AVERY Students from EHOVE Career Center's Retail Careers program took 19 awards (seven of them first-place trophies) at the DECA Diamond Competition held April 26 at Tri-Rivers Career Center in Marion. Penny Adelman, EHOVE's DECA adviser and retail careers instructor, and Sheryl Miller, educational aide, presented awards to winners. A number of area school personnel and business people devoted their day to judging, including Elder Beerman's Toni Taylor of Sandusky.

MUNICIPALITIES Bellevue

A Fremont husband and wife were indicted Friday on drug felonies in connection with an April 6 incident. Craigary McCoy, 28, and his wife Jennifer, 21, are accused are being involved in a controlled drug purchase with about 13 grams of cocaine at a Bellevue hotel, Huron County Assistant Prosecutor Richard Woodruff said. Norwalk officers used warrants in Bellevue and then at the McCoys' home during the investigation.

NORWALK The following people recently were convicted of drunken driving in Norwalk Municipal Court: Daniel J. Carpenter, 26, 441 S. Norwalk Road, Norwalk. Violation date: April 16. Conviction date: April 27. Sentence: $1100 fine, $65 costs, two-year license suspension and 30 days in jail; defendant ordered to report to the Recovery Center of Huron County within seven days of release and comply with evaluation and counseling as directed by the Center.

WILLARD POLICE The April 23-29 Willard Police Department blotter had the following highlights:

Willard library WILLARD At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the youth services department at the Willard Memorial Library will be showing the movie "Because I Said So."

A rural Milan woman is accused of embezzling more than $100,000 from a Lorain doctor. A Lorain County grand jury indicted Kay Wilzcak, 34, on theft in connection with incidents from Jan. 1, 2004 through Jan. 1 of this year. The victim contacted the Lorain Police Department after determining the money was missing.

St. Paul Math Fair More than 400 guest students in grades fifth through eighth and as far away as Sandusky, gathered April 25 at the St. Paul Convocation Center for the 11th annual Math Fair.

Kindergarten screening will be held again this year for all children who are to enter kindergarten this fall in Norwalk City Schools. State law requires that all youngsters enrolled in kindergarten must be screened. The screenings will be held May 14 and 15 at Maplehurst Elementary, May 16 and 17 at Pleasant Elementary and May 18 at League Elementary. Because of the special design of the program, it is important that each child be screened at their home building. For an appointment, call the Norwalk city board of education at (419) 668-2779 as soon as possible.

Finally the debate is over. 2007 will not be the Year of the Garden. My husband was pro garden, but I was leaning toward taking a break from our yearly agricultural experiments. We decided to compromise by putting in a small patch of tomatoes and peppers, maybe just enough for several quarts of salsa. Shortly after reaching this amicable resolution, we discovered that something is wrong with the rototiller and the tines won't turn. Fine. That clinches it! Did I say agricultural experiments? It's really more like adventures in animal control. Let's revisit some of our gardens past. Ah, yes. The year was 1997 and we had just moved to our little house in the country. The farmer kindly allotted us a fair strip of his field next to the house so we could plant our first garden, then we went out and purchased a modest, yet effective rototiller. Using a calculator and several reams of graph paper, we laid out the plans for what should have been a veritable cornucopia of gardening goodness. We put in some cucumbers, tomatoes, and several types of peppers, but the primary crop was to be sweet corn, lots and lots of sweet corn. Week after week, we diligently weeded and watered in anticipation of what looked to be a bumper crop. Then one morning when the corn was nearly ripe, we noticed a couple stalks were broken over and something had gnawed off several precious ears of our carefully nurtured sweet corn. After spotting some tracks left by the varmint, we deduced it to be none other than that despicable, corn loving, scoundrel, the raccoon. He struck again the very next night, only this time he brought reinforcements, because not a stalk was left standing and there was not a single ear of sweet corn that had not been gnawed, clawed, or otherwise licked by him and his gluttonous kin. Round one.