News Herald from Port Clinton, Ohio • 1

Redskins defeat WEEKEN USA Grisham offers St. Mary's 65-62 Christmas tale Oak Harbor falls to Huron 55-48 Exclusive excerpt from Season in Sandusky Bay Conference test new book is holiday treat Reading very tale Sports, B1 an Jthe Grisham 121 USA WEEKEND News Herald Port Clinton, Ohio www.portclintonnewsherald.com Dec. 15, 2001 Weather High 44 Waves 2 feet Winds 5-10mph Details, A2 HOLIDAY GREETINGS This Christmas card was designed by Matthew Fillmore, 6, a student at Jefferson Elementary School. Afghanistan Bin Laden may be comered Associated Press TORA BORA, Afghanistan In the fiercest fighting yet of the Tora Bora campaign, U.S. special forces joined Afghan guerrillas Friday in attacking al-Qaida positions, including a machine-gun nest.

Two Americans were wounded by enemy fire. A tribal leader said he believes Osama bin Laden was cornered in the rugged mountains, perhaps in one of the caves where his fighters have been holding out against the unrelenting onslaught by alliance and U.S. troops and American bombers. More about war, A6 Deaths Doris Mae Hamann Port Clinton Chris Ihrcke Port Clinton Corrine Fleming Williston Details, A2 Lottery Pick 3: 4-4-2 Pick 4: 5-7-2-3 Buckeye 5: 5-7-9-10-37 DAY DRAWINGS Pick 3: 8-2-2 Pick 4: 5-5-8-9 Call us For news, sports, advertising or home delivery: News: 419-734-7503 Sports: 419-734-7519 Circulation customer service: 419-734-7525 Classified advertising: 419-734-7512 Other departments: 419-734-7500 Toll Free: (800) 636-6906 Index Ann Landers A8 Neighbors A8 A6 Obituaries A2 Classified B7 Sports B1-3 Comics A9 Stocks A6 Editorial A4 Weather A2 Business A7 A Gannett Printed Newspaper on GANNETT recycled paper. Copyright 2001 0 08645 New Year's Eve 'Wylie Walleye' wiggles onto Web By JOSH CABLE Staff writer PORT CLINTON The Walleye Drop is going global.

A "walleye cam' perched atop a downtown building will beam live shots of the New Year's Eve Walleye Drop across the World Wide Web, Mayor Tom Brown said Thursday. for people who can't see the drop." The live shots of "Wylie Wall- The camera, which is on top of eye" will be available on the offi- Mary's Blossom Shoppe on Madicial Walleye Drop Web site, son Street, is operated by Coastal www.walleyemadnessatmid- essatmid- Wave Wireless Internet, Brown night.com. said. "This will add a whole new audi- It is one of several new twists on ence," Brown said. "It will be great the sixth-annual event.

to promote Port Clinton, and it also will offer the community a service See WYLIE, A5 EASY RIDER News WALZ Lloyd Washburn sits on one of the five classic Indian motorcycles he has built over the years. Retiring airport board member has been roaring through life By JENNIFER FUNK Staff writer PORTAGE TOWNSHIP Between racing motorcycles in his youth and flying airplanes he built with his own hands, Erie-Ottawa Regional Airport Board member Lloyd Washburn has had his share of adventures. Washburn, 84, has decided to retire from the board after about 25 years of service, but his quest for excitement hasn't diminished much. "He's done it all, and you couldn't ask for a better friend," said Airport Board President Ken Benjamin, who has worked with Mayor Tom Brown, probably "Wylie Walleye's" No. 1 cheerleader, shows off a "Wylie Waver." News Herald file photo Marblehead Village tax faces challenge By JOSH CABLE days to submit the referenStaff writer dum request to the Ottawa County Board of Elections.

MARBLEHEAD For- The referendum would be mer village Clerk-Treasur- on the November 2002 gener Nilene Imke said Friday eral election ballot, but the that she will challenge the referendum request would new municipal income tax put the income tax on hold ordinance with a referen- until then, she said. dum. Imke said that her next Imke, who led a success- step is to get a certified ful campaign to repeal the copy of the income tax orvillage's first income tax dinance from village Clerkordinance, said that she ob- Treasurer Cynthia Plottner jects to the way Marble- so she can circulate petihead Village Council tions. The ordinance must "jammed it down every- be attached to the petitions, one's throats" with its pas- she said. of an income tax Imke is no stranger to sage Thursday night that super- this culated kind of action.

in She Jan- cirseded the repeal. a petition "I don't understand why uary that placed a repeal they couldn't have put it on initiative on the Nov. 6 genthe ballot in May and taken eral election ballot. Voters few months to explain repealed the 1-percent ina why they want it," Imke come tax by a vote of 343 to said Friday. 101.

Imke had a similar prob- But because the ballot lem with the way the first initiative was non-binding, income tax ordinance was council had the right to passed by bring back the income tax emergency measure at council's Dec. with another ordinance. 14, 2000, meeting. On They did by a vote of 5-1 Thursday night, council did Thursday night. not pass the new income The income tax is paid tax ordinance by emergen- by Marblehead businesses But council on net profits and by resicy measure.

members agreed to waive dents on earned a income. the three public readings Mayor Steve Plottner, and pass it on the first try. who defeated Imke in the Imke said that her phone 1999 mayoral election, said has been ringing constant- Thursday night that the inly with disgruntled resi- come tax is badly needed to dents. keep the village on solid fiI 'How I "We will be "They're saying, 'What nancial footing. can can in another and 'You are going to fiscal crisis in nine months do a referendum aren't (without the income tax)," Imke said.

Plotter said after the Imke said she that has 30 meeting. Washburn for several years on the But he prefers to remember the board. "He's just a joy to listen to New York State 10-Mile Dirt Track about the earlier days of aviation Championship he won in 1940. and how it's changed from then Washburn's large pole barn until now." doubles as a workshop and is litWashburn, who will attend his tered with motorcycle parts, a last board meeting in January, plane engine and machining still works on airplane parts and equipment. builds classic Indian motorcycles And though throughout his flyas a hobby.

ing career, which spanned: about The Sand Road resident has five five decades, he owned 18 differIndian motorcycles, ranging in ent airplanes, he no longer flies. years from 1932 to 1941, and still "I'm fresh out of airplanes," he rides them occasionally. joked while walking through his He still has a bump on his leg workshop, explaining that he sold that reminds him of the only ma- his last one two months ago. "I'm jor injury he ever suffered while pretty much out of the airplane racing motorcycles a broken leg. See LLOYD, A5 Members of Ottawa County Ohio National RED HORSE Guard's 200th Holiday Bureau making Squadron, from left, fery Airman Buchman, Jef- Christmas a lot happier Tech rell Sgt.

Maxwell, Dar- for estimated 300 families and Staff Sgt. Michalak BY JENNIFER FUNK Staff writer I Distribution scheduled Angie load a truck to begin Sunday, A5. with food at old PORT CLINTON More City Hall in Port than 300 Port Clinton-area fami- Friday morning. "The donations Clinton. lies were in need of help this down but year, and local Holiday Bureau were originally, now organizers believe they all can and people are 'Oh coming no, we up the didn't plate News be helped.

saying forJOHN WALZ "This year we were very for- get you." tunate, and I think we're going The Holiday Bureau has sevto be OK," said Port Clinton Unit Chairwoman Cynthia Witter See HOLIDAY, A5 More local information than ever before, everyday. News Herald www.portclintonnewsherald.com.