Lititz Record Express

              THURSDAY, August 15, 1996
z R e c o r d E x p r e s s
120TH YEAR 26 Pages- No, 18 LITITZ. PENNSYLVANIA 30 cents
Wal-Mart is gone, but superstore may live on
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TOWNSHIP— Wal-Mait has held true
to its promise, and has officially pulled out of plans for a
superstore in the Lititz area.
However, the plan itself for a superstore was not pulled
from Warwick Township, so even withou' WaLW' i< •
the helm, the concept remains alive.
‘The sketch plan is still active,” said Township Mana­ger
Daniel Zimmerman at the Aug. 7 supervisors meet­ing.
“Wal-Mart has pulled out of the site, but the plan
remains in the files.”
in a letter to Warwick Township dated July 30, M ark
Stanley, the Lancaster lawyer representing Wal-Mart
’ 7 . 1 that “Wal-Mart has elected not to
pursue the Warwick Township site,” adding that the
retail chain has assigned its rights to the plan to Buckhill
Farms, which owns the property along Route 501 near
Millport Road where the store was proposed.
Caroline Hoffer, the lawyer representing Buckhill
Farms, was not available for additional comment con­cerning
the status of the plan.
To'vnshir: ‘■uec’vAors a zoning requirement
that would limit the size of a building to 60,000 square
feet... far less than the 200,000-square-foot structure first
proposed by Wal-Mart in 1994.
However, since the sketch plan submitted pre-dates
that requirement, it remains dormant but alive.
“We’ll wait and see how that proceeds at this point,”
Zimmerman said.
-NSIDE
s Fa.re aï ih«-
■- ■ î »Hope Winery
Toe Pennsylvania Renais­sance
Faire nas relumed
G'"ce again to Mount Hope,
nonh of Manheim. and will
feature actors and artisans
from g l " !ocai area. Page 20.
New pastor arrives
at Lititz U.M.
Pastor Harry Kaufhold pre­sided
over his first service at
Lititz United Methodist Church
on June 30. To find out more
on his goals for his new con­gregation,
see Page 16.
Bands plan Labor Day
benefit at park
Several Lancaster County
bands will bring their acts to
Lititz Springs Park for a Labor
Day Concert that will benefit
the Community Hospital
Foundation. The Lititz Record
talked with Troy Stanley, one
of the organizers and a mem­ber
of the rock oand
Elemenopy Page 16.
Grosh Scholarship
searches for support
For the past several years,
top Warwick scholar-athletes
have been recognized with
the Grosh Scholarship. But
now organizers are searching
/or new sources of revenue in
order to keep the scholarship
alive. Page 8.
Business..............................18-19
Church.............. 12-13
Classified...................... .....22-25
Editorial / Letters....................... 4
Entertainment...................16-17
Manheim News....................... 20
Obituaries..... ...........................2-3
Out of the Past............... 22, 26
Police Log..................................19
School News....... .................6-7
Social.................................. 14-15
Sports...... ................... 8-11
Monday, Aug. 19, 7 p.m. —
Lititz Borough Zoning Hearing
Board, 7 S. Broad St.
Monday, Aug. 19, 6:30
p.m. — Elizabeth Township
Planning Commission, 15 E.
High St.
Monday, Aug. 19, 7 p.m. —
Manheim Borough Planning
Commission, 15 E. High St.
Tuesday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m.
— Warwick School Board,
301 W. Orange St.
Tuesday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m.
— Warwick Township Munici­pal
Authority, 315 Clay Road.
Wednesday, Aug. 21, 7:30
p.m. — Warwick Township
Supervisors, 315 Clay Road.
you begin? Crafter’s delight
An estimât- :7 50,000 u
JILL SVEY
AND RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Staff
LITITZ—Notice anything about
the weather and big events in the bor­ough
this summer?
It seems lately that whenever a
crowd-drawing event is scheduled,
the weather has managed to coop­erate
beyond expectations.
So naturally, the 18th annual Lititz
Rotary Craft Show followed suit
Gorgeous weather—perhaps a bit
hot during the mid-afternoon, but
more comfortable than at the previ­ous
two shows — meant this was
going to be another big one.
According to co-chairperson Tom
Oehme, there’s is very little they
would do differently.
“We had a good-turnout, a good
show, and good weather,” he said.
“We were very pleased.”
An estimated 40,000 to 50,000
swarmed the streets of downtown
Lititz to visit the 1,000 craft vendors
that lined the streets and meandered
throughout Lititz Springs Park on
Saturday.
With such a vast selection of
wares, there was something for
everyone on this day. A common
sight draped over the shoulder of
many a craft-hunter were those tall
and colorful wooden garden orna­ment
in the design of a sunflower,
crow, or a cat that recently — and
allegedly — devoured a feathered
friend, with the phrase “What Bird?”
Functional shelving units and
other wooden items were also plenti­ful
on this day, as were the many
stands offering attractive dried flow­er
arrangements for those seeking a
long-lasting decoration for their
■ • '■*,
i i.
smKSm,
- mmümü
Photo by Richard Reitz
_ Carolyn Buechner of Loysville spends a moment with a few friends in
Lititz Springs Park during the Craft Show. Buechner creates six variet­ies
of vacuum cleaner covers, which each take on a different
personality.
home... or perhaps a gift for that
someone special.
Dr. Seuss appears to be back in
vogue, as a handful of stands offered
a replica of that striped derby made
popular by the Cat in the Hat
Along with the expected items
came the unusual. Take, for example,
Carolyn Buechner’s vacuum clean­er
people.
Buechner, a fabric crafter from
Loysville in Perry County, has been
making the clever covers for about
five years now.
“I basically started making them
for apartment people, who had no
closet space for their vacuum,”
Buechner said.
She has six different styles, and
said that the covers, which can turn
that unsightly vacuum into a work of
art for your living room, are quite
popular.
Buechner, who arrived at her stand
along the creek in the park at 4:30
a.m. with her husband George to pre­pare
for the day, creates numerous
other items made out of fabric,
including place mats and toaster
covers.
Her husband is a Lutheran pastor,
(See Craft Show, Page 21) Watchers of the skies
Local club helps track severe weather
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
LITITZ — Bruce Barr has been
an avid amateur radio operator since
1980.
And ever since he was a kid, he has
been fascinated with the power that
Mother Nature can wield.
So when Barr discovered a way to
unite two of his interests in a way that
can benefit the community, he
couldn’t resist.
Barr is a member of the Lancaster
County Skywam club, a program of
trained volunteer severe weather
spotters through the National Weath­er
Service.
. “This is a neat way to use my hob­by
to help out in the community, by
providing information that might
help,” Barr said.
The Lancaster County club has 30
volunteers who have been trained to
observe the signs of approaching
severe weather. If the signs are notic-able,
they call the information into a
net point, where it is then called in to
the National Weather Service in
State College.
Often NWS will monitor the infor­mation
directly from the local repea­ter
and will issue severe weather
watches and warnings based upon
information provided by Skywam
volunteers.
Severe weather includes one or
more of the following: a tornado,
funnel cloud, or wall cloud, rain in
excess of one inch per hour, hail
¡4 -inch in size, or wind blowing over
58 miles per hour.
For Lancaster County, the Sky-warn
volunteers are especially
valuable.
Barr, an employee at Wilbur Cho­colate,
said the modem Doppler
radar, used in tracking storms, is
excellent for showing weather pat­terns
above 4,000 feet, but Skywam
weather spotters are needed to con­firm
sightings such as funnel clouds.
In fact, Barr said the way the sys­tem
is set up, the three closest Dop­pler
radar systems all do not quite
reach Lancaster County. “So they are
particularly interested in our weather
spotter reports here.”
Barr, a Brunnerville resident and a
(See Skywarn, Page 21)
‘Fast food’ approved
for proposed Sheetz
501-Newport improvements
scheduled to begin next week
RICHARD REITZ
WÊBÊÊm
Photo by Richard Reitz
'■> : . y-w jg ! L'H-’ F .'Or*- O y \ , ;■ - - .
Oi PiO OOtOU.gr. atiÜMltllèpairwiiOaiuiudj. i.lo uiyyCo iMucouun. »»iio.ouu
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TOWNSHIP —
Altoona-based Sheetz is one step
closer to bringing a convenience
store to the Route 501-Newport Road
intersection.
On Aug. 7, Warwick Township
supervisors approved a conditional
use request for Sheetz, which permits
the operation of a “fast food restaur­ant”
at the location. The fast food
portion of the shop deals primarily in
the sale of subs and sandwiches,
which are made at the store.
The next step for Sheetz is a trip
before the township zoning hearing
board for a conditional use for the gas
station part of the mini market.
501-Newport Improvements
The arrival of the Sheetz plan,
targeted for the northeast comer of
the intersection, coincides with sche­duled
improvements to an area that
has been the site of numerous traffic
accidents.
And now, after much discussion
and planning for the intersection,
Township Manager Daniel Zim­merman
said he anticipates con­struction
activity to begin at the site
on the week of Aug. 19.
He also reminds motorists who use
that intersection to be prepared. Over
the next few months, construction
“will dramatically impact traffic,” he
said.
The lion’s share of the improve­ments
will be handled by Rogele
Construction of Mechanicsburg,
who was awarded a contract for the
work after supervisors approved
their bid of $237,097 in July.
However, the township rebid one
aspect of the project— the signaliza-tion
work — after the bids received
came in much higher than antici­pated,
at a cost of about $55,000.
This time around, bids were con­siderably
less, and supervisors
approved a bid by C.M. High of
Reading to install the lights at a cost
of $27,937.91 — about half the cost
proposed in the initial bidding.
Maintenance Facility
In other township business, town­ship
supervisors reviewed final plans
for renovations proposed at the main­tenance
facility and police station,
located along Clay Road next to the
township building.
The building is a joint project
between the township and the author-
(See Warwick, Page 21)
Sewage ordinance
may become more
farmer frien d ly
STEPHEN SEEBER
Record Express Staff
ELIZABETH TWP — Earlier
this year, it looked as if an ugly face-off
was ready to erupt between an
Amish farmer and Elizabeth Town­ship
supervisors over a misunder­stood
ordinance.
This week, supervisors approved a
waiver, making way for a clean slate
and for farmer Daniel King to con­tinue
with what he does best—farm.
“What we’re trying to do is get Mr.
King underway,” said Dave Geh-man,
who represented King during a
Monday night meeting. “He under-
. stands that he’s in violation.”
The supervisors were eager to help
King get on with his business as well.
The problem began when King, 620
Hackman Road, attempted to build a
home for his newly married son on
his farm property. The new house
was to enable King’s son to continue
working on the farm, but because
sewage permits were bypassed
supervisors were preparing to insti­tute
fines.
As of this week, the two parties
appeared to be finding common
ground.
“We want to keep the farmer on
the farm,” said supervisor Rodney
May, who along with the other
supervisors was looking for a way to
grant a module two waiver.
According to Gehman, without the
waiver, King will be required to pay
for a geo/hydro study which deter­mines
how much land is needed to
sustain additional sewage from
development.
Gehman said that the study would
find that King needs five acres to
support his son’s new home. His
farm is 122 acres.
Following Gehman’s predsenta-tion,
most were in agreement: A law
designed to limit subdivisions is in
this case hindering a farmer and pos­sibly
requiring him to spend about
$900 unnecessarily on a sewage
module.
Gehman added that DEP would
support such a waiver, something
that the supervisors were not aware
of.
“We don’t want to set a precedent
that will come back later on,” said
chairman Larry Wiker of the super­visors’
main concern.
(See Elizabeth, Page 21)
m W Ê
Photo by Donald Campbell
RAIN SPOTTERS — Recently, the Lancaster County Skywarn club
was presented with T-shirts, complete with the Skywarn logo, courtesy
of Yes! Cellular Systems in Lititz. Pictured at the presentation of the
shirts are: (from left to right) Pam Proch from 360 Communications;
Bruce Barr, Skywarn coordinator for Northern Lancaster County; Steve
Morrow, owner of Yes! Cellular; and Keith Nichols, Ephrata manager of
Yes! Cellular.