Lititz Record Express

              THURSDAY? June 26, 1997
L i t i ! . / y. c o n i . . -
121 ST YEAR 28 Pages- No. 11 LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA 30 cents
I
INSIDE
Youngsters graduate
D.A.R.E.
Fifth graders at Kissel Hill
Elementary School recently
completed Drug Abuse
Resistance Education with
Warwick Twp. Police Officer
Bill Fasnacht. For pictures of
the contest winners and a list
of all the graduates, see
Pages 6.
Lititz Lions installs
new officers
The Lititz Lions Club
named Andy Peterman as its
president for the 1997-98
year. For a complete look at
all of the new officers, see
Page 24.
Lititz woman wins
Chicken Cook-Off
Local chef Edith Kampen’s
recipe for Creamy Chicken
and Dumplings Medley was
declared the winner of this
year’s Pennfield Farms
Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken
Cook-Off. Page 16.
Ephrata builder purchases
Balmer estate for $245,000
STEPHEN SEEBER
AND RICHARD REITZ
' Record Express Staff
BRUNNER VILLE — The Lititz
Sportsmen’s Association will have to
keep looking for that site it will one
day call home.
Saturday afternoon’s much-anticipated
auction at the secluded
22-acre Balmer property north of
Brunnerville attracted well over 200
interested people, undeterred by the
sweltering heat to see who would
place the highest bid.
The Lititz Sportsmen’s Associa­tion
had made their interest and
intent for the property publically
known.
But it was Shawn Garman of
Garman Builders in Ephrata that
landed the highest bid at $245,000
for the property owned by Galen
Balmer, who died in January at the
age of 101.
Garman, who estimated that
$ 120,000 was a fair price, said that he
paid more than he expected for the
land, but added that it was worth it.
“You just can’t find property like
Dialogue continues
on shopping center
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — The town­ship
has outlined its list of conditions
for a proposed shopping center, and
for the most part, the developer is in
agreement.
But there remain a few the deve­loper
would like to discuss with
township officials before a decision
is made on their conditional use
application.
Ken Nottumo, attorney for the
developer, said they had received
and reviewed a copy of the town­ship’s
conditions. “We are not neces­sarily
in agreement with all of the
conditions, but there is dialogue,” he
said at the hearing. “Generally; we
are in agreement with most of the
conditions.”
At the second part of a hearing to
review a plan for a 123,000 square
foot shopping center along Route
501 where Wal-Mart once proposed
a supercenter, the township pre­sented
a list of 44 conditions dealing
with various items it would want
addressed as part of the approval.
Township Manager I . * ■-
merman outlined the conditions,
which covered items concerning
traffic, land use, curbing ■: m''-
cal aspects of the plan
See Shopping Center I1'
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■ R I
L i t i t z * S P R I N G S P A R K
Don’t miss the Fourth
of July Parade!
For a complete look at
where to go for the Lititz Lions
Fourth of July Parade, which
will be held on Thursday, July
3, check out the informational
graphic on Page 20.
Friends remember
Sue McCloud
A scholarship fund in mem­ory
of Warwick graduate and
former field hockey coach Sue
McCloud is being established
by some of her friends. Page
20.
Renovations nearly
complete at Lititz U.M.
Lititz United Methodist
Church will soon celebrate the
long-awaited completion of its
$1 million renovations to its
201 E. Market St. facility.
Page 16.
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JILL IVEY
Record Express Staff
When Lititz resident and Gulf War
Veteran, Don Lechner, helped
organize a march from Melbourne,
Florida to Washington, D.C., he had
not planned on participating in the
entire march.
That soon changed, and before he
knew it, Lechner was packing his
bags for Florida.
“The closer we got to starting the
more anxious I got,” said Lechner.
Throughout his trip, Lechner
wrote several columns to keep those
here in Lititz up to date on what was
(See March, Page 20)
Borough seeks federal
aid for street repairs
STEPHEN SEEBER
A look at Agnes
In addition to this week’s
look back at Lititz over the
past 100 years through the
eyes of the Lititz Record
Express, images of Hurricane
Agnes’ unwelcome visit 25
years ago is also featured.
Page 23.
Record Express Staff
COUNCIL CHAMBERS —
Lititz could save over $175,000 in
road repair costs next year if two
Warwick OK’s
$30.8 million
’97-98 budget,
tax increase
RICHARD REITZ
Baseball teams win - — ---- -------- rrrr--------
T h e Lititz P ira te s improved w A RW r e ^H s - On Tues-
¡ ligghht MleSagou ier bDi asseeDM^if. ’wwhninlee its $308 miIlion 1997.98 schooi
^’e 9 ,p n ^ budget with a property tax increase
P ,®"^pWin J?Ver lP'e “"P* ia equivalent to 4.4 mills under the old
tiKS. r a g e o. tax assessment, and 0.7 under the
new ° ne-
The budget passed by a 5-0 vote,
B u s in e s s ............................ 18-19 with four members not present at the
C hurch............................ ...16-17 special June 23 meeting. There were
C lassified.................... 25-27 no significant changes to the budget
Editorial / Letters 4 s™ce *£ was ^ s£ presented to the
En terta inm en t.........................21 pu^ c m ¥ ;.^y- . . . .
wMidannhnpeiimm NNjepwwss .................... .?¿?.d rafTc haet t1a3x j h mikiel3, Sw) whimch anmowou nset ttso thane
Obituaries / Births................ 2-3 average increase of $84 per homeow-
Out Of th e P a s t.................... 23 ner a property assessed at $80,000
Police Log................................ 19 will be taxed at $1,048, or at an
School N ews............................6-7 increase of about $56.
Social............... 14-15 The new budget represents a 2.35
S p o rts.......... ..........................8-11 (See Budget, Page 20)
work projects qualify for a federal
grant.
Borough Council held a public
hearing to answer any questions con­cerning
proposed work plans for
West Lemon and South Spruce
Street.
For the past 12 years, the borough
has applied for assis iance through the
annual Community Development
Block Grant, which is administered
by the Lancaster County Redevelop­ment
Authority.
If approved, West Lemon resi­dents
will see $174,000 in road
reconstruction and resurfacing from
South Broad to Walnut Street,
including some storm sewer work
($106,000 of that is covered in the
grant).
Also, the ongoing borough-wide
water line replacement project,
which has been underway for several
years, will move to South Spruce
Street. The borough will pay for that
work, but $70,400 of $186,000 in
roadway resurfacing will be funded
through the grant program.
“We’ve been aggressively pursu­ing
water line replacement for the
past couple years,” said Council
President Dennis Stuckey, “and we
would not be able to do it without
these block grants.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, several
residents asked questions about cur­rent
stormwater problems and Bor­ough
Engineer Darrell Becker said
(See Grant, Page 20)
that anymore,” he said. “It’s a fi.ee
amount of land, it’s quiet,
private.”
Any development on the land is at
least one year away, according to
Garman, who said that he plans to
subdivide it' and build two homes
(one for himself).
The auction, led by T. Glenn
Horst, began at 3 p.m. on June 21.
Horst made the tiny porch
mer’s unpretentious won
home his stage as he began calling
for bids on the property.
“Make it fast and bid lively,” Horst
told the crowd, referring to the
uncomfortable heat. A few children
took to playing in the nearby stream
to keep cool while the auction
continued.
Horst described the property as
“kind of like stepping back in time.”
He also called it “one of the most
unique properties I’ve ever sold.”
As he hoped, bidding was swift,
even with a break about 10 minutes
into the auction for a meeting with
Balmer family members when the
bidding was at $185,000.
When Horst returned, the bidding
resumed, climbing quickly above,
(See Sportsmen, Page 12)
M m m i
m m ÈÊÈm m Êm im
Photo by Richard Reitz
Members of the Lititz Sportsmen’s Association were on hand to join
in the bidding, hoping to purchase the property to use as its new home.
The land was eventually purchased bv Garman Builders in Ephrata for
$245,000.
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Gulf War veteran Donald Lechner helped raise public awareness of
war-related illnesses during an East CoasT march from Honda to
Washington, D.C.
LofriA' :mai:tihes
home from Florida
i -C n r 1*' -" SC - > ■
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Lititz Mayor Russell Pettyjohn and Department of Environmental Protection S e e n .
by the source of local watershed restoration efforts, Lititz Springs.
Lititz, Warwick awarded for
pioneer preservation efforts
STEPHEN SEEBER
Record Express Sfaff
The award-winning ripples of
Lititz Springs provided the perfect
setting for DEP Secreatary James
M. Seif to introduce the model com­munities
of watershed restorations
on June 19.
Lititz Borough and Warwick
Township were two of nine munici­palities
from across the state to be
named a “Chesapeake Bay Partner
Community” and Seif said he
expects more local governments to
join this preservation team in years to
come.
“The bay would die if we didn’t
have communities like these,” said
Seif. “These communities are mod­els
of how to explore environmental­ly
sensitive development, conserve
the resources we have, protect and
improve the quality of our waterways
and prevent pollution. We thank
them for their efforts.”
Lititz was recognized specifically
for participating in the Lititz Run
Watershed Restoration Project and
watershed management strategy,
land use management programs
designed for community revitaliza­tion,
and household hazardous and
stormwater management programs.
Warwick Township’s award was
based on the adoption of an urban
growth boundry to channel develop­ment
to areas with existing infra­structure.
Seif also noted that the
township has protected open space
through zoning and informs its resi­dents
on environmental issues
through a newsletter and surveys.
Lititz Mayor Russel Pettyjohn,
who serves as chairman of the Chesa­peake
Bay Local Government Advis­ory
Committee, said the award was
set up covering more than 1,600
municipalities over Pennsylvania,
Maryland and Virginia that fall in the
Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The award is a 3/4 foot by two
foot sign that can be placed at the
town border, heralding it as a Chesa­peake
Bay Partners Community.
“We are very pleased,” Warwick
Township Manager Daniel Zim­merman
said of receiving the award.
“This has been an effort of both Lititz
Borough and Warwick Township,
but more importantly it recognizes
(See Awards Page 12)
Lititz Run wetlands
focus of EPA study
RICHARD REITZ
' Record Express Editor
LITITZ RUN — The Environ­mental
Protection Agency is making
an example of the Lititz Run
watershed.
The Chesapeake Bay Program, a
branch of the EPA, is going to study
the ongoing efforts by numerous
groups concerning Lititz Run, mak­ing
it the pilot watershed for Pennsyl­vania.
It was selected as the only
watershed in the state as a study on
how to protect, restore and even cre­ate
wetlands to benefit the important
waterway.
“They are looking at things we are
doing and planning on doing for pro­tection
or promoting cooperation,”
said Dan Zimmerman, a member of
the newly-formed Lititz . Run
Watershed Alliance.
Representatives from the Chesa­peake
Bay Program, including high­ly
trained specialists from the Virgi­nia
Marine University will study the
region. They will also examine the
unified effort between government
and the private sector that has led to
the formation of the Alliance.
Zimmerman added that while they
will be studied by the specialists,
they fully expect to learn quite a bit
from their expertise on such matters
as well.
The study will be an ongoing pro­cess
from now until the end of Sep­tember,
after which a report will be
made on the findings.
The wetlands initiative involves
the identification of wetlands by the
ecological functions they serve, such
as wildlife habitat or flood protec­tion,
for wetlands protocols. The
findings will then be made available
to other governments and environ­mental
groups interested in similar
initiatives.
It will also take into consideration
a community’s stormwater manage­ment
and open space needs, and how
the wetlands can work with its
objectives.
Management of the wetlands is
(See Lititz Run, Page 12)