Lititz Record Express

              T h e L it it z R e c o r d - E x p r e s s
Serving T he Public Fôr Seventy-Seven- Years
78th Year
Established April, 1877, as The Sunbeam
(Consolidated with The Lititz Record, 1937) Lititz, Lancaster Co., Pá., Thursday, December 30, 1954 5 cents a Copy; $2 per yr. by mail,
within Lancaster County; $2.50 elsewhere No. 39
Council Pledges Full Co-operation to Warner - Hudnut
Progress
Made Here
In 1 9 5 4
Year In Review Shows
Much Done Locally In
Past 12 Months
The year 1954 will go down in
the historic annals of Lititz and
'Vicinity as one normal in many
respects but mighty outstanding
in another — the ironing ouit of
details for at least one major
improvement, the construction of
the new Warwick Union Junior-
Senior High School Building.
Taken all in all, the year was
a prosperous one despite that
employment locally dropped, off
during the first six months. Loss­es
recorded early in the year
were partially offset with re­employment
increases during: the
last three months.
By far the most Important
stride forward was the settle­ment
of many differences relative
to the building of the new two
million dollar school bundling.
Progress enabled directors not
only to let contracts but to wit­ness
the breaking of ground for
the new structure within the cal­endar
year now nearing its cllose.
The year taken chronological­ly,
follows, briefly:
January
Dr. Chester L. Wertsch re­signed
as president of the Liititz
Area School Authority.
Daniel Garner elected presi­dent
of the Lititz Fire Company.
A blast almost wrecked the
home of Elam Nauman, north
of Lititz.
Menno Rohrer was re-elected
president of the Lititz Boro ugh
Council.
Henry Gibbel was elected pres­ident
of the Farmers National
Bank.
Borough employees voted a 10
per-cent pay raise.
February
William Fasnacht resigned! as
president of the Warwick Union
School Board.
John Steffy resigned from bor­ough
council in controversy over
truck purchase.
James Burkholder was named
as the new manager of the Jos.
S. Harris Company store here.
The F.C.C. granted Harry J.
Sheffy permission to operate a
micro-wave relay radio which
will operate from a towering 80-
foot tower atop South Mountain.
March
George R. Male, of Ephrata,
was named football coach here.
Warren Newcomer was chosen
to fill the vacancy on the War­wick
Union School Board cauised
by the resignation of Willliam
Fasnacht.
A total of $1,641 was donated
to the Lititz Community Center
in drive just completed.
An offer of $1,750 to settle
for damages In park made by the
Sewer Authority was rejected.
(Continued on Page 6)
1955 Farm Show Dedicated to State University 2 8 Homes
Built Here
L ast Y e a r
Construction In 1954 Hit
Grand Total Of
$546,550
Building and constructions In
Lititz amounted to a total of
$•546,550 during 1954, an in­crease
of approximately $187,900
over the previous year, accord­ing
to borough records.
During the past year a record-breaking
total of 28 new homes
were constructed throughout the
borough at a cost of $436,600,
as compared with 19 new homes
built during 1953 at a cost of
$263,000.
’ Borough Manager Orville Over
predicted at the same time that,
unless some unforseen situation
develops, the coming year will
far exceed the total of 1954 in
new homes at least!
During the past twelve months
a total of 62 local homes were
repaired at a total cost of $95,-
050. During the same period, a
total of 12 additional permits
were taken out for garages and
other structures which cost their
owners an estimated $14,900
additional. .
Should plans underway on the
part, of at least two developers
to construct houses in groups of
from ten to fifteen at a time, ma­terialize,
building totals Ot - the
past tseveral years will be dwarf­ed
by next year’s total, it was
explained.
At thé same time, borough offi­cials
were looking toward half
a dozen smaller builders to pro­duce
a sizeable volume of build­ings
here during 1955.
All In all, 1954 was the best
building year of the past seven
or eight— but 1955 looks even
better!
OUR FUTURE C ITIZEN S
mmmmm
More then half a mifflon people will visit the 39th Pennsylvania Farm Show January 10-14
and pay tribute to The Pennsylvania State University for it» 100 years of service to agriculture.
Upper left inset shows the angle building of the Pennsylvania Farmers’ High School chartered
in 1855. It grew into the State University symbolised by the view of the rebuilt "Old Main" at
upper right. Below is main entrance to Farm Show building in Harrisburg.
1 9 5 5 S tate Farm Show ■*Go,nL.Bi9 GuM
Set For Biggest Y e a r
Calender
Of The Week
Friday, Dec. 81
NEW YEAR’S EVE!
Watch Night Service Moravian
Church, 11:15 p.m.
New Year's Eve Dance at the
Center, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Saturday, January 1
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
202 years ago today, Elizabeth
Griscom, better known as Mrs.
Betsy Ross, was born In Phila­delphia.
i Sunday, January 2
The Luther League of St.
Paul’s Lutheran Church will
meet after the evening church
service.
The first flag of Washington’s
army was run up on the lflag
staff at his headquarters, at Cam­bridge,
Mass., 1776.
Monday, January 8
Week of Prayer begins— 7:30
p.m., St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Tuesday, January 4
Lady Sutter Rebekah Lodge
435, meets at 8:00 p.m., at mew
Odd Fellows Hall.
Wednesday, January 5
L.T.L. meets at 3:00 p.m. in
Trinity E.C. Church.
“Twelfth Night”, Shakespeiare
Comedy, was first performed in
1602.
New and unusual features at
the 1955 Pennsylvania Farm
Show in Harrisburg January 10
14 promise to make it the most
colorful ever held, according to
Farm Show Commission mem­bers.
W. S. Hagar, commission
chairman, says this Is the year
of all years for the show of all
shows staged for the advance­ment
of Pennsylvania agricul­ture.
The week-long Farm Show is
dedicated to the Pennsylvania
State University which will cele­brate
its 100 th anniversary
throughout 1955. Special exhib­its,
various farm organization
meetings and a pageant will be
used to pay tribute to the Uni­versity
for its century of service
to agriculture.
Both the Farm Show and the
State University trace their ori­gin
back to a common parent,
the Pennsylvania Agricultural
Society founded in 1851. The
University.started as the Penn­sylvania
Farmers’ High School,
chartered by the Legislature in
1855. The Farm Show traces its
history back to the society-spon­sored
State Fairs started in 1851.
The coming Farm Show will
have more livestock on display
than ever before, greater partici­pation
by farm youth, more Im­proved
and new farm machinery
items and the first farm machin­ery
safety demonstration.
One of the most helpful ar­rangements
to visitors will be the
ease with which they can locate
and inspect grand champion and
champion awards in most divi-
(Continued on Page 12)
Week of Prayer
Services Here
All Next Week
The Community Week of Pray­er
services will be held in St.
Paul’s Lutheran Church Mon­day
through Friday of next
week. This is an annual series
of devotional services sponsored
by thé Lititz Ministerial Asso­ciation.
The general theme suggested
by the Department of Evangel­ism,
National Council of Church­es
of Christ is, ‘The Life God
Redeems”. Individual themes
and speakers are as follows:
Monday — “The Past God Re­claims”,
Rev. G. R. Booth; Tues­day
— “The Concern God Asks”,
Rev. Earl Bowman: Wednesday
— “The Home God Hallows”,
Bishop Carl Helmich; Thursday
— “The Church God Gathers”,
Rev. Paul Witmoyer; Friday —
“The Prayer God Answers”, Rev.
Paul Miller.
Rev. Francis R. Bell, host pas­tor,
will serve as Liturgist. Spe­cial
music will be provided by St.
Paul’s Church.
The time of the services is
7:39 p.m., each evening.
ON FLORIDA TRIP
Lee Fry, East Main Street,
Robert and Howard Weachter
and David Krieder, of Rothsville,
left last Wednesday to spend
ten days in Florida. While there
they expect to stop off to see
Charles Reidenbach, a former
Lititz resident.
7 0 Homes
Slated
For 1 9 5 5
The announcement that a total
of 70 new homes will be con­structed
on the former Cuppy
Farm in the southeastern end of
the borough, during 1955, was
made before borough council
Tuesday night when the develop­ers
requested the borough to list
the streets needed in its 1955
budget.
According to Tom Shields, of
Lancaster, head of the Kissel
Hill, Inc., developers of the
tract, the homes will be placed
mostly on Fifth and Sixth Sts.
Shields asked council to ap­prove
paving both streets on the
one - third assessment plan,
whereby the owners on each side
of the street pay one-third each
and the borough pays the remain­ing
one-third plus intersections.
The matter will be discussed
more thoroughly at the borough’s
budget meeting scheduled to be
held January 14.
The borough was informed by
the Sanitary Water Board at Har­risburg
that the failure of the
Morgan Paper Company to con­nect
to the borough sewer sys­tem,
reported to them by the
borough last month, has been
turned over to the State Depart-men
of Justice, for suitable ac­tion.
Just what steps will be taken
to end the pollution of the Lititz
stream was not explained, bor­ough
officials said.
Mrs. Janet Mellinger, secretary
to the borough manager, was
elected borough treasurer. The
Farmers National Bank was nam­ed
depository for the borough
funds for 1955.
Announce Engagement'
Of Miss Audrey Steffy
Mr. and Mrs. John H. Steffy,
240 South Broad Street, this bor­ough,
have announced the en­gagement
of their daughter, Miss
Audrey Ann Steffy, to George J.
Slater, Jr., of Kissel Hill.
Miss Steffy is a graduate of
Lititz High School and is a sen­ior
in nurses’ training at the
Lancaster General Hospital. Mr.
Slater attended Pennsylvania
State University and is employed
with Hershey & Gibbel, here.
Bob Witmer
Playing With
Canada Team
Bob Witmer, Lititz youth who
Is going big guns in the rugged
sport of ice hockey, spent five
days In Lititz over the Christmas
holiday visiting his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Elmer Witmer, 1 South
Spruce Street.
Bob, who attended George Vo-gan’s
All - American Hockey
School last year, now Is playing
with the Stamford hockey team
in Stamford, Ontario, Canada.
The Stamford team is spon­sored
by the Chicago Black
Hawks and is in a two-way tie
for second place in the Senior B
League. While playing with
Stamford, Bob has scored a total
of 22 goals.
Brunnerville
Firemen Elect
Donald Balmer
Donald Balmer was elected
president of the Br.unnervllle
Fire Company in the annual elec­tion
of officers held Tuesday eve­ning.
Other officers elected are: Eu­gene
Buchter, vice president:
Richard Holier, secretary; Mel­vin
Ditzler, assistant secretary:
Ralph Keith, financial secretary;
Aaron Martin, treasurer; Rev.
Edgar Wert, chaplain; and Rus­sel
Keith, membership secretary.
Milton White was named a
member of the board of trustees.
Clarence Hotter and Christ Lan­dis
were elected delegates to the
county convention.
Eugene Buchter was named
president of the relief associa­tion;
Morris Eckert, vice presi­dent;
Irvin Keith, secretary-treasurer;
and Henry Bucher,
trustee.
Bicyclists Figure
In Collision Here
Two local boys riding a bi­cycle
suffered minor injuries
when struck by an automobile
here Monday afternoon. They
are Lynn Rannels, of East Sec­ond
Avenue, and Dennis Holl-inger,
North Water Street.
Richard Grube, of Laurel Ave.,
reported to Chief of Police Clar­ence
Krelder that both boys in­sisted
they were noLhurt, follow­ing
the collision. Later, however,
they were taken to the office of
Dr. Franklin Cassel where Holl-inger
was treated for an Injured
lip.
Here’s an Interesting and happy dozen youngsters caught In
various moods by The Record-Express photographer. They are,
left to right:
Top Row: Debra, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rertzfleld;
Thomas and Donna, Children of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Hartranft;
David, Aileen, John and Marsha, children of Mr. and Mrs. John
Helter, all of this borough.
Bottom Row: Ronald, son of Mr. and Mrs. Abram Strickier;
Dale, Nancy and Lois, children of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Nolt; and
Eugenie, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Grumbling, all of this
borough.
Another installment of happy local youngsters will be pub­lished
in The Record-Express next week.
Center Rents T ra c t
A public Ice skating rink in
Lititz may soon become a reality
according to a move launched
here over the /holiday week-end
by officials of the Lititz Com­munity
Center. t
The first step in realizing the
new recreational facility was the
signing of a lease for a large
tract of land directly opposite the
Community Center Building. The
lease agreement was signed be­tween
Center officials and offi­cers
of the Lititz Springs Post
of Veterans of Foreign Wars,
owners of the tract which form­erly
was site of one of the large
hotels which once ringed the
park.
According to tentative plans,
the large tract of land will be
leveled off and paved with a coat­ing
of blacktopping similar to
that used on the school tennis
courts here. This will be con­structed
in such a way that it
could easily be flooded and
frozen.
(Continued on Page 7)
Male Dominates
Local Sports Review
If anyone were inclined to
chronicle the significant sports
happenings in this area for tot­tery
old 1954, the opus would
probably begin an end with a fel­low
named George R. Male.
Either by accident or design,
Warwick Onion's head football
coach provided local residents
wtlh probably the two biggest
local sports stories of the year
just ending.
In between these two events
perpetrated by the former Eph­rata
High coach, Lititz area
sports fans found their periods
for elation few and far between.
One was supplied by the Lititz
High baseball team, which Ber-nle
Rider guided to a Section
championship, another by a
couple guys named Ronnie Runk
and Morris Frederick who won
the Inter-County Scholastic Ten­nis
League Doubles Champion­ship
and still another by the
Lititz entry In the City-County
baseball league which took the
regular season title.
However, it is doubtful if any
of them caused the old town to
buzz with the excitement that
was generated by the two Male-instigated
incidents.
The first of these was the an­nouncement
by the school board
that the veteran Ephrata- grid
mentor was cutting the bonds of
14 years of service with the
Mountaineer institution to accept
a job at, of all place, Lititz..
This was on February 17,
1954. The announcement was
hailed here as the beginning of
a new era in football for our
new school, Warwick Union.
But as eager as the word was
received here, it was tempered
with the realization that Male,
talented as he might be, couldn’t
accomplish this feat overnight.
He didn’t either. Several hun­dred
local football fans made the
trek to Red Lion to witness the
unveiling of this new era in foot­ball,
only to see Warwick lose to
the Lions, 13-6.
They lost some more, too, to
Elizabethtown, to Manheim Boro
and Manheim Twp., to Palmyra,
and it began to appear as though
maybe the Male fellow had lost
his touch.
The only victories turned In
were over a couple of teams that
still are a year or two away from
causing any «real trouble in the
Conference of Roses, Solanco and
Cocalico.
Then, one bright October af­ternoon,
Columbia High’s unde­feated
football powerhous| came
to town. They should have won
by three touchdowns at least, but
as it turned out the River Boro
lads were thankful to have won
by one, 14-6.
Again the old town buzzed
with excitement which was to be
but a warmer-upper to the cli­max
ot the athletic year for local
fans.
The date was November 13,
and it was an unlucky one for
REREKAHS TO MEET
Lady Sutter Rebekah Lodge
435 will meet in the new Odd
Fellows Hall, 109 N. Broad St.,
Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 8:00 p.m.
All members are urged to attend
without further notice. After the
business meeting refreshments
will be served,
Another
Farmer
Hits Oil!
Another Lititz farmer has
struck oil l
But rather than celebrate over
any suddenly-discovered riches,
this farmer Is more concerned
with getting an assurance that
damages will be paid by the
Southern Pipe Line Company.
The latest discovery of oil
west of the borough was made
more than a week ago on the
farm of Mr. and Mrs. Harry
Hartenstine, Lititz RD2, where
they were drilling a new well—
for water.
The oil was discovered at a
depth of 79 feet. Officials of the
pipe line company, who were
called to the scene, promised to
bear the expense, according to
Mr. Hartenstine, of sealing off
the well and of drilling deeper
for water.
Pipe line officials also express­ed
the opinion that the oil, first
discovered in the vicinity more
than a year ago, is an accumula­tion
of leakage from the pipe
line for some time past.
Oil originally ruined the water
supply on the farm of Mr. and
Mrs. Isaac Stoner, approximately
one-quarter of a mile/ from the
Hartenstine farm.
Since then, the pipe line com­pany
has removed thousands of
gallons of oil from the Stoner
farm. A*nother well was dug to
provide water for the farm but
this also, after a short period,
began spouting oil instead of
water.
Oil still was pouring from the
ground this week. And, at the
same time, both the Stoner and
the Hartentsine farms are with­out
drinking water.
ALLEN REED STONER
HOME ON FURLOUGH
Allen Reed Stoner, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Isaac Stoner, Lititz
RD3, is home with his parents on
a month furlough, after being
stationed at San Francisco, Calif.,
for over four months. On Janu­ary
14 he will again return to
San Francisco.
C-C Also
Contacts
Robst
Enthusiastically Greet The
News Concern Is Consid­ering
Coming Here
The welcoming hand of friend­ship
was enthusiastically extend­ed
to the Warner-Hudnut Com­pany
from two official local
sources this week!
With news that the famous
drug and cosmetic concern head­ed
by Elmer Bobst, Lititz native,
Is considering locating a large
manufacturing plant here reach­ing
the public through The Rec­ord-
Express last week, the re­sponse
was immediate.
At Its meeting this week,
members of the Lititz borough
council instructed the borough
manager to contact officers of
the Warner-Hudnut Company
and to pledge the concern the
borough’s fullest co-operation in
meeting any problems concur­rent
with re-locating their plant
here.
At the same time, Paul F.
Dlehm, president of the Lititz
Chamber of Commerce, announc­ed
that he also has contacted
Mr. Bobst with the same offer
of co-operation.
Opinions expressed at the
meeting of borough council in­dicated
that Warner-Hudnut offi­cials
probably have all the infor­mation
they need—but if they
have any doubt as to the welcome
they will receive if they come
here, that doubt should now be
eliminated.
"Lititz has much to offer a
manufacturing concern of this
type — and Warner-Hudnut can
offer the people of Lititz much,”
Mr. Diehm explained. “They will
be mighty welcome If they decide
to become a part of our com­munity.”
From Mr. Bobst in New York
came only the assurance that
“unless someone else offers con­siderably
better facilities, we will
come to Lititz.” Negotiations
carried on by telephone with
Newton Buch, owner of the tract
where the new plant will be lo­cated,
have reached the point
where there is no longer any
difference of opinion as to price,
it was stated authoritatively here
yesterday.
Seek Okey
F o r Light
A t Square
Borough council still was
waiting today for official word
from Harrisburg that the pro­posed
traffic light to be installed
at the Square has been approved.
In a resolution passed at this
week’s meeting bf council, the
borough requested the approval
of the State Highway Depart­ment.
At that time it was report­ed
that a traffic survey was made
recently.
“The man who made the sur­vey
said that he thought the flow
of traffic was heavy enough to
satisfy state requirements but
we have not received anything of
an official nature regarding this,”
Borough Manager Orville Over
explained.
Should the approval be forth­coming,
council plans to adver­tise
for bids for the equipment
at its next meeting.
Radio Plan Changed
With radio equipment due to
be delivered to the borough in
(Continued on Page 12)
STONERS ENTERTAIN
GUESTS AT DINNER
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Stoner,
Lititz RD3, entertained the fol­lowing
at a Christmas dinner on
Saturday: Mr. and Mrs. Rufus
Burkholder and children, Susan,
Barbara Ann and Marie, this
borough; Mr. and Mrs. Paul
Derr and children, Reed and
Mark, of Quakertown, Mrs. Garth
Becker, Reed Stoner, Anna Ston­er,
Paul Stoner and Dwight
Melskey.