather reminds me of Elijah taken up into heaven by a whirl- News Journal staff reports S3:.