Lititz Record Express

              ï THURSDAY, January 23, 1997
L i t i t z R e c o r d E x p r e s s
120TH YEAR 24 Pages- No. 41 LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA Two sections 30 cents ]
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Travelogue to visit
Eastern Europe Sat.
Few westerners consider a
journey to Eastern Europe
’when making vacation pians,
but this Saturday's travelogue
at Warwick High Schooi will
take you to see the sights in
an interesting style... by bicy­cle.
Page 16.
A Jan. 17 fire at 26 E. Lincoln Avenue completely gutted the home of
John and Dottie Skworch. Above, flames shooting out from the win­dows
were noticed by a neighbor who then called the fire company
(photo courtesy of Peter White). Left, Deputy Chief Joe Texter a sse ss
the damage from a second floor window shortly after the fire was extin­guished
(photo by Stephen Seeber).
What an incentive!
Joanne Noli of Lititz has
enjoyed her job as one of the
top clothing sales consultant
for Melissa Rice Co. Her hard
work was recently rewarded
with a sleek new Jaguar for
completing an incentive pro­gram.
Page 14.
New restaurant
arrives in borough
A new Chinese restaurant,
The Panda Chinese Kitchen,
has opened in downtown
Manheim, featuring a choice
of menu items or buffet-style
Oriental cuisine. Page 24.
Warriors mount a
crucial victory
Warwick wrestlers have the
inside track to their second
consecutive Section One title
following a dominating perfor­m
an c e in a much-hyped
showdown with Ephrata on
Saturday. See Page 8.
Thursday, Jan. 24, 7:30
p.m. — Lititz Borough Sewer
Authority, 7 S. Broad St.
Monday, Jan. 27, 7 p.m. —
Penn Township Supervisors,
97 N. Penryn Road.
Monday, Jan. 27, 6:30 p.m.
— Warwick Township Rec
Advisory C om m itte e, 3 1 5
Clay Road.
Tuesday, Jan. 28, 7:30
p.m. — L ititz Borough
Council, 7 S. Broad St.
Tuesday, Jan. 28, 7:30
p.m. — Manheim Borough
Council, 15 E. High St.
Business................... . .14 15
Church........ ......... . .............12
Classified...... ............. ...... 21-23
Editorial / Letters..... ................4
Entertainment............ ............ 19
Manhaim N&ws,......................24
Obituaries.......... ......... .......... 2-3
Out of the Past........ . ............20
Police Log.................... ...........16
School News.........,... .......... 6-7
Social............................. ....17-18
Sports................... ............... 8-11
$125,000 in damages estimated for Lincoln Ave. fire
STEPHEN SEEBER
Record Express Staff
EAST LINCOLN AVENUE —
A lifetime of memories for John and
Dottie Skworch were lost in just a
few short hours last Friday, and fire
officials said that there was nothing
the couple could have done about it
State Police Fire Marshall Trooper
Brian Herr said faulty electrical
wiring on the second floor of the 26
E. Lincoln Avenue home was the
cause of the Jan. 17 blaze that
brought in five different fire crews.
“This was nothing that the people
who lived there could have known
about,” he said.
Lititz Fire Chief Ron Oettel Jr.
said property damage estimates were
around $90,000, and content damage
was near $35,000.
“The house was pushing smoke
from almost every window when we
arrived and you could tell we had a
sizable amount of fire,” said Oettel.
The Skworchs, who did not have
insurance, were not at home when the
fire began just before 8 a.m. Dottie
happened to be staying with her
father in Millersville and John was
already at work. Their two dogs,
Boots and L.D., escaped safely
through a swinging door in the back
of the house.
“The things we’ve lost were main­ly
material,” said John. "Not having
insurance hurt, but we can start from
the bottom and build up again.”
He added that he and his wife
talked about getting renter’s insur­ance
just two week ago.
But the fact that no one was hurt
was most important to the couple.
“The dogs were what I was wor­ried
about most,” said Dottie. “That’s
one thing that cannot be replaced.”
Members of their church, co-workers,
and the county office of the
Red Cross have been helping the
Skworchs with money and necessity
items.
T o p c r o p
Farm Show honors local woman's tobacco
RICHARD REITZ ______ _
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TOWNSHIP —
The secret is in the soil.
Anyway, that is what veteran far­mer
John Burkholder believes was
an instrumental factor in producing
grand champion tobacco at this
year’s State Farm Show.
Last week, Arlene Bingeman of
Lititz was awarded the top honor in
the Pennsylvania Smoking Class
Tobacco division at the 81st annual
Farm Show.
Bingeman grew her award­winning
crop on part of Burkholder’s
65-acre farm, located at 92
Longenecker Road, just off of Green
Acre Road.
“A geologist told me that this is
one of the best spots you could ever
have,” the 85-year-old farmer said.
He added that this is the good, fertile
land, properly maintained over the
years, that made the difference.
“That is why the leaves were so
big and nice.”
“It was a combination of good
land, good management, and hard
work,” added Bingeman, who grew
her award-winning crop ofMaryland
#609 (Pennsylvania Smoking) tobac­co
on two acres of the farm.
She said it is unusual for a woman
to grow tobacco, let alone win one of
the state’s top awards for it.
“Very few women grow it,” Bing­eman
said. “It’s a dirty job, and it
requires a lot of work.”
The difficulty is not so much in the
growing of the tobacco as it is in the
cutting and preparing of the leaves
that make this a challenging crop.
But she was looking for a chal­lenge,
and she has risen to the top.
“This is my hobby. Just my hob­by,”
Bingeman said, adding that this
(See Tobacco, Page 15)
Photo b y Richard Reitz
Arlene Bingeman of Lititz displays the leaves of tobacco she grew
that were named ths grand champion at the Pennsylvania Farm Show
last week.
“We’ve definitely been seeing the
Lord’s work here,” said John. “I’m
just overwhelmed with all the caring
people.”
Crystal Mills of the Red Cross
said that a Fire Hurts Fund is specifi­cally
designed to help fire victims in
Lancaster County. The fund pro­vided
food and clothing vouchers for
both the Skworch family and Ray
and Stad Harnish of Rothsville,
Electrical
family to
JILL IVEY
Record Express Staff
LITITZ — Rothsville residents
Ray Harnish, Jr. and his wife Staci
were forced to flee from their burn­ing
home early Monday morning.
f According to Rothsville Fire Chief
Claude Young, Jr., the 2 a.m. blaze
at 31 Conrad Lane, in the Twin
Brook Mobile Home Park, was
sparked by an electrical problem.
“The fire started in the back bed­room
where the electrical service
enters the breaker,” he said.
Young added that the bedroom
belonged to one of the Hamish’s
three children, who were not at home
at the time. He said that the children
were staying with Mrs. Hamish’s
mother because of the electrical
who also lost their home this week.
The adjacent home to the Skworch
family, occupied by Cindy Graham
at 24 E. Lincoln Avenue, was spared
thanks to a fire wall that separated the
two units. It did sustain water and
smoke damage, but Oettel said it was
still liveable.
A neighbor reportedly called in the
fire, and fire fighters from Lititz,
(See Fire, Page 16)
fire forces
flee home
problem. Young said that P P & L
had been to the home Saturday and
had warned the couple to take care of
the problem quickly.
Although most of the damage was
in the back bedroom, the rest of the
home suffered smoke and heat dam­age,
said Young, who estimates the
damage at $5,000.
No one was injured during the fire,
and the Hamish’s are staying with
the grandmother, who owned the
mobile home.
According to Young, 40 fire per­sonnel
fought the fire for approxi­mately
25 minutes before bringing it
under control. Rothsville was
assisted by the Lititz Fire Company
with their air truck.
P l a n n i n g a h e a d
Warwick Twp. ordinance revisions
keep development trends in mind
RICHARD REITZ.
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TOWNSHIP —
The world is in a constant state of
change, and with those changes
come new and often unforeseen
challenges.
With that in mind, Warwick
Township officials are in the process
of updating several ordinances in an
attempt to stay ahead of modem
trends.
At the Jan. 15 supervisors meet­ing,
Township Manager Daniel
Zimmerman detailed some of those
changes proposed for the zoning
ordinance, storm water management
and for an ordinance concerning sub­division
and land development.
This is part of a 114 -year effort by
township officials and employees to
update the laws to reflect the com­munities
concerns and modern
trends, Zimmerman said at the
meeting.
■ “Many of these are much stiffer
requirements,” he said. “In order to
prepare for development trends, we
need to get the rules in place, then see
how they apply to each individual
project.”
He said there are not a lot of signif­icant
changes for stormwater runoff,
adding that a lot of the proposal are
part of the township’s common
practice.
First, a developer must demons­trate
that the lot and its owner can
adequately maintain the intended
facility.
■ He said there was a case where; a
three-acre retention basin was
situated on one lo t ‘The aaestiorc ix
how can one owner adequately main­tain
it?”
Clarification of what must be done
to handle stormwater runoff in an
effective manner is also part of the
revision.
(See Ordinances, Page 15)