The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 12

31 The Beacon Journal Wednesday, June 22, 1994, Page D3 Channel 23 baffle you? Join crowd Ccb 7 Dyer L-f 2 A V- 1 today's topic: Weather takes a toll I f''v "'V, VT Vs.V I 17 2 outlined their plans. Here's Jones, speaking rhetorically: "Will there be home shopping? Definitely, because we are a home shopping channel." Home shopping, added Cunningham, is the thing that "fuels the engine." Guess we're running on empty, eh? At the risk of spreading more ugly rumors, exactly what happened? "Well," Jones replied on Monday during a meeting in his office, let's talk about the future." Actually, I'd like to sort out the past first. "We will not discuss the past." Gee. I guess stuff happens. Sure, let's just forget about the past.

That's what any good news organization would do. Let's just sit and listen as you talk about new equipment, new news shows, a new set, an investigative reporting unit But just out of curiosity, is there anything in your new contract with ABC that says you would lose the network affiliation if you introduced home shopping? Jones paused for 19 seconds before replying: "Well, I'm not at liberty to go into the specifics of the contract." Does this sound like the kind of organization that should be making fun of other news media? I don't think so. Yet during his first newscast after the takeover, anchor Mark Williamson squandered precious air time to tell his audience that Yours Truly should begin walking to Cleveland. He claimed that I promised to take such a hike if WAKC remained an ABC affiliate once ValueVision took control. Sorry, pal, but you got the terms of the bet wrong.

Here is the exact quote, from the Broadcast News column of Dec. 19: "Let's put is this way: If Channel 23 remains an ABC affiliate after it becomes a shopping channel, your local TV writer will walk to Cleveland." Is Channel 23 a shopping channel? No, it is not. You start shopping and I'll start walking. Meanwhile, let's tell it like it really is: Your new owners misled not only the Beacon Journal but ValueVision stockholders, the FCC and your viewers. Bob Dyer can be reached at 996-3580.

from this apple tree. Drought and severe weather have harmed some of the Ron Kuner cuts back dying limbs pruning, ne nupes preserve pan or ine tree Mother Nature's vagaries out area fmit trees hat's going on at Akron's only network television station? Who knows? You certainly can't rety on what the station tells you. When the new owners of WAKC (Channel 23) announced their purchase Nov. 24, they distributed a news release saying they planned to program home shopping. When the new owners issued a stock prospectus outlining their plans for buying and operating stations such as Channel 23, they said they would program home shopping.

When the new owners filed legal papers with the Federal Communications Commission, they said they would program home shopping. When the new owners filed legal papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission, they said they would program home shopping. When two officers of the company requested a meeting with writers and editors of the Beacon Journal on Dec. 14, they said they would "definitely" program home shopping. Then, when the sale went through in April, everything changed.

Mike Jones, one of the Val-ueVision officers at the Beacon Journal meeting, suddenly said there were no plans for home shopping. This month, the station's longtime program director, Bill O'Neil, told the Plain Dealer that any plans to program home shopping were "mostly just rumors." Gosh. Wonder where those nasty rumors could have come from? Must have been those irresponsible newspaper columnists, spreading totally unfounded gossip for their own amusement. Must have been a slow news day. Probably didn't have anything else to write about.

Probably hadn't done any research. So they manufactured this wild story about home shopping just to sell a few newspapers. Yeah, that was it. Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear, when Jones and fellow ValueVision officer Steve Cunningham sat in an office at the Beacon Journal and Teddy bear, weasel are signs of times He woke me up this morning and started me on my way. So there is much to be happy about today.

Yet, I have pain way down deep in my soul. Yes, we've got a brand new convention center in downtown Akron. And that's just peachy keen. Soon we'll have another equally impressive edifice Inventure Place. That's wonderful, too.

They both show that Akron is really on the move. But I have to wonder if maybe the next thing we build in this town ought not to be a towering monument to the too many children in this area who have and are suffering abuse and neglect, as quiet as it's kept, at the hands of adults. Perhaps, now is the time to erect a giant, crying teddy bear as a visible reminder of what is bordering' on an epidemic of child abuse and neglect in this area. The stories here in just the past three months or so have been staggering. Now that's not to say that Akron has any more of a problem than anywhere else.

Only I don't live anywhere else and neither do you. So what I'm thinking is this: Perhaps a visible reminder, such as a larger-than-life teddy bear, might make us all more tuned into the pain that our children just shouldn't have to bear. Such a monument would show those who live here and those who might convene here that as a community we're taking a stand on one of the most shameless of crimes. I was reminded of yet another young sufferer when I opened my newspaper earlier this week. This latest nightmare was on Charlotte Street.

When officers were called Friday to the home, they said they found a 3-year-old girl with two black eyes and the outline of a palm print on her cheek that was allegedly caused when she was slapped. That just shouldn't be. According to detectives, the toddler had been handcuffed to a bed and her mouth taped shut with duct tape. apples this year," Pullins said. Terry Gram, owner of Arrowhead Orchard in Paris, a Stark County township, is all too familiar with the effects of lack of rain.

"Our smaller apples are starting to drop off," Gram said. "Last year, we were so affected by dry weather that a majority of our apples went for cider because they were small." Gram is starting to worry that the drought may kill his usually hardy apple trees. Fortunately, Gram and other area farmers usually grow more than one fruit crop. For example, Allen Bowman, owner of Hillside Orchard in Medina County's Hinckley Township, said he expects fewer apples than normal this year, mostly because stress If last winter's record freeze didn't get them, the lack of water will BYMARYVANAC Beacon Journal business writer "It's all in the hands of Mother Nature," Greg Baker sighed. These words came from the owner of Sunny Slope Orchard in Navarre.

But they could have come from a number of tree fruit farmers in the Akron area. For once again, these fanners are fighting foul weather. "If we don't get water pretty quick. Baker let his sentence trail off in a gloomy prediction of what his apple crop will look like unless some rain hits the ground soon. But it's not just this month's lack of rain that has local farmers worried.

Last year, a dry period in August and September when many fruit trees were setting their buds for this year left some trees short on blossoms. That means they'll be short on fruit, come fall. Add to that an on-and-off drought during the last several years and last winter's killing cold, and you have one group of stressed-out fruit trees. "The weather we've seen so far this summer is continuing to stress already stressed trees," said Mike Pullins, executive director of the Ohio Fruit Growers Society in Columbus. That probably will lead to decreased apple production important for Ohio's $35 million apple industry.

Apples are Ohio's top fruit crop. "Our projections are we'll probably have two-thirds of a crop of Full crop of Ohio blueberries belies the experts' predictions JOCELYN WILLIAMS; Beacon Journal trees In his orchard in Green. By rhyme or reason to the crop losses throughout Ohio, Pullins said. "Those orchards along Lake Erie were not as affected by cold weather, but they got the worst of the drought conditions," he said. Other farmers say their trees and crops have survived.

"We're having a 100 percent crop of apples," said Roger Monroe, owner of Pioneer Trail Orchard in Hiram. But Ohio's peach trees took the biggest beating. The entire crop was wiped out by winter's killing cold. And many of the peach trees more comfortable in warmer climates may not survive. "From what growers tell me, we could lose 20 to 30 percent of the peach trees in the state," Pullins said.

said. The raspberry crop is much larger. Stokes predicts that up to 50 percent of the red raspberry crop was destroyed by the freeze. At Hidden Acres Farm in Green, the damage is even worse, said owner Terry Gabrick. Two-thirds of the canes are dead, she said.

Others paint a rosier picture. Hilgert's Berry Farm in Randolph and Moreland Fruit Farm reports normal raspberry crops and canes. "We have not had winter damage, they're loaded," said Karen Hilgert. Raspberries should be ready for picking at the beginning of July. vines Township, lost two acres of Reisling grapes, but he's not complaining.

His other grapes were damaged only slightly, he said. Overall, the most serious damage was to the popular European vinifera grapes such as Chardonnay and Cabernet, which Ohio winemakers began planting just two decades ago. The grapes have helped winemakers win prestigious awards, and Ohio's wines to gain national respect. Up to 90 percent of this year's vinifera grapes were wiped out, and 25 percent of the vines. Little of Ohio's prestige wines will be available in 1995, when this year's pressing is ready for release.

The destroyed vines will take up to two years to replace. Despite the risk, winemakers say they won't give up on the delicate European grapes. "We're not going to change," Salvador said. "Our commitment to vinifera is here, and it's here to stay." of last year's drought. But his plum and sour cherry crops look OK.

"Diversification takes hold when you have a bad year," Bowman said. Pullins said the state's pears have been hurt, though. Several farmers said they will have a shortage of certain apples like Red and Golden Delicious, Matsu and other varieties that have Red Delicious in their lineage. That's because these varieties had especially heavy crops last year, said Ron Kuner, owner of Kuner Fruit Farm in Green. And there was no room on the branches laden with fruit to form buds for next year.

There doesn't seem to be any agreed. "They look beautiful," said Susan Clark, owner of Clark's Farm in Wayne County's Clinton Township. Moreland Fruit Farm south of Wooster in Wayne County reports a full crop, too. Picking should start at the beginning of July. Statewide, blueberries fared better than raspberries, and much better than cultivated thornless blackberries.

"The blackberries may be wiped out," said Dale Stokes, vice president of the Ohio Fruit Growers Society. The Ohio crop is tiny, Stokes afraid they will die under the burden of producing grapes. "What we're worried about is the vines slowly withering away over the summer," she said. Damage is not limited to wine grapes. The hardier native jam varieties such as Concord survived the freeze, but some buds were hurt by a killer frost in May in growing areas east of Cleveland.

"It was really not a real good year for growing grapes," Winchell said. Chalet Debonne in Lake County was hit by both the freeze and frost. Damage is so extensive that owners are considering cutting some vines to the ground in a gamble to save the roots, said co-owner Beth Debevc. Winemakers don't know whether the plan will work. "This has never ever happened," she said.

Kent Glaus, part-owner of the Portage Hills Winery in Suffield Jewell Cardwell Charged in that crime is the little girl's father, Michael Schnee, a 27-year-old security guard. This child is still alive. But the fact that she survived her attack doesn't make her story any less compelling, any less sad. She still suffered. Perhaps the next time she gets punched out, she won't be able to get back up.

Sheila Marie Evans another 3-year-old who was brutally attacked Jan. 18, 1993, by her mother's live-in boyfriend, Ronald Phillips, in ways that are just too vile to continue to speak about didn't get back up; she died. Schnee, you might be interested in knowing, was convicted of child abuse in 1989. On that occasion, Schnee pulled his then 9-month-old daughter's left leg and fractured it when he pulled her out of her bed after her crying awakened him. Schnee awaits trial.

He is in the Summit County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond. As for his little girl, I pray there is someone in place to help her heal not just from the visible wounds that line her face, but also from the ones that eyes just cannot see. And there's this. Ohio Supreme Court employees are being summoned to attend racial diversity and sensitivity training. That's all well and good.

But the very person Justice Craig Wright who would benefit most from the program said he probably would be out of town on each of the 10 dates the program is being offered. "If it's convenient, I'll go," said an annoyed Wright. Wright, you may recall, was cleared by a special ethics investigator of using racial slurs, even though former court administrator Lou Damiani managed to record him mouthing off as usual. What to do? Bench him er, vote him out when the time comes: in 1996. In the meantime, maybe we ought to erect a cheap monument to him, too.

Sure, I'll to take your suggestions. But I'm thinking of a real little weasel. Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 996-3567. Severe winter chills out area They rode freeze well, unlike some raspberries and thornless blackberries By Jane Snow beacon Journal fiod writer Ohio's blueberry crop and most of the raspberry crop are fine this year, to the surprise of experts who predicted that the freeze would almost wipe them out. In February, agriculture officials predicted that only 50 percent of the state's blueberries would survive.

Last week, local blueberry farmers happily dis find them. Firelands Winery, one of the largest in the state, won't have extra grapes to sell. Its 200 acres of grapes on North Bass Island in Lake Erie took a lashing. "It was very rough out there," said winemaker Claudio Salvador. Although the Reisling grapes survived, the other European grapes did not.

Many Gewurztra-miner, Pinot Noir, Cabernet and Chardonnay vines were killed, Salvador said. He will spend the next two years growing new vines from the roots. Statewide, winegrowers fear even more damage in months to come. Stressed vines that produced leaves are starting to wilt, said Doniella Winchell, executive secretary of the Ohio Wine Producers Association. Growers are Extensive damage worries winemakers, who fear there is more to come.

Drastic solutions may be tried by Jane Snow Beacon Journal food writer When the temperature dipped to 25 below zero in Akron on Jan. 19, local winemakers were terrified that their vineyards would be destroyed. They weren't. But it will cost Andy Wineberg about $30,000 to repair the damage to his vineyard at the Winery at Wolf Creek in Norton. "I'll essentially replace every trunk I have over the next two years because they're severely damaged," Wineberg said.

Wineberg's two acres of De Chaunac grape vines were wiped out. The other seven acres of vines are weak but should produce some grapes this year. He will supplement them with grapes from other growers if he can.