Lititz Record Express

              T H U R S D A Y , A p r i l 2 4 , 1 9 9 7
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121 ST YEAR 30 Pages- No. 2 LSTITZ, PENNSYLVANIA Two sections 3 0 c e n t s
Cornerstone Baptist
finds a new home
Cornerstone Baptist Church
has relocated to its new home
at 80 W. Brubaker Valley
Road in Elizabeth Township.,,
the site of the former
Vafleyview Bible Church, For
more, see Page 25.
It’s Curtis Earth’s day
Local musician Gums
Earth, known for his work with
The Mad Hatters, has struck
out on a new adventure of
original music. Page 17.
Zoners put basket
makers in business
Approval for ari in-home
basket business was just one
of many decisions made by
the Lititz Zoning Hearing
Board at its recent meeting.
Page 18.
'Roaring 20’s’ return
Through May 11, Mount
Hope Estate and Winery will
step back into -he Roaring
20s for a fun-filled event that
features the personalities,
styles and attitudes of that
bygone era. Page 25.
Young bowler hits 300
A Warwick eighth grader
broke in his new bowling ball
with style... by bowling a per­fect
game! Page 10.
Business...... ...... ......18-19
Church.............. . .......14-15
Classified........... .... ......26 29
Editorial / Letters.................. 4
Entertainment......... ............17
Manheim News...... ......25-26
Obituaries........... . ....2-3, 12
Out of the Past.... . ..... ......30
Police Log...... . ......20-21
School News.......... ...........6-7
Social........ . ......22-23
Sports......... ............ .,..,.„8-11
Bobst under fire for Nixon letter
May 1 is Loyalty Day
In honor of Loyalty Day,
several local youngsters were
honored for their patriotic
posters on the theme of “God
and Country.” Page 24.
Warwick teen wins
essay contest
Warwick High School
senior Sarah Eshelman
recently earned top honors in
a regional essay contest on
drinking and driving for her
personal account of a tragedy
in her family caused by a
drunk driver. Page 6.
Local man begins
walk for veterans
Gulf War veteran Donald
Lechner will trace his steps in
a new column in the Lititz
Record, as he walks 950
miles from Florida to Wash­ington
D.C. with a group
drawing attention to the health
problems many war veterans
face. Page 4.
STEPHEN SEEBEB
Record Express Stoff
From Warner Lambert to Lititz
Springs Park, the philanthropy of
Elraei Bobst has '■nhanced the com­munity
of litres.
Last year, the Elmer and Mamdou-ha
Bobst Foundation donated $6 mil­lion
to the Richard Nixon Library
and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif.
The money is earmarked for the con­struction
of headauarters, to be
named afte’- Bob'L f a the ITxon
Center for Peace and Freedom,
But -alien an anti'Semitic letter
written by Bobst in 1972 and
addressed to then-President Nixon
was released as part of the National
Archieves, the Bobst-financed
library project was put on hold.
If the directors at the Nixon Center
decline to use Bobst’s money, will
the benefactors of his investments
here in Lititz adopt a new
perspective?
Exerpts from Bobst’s "Dear Dick”
letter ran in the April 9 issue of the
Washington Post, including strong
an ti-Jew ish statem en ts that
referenced the media and Vietnam
like:
“Not any of these people have a
true love for our country, and unfor­tunately,
most all of them are Jews.
“And Jews have troubled the
world from the very beginning. If this
beloved country of ours ever falls
apart, the biaroe rightly should be
ahribulcd to die malicious action of
Jews in complete control of our
communications.”
According to former Park Board
President Ron Reedy, the letter has
been taken out of context.
“I knew him as a person and that’s
not Elmer Bobst,” said Reedy, whose
father Raymond was a close friend of
the pharmaceutical pioneer.
“He (Elmer) was caught up in the
time and they (the liberal media)
were attacking his close personal
friend Dick Nixon. And that upset
him.”
The Bobst that Reedy remembers
as a kid was a kind and considerate
man and he believes that his charity
should outweigh fragments of a pri­vate
letter that ran in a newspaper.
“He loved Richard Nixon,” Reedy
pointed out several times during an
interview. “And those letters were a
product of the time and the issues of
the day. They don’t reflect the man.”
Reedy also said that Bobst was
nearing 90 years of age at the time he
authored the letters and was entering
the declining stages of his health.
According to Reedy, when Bobst
came to Lititz in 1975 to sign his
recently released autobiography, he
could not even remember how to find
the borough where he grew up and
ultimately got lost with his
chauffeur.
Stephanie Vanden Heuvel,
Bobst’s granddaughter who lives in
New York City, agreed that the letter
was probably taken out of context
and that it should have remained
(See Bobst, Page 16)
S m a l l
Shopping center eyes former
Wal-Mart site, at half its size
Elmer Bobst
H,' -L t r t
RICHARD REITZ
This sketch shows the plans for the new Clair Brothers Audio facility, which will be built along Route 501,
next door to Precision Plastics.
I t s o u n d s lik e C la ir B ro s,
w ill r e t u r n to L ititz a r e a
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — Clair
Brothers Audio is returning to the
Lititz area for the first time since the
early 70’s.
Plans for the 89,000 square foot
“dream facility” were given approval
by Warwick Township supervisors
on April 16, and construction of the
new facility along Route 501, just
north of Lititz, began this week.
“It’s all geared towards growth,”
said Troy Clair of the new building.
“We have outgrown our present
building” at 662 Ditz Drive in Man-heim,
where Clair Brothers Audio
Enterprises has been located since
1984*
The new two-story facility,
located on 9’A acres along Route
501, doubles the size of the present
building. Clair said that they antici­pate
completion of the new building
by December.
Clair Brothers was founded by
Gene and Roy Clair in 1966, and has
emerged as one of the international
leaders in audio technology, provid­ing
equipment, engineers, technical
staff and other services to entertain­ers
and events worldwide.
Their clients list reads like a
“Who’s Who” in the entertainment
industry, providing service to popu­lar
touring performers like Reba
McEntire, Sheryl Crow, R.E.M., U2
and Green Day, as well as for more
permanent studio sound for the Late
Show with David Letterman, Satur­day
Night Live, and the recently
opened American Music Theatre in
Lancaster.
Many of their projects over the
Careless recycling could
cost Warwick Twp. money
years have been in tandem with
another Warwick Township busi­ness,
Tait Towers, which provides
staging and sets for many well-known
performers. At its new loca­tion,
Clair Brothers will be neighbors
of the Wynfield Corporate Center,
where Tait Towers is located.
Clair Brothers has been rapidly
expanding its services, most recently
acquiring MD Systems of Nashville
in January, which added Garth
Brooks and 14 other country perfor­mers
to their list of clients.
Other recent expansions include
the founding of Clair Brothers Audio
Systems in 1989, Switzerland-based
Clair Brothers Audio Europe, and
Clair Brothers Corporate Services,
which provided service for the 1997
(See Clair Bros., Page 16)
n n r n n — m
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — A
123.000- square-foot shopping center
has been proposed on the Route 501
site where Wal-Mart once hoped to
build a supercenter.
RJ. Waters and Associates of
Kennett Square recently introduced
the plan to Warwick Township offi­cials,
which would include a
56.000- square-foot grocery store, a
28.000- square-foot anchor store,
three smaller shops, and space for a
bank and two restaurants not con­nected
to the center.
This project would be roughly half
the size of the proposed Wal-Mart
supercenter, which if built would
have been about 212,000 square feet
in size.
Kevin Lahn, vice president of
RJ. Waters, said his company is
hopeful that their plan will not gen­erate
the controversy that followed
the Wal-Mart proposal until its rejec­tion
in 1995, and eventual withdraw­al
from the site altogether in 1996.
“We are trying to put in a quality
project,” Lahn said. The brick build­ing
would be well landscaped, and
“something that the community is
going to like to look at, with stores
they will like to shop at.”
If approved, the first phase of the
project would cover 90,000 square
feet of the plan at a cost of about
$11.5 million, Lahn said. The con­struction
would generate about 100
full-time and part-time jobs, he said.
Traffic along Route 501 has been a
key concern of Warwick Township,
and Township Manager Daniel Zim­merman
said that this proposal
includes two initiatives to minimize
the traffic impact.
Most significant is a plan to con­struct
a relief route connecting
Woods Drive and Millport Road
behind the proposed shopping
center.
When completed, the road will
provide an alternative access for loc­al
traffic to use instead of Route 501,
Zimmerman said, in the hopes of
alleviating one of the county’s most
congested roadways.
The plan also includes several
parking spaces earmarked, specifical­ly
for park-and-ride.
Zimmerman said the state’s study
of Route 501 found that 92 percent of
the vehicles travelling along it are
single occupancy. If more local com­muters
utilize a park-and-ride oppor­tunity,
he said this plan could contri­bute
to a reduction in traffic along
501.
If this plan is approved, it will
bring closure to the Wal-Mart saga.
While Wal-Mart officially aban­doned
its interest in the site last sum­mer,
the landowner retained the
rights to the plans for the site as well
as the pending litigation. Another
interested developer could have
picked up the plans where Wal-Mart
left off. If the shopping center is
accepted on this land zoned com-'
munity commercial, those plans will
be scrapped for good.
Lahn said they have received a let­ter
of intent from a “national grocery
chain” to utilize this as-yet-unnamed
shopping center.
As for the other stores, he said they
haven’t marketed the site yet, but
some interested has been expressed
(See Center, Page 16)
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RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — Residen­tial
recycling has not been at its best
in the township, and it could be cost­ing
the township money.
Township Manager Daniel Zim­merman
told the board of supervi­sors
at their April 16 meeting that
while corporate and industrial recy­cling
is one of the tops in the county,
residential recycling percentages
remain near the bottom.
‘Trie nepfj to enlarge that number,”
he said. “Not part-time recycling, but
faithfully.”
Zimmerman said there are several
key factors that may be causing the
current residential recycling percen­tage
to come i.-i at f 1 percent of the
tota» refuse. With the inclusion of
commercial properties, the overall
percentage in the township is at about
21 percent. An ideal target for the
township is 25 percent.
Zimmerman said people need to
keep in mind what items are recycl­able
and which are not. Often times
haulers will find light bulbs or alumi­num
foil in with the rest of the items.
“Their heart is in the right place,
but it contaminates (be load,” Zim­merman
said.
“If there is just one contaminated
item, the whole. N*i N chucked,” he
said.
People are also encouraged to
thoroughly clean the glass and alumi­num
items before placing them in the
bin. Even one unwashed item can
turn those lecydables into garbage.
Also, Zimmerman said newspap­ers
must not include magazines or
glossy inserts, and cannot be wet.
“So if you think it is going to fain,
don’t put the newspapers out.”
The recycling effort can be helped
by people at the grocery store if they
purchase items in containers they
know can be recycled.
“If you have an opportunity to buy
something in cardboard or in glass,
buy the glass,” he said.
Folks who still have recycling
questions can contact the township
office for a free brochure on the recy­cling
program, which has been in
effect since Oct. 1, 1991.
Another reason the residential per­centage
may be lower could be due to
waste haulers not keeping accurate
paperwork on the amount of recycled
materials collected.
“Most do try,” Zimmerman said.
However, he told supervisors that
some of the seven waste removal
companies licensed in the township
do need to be pursued to get the
needed documentation.
Even then, he admitted that the
township will unlikely ever get full
credit, since some of the companies
often mix the load with that of other
municipalities, and are unable to give
an accurate count.
“As long as we are under a multi­hauler
system, we’ll never get full
credit,” Zimmerman said.
In addition to a state law requiring
municipalities to recycle, there is a
benefit to the township in recycling.
(See Recycling, Page 16)
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Photo by Stephen Seeber
An estimated 600 people came out for the Lititz Lions’ Cruise Night on Aprii 16 as 160 classic cars filled
East Main Street.
C l a s s i c t r a f f i c j a m s d o w n t o w n
LITITZ — The Lititz Lions
Club’s newest fundraiser was dec­lared
a total success as 160 classic
vehicles parked on East Main Street
for the borough’s April 16 debut of a
bi-annual cruise night.
“I always thought Lititz would be
a real good setting for this,” said
cruise night organizer Roy Mace.
“Everybody’s talking about it and
we’re already getting registrations
for the next one on Aug. 20.”
Mace, who has been on the East
Coast classic car show circuit for 20
years, estimated that 600 people
filled the first block of East Main for
the event.
The cars, food, prizes, and 1950s
rock and roll from 6 to 9 p.m. also
benefited many of the downtown
businesses that stayed open for the
festivities.
“This is wonderful,” said Waft of
Benner’s Pharmacy. “It really brings
the people downtown.
Lititz’s newest business couple,
Ed and Dolores Brophy sold about
125 beef barbecue and chicken
sandwiches.
‘This is something different for
us,” said the new owners of the Gen­eral
Sutter Inn. “It’s really neat.”
John Caterbone’s 1967 CTO
convertible caught Russell Petty­john’s
eye and took the Mayor’s
Choice trophy.
Other winning vehicles included:
The Police Chiefs Choice Award,
(See Cruise, Page 16)