GRAFTON — The new warden at Grafton Correctional Institution promised more community notification in the future after a mock prison break training exercise at a home on state Route 83 stopped traffic and worried some motorists Tuesday.

The prison sent a fax to media outlets on Friday alerting them to the training exercise, but that apparently was not enough notification, said Warden Frank Shewalter.

In the future, prison officials will follow up with phone calls and targeted e-mails, he said.

Plus, they might erect better signage for the public warning of a training exercise in progress.

Shewalter said there were signs for northbound and southbound motorists on state Route 83, but a Chronicle photographer saw only a sign for northbound motorists that stated “GCI Exercise Scenario in Progress.”

The activity by about 100 armed individuals — mostly prison guards and officers from the Ohio Highway Patrol — got the attention of passersby, who called The Chronicle-Telegram. No one at the paper recalled any fax about a training exercise.

En route, a newspaper reporter called police and discovered it was only a training exercise. After arriving, the reporter and photographer noticed telltale signs of training in progress — such as the sign, the fact that state Route 83 was not closed off and the use of some pink-colored weapons.

Two women who had called the newspaper said they thought there was a hostage situation in progress as they passed by the Grafton Prison Farm.

“There were lots of people who didn’t know what was going on,” said Johni Russell, of Lorain, who was passing with her mother Carol Knapp.

Russell said some motorists stopped their cars in the middle of the road and turned around to avoid trouble while others were caught in lines of cars when trains were stopped on a nearby rail crossing.

Knapp said if there was a sign going southbound, she didn’t see it.

“We thought we were going to see a shootout,” said Knapp, who tuned into WEOL and called her husband to see if there was anything else in the media.

Despite a little confusion on the part of passersby, Shewalter said the Critical Incident Management exercise was a success and trained staff from the Grafton Correctional and Lorain Correctional institutions and the Northeast Pre-Release Center in Cleveland, which is a women’s prison.

“We learned how to do better working as a team,” Shewalter said. “We train on this so we can be ready and the community will be safe.”

Shewalter, who previously served as warden of the Northeast Pre-Release Center, said the training exercise focused on the following scenario:

A resident alerts the prison of two empty tractors and a vehicle in the field, and a guard who responds is taken hostage and moved to a farmhouse across the highway. Five “inmates” take part in the walk-away from the prison farm — which does not have a fence around the perimeter — after one of the five was denied a visit to the bedside of his mother, who is ill. During the training exercise, the guard taken hostage was critically injured along with a girlfriend of one of the inmates, while a second girlfriend was killed and two inmates were shot in the legs as they ran toward a radar facility on prison grounds.

The confusion on the part of some passersby during the exercise Tuesday is not the first time in recent years that the public has been affected by training exercises.

On Aug. 25, people in the 128-home Deerfield housing development off Oak Point Road were asked to evacuate after Lorain police conducting training exercises with new gas masks fired off pepper spray at the nearby Amherst Gun Club that wafted into their homes.

Fifteen months ago, three police training drills for Virginia Tech massacre-type violence were canceled until police sorted out what went wrong on July 12, 2008, when two veteran police officers walked into the Stocker Arts Center with guns drawn. The incident happened just prior to a performance of “Willy Wonka Junior” by the Lorain County Children’s Pioneer Theatre.

During the incident, the theater’s treasurer was reportedly placed at gunpoint because police thought he was part of the training scenario. After the incident, he called Mayor Bill Grace and Elyria Police Chief Michael Medders to voice concerns.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — Historically speaking, Elyria city leaders have had little luck passing a permanent income tax increase.

But come Nov. 3, Elyria voters will be asked to do just that for Issue 10, a 0.5 percent permanent income tax increase that will raise approximately $5.5 million per year.

The money is being sought to offset a $4.3 million deficit projected for 2010.

While this is the first general fund income tax increase proposed in 25 years, its passage would push Elyria’s income tax rate to 2.25 percent, a level above many other cities in the state.

Still, Mayor Bill Grace said now is the time to increase the income tax rate as the city has been unable to keep up with declining revenue brought about by the current national and state economy.

“We decided to go for a 0.5 percent increase because a smaller increase like a 0.25 percent increase would generate only about $2.3 or $2.4 million a year and that would not be enough to cover the projected deficit for next year,” Grace said.

“Most of our peer cities are at 2 percent or higher, and Parma is at 2.5 percent. Part of the reason why we have to go to 2.25 percent is the fact that our peer cities that are at 2 percent have been there for many years and have been able to weather this bad economy much better.”

This year, Elyria has had to battle budget shortfalls, remedied only by laying off city workers and cutting city services.

“The effects of the national economy have hit our city as hard as any — dramatically reducing our revenue,” Grace said. “The revenue just continues to decline. We are faced with either making substantial additional cuts or using the revenue from Issue 10 to attempt to maintain existing services.”

Grace has said the city would be in two very different situations should Issue 10 pass or fail.

Passage would mean that 10 laid-off firefighters would be reinstated, no police officers will be cut, a portion of the city’s parks and recreation programs will be restored and the Police Department would see a portion of their civilian support staff brought back.

However, if the tax fails, Grace said additional firefighters — on top of 16 that already were lost this year — will be cut, only those parks and recreation programs that can fund themselves will be offered, and the Street Department will have less money to maintain roads.

The most dramatic consequence would come at the Police Department.

While the department has watched the elimination of its jail staff and civilian work force, it has escaped cuts to the patrol force this year.

However, Grace said next year, 10 to 15 police officers will be laid off if the tax does not pass.

A cut like that would have rippling effects on the department, said Tom Baracskai, president of the Elyria Police Patrolmen’s Association.

Currently, EPPA represents 64 patrolmen of which nine are in the detectives unit, four are in the narcotics/neighborhood impact unit, two work out of the Wilkes Villa housing complex and are paid by Lorain County Metropolitan Housing Authority, one is the Elyria High School police resource officer and one is a member of the Violent Fugitive Task Force paid for by federal grant money.

That leaves 47 patrolmen on the road to handle calls. That number equates to approximately five officers for each eight-hour shift rotating 24 hours a day and seven days a week, Baracskai said.

“If we lose guys, we will still answer calls. I’m not saying we will not answer calls,” he said to residents at a recent town hall meeting. “But I am saying we will prioritize which calls get answered first. Now, you will have to wait a little bit longer to report a bike stolen from your backyard because officers will be handling more pressing calls first.”

Because of the ramifications to the city’s safety forces, Issue 10 campaign chairman and Councilman Kevin Brubaker, D-at large, is spending many of the days leading up to the election talking with residents.

“We have to get the word out about what this means,” he said. “This is about our city’s future, and I don’t want to see us looking at 14 months of cuts before we can even go back to the voters.”

It’s the city charter that dictates how and when city leaders can place income tax issues before voters. And, as it reads now, if Issue 10 fails, the city will have to wait until November 2010 before it can ask residents again to increase the income tax.

“Before residents fail this issue because they think it will permanently increase the income tax to 2.25 percent, they should know that in 4½ years, the city’s 0.5 percent temporary income tax will expire and if they feel we are doing better, they have the option of not voting to renew it and the income tax rate will drop back down to 1.75 percent,” Brubaker said. “This is needed now, but it does not permanently raise our overall rate to 2.25 percent.”

Issue 10

• What: A 0.5 percent income tax increase.
• Duration: Permanent.
• How much it would raise: A reported $5.5 million of additional revenue each year.
• Purpose: 80 percent will fund existing city services while the remaining 20 percent will go toward additional funding for the police, streets and parks and recreation departments.
• Cost to taxpayer: Individuals who work in Elyria will see less than $2 more deducted from their city income tax withholdings.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — A fired Lorain County Juvenile Detention Home worker has been indicted on a felonious assault charge for slamming an inmate at the facility face-first into a table.

James Catalano, 47, has told investigators that the 15-year-old boy he grabbed used a racial epitaph and began to “swing and flail” his arms, but in a security video of the incident the boy appears to keep his arms at his side as Catalano grabs him. The footage doesn’t have audio.

Both Catalano and the boy are white, but there were black inmates in the area when the incident occurred about 2:30 p.m. July 24. Detention home staff had just broken up a fight between other inmates when the incident occurred.

The boy and several others who weren’t involved in the fight in the facility’s common room were told to face the wall, but Catalano told investigators the boy kept looking at him.

The video — which county Prosecutor Dennis Will said was shown to grand jurors considering charges against Catalano — shows Catalano walk across the room and grab the boy and throw him to the table.

He then hands the boy off to other detention home workers at the facility, who hustled him out of the room.

The boy told investigators that he told Catalano “Get off me; I can walk” when the detention home worker grabbed him.

The boy also said that Catalano later visited him in his room to ask him what happened and he replied that “it’s on camera.” Catalano then said “Oh, you think so,” according to the county sheriff’s report.

The boy received 17 stitches to his chin at EMH Regional Medical Center before being returned to the detention home.

He was freed on house arrest in September after admitting to charges of disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon.

The boy was arrested by Elyria police after a July 1 incident in which he threatened a Lake Avenue man with a submachine gun loaded with the wrong ammunition.

Catalano, a supervisor who had worked his way up the ranks at the detention home since 1989, was fired in September after an internal Juvenile Court review determined he “engaged in fighting and caused serious harm” to the boy.

Juvenile Court Administrator Doug Messer said Catalano has fought his termination. Messer upheld the firing, but he said Catalano has appealed through his union and the firing will be reviewed.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

CLEVELAND — Manny is the man, at least that’s what the Indians decided Sunday when they named Manny Acta the franchise’s 40th manager.

Acta

Acta, 40, replaces Eric Wedge, who was fired with a week left in the regular season after guiding Cleveland to one postseason trip in seven years at the helm.

The Indians will hold a news conference today at Progressive Field to officially announce the hiring of Acta for three years, with the club holding an option for the 2013 season.

“We are very excited to have Manny Acta as our major league manager,” said Indians general manager Mark Shapiro in a release. “After speaking with an impressive array of candidates, we feel that Manny is a very strong and experienced leader who possesses great energy and enthusiasm along with tremendous communication skills and a positive mindset that will command a presence in the dugout, clubhouse and with our fans.”

Acta, a Dominican Republic native and former manager of the Washington Nationals, beat out at least two other finalists for the job, Triple-A Columbus manager Torey Lovullo and former Mets and Rangers manager and current ESPN analyst Bobby Valentine. The Indians were also believed to be interested in interviewing another finalist with postseason obligations, Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly. The Dodgers were eliminated in the NLCS last week.

Acta is the first manager the Indians have hired outside of the organization and with big-league experience since John McNamara in 1990.

“I am very excited to become part of the Cleveland Indians family,” Acta said in a release.  “I look forward to working with this talented group of young men who seem to possess a lot of energy and passion for their work. I believe we will grow together as a team with the ultimate goal of bringing a championship to Cleveland and its fans.”

After conducting phone interviews with as many as 10 candidates — which included fan favorites former Indians manager Mike Hargrove and current Class A Mahoning Valley manager and ex-Cleveland third baseman Travis Fryman — the Indians whittled the field down to three to five finalists for personal interviews at Progressive Field.

Ownership and members of the front office met with Acta, Valentine and Lovullo last week, but Mattingly never made it to Cleveland, as the Indians decided to make the hire well before their post-World Series deadline.

The Houston Astros, who are searching for a manager, might have played a part in the urgency. Acta, who was a finalist for that job as well, has deep roots with the Astros as a former player and manager in Houston’s minor league system. He was asked by reporters last week what he would do if he were offered both jobs.

“This is my job, and it’s a business,” Acta said. “All of us in life have to separate our heart from our head when the time comes. I don’t know if I will be blessed enough that I would be offered both jobs, but I’m thrilled to have been a part of both processes and to get this far.”

Acta succeeded former Indians player and manager Frank Robinson as the second manager in Nationals’ history, compiling a 158-252 record in two-plus seasons. He was fired in July with Washington owning the worst record in baseball at 26-61.

His first season (2007) in Washington was his best, the Nationals finishing fourth in the competitive National League East Division with a 73-89 record. Acta also spent five seasons as a big league coach with the Montreal Expos (2002-04) and the Mets (2005-06).

Acta inherits an Indians team that went 65-97 in 2009 and finished in a last-place tie with the Royals in the Central Division. The club, which had playoff aspirations this year, is rebuilding after trading back-to-back Cy Young Award winners CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee and a host of other veterans.

“Rebuilding is tough,” Acta told reporters last week. “It’s grueling. You’re going to suffer in wins and losses. A lot of people judge you on that. I’m thankful baseball people look at more than wins and losses when you go into a rebuilding process.”

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.