Odds & ends 1/9/02

New mayor's mother elected to council seat

MOUNT CARBON, Pa. -- Jeffrey Dunkel isn't old enough to pop open a bottle of champagne yet, but that didn't stop the 18-year-old mayor -- or his councilwoman mother -- from celebrating his inauguration Monday.

Dunkel, who got involved in politics after studying local government for a high school class, was elected to a four-year term in November.

He ran unopposed and won with 43 votes in this Schuylkill County borough of around 300 residents.

Dunkel said he is taking the job seriously. He said his biggest goal is to hire a neighboring community's police department to patrol the borough.

His mom, Kathleen Dunkel, was elected to a Borough Council seat with 22 write-in votes. Dunkel swore in his mother Monday immediately after his own ceremony.

Lotto winner keeps secret, surprises wife

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A roofer at Cape Canaveral Air Station who won the $6 million Lotto jackpot on Dec. 15 kept it secret to surprise his wife at Christmas.

"I asked her what it felt like to be married to a millionaire," Juan A. Gonzalez explained Monday as he and his wife Sandra picked up their Lotto winnings. "She did not know what was going on. She said to me: 'Are you sure? How many zeros is that?"'

The Gonzalezes opted for a cash payout of $3,422,125.

Gonzalez said he would use the winnings to pay off bills and care for his family.

He said he selected five of the winning numbers using his birth date, Oct. 27, 1948; his current age, 53; and Christ's age, 33, at his death.

Snow gun creates white Christmas

WESTBORO, Mass. -- Brendan Moss made sure his family had a white Christmas, despite a lack of snow in this central-Massachusetts community.

Brendan made his own snow gun, similar to those found at ski resorts.

For Christmas, the 16-year-old had asked for -- and received -- an air compressor, a hose and some plumbing accessories. It took him an hour to assemble his snow maker.

He connected a long hose to the air compressor and to a nozzle with two fittings on the end. A hose from the front of the house goes into the other fitting. In the nozzle, water and air mix, shooting snow into the yard when the air temperature is 30 degrees or below.

The result: the Moss home had a pile of snow on its front lawn.

But the family enjoyed it only briefly: they vacationed in the Dominican Republic for a week after Christmas.

Couple leaves bipartisan rancor at door

JOLIET, Ill. -- While bipartisan rancor occasionally erupts at Will County Board meetings, two commissioners are determined disagreements will be left in the board room when they head home.

Republican Mary Ann Gearhart, 50, who has served on the board since 1985, and Democrat Lee Deutsche, 60, who was first elected in 1998, juggled dating and their political partisanship for three years. They expect their balancing act will continue now that they are married.

The pair tied the knot Saturday at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Monee and left Monday for a honeymoon in Texas. When they return home, they are bound to face a few tricky political situations. Besides votes on county business, they could be pitted against each other in the November election if they both win their March primary races.

More often than not, they vote against each other. But both oppose a proposed airport at Peotone, which would swallow up Deutsche's family farm in eastern Will County.

--From wire reports