Island Dispatch, 1998-07-10

              Island  DISPATCH July 10, 1998 650 24 Pages Vol. 54 •No. 14 (716) 773-7676 I "As thevoice of Grand Island' Nile Madness LARGE CHEESE PIZZA 4-95 j (£|ZZaT,SUBS) j $00 page 12 I Shared Decision Making Team recommends early start by Rick Forgione |»n Monday, June 22 the Board of ication unanimously agreed to >oint the District Shared ;is.oii Making Team to make a ommendation on whether or not change the starting date of 00l from the appointed Sept. 2 c to Sept. 9. he decision to appoint the team 5 made after several Island resilts voiced their objections to the -labor day start date. The result the action - a nine page report t stated the children will "beneiii the most (to start school) prior to Labor Day." tThe decision, announced by the >ard during its meeting Monday night, was much to the dismay of several parents in attendance. "I'm very disappointed with the early start date," parent Gretchen Mihalski said to the board. "That is 17 days of no school the children will have, by doing this your teaching them the longer the break the better which means school is bad." Mihalski was referring to the proposed two week winter recess that will be given as a result to the early start. Several other Island residents spoke to the board about many different reasons against the early start. - - ■ „MI namnjmj i  Marcia Pfohl, who has been a Delta Express to begin daily service Delta Express announced it will start one daily nonstop round-trip flight between Buffalo, New York and Orlando, effective October 1, 1998. A second daily nonstop round-trip flight will begin November 1, 1998. The new low fare flights will depart from Buffalo International Airport daily to Orlando International Airport. In conjunction with this announcement, Delta Express will offer special introductory fares beginning as low as $78 one-way to Orlando, $82 to Tampa, and $92 to Ft. Myers, West Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale. In making the announcement Thursday, Paulctte Cotbvu, Braving the Rain Saundra Marcel and Kristen Di Viti enthusiastically braved raindrops Saturday to work on their six-foot chalk mural at Grand Island's annual Independence Day celebration. Saundra and Kristen created* a mural depicting an American farmer. The finished design included a quotation by Thoreau: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his own dreams and endeavors, to lead the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours," in honor of the holiday. Also working on a mural with a patriotic theme were Bonnie Remus and David Wilson. Saturday's demonstration was designed to highlight the artistic skills which have brought our community recognition. Saundra, Kristen, Bonnie and David are all past or current members of Grand Island High School Chalk Walk teams. It is hoped that in the future other Islanders will want to demonstrate their chalk skills, creating an Island-wide art event. Big Changes on Staley Road by Christopher Caile Big changes are happening on Staley Road on Grand Island as Fujisawa begins clearing land for its new administration building, former Fujisawa manufacturing has been taken over by American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP), and Connecticut based chemical giant Dexter Corporation is bidding to complete the purchase of Life Technologies. Fujisawa Expansion of Fujisawa operations began last week as bulldozers and other heavy equipment began clearing land adjacent to its former site. Recently the town had rezoned 12.8 acres of property from residential Rl-A to M-l light industrial to allow expansion. Fujisawa's Director of Operations Scott Aladeen said the immediate site work is almost done although grading, paving and other work will continue. Construction of their new administration building should be finished by the end of the year. The Grand Island sites' bid to have the Japan headquarters relocate a capsule plant had not worked out, Aladeen said. Fujisawa had received a $32.4 million loan from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency (ECIDA) to produce a capsulated form of its transplant drug Prograph currently manufactured by the company in Ireland. "But there are other opportunities we are looking at," he said. . American Pharmaceutical Partners American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP) recently bought the manufacturing operations of two Fujisawa buildings on Staley Road. They officially began operations on June 1. According to APP's Director of operations Richard Nassar, "we v ill contir ,j manufacturing injcctablcs. This includes injectable sodium chloride and water as well as other products that are sterile. Nassar added that 60-70 new employees have been added to their staff over the last few months and that further expansion is expected. Aladeen said that little had changed under APP ownership except that there was more focus on the product line and commitment to multiple source products. These are generic rather than name brand products. He also confirmed that they have a new product development group on the Island and this should result in new products that they could manufacture on the Island. Life Technologies The financial press has been a buzz the last two days over efforts of Connecticut based Dexter Corporation's $37 a share, $420 million offer to buy 11.3 million more shares or 48 percent of Life Technologies, Inc. based in continued on page 17 continued on page 17 continued on page 17