News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 41

i ZZL 13 I Mjb 1 Good morning! Harold Smull, News-Press reader 1 REGIONAL EDITOR: SHARON KENNEDY-WYNNE 1-800-468-0350, BUREAU CHIEF: DENES HUSTY 262-5255, 9-5 NEWS-PRESS TUESDAY, JANUARY 12,1993 3 Mm tow Accused of kissing 16-year-old player against her By DENES HUSTY News-Press staff writer i i Fritsch, a former health Instructor and girls softball coach at Naples High School, of kissing a 16-year-old team member on the mouth against her will in June 1991. Fritsch contends the kissing was an Innocent display of affection and that the kiss was not on the mouth, said the defendant's lawyer, Frank Baker. Fritsch's arrest in June 1992 shocked the Collier County Public School system. Before Fritsch was arrested, he guided the Naples High School girls' softball program to five consecutive state titles. He also co-managed the Greater Naples Braves girls' summer league fast-pitch team to a national championship in August 1991.

However, legal trouble for Fritsch began when four players told police last year that Fritsch had engaged in some form of sexual behavior with them. After a three-month investigation, Fritsch was arrested on the charge of misdemeanor battery. The charge accuses Fritsch of grabbing the girl in his classroom during the first week of June 1991 and kissing her against her will. Collier County Judge Cynthia Ellis ruled Monday that state prosecutors will be allowed to admit the testimony of another member of one of Fritsch's teams who said she also was kissed by him. Fritsch was a health Instructor at Naples High School until the 1991-92 school year.

During that year, he became a physical-education instructor at Sea Gate Elementary School in Naples. Fritsch no long works for the Collier County Public School System. He is a supervisor at a Naples agricultural plant nursery. A Collier County jury has been chosen to decide whether a former Naples High School girls softball coach's kiss of a team member was more than a kiss and crossed the legal line to become criminal battery. The defendant.

Kirk Allen "Korky" Fritsch, 41, of Naples, faces a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if the six-member jury finds him guilty as charged of the misdemeanor battery charge. Attorneys will make their opening statements beginning at 9 a.m. today in the Collier County Courthouse. Attorneys spent Monday afternoon picking the jury. The misdemeanor battery charge accuses KENT JOHNSONNews-Press ACCUSED COACH: Kirk Allen "Korky" Frltsch, talks with his attorney, Frank Baker, during a break in the first day of his trial on battery charges.

Fritsch is accused of kissing a player while he was the coach of a girls Softball team. Estero postmaster Day at the beach inally settling in By KATHY BECKER News-Press staff writer 'if (V'A'1 Vt T. Wr Tt hi (fr'U said. "It's growing." The post office has 3,500 deliveries and 1,100 post boxes. Much of its business is forwarding mail and handling the needs of the part-time residents, Ellis said.

"Our main business seems to be helping people forward mail," he said. "It's a little complicated, and a lot of our residents are seasonal." He said he doesn't expect much to change at the post office. The building is big enough to handle the community's growth, probably for the next five years. Ellis said he was happy to move to the Estero post office because it is closer to his East Fort Myers home. He has lived in the Fort Myers area since 1958.

He said he already knows many of the employees at the Estero post office because he was a trainer for small area post offices. "It's a good crew," he said. "We haven't had any problems that are unique to this particular office." Because the post office in Estero is a central part of the unincorporated community, he said he looks forward to working with the public. "I really enjoy it," he said. "I haven't had a lot of time to meet people yet, but I talk to someone almost every day." The new Estero postmaster got to see the post office at its busiest during the Christmas season.

Now Jerry Ellis, 43, said he's getting settled in. Starting at the post office during the busiest time of year was not that difficult for the 20-year post office employee. "It's busy," he said. "It doesn't make any difference where you are." Ellis was appointed to be the new permanent postmaster of the post office in early December. He is taking the place of Bill Sle-vin, who decided to take early retirement after 25 years in the postal service late last year.

Slevin servedas postmaster since early 1991. Slevin took over from Charles Block, who served for 11 years as postmaster before retiring. Between Slevin and Ellis, a temporary postmaster filled in. Ellis said all of the shuffling at several area post offices as the result of reorganization now is completed. Ellis was postmaster for six years in St.

James City, a post office about half as big as Estero's, which has five delivery routes during the season and three in the summer. "It's a busy little post office," he I linn Hi 1 1TI1I IT 1 1 Two investors accuse station owner of fraud KENT JOHNSONNews-Press Don Hurd, an employee at Naples Beach Hotel, sets up a cabana and chairs on the beach for tourists Monday in Naples. By DENES HUSTY News-Press staff writer Man wants barricades down Trucker gets 5 years in pedestrian's death investments in the business, the lawsuit states. However, no limited partnership was ever formed, according to the suit. On another occasion, the men were told they were shareholders of stock in Southwest Florida Telecommunications the lawsuit states.

The investments sold to Turner and Daiello were securities as defined under Florida law, the lawsuit contends. However, none of the defendants were registered with the state to sell securities and none of the securities had been registered with the state as required by law, the lawsuit claims. Darling declined comment Monday, saying he has not been served with the lawsuit and had not had a chance to review the allegations. The lawsuit demands a trial so that a jury can decide what damages, if any, Turner and Daiello are entitled to. The case has been assigned to Collier Circuit Judge Hugh Hayes.

The president of Naples television station WNPL, Channel 46, was sued Monday for alleged securities fraud by two investors in the business. The investors, Bernard Turner and Thomas Daiello, both of Naples, seek more than $100,000 in damages against the television station president, William Darling, and Southwest Florida Telecommunications Inc. Darling, Southwest Florida Telecommunications Inc. and "unknown John Doe defendants" are named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Turner and Daiello were led to believe on one occasion that they would be investing in a limited partnership that would be formed to operate the television station.

Each man invested $50,000 to secure the permit for a broadcast tower for the station and make other A local resident filed a lawsuit Monday to force Collier County to tear down barricades at the ends of two streets in the Pine Ridge subdivision in North Naples. The lawsuit was filed by Albert Hubschman, who lives in Pine Ridge. The barricades were installed by the county years ago at the eastern ends of Center Street and Carica Road, which wind through the subdivision. The blockades went up to prevent traffic from going through the subdivision onto the GoodletteFrank Road Extension. The barricades were ordered installed by the Collier County Commission until Goodlette-Frank Road was extended north to connect to Immokalee Road.

That extension was completed several weeks ago, but the barricades remain in place. In the lawsuit, Hubschman claims that the county commission's decision to put up the barricades was illegal in the first place because inadequate public notice was given that commissioners were going to consider the measure. Hubschman demands a trial in order for a jury to decide whether he has the right to travel along Center Street or Carica Road and enter Goodlette-Frank Road. Collier County Attorney Ken Cuyler declined comment on the lawsuit. Denes Husty ing the scene of an accident.

The charges accused Carreon, a truck driver, of running over Pedro Reyes, who was walking along State Road 29 in Immokalee on Sept. 3. Carreon, court records state, did not stop after his 1972 Pontiac hit Reyes. However, deputies saw the accident and stopped Carreon a short distance away. Reyes was rushed by ambulance to North Collier Hospital, where he died a few hours later.

Denes Hasty An Immokalee man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison followed by three years' probation in an alcohol-related accident in which a pedestrian was killed. While he is serving probation, Miguel Angel Carreon, 24, must not drink any alcohol and must spend 40 hours a year doing work for the community, Collier Circuit Judge Ted Brousseau ruled. Carreon received the sentence after pleading no contest to charges of driving-under-the-in-fluence manslaughter and leav Automotive engineers hope to steer Collier students into science utty professors and mad scientists may make for good movies, but they don't do much to get children excited about science. ON EDUCATION TIM ENGSTROM involved in the program. Although the speakers program is being launched during National Engineering Week, it will be an ongoing program and is expected to grow.

"The object is to eventually become thought of as a community resource for the schools," she said, adding that the program is likely to keep growing until a speakers' bureau is established for the entire community. Also next month, students from area fourth- and seventh-grade classrooms are going to make field trips to the museum. The visits will continue until the end of the school year and are funded by the museum, Orlandella said. Anyone interested in the program may call Orlandella at 643-5252. Ideas, anyone? The Collier County School Board will meet at 7 p.m.

tonight to brainstorm on two educational buzzwords that periodically echo in the halls of the administrative center on Estey Avenue choice and privatization. Choice, in this sense, refers to allowing students and their parents to have some form of choice as to which school they attend regardless of where they live. Currently, attendance is decided by residence zones. Privatization refers to the idea of taking some duties now provided by outside businesses and including them in the school board's operation. In the reverse, it refers to allowing private businesses to take over tasks now performed by district employees.

Currently, for example, the district relies on outside technicians to repair its computers. But as the district grows, it may be cheaper to maintain its own repair staff. In the other direction, the district currently has its own custodians and groundskeepers, but a growing number of private companies may make it cheaper to pay them to do the tasks for the district. Neither the board nor district administrators have specific plans for school choice or privatization, Superintendent Robert Munz said. However, since they are ongoing topics, he said a workshop can generate ideas that become board policy.

The meeting will be held at the administrative center, 3710 Estey Ave. Tim Engstrom covers education in Collier County for the News-Press. Orlandella said. "We want them to break down the stereotype that a scientist is some mad person in a lab coat with crazy hair. Stereotypes can be completely broken down in one visit if the person is strong enough." In the high schools, she said, speakers most likely will concentrate on scientific careers and entrance requirements and specialties offered by various colleges.

In the lower grades, speakers will concentrate on their own careers and provide examples of how science is involved in their everyday lives. Orlandella said the visits with younger children are especially important to changing the students' ideas about science. "By the third grade, a lot of students have already decided whether they like science or math, and they tend to stick with that," she said. "We would really like to get into the second and third grades so we can start getting them excited about science." Dealing with youngsters in the classroom certainly is different from leading adults through the museum, but Orlandella said the speakers will be prepared for the difference. That kind of inspiration calls for real scientists, and the Collier Automotive Museum has just the bunch.

The museum, with its collection of vintage racing cars from both sides of the Atlantic, always has drawn former automotive engineers and scientists as museum volunteers. Starting next month, the volunteers will leave the museum's serene gray walls for the vibrance of Collier County classrooms. The Science, Technology and Engineering Recruiting program STEERING, that is will begin Feb. 15 in conjunction with National Engineers Week. So far, presentations have been scheduled for Avalon Elementary, Sea Gate Elementary and Immokalee High School, said Mary Orlandella, the museum's education coordinator.

"The scientist will have a specific program ready depending on their field or the type of classroom they are visiting," The National Society of Engineers has provided videotapes aimed at different ages to help the experts make their point. Currently, the museum's volunteer corps includes five engineers, ipcluding some who once worked for automobile companies. However, all the volunteers are men, and that, Orlandella said, reinforces the stereotype that science especially engineering is a man's field. She said she is working with the Society of Women Engineers to get women 7: ti-JteAfa ifJlT A.