News Briefs

City starting search for new chief of police

Bob Jones will be retiring from his 33 years of service in January, leaving his position as Oberlin chief of police vacant.

In response to Jones' announcement, City Manager Rob DiSpirito began the process of searching for a replacement. DiSpirito projects this process will take four to six months.

The search has just begun and is not yet in its advertising phase. Currently DiSpirito has been working on getting a sense of what the community, as well as the police department, needs in a police chief.

Several weeks ago DiSpirito distributed a survey throughout Oberlin asking four questions: what qualities should a police chief have, what goals should the chief focus on within the first year, what long range goals should be focused on and other comments on the police department. DiSpirito has also been meeting with members of the department to find out internal needs.

"This will get me better attuned to what the city needs," said DiSpirito.

Compiling all of this information, he will be able to update the job description integral to advertising the position.

Although he is not definite in his plans, DiSpirito is toying with the idea of inviting citizens to sit on the interviewing panel once there is a list of candidates for the position.

Open to all possibilities DiSpirito said, "I may have some representatives of the College, perhaps a student, on the interviewing panel."

Citing the diverse community of Oberlin, DiSpirito mentioned that he was making a concerted effort to search for minority candidates.

"I'm going to pick the best candidate, no matter what their race...I do want minorities to be represented within the pool."

Since Jones is retiring in January, before the search is completed, Police Captain Tom Miller has been appointed to serve as the interim chief of police.

-Ireta Kraal

Prominent environmentalist Lois Gibbs to speak on toxics

The student organization Ohio Public Interest Research Group is sponsoring a campus visit and lecture by Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

Gibbs, founder of the CHEJ, has been an energetic grassroots environmental activist since 1978, when she discovered that the school her child attended in Love Canal, New York, was built on a 20,000 ton toxic chemical dump, causing a high rate of birth defects, miscarriages and cancer in the area. After extensive lobbying, Gibbs proved instrumental in forcing President Jimmy Carter into issuing an Emergency Declaration, ultimately moving over 900 families from the area, and leading to Gibbs' national prominence as an environmental figure and heroine.

She has since assisted over 8,000 grassroots organizations, helping them to establish themselves on the environmental activist scene. In 1998 Gibbs published Love Canal: The Story Continues, discussing the impact of chemical exposure on society in the late 1990s.

Gibbs won the 1990 Goldman Environmental Prize and has received an honorary Ph.D. from State University of New York, Cortland College. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, 20/20, Oprah Winfrey, Good Morning America and The Today Show. CBS also aired a prime-time movie entitled "Lois Gibbs: The Love Canal Story" based on her life and activist work.

Gibbs will deliver a lecture entitled "Toxics in Our Communities" Tuesday, December 7 at 7:30 in Carnegie Hall's Root Room. It will be free and open to the public.

-Nick Stillman