Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 17

SECTION 0 crrf JlPl 10,866.74 Seed planting tips to be given Learn how to make soil blpcks for planting seeds at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Waynes- ItiZlDt Business, 8 Deaths, 7 Valley news, 3 Stocks, 9 Weather, 12 4 1 1 3 GRADUATIONS ANNOUNCED Times, dates and places are listed for high schools in the Miami Valley3B CONTACT US: CUSTOMER SERVICE; 222-5700. NEWS HPSQUESTIONS: 225-2212. NEWS FAX; 225-2489. E-MAIL: localnewscoxohio.com POSTAL ADDRESS: 45 S.

Ludlow Dayton, Ohio 45402. 1338.83 Visit our online partner at www.actlvedayton.com for late-breaking news, plus information oh these topics: i. gryir ii rmi villQ Farmer's Market, open from 8 a.m. to noon in the Der Dutchman Restaurant parking lot, and the 72iami Uallcy nnn II 't. 1 "3 COMMUNITIES Obituaries Local, neighborhood news Events calendar BUSINESS Personal finance Stock quotes Area mortgage rates READER SERVICE Lottery numbers WasteBusters i Consumer Alert WEATHER Forecasts, regional radar BRIAN ORZEL'S FORECAST Get the Storm Warning Weather 7 five-day outlook plus national and world forecasts by AccuWeather 12B UUCfiJU 230 N.

U.S. 42, Waynes- ville. For more information, call (513) 897-8855. "A FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1999 SPRINGBORO FALLING IN LOVE Briefly 1 1-4 i 1 WPjJ FW I AREA QUICKREAD 13 Festival fetes town's role 11 4 1 til Au 1 i if How to go WHAT: Second annual Freedom Festival. WHEN: 11 a.m.

5 p.m.i Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. WHERE: Main Street in Springboro between North and South FOR MORE INFO: Contact Susan Darling at (513) Things to do this weekend Warren County i The Franklin Wildcat football Monte Carlo Night at 7:30 p.ta. to midnight today at Amvets Post 120, 605 S.

Main Franklin. Admission is free. For more information, contact Darlene Hicks at (513) 746-1729 or tori Raleigh at (513) 746-2937. The Blue Birds at 8:30 p.m. today and Saturday at Doc's Smoke Shoppe, 12-14 W.

Mulberry Lebanon. Admission is free. tFor more information, call (513) 932-9939. A garage sale, sponsored by Hometown from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday 1 ai the New Jersey Presbyterian Church, 780 I Eairview Drive, Carlisle. For more informa-i ton, contact Robin Hood at (513) 746-2664. Auditions for the Kettering Children's Choir from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and June 5 at the Rosewood Arts Centre, 2655 Olson Drive, Kettering.

For more information, call (937) 296-0294. is The Freedom Festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday I in downtown Springboro. Admission is free. For more information, contact Susan Dar-t ling at (513) 748-5370. I Feast of Pentecost at 8:15 a.m. Sunday at I St.

Francis Episcopal Church, 225 N. Main Some in tiny Springboro helped slaves reach Canada. By Joann Rouse WARREN COUNTY BUREAU The irony was not wasted on Pam Wolf. The talent coordinator for this weekend's Springboro Freedom Festival was hard pressed to find any blacks to perform during the event, which honors Springboro's role in the underground railroad. "We finally found a gospel group that is wonderful," said Wolf, owner of Olde Village Crosstitchery on Main Street.

"But it was from a friend of a friend of a friend. Springboro has a minority population of one-half of 1 percent, according to the 1990 U.S. Census Bureau report. In that year, there were 6,590 residents in Springboro. The event, from 11 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, will feature civil war re-enactments, singing and 19th century crafts. Participants will be dressed in civil war era garb and staff booths on four blocks of Main A Street between North and South streets.

"We'll have a family of runaway slaves in the crowd look ing for places to hide: a mother and her 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter," Wolf paid. "I'll be up tonight working on the costumes." The Springboro Historical Society and the Springboro Merchants Association hope to make visitors aware that slaves escaping from the south into Canada found refuge in closets and cellars from Quakers and abolitionists in Springboro. Springboro. The service is open to the public. For more information, call (513) 748-2592.

A British high tea will be from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday at the First United Methodist Church, 303 S. Main Franklin. Admis- TY OREENLEESDAYTON DAILY NEWS Steve Morris and his wife Rhonda McDowell show their excitement after making the plunge from the top of the Drop Zone ride at Paramount Kings Island where they tied the knot at the top. McDowell was among winners of a wedding on the thrill ride.

SEE FESTIVAL6B Sappy tsfe fiie plaflGige EDUCATION Auditor scolds CSU executives sion is $5 for adults and $2.50 for children. I For more information, contact (513) 746-5232 or Cherie Cooper-Darragh at (513) 746-7544. I Butler County The Middletown Student Art Show at "T'the AIM Building, 130 N. Verity Parkway from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

today, Saturday and, Sunday Admission is free. For more infOr- mation, call (513) 424-2416. The Alice Stransky exhibit 9 a.m. to 4 I p.m. today at the Middletown Fine Arts Cen- ter, 130 N.

Verity Parkway. Admission is free. For more information, call (513) 424- 2417. Arts of South Asia from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

today, Saturday and Sunday at Miami Uni- versity Art Museum, 801 S. Patterson Ave. I "Admission is free. For more information, call (513) 529-2232. I Hamilton County A sculpture exhibit from 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m. today and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sun- day at Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Cincinnati. Admission is free.

For more information, call (513) 863- 8873. i May Festival 1999 at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at the Music Hall, 1241 Elm 7 Cincinnati. Ticket from $10.50 to $50. For rr i'more information, call (513) 381-3300.

By Tim Tresslar WARREN COUNTY BUREAU Talk about taking the plunge. No sooner did Warren County Court Judge James Heath pronounce Jeremy and Heather Hays husband and wife then they found themselves falling farther than they ever imagined 315 feet, to be exact. The Kettering pair were among 14 couples married Thursday while riding Drop Zone, Paramount's Kings Island's new gyro drop ride. The wedding parties, most decked out in tuxedos and wedding dresses, slowly ascended the 26-story tower, sat motionless for several seconds and then fell at 70 mph before coming to a smooth stop near the ground. "The drop took your breath away, but it was great," Heather said.

"It's a rush." The new ride is part of the park's $40 million expansion, the largest investment since its construction more than 20 years ago. Also this year, the park added a steel roller coaster, FaceOff, and plans to open a wooden roller coaster in April 2000. With two years of courtship under their belt, the Hays didn't doubt their desire to marry and hardly gave the ceremony a i 1 SEE PLUNGE6B The final report says the misdeeds of two former presidents are not criminal. By Mark Fisher DAYTON DAILY NEWS Ohio Inspector General Thomas Charles issued eight "findings of wrongdoing" against former Central State University presidents Arthur E. Thomas and Herman Smith but acknowledged Thursday that their misdeeds didn't rise to the level of criminal misconduct.

In his office's final report on CSU, Charles said that after reviewing audits and other reports of CSU's financial crisis of the mid-1990s, "We find that there is reasonable cause to believe that former CSU presidents Arthur Thomas and Herman Smith committed wrongful acts and omissions resulting in mismanagement of the university's academic, fiscal and physical plant operations." Specifically, the report said the two former CSU presidents failed to: Provide former board of trustees members with "complete, accurate and timely information about the university's overall state of affairs." Maintain proper inventory records of university property. Maintain proper financial records of university spending. Safeguard CSU property from possible abuse or Maintain a proper accounting of payroll records. SEE CSU6B FOR NEWSLINE UPDATES, call 463-4636 and enter 9000 or one of these codes: 1004 Lottery Crime of the week 1101 Most wanted 1102 News 1005 WHIO Radio traffic 1290 Weather 1400 News tip TY OREENLEESDAYTON DAILY NEWS Rfteen couples plunged on the Drop Zone at Kings Island on Thursday. 1010 COMMENTARY When the ldd reads.

Mommy finally starts to grow up It was a welcome when a bedtime reading ritual with my son became a two-way exchange. 'The catalyst was 'The Simpsons. A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Alec chortled as he read aloud: 'I will not pledge allegiance to Island. But I also had mixed feelings. One of the greatest joys, from babyhood on, has been reading to my children.

Nothing makes me feel closer than snuggling with i i allegiance to Bart." Allegiance? Was this the same kid who, not so long ago, struggled with He reads cereal boxes, billboards. He picks up Time magazine and the newspaper, especially when The Phantom Menace is featured. To my relief, our reading ritual remains virtually undis- turbed. Last night Alec asked me to read the last story in Scary Shark Tales (which had proven too scary for me if not for him, with limbs being devoured with alarming frequency). But I did notice one change in our bedtime routine.

"How about you read a book to me," Alec will say, "and I'll read a book to you." Sounds like a deal to me. Mary McCarty I'm not one of those parents who daydream of the Dig moments in their children's lives: the driver's license, the graduations, the wedding day. I don't want to look that far ahead. But for a year or two, I've been looking forward to and dreading a different milestone: learning to read. Not the see-Spot-run stuff my son mastered last year in kindergarten, but the real enchilada.

Forget The Wedding March and Pomp and Circumstances; I couldn't wait for A Wrinkle in Time and The Narnia Chronicles, Little Women and Treasure course; we would see to that. But we couldn't force him to love reading. What if all those Good Night Moons and Berenstain Bears had been for naught? What if two inveterate bookworms had brought yet another non-reader into the world? And then it happened, the day that I saw the key turning in the lock. The catalyst was The Simpsons. A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family.

Alec chortled as he read aloud: "I will not pledge matter, so long as we sat side by side, sharing the story, waiting breathlessly to see how it would turn out. What would happen when he didn't need me any more, when he could read on his own? Would it signal the first of many steps toward separation? I worked with Alec anyway, buying stacks of teach-your-child-to-read books. I tried to drill diphthongs, inculcate consonants. He wanted none of it. He wanted me to read to him, according to the natural order of things.

And he wanted to learn to read on his own. His progress was his, and his teacher's, business alone. Butt out, Mom. How well could he read? I couldn't be sure. He loved books, but he didn't seem to pick them up very often on his own.

The mystical connection hadn't happened yet, when you and the book become one. Was it possible that it never would? He would become a capable reader, of them, a book on my lap. I charted Alec's intellectual growth through his library, starting with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and moving up to The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler. I approved some of his tastes (the late, great Shel Sil-verstein and E.B.

White) and tol-, erated others (Goosebumps, Scary Shark Tales, bad knock-knock jokes). It almost didn't CONTACT Mary McCarty at 225-2209 or e-mail her at marymccartycoxohio.com.